Kittim

כתים


Genesis 10:4: a son of Yavan (יון) = Greece. Kittim or Chittim is usually taken to be the Citienses or Cyprians from the Phoenician colony of that name on Cyprus; but the name was used generally for the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean, especially those in the Aegean. The Yehudit spelling has a Chaf Medugash (כּ), for the simple reason that Chaf as first letter cannot be read other than as Kaf. However, aurally, Chittim suggests Hittites (חתים), who as we know were the original peoples from whom the various Ionian groups became formed. A transliteration presumably took place at some point, which suggests that originally the spelling may have been Chet (ח) not Chaf (כ) and that the Kittim were in fact a branch of the Beney Chet.

The reference in Genesis 10:4 links Kittim to his grandfather Yaphet (Japheth), one of the three sons of No'ach (Genesis 6:10); his brothers were Elishah (אלישה), Tarshish (תרשיש) and Dodanim (דדנים). Elishah is the island of Elis, which we tend to call Ilia today; Tarshish was both a Phoenician colony in Spain, later known as Tartessus, and a city in Turkey, the birthplace of Saul of what by then was called Tarsus; Dodanim is probably an error for Rhodes (רדנים) or Rhodos, confused with the Trojans or Dardanim (דרדנים), who were Dana'an Hittites.

A Phoenician inscription found at Athens refers to "a man of Citium" as Ben Chodesh, which in Phoenician and in Yehudit means "son of the new moon", the Hittites being worshipers of Io or Yah (יה), the moon-goddess.

Isaiah 23:1 and 12 make reference to them, as do Ezekiel 27:6 and Numbers 24:24.

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