Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

I've been doing reading in the library.  Halpern's book, Dothan's on the
Philistines, and other books on the Philistines.

One thing:  David wasn't an Edomite.   He had some sort of connections to
Moab, where he parked his parents, and to whom he turned for aid nearly as
often as he did to Gath and to the Gibeonites.  He hated Edomites.  He
viciously fought them, and the Amelekites.    I think this would have
something to do with competing tribes in the Negev.   I'm not sure where the
Midianites stood in it.

The members of David's personal guard of 600 were all picked while he was in
Gath and in Ziklag; makes sense to think they came from there.

Overlap between these territories and Judea is part of my point.  To call
them Philistine identifies them as a different group then Saul's, and sheds
light on what was going on with the ark and Yahweh.   To call them
Philistine at this point is a red herring.   Their religion was what they
had assimilated from the people around them - so they were apparently
Yahwists.   In opposition to Saul's people, who appear to ahve worshipped
Ba'al, or else ahd a more syncretistic religion that included Ba'al.
Ishbaal wore Ba'al's name, and he was Saul's son.  When Israel declared
independence from David's kingdom, they quickly went to Canaanite
iconography.

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra AT austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dora Smith" <villandra AT austin.rr.com>
To: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>; "Hebrew"
<b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Aegean Ethnic determinatives
onPhilistineguardsofJudean kings in Kings and Samuel?


>.     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.
>