Historians are puzzled by the Phoenician mystery. Did the so-called Phoenicians ever exist as a distinct solid entity, such as was described by various historians in antiquity, and did they ever call themselves by that name? So are they a myth?The answer is a resounding No. Phoenicians are not a myth. They had a different way of calling themselves.
Wherever one looks all one finds for similarity surrounds people wearing the purple blue of the Murex, and a 22 letter alphabet, the same as Hebrew.
Memories remain of a sea faring people who also spread the use of glass making industry wherever they reached. It is easy to know when “Phoenicians” reached a country: whenever we first attest to the skill of glass-blowing entering a particular territory. But, as many will remark, that it is the same way we trace the earliest arrival of Jews in ancient times.
The 22 Letters Hebrew alphabet, glass-blowing, and the wearing of the Murex purple are identity markers for Israelites as well.
In Tunisa we can see a seamless cultural continuum between the Punic and Jewish periods. The same names were used for community functions since the so-called Phoenician era through the Jewish times. Cohen, Shofet which are very strong terms in Jewish culture were already central in Punic culture.
Punic-Amazigh culture is a name consistent with nascent Judaism in terms of North African history.
This designates a period of a world culture stretching from the Levant to the shores of North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.
The most important item of this culture was and still is, its 22 letters alphabet.
This 22 Letter alphabet, through its global impact caused a world revolution. From it were born all the modern alphabets which allowed the world to communicate.
For Judaism this specific alphabet is an entire science, with many branches. It contains many computational capabilities, which were explored long ago by the masters of the famous Sefer Yetzira.
The holiness with which this alphabet was held, and still is until today, is shown in chapter 119 of the biblical books of Psalms, the longest chapter in the Bible, where each of the 22 Letters is accorded 8 verses.
Our archeological reading of History is filled with ideological filters, which were added through the lenses of successive triumphalist interpretations. The picture of Phoenician Punic culture in its own times and on its own terms has eluded us, and is impossible to be reconstructed from scratch, for our minds to accurately reflect.
However we can get a glimpse of it in our own times, through the singular devotion of the Jewish community concerning the holiness of the 22 Letters of the Hebrew alphabet.