Apart from Luke’s mention of the Island of Crete in the book of Acts:
“And when we had sailed slowly for a good many days, and with difficulty had arrived off Cnidus, since the wind did not permit us to go farther, we sailed under the shelter of Crete, off Salmone;” Acts 27:7 LSB.
And Paul’s reference to the poet and writer, Epimenides of Gnossus, a seventh-century a native Cretan who characterized his own people as liars.
“for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’”Acts 17:28 LSB
Also mentioned in Titus 1:5:
“For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,” Titus 1:5 LSB
Scripture says very little about this island which boasts of being one the oldest cities of historical record. It was the home of the ancient sea faring Minoan people. Who, very possibly, sailed and eventually settled in the area we know now as Gaza and are possibly the people known as the Philistines.
The city Gnossus mentioned by Luke is probably known as Knosis presently, an archaeological site which is digging up the past society of the Minoan people.
Unfortunately we didn’t visit there. Instead we visited to a more modern tourist trap city, Chania dating back to the Venetian occupation several hundred years ago. It is said that Titus planted the first church of Crete here. Could be just hype though.
Chania – (pronounced – Con-e- ya)
Speaking of “liars.” We cannot attest to that claim personally. However, the day previous in Turkey, we ended our tour of ancient Ephesus at a local rug dealer. Contrived by our guide Nevin and the local rug hucksters was a demo of how they weave the silk rugs. Pretty cool.
Then came the sales pitch. It was impressive. They had at least 18 – 8’x12’ size rugs in front of us in about 3 minutes. They were fast movers, slick talkers and the silk rugs were amazingly gorgeous. At the end of the presentation, about a dozen slick salesmen entered the room and began hitting up anyone who showed the slightest interest. We were in another room with a salesman in a flash. I won’t go into to much detail but the $11,000 rug was eventually brought down to $6800, by the manager when we began showing some reticence to the purchase. The old line , “he’ll see what he could do for us. But ONLY for today!” He even threw in free shipping, cover the duty and sales tax and whatever else that the government tacks on. By this time my bride looks at me with a desperate look that said, “Help!” They had zeroed in and were going in for the kill, I mean sale. I grabbed her arm and said let’s go! And post haste we were down the very narrow staircase with salesdude in hot pursuit in a last ditch effort to get us to part with a whole lot of precious “Lira.” We were free! So we thought. As we fled to street level, Nevin our guide asked us how we were doing, what was the final price? Wait how did she know…..? We told her and she asked something to the effect, “But did you love it? I’ll see what I can do to get a lower price.” Ayyyyyy… We politely but firmly bowed out of the deal and made way to the boat with our credit card intact. I think Epimenides “liars” moved from Crete to Kush-a-dashi.
Just one more thought. Maybe Cretans aren’t liar’s after all. Because Epimenides is Cretan, and if he say that all Cretans are liars, then what he’s saying about Cretan is a lie. So if he’s lying about all Cretans being liars. Then they’re not liars.
Well anyway here we are right now a little concerned with Euraquilo season.
“And when a moderate south wind came up, thinking that they had attained their purpose, they weighed anchor and began sailing along the shore of Crete. But before very long there rushed down from the land a violent wind, called Euraquilo; and when the ship was caught in it and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and let ourselves be carried along.”
Acts 27:13-15 LSB
Actually, the nicest weather we’ve had so far. Should have packed shorts for the gentle breeze cruise on our way to Sicily.
