Biblical Hebrew Forum

["VC" <vadim_lv AT center-tv.net>]

> >Just wanted to share a thought. What always puzzled me in the Tanakh -
and this turn is most often encountered in Isaiah - is the reference to
certain islands. They are clearly hostile to the Jews, ...
> >
>
> Where does it say this?
Is11:11 lists the islands among all hostile nations

>
> >... and yet wait for the teaching of the messiah.
> >
> >These islands are usually brushed away as a reference to scattered small
nations, but this is ludicrous, since they are several times called, islands
of the sea.
> >
> >Of course, there are no significant islands near Israel. The closest ones
are on the Red Sea, far from the ancient sphere of Israeli influence and
concern. Greek islanders were too far away to mount military offensive deep
inland. In fact, it is hard to imagine any sea nation threatening landlocked
Jerusalem. Maritime warfare is not an issue even for the present-day Israel.
> >
> >I don't have any idea what are these islands.Perhaps anyone would venture
a suggestion?
> >
> >
>
> Well, the Philistines were said to have come from islands like Crete and
> Cyprus which are rather large islands.
But this wasn't an acute problem in the time of Isaiah?
Also, I don't think ancients took large landmasses like Cyprus for island,
although I'm not sure.


>The Philistines were certainly a
> threat to Israel at one time. But the whole point about the islands, in
> context in Isaiah etc, is that they seem to have been at the remotest
> ends of the earth.
Well, Cyprus certainly wasn't the remotest place at that time.

I have heard a plausible argument that these islands
> are in fact my home country, the British Isles, for these islands were
> visited by the Phoenicians and are likely to have been the most remote
> country which the ancient Israelites knew anything about. (And the army
> of these islands captured Jerusalem in 1917, so your appeal to modern
> warfare doesn't work.)
British did not "capture" Jerusalem. They took took it after a minor battle
after basically defeating the Turks at other venues. And they threatened
Jerusalem not from the islands, but from their land bases. So even in
modernity Jerusalem is off-limits for effective maritime warfare.


Sincerely,

Vadim Cherny


>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
>
>