Phut is the Hebrew name for Libya. It is translated that way three times in the Old Testament. The ancient river Phut was in Libya. By Daniel’s day, the name had been changed to Libya (Dan. 11:43). Josephus says, “Phut also was the founder of Libyia, and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself’ (1:vi:2) They appear to have operated as mercenaries in its defense. Regarding Tyre, Ezek. 27:10 reads, “Persia and Lud and Put were in your army as your men of war; they hung the shield and helmet in you; they gave you splendor.(RSV)
No sons or grandsons of Phut are recorded in the Bible. However, the Book of Jasher gives the names of at least four sons, namely Gebul, Hadan, Benah and Adan (7:12).
There are varying opinions on the exact location of the land of Put. The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (ISBE), claims that Put may be found in present-day Yemen (on the Arabian peninsula), formerly known as the Land of Punt, or in Somalia (in east Africa), but the boundaries of ancient Libya have yet to be determined. It was to the west of Ancient Egypt, and it was known as “IMNT” to the Ancient Egyptians. Libya was an unknown territory to the Egyptians: it was the lands of the spirits. To the Ancient Greeks, Libya was one of the three known continents besides, Asia and Europe. In this sense, Libya was the whole African continent to the west of the Nile Valley. Herodotus distinguished the inhabitants of Libya into two people: The Libyans in North Africa and the Ethiopians in the south. According to Herodotus, Libya begins where Ancient Egypt ends, and ends in Cape Spartel in the south of Tangier on the Atlantic coast.
We can thus deduce that the north was taken over by sub-groups of early Egyptians that divorced themselves from the central government on the Nile. The southern groups were identified with the Ethiopians who were Cushites. The Hg C Cushite tribes were developed in the East and the Haplogroup B subdivisions were developed in the Central South and moved West and further south-west from there. The A divisions went right throughout Africa to the Cape. We are certain from the Bible and historical records that Put went into Africa with the southern Cushites, who became the Ethiopians. We know that the Haplogroup C movements of the northern Cushites went into Asia and formed the nucleus of the Mongols and Dravidians and Australian Aboriginals and Maori, as well as moving into the Americas forming the Nadene or Chippewa, Cheyenne and Apache, as well as moving south into the Maya. The Haplogoup C has its origins with the stem that forms Haplogroup B and we know that this Haplogroup was co-located with C and moved south into Central and West Africa. Thus B is a division of Cush, and from that basis there is only one Haplogroup left unaccounted for in Africa and that is YDNA Haplogroup A, which came from the north and moved right through to South Africa. These can be none other than the sons of Put. The Libyans are now a mix of Lybios, the son of Mizraim, and the Arabs. Mizraim was Hg E devolving to E3b and E3a. The Arabs are J, with some I.
The Libyans are a distinct breed from the Putim. The YDNA Hg A African tribes have no equivalent outside of Africa, but there are YDNA Hg A clans among the Celts north of the Roman boundaries who appear to have come from Hg A auxiliaries that escaped or moved north of the Roman area of control.
The Berbers are recorded as replacing the earlier Neolithic inhabitants of the Libyan coastal plain. Their culture flourished for a long time before the Berber. They were displaced and moved South and West, and later they were further displaced by the RxR1 basic YDNA groups that inhabited Cameroon. These are descended from the ancestors of the Aryan Slavs and Celts. Hg A and B were thus forced into sub-Saharan Africa at least two thousand years ago. The Phoenicians established alliances with the Berbers and placed trading posts in Libya. By the 5th century BCE the Phoenician colonies extended all across North Africa on what was the Punic civilization. However, these people were not the sons of Put or Phut. They were in fact of two groups. One was Hamite Hg E (both a and b) and the other was Japhethite K2 from Tarshish. Tyre is now actually mostly K2 and some of these clans are in Malta and in Wales.
Libya has a small population within its large territory, … [and] is thus one of the least dense nations by area in the world. 90% of the people live in less than 10% of the area, mostly along the coast. More than half the population is urban, concentrated to a greater extent, in the two largest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi. Native Libyans are primarily a mixture of Arabs and Berbers. Current Lybians are composite groups of Berber Tauregs; Tebu tribesmen and people from other African nations, including Egyptians and Tunisians, West African and Sub Saharan Africans. Thus there are still inhabitants of the original Put and Cushite groups in the south. By some estimates Libyan Berbers and Arabs constitute 97% of the population; the other 3% are Sub-Saharan Africans, Greeks, Maltese, Italians, Egyptians, Afghanis, Turks and Indians.