On the Origins or the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language

Casluchim (Chafluchim), they contend that they named Casiotis between Palestine and Egypt. They say the Palestinians descended from the Idumeans and from the Casluchim. Josephus says that the regions of Judea from Gaza to Egypt were inhabited by the sons of Nimrod, from only one of whom the name of Palestine remained. I recite that the Cappadocians were called from Caphtorim, though I do not easily persuade myself of it. Because Phut dwelt far from Syria itself, it seems Moses omitted his clan and progeny. However, I do not wish to say anything in this matter beyond the prescription of the Sacred Page, lest I be accused of rashness, although in the compendium of Berosus it is sufficiently revealed; because he speaks beyond the sacred, I leave it aside. To Canaan were born these children: Sidon, Heth, Jebus, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Sidon left the name of Sidon to a very great city on the western shore of Palestine; that city was once famous for the invention of glass and for precious linens. We know the Hittites only by name in sacred texts, for the children of Israel overthrew all the monuments of those Canaanites so utterly that few traces of antiquity remain. The Jebusite founded the city of Jebus by Mount Carmel, and Jebus, which later was called Sebus, Solyma, Salem, Jerusalem, then Aelia Capitolina, and finally Chus and Chussembarich. Everyone remembers the name Sebus instead of Jebus. Homer mentions the Solymans as the most powerful in their age and slightly before, where he also mentions Bellerophon (under whose fable it seems he describes the history of the ancient Josephus in veils), and he commends him for his signal skill in arms, when he says, kai solymoies emachesato (καὶ σολύμοις ἐμαχήσατο), that is, "he fought against the Hierosolymitans." Nor is it a wonder that those peoples were a terror to everyone, so that because a present God was with them and handled their affairs beyond human desire, he was deservedly thought to be the most excellent among mortals who, after a joined battle, escaped their hands. The city itself is distinguished by many names.