We pick up where we left off last month’s bulletin article concerning the Phoenicians unprecedented sea-faring abilities. In Homer’s writings, The Iliad and The Odyssey, the Phoenicians are described as a sea travelling people who were associated with the ancient practice of slave trade. Scholars have argued that Homer was just bias against the Phoenicians and that his claims were false. It is interesting that the Bible described the Phoenicians in the same exact way; seafarers and slave traders (Is. 23:1-4; Joel 3:4-6). The focus of this bulletin article will be the extent of their colonies/trade posts across the Mediterranean world.

            The first permanent settlement established by the Phoenicians was on the island of Cyprus, not far from the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Most historians believe that Canaanites (from whom Phoenicians descended) were trading with people of Cyprus as early as 1650 B.C., due to Cyprus’ abundant supply of copper. The Phoenicians clearly continued this trade. What archaeology has found is a major change in daily life and burial practices took place around 1100 B.C., which were not present on the island prior. A common Phoenician burial practice, that of burying an infant in a Levantine jar, has been unearthed at several locations on Cyprus. Burial practices are not easily changed; and these jars being found point to Phoenicians living on the island with the aboriginal people. The most compelling evidence for Phoenicians living on Cyprus is the temple of Kition, which is the largest Phoenician style temple found to date. This was not the only Phoenician temple on the island, but several have been found that follow the same design as temples in Tyre and Sidon. If we consider why the Phoenicians colonized or set up a trade post on Cyprus, it makes logical sense. If your nation revolves around open sea trade, would you not need places to break up a long journey? Cyprus seems to have been the ancient “truck stop” for Phoenician merchants trading around the Mediterranean Sea.

            Crete, home to the ancient civilization of the Minoans, was the next location to be inhabited by Phoenicians. The island of Crete has the largest number of Phoenician potteries in the Aegean world. A large cache of Phoenician storage potteries dated to 900 B.C. have been unearthed at Kommos, pointing to the probability that this site was used as a loading/unloading base for Phoenician goods. More solid evidence for Phoenicians inhabiting Crete is the remarkable Near-eastern metal workings found on the island. Bronze vessels and jewelry from Phoenicia or Syria have been found in several tombs on Crete. One bronze bowl, found at the Tekke tomb, had a Phoenician inscription etched into it that signified the person buried within was the owner of the bowl. The Cretans had their own language, why would they display their ownership of a bowl with a Phoenician inscription? Just like on Cyprus, archaeologists have also unearthed a drastic change in funerary rites and temple design that coincided with the dates of the Phoenician pottery and metal working being introduced. Phoenician cippus, which are stone funerary monuments, have been found on Crete. These funerary monuments have no parallel in Aegean funerary practices, which simply means Greeks did not bury their dead in this manner. Based on archaeological findings on this island, the evidence points that a Phoenician colony was established, and the residents lived peacefully with the indigenous population on the island. Ezekiel wrote this concerning Tyre’s domain, “Your borders are in the midst of the seas” (Ezek. 27:4). Both the island settlements at Cyprus and Crete show the accuracy of Ezekiel’s statement!

-Brandon Foresha

Yesterday I conducted a wedding. I have had very few opportunities to officiate at a wedding. The wedding yesterday brought me great joy to be a part of the joining of a man and a woman in marriage. You see, I performed the wedding of my mother and her fiancé. When I say I was a part in joining the man and woman together make no mistake, God does the joining (Matthew 19:6). However, mankind is required to obey the laws of the land (1 Peter 2:13-14) so long as those laws are not in conflict with the Law of God (Acts 5:29). The civil marriage law, in whatever country or locale, must be followed. However, since God has given marriage to man, it is God that sets the requirements or limitations for scriptural marriage and thus, joins a couple together.

Scriptural marriage is between a biological male and a biological female. It is sad that a person today must clarify this in today’s world. Many would make the claim that gender is fluid and a person can self-identify as male or female regardless of biology. Well folks, there are only two genders, and that is based on biological sex, male or female (Matthew 19:4). Also, this would exclude “homosexual marriages” which are not marriages in the Biblical sense of the word. As indicated at the beginning of the article, God sets the rules for marriage and from the beginning Scriptural marriage is between a man and a woman.

Scriptural marriage can be entered by one who has never been married. Marriage is a great blessing from God to man and the first divine institution (government and the church are the other two). After God made man “the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet (suitable – JDS) for him,” Genesis 2:18. The husband is to love his wife, the wife is to submit to her husband (Ephesians 5:22ff). They are “joined together,” literally “yoked together” indicating they are closely united and pulling together in things in life, whatever may come.

Scriptural marriage can be entered by one whose spouse had died. In Romans 7:2-3, Paul says, “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” While Paul is using marriage in this context as an illustration that the Jews are no longer under the Old Covenant and can, without “spiritual adultery,” be subject to the New Covenant, he teaches a marital truth. Those whose spouses have died are eligible to be remarried to another being loosed from their first marriage.

Scriptural marriage can be entered by one who has been scripturally married and scripturally divorced. This is the marital plague of our society today. Many believe that marriage is “just for now” or “until something better comes along.” They do not want to believe that marriage is the serious, lifelong covenant (Malachi 2:14) that it is. God has allowed one exception for scriptural divorce and remarriage, “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery,” Matthew 19:9. The innocent party whose spouse has committed fornication (a sexual act) has the option (right) to divorce their mate and eventually marry another with God’s approval.

God’s marriage law is loving and strict. In the case of my mother and her boyfriend, I could perform their marriage ceremony because their spouses had died and they were free to marry. However, I have beloved family members whom I could not perform their wedding due to the circumstances they described of a divorce which God does not approve. Friend, God’s marriage law is for all mankind and must be obeyed.

-Jerry D. Sturgill