Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re[2]: Monotheistic? Ken's last post.

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[2]: Monotheistic? Ken's last post.
  • Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 01:15:01 -0500 (EST)


Ian wrote:

"It's perfectly possible that the people along the coast were called
Philistines before the Philistines got there, but that possibility is
so infinitesimally small that under normal human thinking we discard
it out of hand as ridiculous to even consider... Medinet Habu has the
Egyptian equivalent to Philistine... The other groups mentioned and
portrayed also bear Greek cultural traits and Greek ethnic names."

Do I understand you right as saying that the other groups had Greek
names but that the origin of the name "Philistine" is unknown? Surely
there is more than an "infinitesimally small" probability that the
name "Philistine" (used in Egyptian inscriptions and the Biblical
texts) was not Greek at all but meant "inhabitant of Peleshet" (ethnic
origin unspecified) which was perhaps a name for south-west Canaan?

Ian also wrote:

"The tablets go back to the times they apply to, often being trading
accounts of kings with various other countries, so we can construct
the trade relations in the area. There are treaties, land deals,
conquests,.. all events that you mightn't accept as ever having
happened, but they have a historical value that places them at times
in the past that at least give them the possibility of being
contemporary reports. This simply cannot be said about the biblical
narratives."

This description of the tablets sounds like quite a good description
of significant parts of the Hebrew Bible. So how can you justify your
last statement? "Simply" is simply no argument. Perhaps you can
clarify: are you claiming a difference in historical value because of
a difference in genre, or only because of the greater antiquity and
archaeological context of the tablets?

Peter Kirk



  • Re[2]: Monotheistic? Ken's last post., Peter_Kirk, 01/19/1999

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page