Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>]

I found my photocopies of part of Baruch Halpern's book on King David.   I
don't have and did not read the part where David picks up his 600 characters
to begin with.   That could shed light on what he thought to be their
origins.

In the research I did on the web, I learned that "Cherethites" were a people
of the central Negev associated with the Philistines in some unknown way,
and "Pelethites" were some group always mentioned in conjunction with
"Cherethites" that may mean something to do with soldier.   And they're
linked with Edom, and a couple of other places in the Negev associated with
the development of Yahweh.

I also learned that Judah itself was part of teh Negev - atleast
technically.

Baruch Halpern argues that David's roots were in the central Negev - and
Philistine, and with the Gibeonites, whose rotos are also southern.   He
confusingly argues that some of David's iconography, as with the ark of the
covenant, is Egyptian - but I think it was simply a variety of Canaanite,
maybe of a Negev stripe instead of a coastal plains Canaanite cult stripe,
but that's probably debatable.     Halpern argues that David actually
conquered Israel as an outsider, Philistine or even Edomite, and imposed the
religious system of his own roots and his allies on the people of Israel.
He argues that the slaughter at Shiloh was partly about a religious conflict
between the Gibeonites and the Benjamites or Saul's tribe.  He argues that
Israelite religion was traditionally Canaanite, adn this is why when Israel
broke away from Davidic control after
teh reign of Solomon, it installed golden calf iconography.   Halpern thinks
that if the ark of the covenant had been integral to Israelite cult, Saul
would ahve actively sought it and David would have brought it out much
sooner, instead of leaving it at the houses of Gibeonite and Philistine
priests.

I suspect that actually the term "Philistine" is a red herring here.   It
may ahve been inserted deliberately.  The last thing the authors of Samuel
wanted was for people to realize that David didn't represent Israel!   Like
all Philistines, these people, to whatever degree they ever were Philistine,
ahd assimilated.  Except that this bunch appears to have assimilated into
the Yahwistic culture of the Negev.   Wahtever Philistine identity they had
ever had was relevant only inasmuch as it admits to David's ties.

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra AT austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 1:27 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aegean Ethnic determinatives on
PhilistineguardsofJudean kings in Kings and Samuel?


> Dora:
>
> I noticed that these terms were used exclusively to refer to soldiers.
What made me suspect that it may refer to classes of professional soldiers
was the realization that the PLTY is always written with a definite article
prefix in Tanakh, which would have had a pronunciation of "hapeleti". This
sounds awfully similar to a class of soldiers among the Greeks, who had
imported a lot of their culture along with their alphabet from Semitic
sources.
>
> The terms, as well as the weaponry, may have been Philistine, but in the
list of David's top soldiers, almost all of them were native Israelis (2
Samuel 23).
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>
>
> > 2 Samuel 20:23.  Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel;
Benaiah
> > son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites;
> >
> <snip>
> >
> > What sense do you make of this?  Do you think David recruited his
bodyguard
> > selectively from faraway places, or is the text trying to tell us that
> > Israel cared in the time of the monarchy what Aegean nations the
> > Philistines, whose culture had long become completely Canaanite,
originally
> > came from 200 years ago?
> >
> <snip>
> >
> > Can anyone tell me more about the identity and history of David's
guards?
> >
>
> --
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