Biblical Hebrew Forum

[rob acosta <robacosta AT hotmail.com>]

George

Your wrote:

"The pereset are almost certainly Philistines. Do you have evidence to the contrary?"

I would like, if I may, to inject a slightly different aspect to this discussion: The possibility has been raised elsewhere that, since the word Philistine meant "invader", it was a catchall name that referred to more than one group of people.

   In Genesis and 1 Chronicles 1:12 it tell us Philistines come from the Pathrusites, Casluhites, and the Caphtorites. However, there is another group also considered to be Philistines by the Hebrews...The Avvites.

     The Talmud,(Chullin 60B)  tells us it was the Avvim  that were the" Philistines" Abraham encountered. In Deuteronomy 2:23 we are told the Avvim lived in the southern region all the way to Gaza but that they were destroyed by the Caphtorim. As Moses, in this chapter, is describing all the changes in the region since Jacob took his family to Egypt, this appears to be a description of the great invasion of the Sea Peoples...the Caphtorites from possibly Crete.

    It is my opinion that the word "Philistine" was used by the ancient Hebrews in the same way

the word "barbarian" was used the the Romans. We of course know the "barbarians" were specific groups of people, Goths, Ostrogoths, Huns, etc. In the same way I believe the Hebrews considered the Avvites, Caphtorim, etc to all be one thing: Invaders, non Canaanite people in a land they considered to be theirs, hence, Philistines.

     I point out the fact that the Philistines of Abraham were a monarchy, its ruler given the title of Abimilech, while the Philistines of later times were a confederacy of five cities each with their own ruler. This disparity alone is a clear indication we're discussing two separate groups of people with differing styles of government.

Rob Acosta