Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Ian Hutchesson wrote:

> [...]
> The arguments that people want to put forward regarding the Philistines seem
> not to be based on evidence but on apologetic aims.

??? This is an assumption on your part, Ian. Your assumption says that the 
biblical
literature is completely unreliable so if we come up with any theories that 
vaguely
resemble something like what the biblical literature says, it must 
automatically be
wrong, or there must be a certain dogmatic agenda. This seems to be an 
anti-biblical
apologetic to which you hold.

> The sea peoples are
> shown by the reliefs not to have been Semitic, not to have originated in
> southern Palestine, and not to have borne cultural traits of local
> populations into the Philistine area.

Ian, perhaps you can tell us what is so non-Palestine-ish about the way the 
Pereset
are portrayed at Medinet Habu? What is it about the clothing? What is so 
Aegean about
their fashion? Why must we assume that they had to have a certain style of 
clothing to
be from S-W Palestine? Why couldn't they have their own style? Why must we 
lump them
with other groups from Palestine?

Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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