Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> This is interesting. We know that later after David became king, his
troops were
> called "hoplites"

C'mon, Karl, you know better than that. "Hoplite" is the English form of a
Greek word, which various translators decided was close enough.

> which I opined is a Philistine loan word into Hebrew.

If you're thinking of the "Kereyty and Pelety" ("Cheretites and Peletites")
you may be right: they seem to have something to do with Creteans and
Pelestu ("Philistines"). But I think we've already had that discussion (or
was it on a different list?).

> Apparently the Philistines were not only armed with steel while most of
their foes still > had bronze, if anything, but that they also developed
battle tactics that were so good > that the Greeks were still using them
centuries later. A downside is that those tactics > required an almost
full-time army, hence a Philistine need for vassel nations giving >tribute
to maintain their armies.

All of this is pure conjecture, based neither on textual nor on
archaeological evidence.


Yigal