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b-hebrew - Re[2]: Hittites, Philistines, Patriarchs

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  • From: ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[2]: Hittites, Philistines, Patriarchs
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jan 99 00:51:08


On Thu 7 Jan 99 , peter_kirk AT sil.org wrote:
> In that case, maybe (it cannot be proved, I know) the origin of the
> name "Philistine" was in Canaan and the people living in that area in
> the 19th century BC were called "Philistine" or something similar.
> There is certainly no clear proof against this hypothesis, and so no
> clear anachronism in the text of Genesis. (Could the name be from the
> Semitic P-L-Sh "dig", perhaps because these people dug wells? - as in
> Genesis 21 and 26, where there is perhaps irony that the "digger"
> people in fact stopped up wells rather than dug them!)

Peter,

Maybe I'm just too naive, but doesn't the word P:Li$TiYM mean "immigrants"
of any provenance? According to Amos 9:7 HaPP:Li$TiYYiYM came from
Caphtor, believed to be Crete. They peopled the Gaza Strip, and built
five towns: Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath and Gaza. At the Exodus, God
ordered Moses to respect them and their territory (Exodus 13:17). Maybe
the word Philistines is proleptic here (like YaWaN in Zechariah 9:13?).

One of their tribes was the Cherethites who formed a mercenary bodyguard
for David (2 Samuel 8:18; 15:18), even though David had killed Goliath of
Gath. After David's death they reverted to hostility, and God ended their
rule in Ezekiel 25:15-17 and Isaiah 14:29-32.

The modern-day Palestinians are also P:Li$TiYM. They are descendants of the
Arabic-speaking inhabitants of "Palestine" since the Crusades. They were
gradually dispossessed by the immigrant Jews this century after the
Balfour Declaration, and live in refugee settlements in their own land.
They mistook General Allenby's name to mean "Allah nabi'" - Prophet of
Allah, so I am told. Would it be terminologically possible (though
politically unacceptable) to call the Jewish settlers in Palestine
P:Li$TiYM, "Immigrants"?

WDYT?
Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
<ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm







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