Joshua and Carthage

According to Edwards ( Notes on Scripture , 170-1), the conquest of Canaan sent shocks throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. Joshua 11:8 states that Joshua chased Canaanites to Zidon, and they didn’t stop there:

“Bedford . . . supposes that great numbers of them made their escape from thence, and from neighboring seaports, by shipping to all the shores which lay round the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, and even to other parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa; of which, says he, the learned Bochart hath given us a large account in his incomparable Canaan , and particularly shown that the names of most places are of Phoenician or Hebrew extraction About this time they set up their two pillars at Tangier with this inscription in the Phoenician language: ‘We are they who fled from the face of Joshua the Robber, the son of Nun.’”

One result was the founding of Carthage:

“About this time they built the city of Carthage, which at first they called Carthada, which in the Chaldee and Syriac languages signifies ‘The New City.’ ‘This building of Carthage . . . not only appears from the common consent of all historians, but also from the remains of the Carthaginian language, which we have in Plautus, where he brings in a youth from thence, speaking in such a manner, that many learned men have proved it to be the Hebrew or language of Canaan. And the Carthaginians are frequently called Phoenicians and Tyrians, because they came from this country. Being thus used to sailing and merchandise, they soon carried on a larger trade, and settled other colonies near Gibraltar, both in Asia and Africa. The learned Bochartus tells us, that these expeditions were computed to be in the times of the heroes.’”

And if this is true, then Edwards concludes, citing Bedford again, that “‘the story of Dido and Aeneas, as mentioned in Virgil, must be false and groundless. Neither is it probable, that the widow of a priest flying the country, unknown to the king, could carry with her so great a number of men to a new colony, as should undertake to build so great a city; so that she brought not inhabitants there, but found them there, and did not so properly build as only repair and enlarge the town to which she came. She built the tower, which was called Bozrah , or a ‘fort’ in Hebrew, and from thence called Byrsa , or a ‘hide’ in Greek, and so occasioned the fabulous story, that Dido bought the place to build the city on with little bits of leather marked, which was anciently used instead of money. But others tell us, that when she arrived on the coasts of Africa, she was forbidden to tarry there by Hiarbas, king of the country, lest she with her company might seize on great part of his dominion, and therefore she craftily desired of him only to buy so much ground as might be compassed with an ox hide; which, when she had obtained, she cut it into small thongs, and therewith compassed two and twenty furlongs, on which she built the city afterward named Carthage, and called the castle Byrsa , or ‘Hide.’ All this we owe to the fertile invention of the Greeks, to make everything derived from them. Whereas Dido, coming from Tyre, knew nothing of that language; and besides, the old Carthaginian language was the Phoenician or Hebrew, as appears by the old remains thereof, which we have in Plautus’s Paenulus.”