Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi,

Quoting 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

That's a real big IF you made there George. It kind of puts the rest  
of the reasoning below of a *very* shaky foundation.


> 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.

Yeah. This sounds like a plausible theory of who the later invaders  
that influenced the philistine society were.


> Gen 10 is probably preserving the memory of the  Philistine movement  
> (which implies that Gen 10 is dated after the  early 12th century BC).

This is circular logic at its worst:

The philistines are from a late period because Genesis 10 talks about  
them. Genesis 10 is from a late period because it talks about the  
Philistines. The philistines are from a late period because... ad  
infinitum.

However, coming back to reality for a moment this would contradict the  
entire style of Genesis 10. The whole point of Genesis 10 is to show  
which nation came from which patriarch. Genesis 10 is clearly telling  
us about where the indigenous Philistines came from *not* their later  
invaders.


> 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

Agreed.


> 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.

I think the key observation you made there is 'before long'. I  
estimate this took a few months max. There is no evidence whatsoever  
of the invaders having any success in imposing their language on the  
Philistines. The invaders most likely very quickly learned the Semitic  
language of the Philistines in order to be able to communicated with  
their subjects.

James Christian


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