CRETE, CRETANS - Crete, the modern Candid, is an island 60 miles S. of Greece proper, about 150 miles long, and varying in breadth from 30 to 7 miles, with mountains as high as 7000 feet. It is about equidistant from Europe, Asia, and Africa. The researches of Sir Arthur J. Evans and others have revealed traces of a very ancient civilization, including an alphabet hitherto unknown, the famous linear B Script of c 1200 BC recently (1954) deciphered by Michael Ventris and recognized as early Greek, and an earlier linear A Script which seems to be Babylonian (C. H. Gordon). In later times it was famed for its archers, who were valued in the armies of Europe. It was conquered by Rome in 67 BC, and became, in conjunction with the district Cyrenaica in North Africa, a Roman senatorial province governed by a proconsul. Jews were early to be found there, and were very numerous. Some were present at Pentecost in the year of the crucifixion (Ac.2.11). St. Paul's ship, on the voyage to Rome, sailed along the Cretan coast close in (Ac.27.7), and came to Fair Havens near Lasea. These places (q.v.) were on the S. coast, which had few harbours.
The epithets which a native of the island, the poet Epimenides (flourished 600 BC), flung at the Cretans, are quoted in a somewhat un-apostolic manner in the Epistle to Titus (1.12). Epimenides styled them 'always liars, evil beasts of prey, lazy gluttons.' Such vituperation must not be taken too seriously. The ancients were much given to it, and it probably reveals as much of the taste and even character of the persons who used it as it does the nature of those they attacked. When and by whom Christianity was planted in Crete cannot be said. It is probable that it was well established there in the 1st cent. In the Epistle to Titus we find Titus introduced as having been left by St. Paul in charge of the churches. [Article: Dictionary of the Bible, J.Hastings, 2nd Ed., T&T.Clark, 1963 - A.So. - E.G.K.]