In the Bible, Phut or Puth is the third son of Ham. Unfortunately, there are very few references about him and the regions where his descendants settled. Phut is also described as a country or people from which some of Egypt's mercenary troops originated. 

• Jeremiah 46:9 "Advance, O horses! Race furiously, O chariots! Let the warriors come forth—Cush and Put carrying their shields, men of Lydia drawing the bow!"

In biblical times, Africa was called Libya, which translates as Phut in Hebrew. In ancient Greece, Libya was one of three well-known continents, along with Asia and Europe, and it referred to the entire African continent. In the Scriptures, whenever the name "Libya" is used, the Hebrew term is "Phut" (פוּט), whose Hebrew transliteration means "unknown".

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Phut is also associated with the land of Punt, a region rich in natural resources and where slaves could be acquired,

• Some historians believe that Phut's descendants settled in the area known as Carthage, Karthago, Karthajen, or Kart-hadasht, which encompasses Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.

• Greek historians situate and refer to the river west of Mauritania (modern Morocco) and the adjacent country as Phoute. 

• Some historians have also speculated that the Land of Punt was probably located on the southern shores of Arabia.

But we refute these assumptions that the Land of Pount would be located in Arabia, for the following reasons:

Around 1477 B.C., Queen Hatshepsut undertook an expedition to the land of Punt, depicted on a relic at Deir el-Bahri, in present-day Luxor. It shows ships carrying men and loaded with gold, aromatic resins, ebony, ivory and exotic animals such as leopards, monkeys and giraffes.

Cependant, aucune des ressources du Pays de Pount n'est naturellement présente en Arabie.

• Black ebony is a rare type of tree found mainly in parts of Central Africa (Gabon, Mozambique, Tanzania) and Southeast Asia (Sri Lanka and India). 

• Elephants are only found in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the tropical forests of Central Africa and West Africa. In Asia, some male elephants have tusks, while African elephants, either male or female, all have tusks. To this day, most ivory is illegally sourced from Africa and manufactured and sold in Asia.

• Giraffes are naturally found in fragmented habitats throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and along its coastline.

• Leopards are found in a wide variety of habitats, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, northeast Africa, Central Asia, India and China.

• Old World monkeys such as guenons, macaques and baboons are widespread in Central Africa and Asia.

Some historians believe that Punt was the aboriginal home of the Egyptian dynastic race. In the 1876 Exposition Universelle by Auguste Mariette, Chap. 5 Couloir Circulaire, Pg. 24, Pount's inhabitants are described as black and dark-skinned. 

​**"They carry spears and shields. A general is leading them. Ahead of them, the people of Pount stand beseechingly. They are remarkable for the dark color of their skin. In the lead marches the chief. His long hair is woven into tight braids. A dagger hangs from his belt. His wife and servants are escorting him." |Exposition universelle de 1876 by Auguste Mariette, Chap. 5 Couloir Circulaire, Pg. 24|

Note that the Land of Punt is also called "Ta netjer", and described in ancient Egyptian texts as "The Land of God". Ancient literature held that the term "Land of God", interpreted as "Holy Land" or "Land of the Ancestors", meant that the ancient Egyptians regarded the Land of Punt as their ancestral homeland.

As previously mentioned, in Hebrew, the transliteration of the name Puth (פוּט), means “unknown”. Although the kingdom of Pount is the subject of much speculation, its exact location remains unknown to this day.

Interestingly, around the 1700s, the region known as Ethiopia, which encompassed the Congo Basin, was suddenly reset. They began publishing maps identifying the entire Congo Basin, its cities and its terrain, as "unknown" or "unexplored" lands, even though more than thirteen centuries earlier, this so-called "unknown land" had been supplying the Arabs with slaves, minerals and natural resources without interruption, and was not entirely unknown to the Europeans, who had named it "Ethiopia", which means "burnt face". (See video)

Terre Inconnue

Interestingly, in the James Moffatt Bible published in 1901, we read in John 21:8,

• “While the rest of the disciples came ashore in the Punt (they were not far from land, only about a hundred yards), dragging their netful of fish.” -

This passage is the one where Jesus performed a miracle on the shores of the Sea of Galilee near the Jordan river. The famous Sea of Galilee is where Jesus walked on the water, calmed the storm and made Peter and Andrew "fishers of men". It's also where Jesus fed the masses with a few loaves and fishes and delivered his Sermon on the Mount. The Jordan River is the site of Jesus Christ's baptism, and the source of all holy water in Christianity.

So, according to Moffatt, Jesus was in the vicinity of Punt when he performed this miracle. This would imply that the location of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River is not in the north of present-day Israel, as the world is being taught, but rather possibly in central Africa.

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Although Moffatt relied heavily on the Greek text of Hermann Freiherr von Soden, who was a renowned German biblical scholar, priest of the Jerusalem Church in Berlin, professor of theology and literary theologian, Roman Catholics and Lutherans were particularly offended by Moffatt's Bible, as they felt it was controversial in several respects and put forward skeptical views.

You be the judge, and we encourage you to do your own research.

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