The Minoans Who Served King David in Ancient Israel

The Minoan Phaistos Disc, displaying grounds that the Philistines of King David’s clip were Minoans. Credit: C. Messier/Wikimedia Commons/CC-BY-SA-4.0

The Minoans are astir famously known for their connections to Bronze Age Greece and the legend of Atlantis. However, they besides had a precise astonishing transportation with King David, the celebrated king of ancient Israel. In fact, the grounds shows that determination whitethorn person been groups of Minoans who really served this past king. How bash we cognize this?

King David’s overseas warriors

King David is simply a precise important fig successful the Bible, and historians widely hold that helium was a humanities figure. He ruled implicit the onshore of Israel successful astir 1000 BC. The immense bulk of his warriors, needless to stay, were chap Israelites. However, the Biblical grounds besides reveals that helium had warriors from different nations.

Within David’s retinue of soldiers was an Israelite antheral named Benaiah. The Biblical grounds describes him arsenic being successful complaint of the Cherethites. Elsewhere, it describes Benaiah arsenic being successful complaint of King David’s idiosyncratic bodyguard.

This suggests that the Cherethites served arsenic King David’s bodyguard. In different words, the Cherethites seemingly had a relation somewhat akin to the Praetorian Guard successful past Rome. Notably, these Cherethites were seemingly not Israelites.

The Sea Peoples and the Minoans

There is bully crushed for linking the Cherethites with the Minoans. Let america see immoderate important facts. In the twelfth period BC, the Sea Peoples invaded the region, including arsenic acold southbound arsenic Egypt. One notable radical of Sea Peoples were the Peleset, the Philistines of Biblical history. There is good reason for identifying them with Cretans.

By this period, Crete had already travel nether the powerfulness of the Greeks. The Mycenaeans had conquered the island successful the fifteenth period BC, bringing an extremity to the Minoan trading empire.

Despite this, the Minoan civilisation continued connected for rather a fewer centuries. Although they nary longer had power implicit the island, a chiseled Minoan civilization is inactive discernible successful the archaeological grounds until astatine slightest the aboriginal archetypal millennium BC. Therefore, arrivals from Crete successful the twelfth period BC would precise apt person included Minoans, not conscionable Greeks.

Strongly supporting this is the information that Egyptian reliefs representation the Philistines arsenic wearing a benignant of helmet which is fundamentally identical to a helmet shown connected the Minoan Phaistos Disk. Therefore, it is precise apt that Minoans composed a ample portion of the Philistines.

The Minoans of David’s time

After their invasions successful the twelfth period BC, Pharaoh Ramesses III defeated them and settled them successful confederate Canaan, the onshore of the Philistines. However, contempt fashionable belief, determination is grounds that the Philistines (that is, Minoans from Crete) had already been successful the portion for respective centuries.

How bash these facts subordinate to the Cherethites who served King David successful past Israel? Many scholars person suggested that ‘Cherethite’ is simply a signifier of the Hebrew connection denoting a Cretan. In fact, the Greek Septuagint replaces this connection straight with the Greek connection for ‘Cretan’.

However, wherefore does the Bible not usage this word each the clip erstwhile referring to the Philistines? Some commentators person made the tenable proposition that the Cherethites was the sanction fixed to a 2nd (and therefore, little significant) question of arrivals.

In presumption of the grounds that determination were already Philistines surviving successful confederate Canaan agelong earlier the twelfth period BC, the accomplishment of the Sea Peoples was evidently this 2nd arrival. Therefore, the Cherethites who served King David were precise apt descended from this much caller group.

As we person already seen, the grounds shows that the Philistines who arrived successful the twelfth period BC were mostly (perhaps adjacent predominantly) composed of Minoans. Thus, this would mean that David’s Cherethites were fundamentally Minoans, though apt mixed with Greeks arsenic well.

In different words, this means that Minoans seemingly served arsenic portion of King David’s idiosyncratic bodyguard successful past Israel.