Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

James,

We're skirting the bounds of relevance for B-Hebrew here. But, because there 
is a linguistic component under consideration, I'll allow it.

Firstly, if we identify the Philistines as the 'Pereset' of the Egyptian 
inscriptions of Ramesses III, then the Philistines did indeed come to the 
Levant from Egypt. However, they didn't originate in Egypt - they were just 
repelled from Egypt by Ramesses III after coming from the Aegean. Ramesses 
III claims to have settled them along the southern coast of the Levant, where 
we find them in biblical texts. Gen 10 is probably preserving the memory of 
the Philistine movement (which implies that Gen 10 is dated after the early 
12th century BC).

Furthermore, it is probable that the Indo-European Philistines, who 
originally wouldn't have spoken a Semitic language, formed only a particular 
stratum of the society that made up the Philistine city states. It is most 
likely that the Philistine fighters, whom Ramesses III settled along the 
southern Levantine coast, became the overlords (or something like that) of 
the local population, who were Semitic speakers. In time, the smaller 
military stratum (the invaders) of the society took on the language of the 
local populace. Before long, therefore, the Indo-European Philistines became 
Semitic speakers.


Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au