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The Rôle of the Philistines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Cyrus H. Gordon
Cyrus H. Gordon*
Affiliation:
Assyriology and Egyptology Dropsie College, Philadelphia
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Extract

Our dictionaries tell us that ‘Philistine’ denotes ‘an uncouth or uncultured person’. Archaeologically, this definition is quite unjustified for the Philistines were the main civilizing influence on the Hebrews during the critical period when Israel emerged from rude tribalism to forge a cultured empire. The magnitude of the Philistine impact is reflected in the name of ‘Palestine’ (= Hebrew peléšet ‘Philistia’) which clings to the country after more than three millennia.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 117 , March 1956 , pp. 22 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1956

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References

1 In referring to the Patriarchal narratives in Genesis as history, I do not mean that the historicity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as persons is established fact. Indeed much of the narrative content consists of epic motifs that permeate East Mediterranean literature : Homeric and especially Ugaritic. Yet the setting, the social institutions and ethnic movements are to a great extent historical, and can be used as materials for history by the critical scholar. For example, Abraham is said to have migrated first from Ur of the Chaldees and then from Haran on his way to Canaan. Those two cities were the great centres of Mesopotamian lunar worship. Migrations from Mesopotamian lunar cultic centres are attested independently (notably at Ugarit) by the worship of the Sumero-Akkadian moon-goddess Nikkal in Canaan of the Amarna Age. Accordingly, the Genesis data on Abraham’s Mesopotamian residences mean more historically than the .origin of one man; they characterize a major source of Canaan’s population. The key to utilizing documents like the Genesis narratives is critical evaluation, without which we fall into either naïve gullibility or sterile disbelief.

2 The Bible gives no hint of any language barrier between Israelite and Philistine in any period.

3 See my Introduction to Old Testament Times, Ventnor (N.J.), 1953.

4 Cf. Yehezkel Kaufmann, The Biblical Account of the Conquest of Palestine, Jerusalem, 1953.

5 One of his most trusted generals was Ittai of Gath. David used Caphtorian mercenaries called Cherethites ( ‘ Cretans ‘) and Pelethites. It is interesting to note that the Judeans also employed Carian troops (II Kings XI, 4). The people of Crete and Caria were so closely inter connected (Herodotus I, 171) that the ancients may well have reckoned Caria as a part of Greater Caphtor. Caphtor and Caria appear together in a Babylonian text from Hazor (see A. Pohl, Orientalia, XIX, 1950, p. 509).

6 Cf. Flinders Petrie/Gerar, London, 1928, pl. 1; Ancient Gaza 1, pls. XV, and II, pls. I-III, and IV, pls. XIV-XX and especially IV, pls. XIII-XX, London, 1931-34, for golden jewellery.

7 See further my Homer and Bible : The Origin and Character of East Mediterranean Literature (in Hebrew Union College Annual, XXVI, 1955, pp. 43-108) §40.

8 The Ugaritic texts are cnt:VI:14 and 51:1:24 ff. The material from Ugarit is available in my Ugaritic Manual, Rome, 1955.

9 For the growing literature on Linear B since the decipherment by M. Ventris (with the collaboration of J. Chadwick), see M. S. Ruipérez, ‘ Les études sur le linéaire B depuis le déchiffrement de Ventris ‘, Minos III, 2, 1955, pp. 157-67.

10 This is incidentally reflected in the rôle of the Ugaritic god of arts and crafts, as a Caphtorian builder of palaces.

11 In broad outline this has been clear for centuries. However, meticulous scholars have tended to shy away from such comparative considerations because of gaps in our knowledge. But recent discoveries such as those at Ugarit and the decipherment of Linear B are bridging the gaps to such an extent that continued scepticism is no longer tenable.

12 For the term, cf. H. M. Chadwick, The Heroic Age, Cambridge, 1912.

13 For the ancient literature of Western Asia and Egypt, see J. B. Pritchard (editor), Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 2nd ed., Princeton, 1955.

14 In David’s reign, the horse-drawn chariot occurs as a sign of high rank (II Samuel XV, I) rather than as a branch of the armed forces. By Solomon’s reign, however, horses and chariots became important in Israel’s military power. Solomon’s stables excavated at Megiddo confirm the Biblical account (I Kings, v, 6; ix, 19, 22; X, 26).

15 This poem of David (like others of Tyrtaeus) is elegiac. That compositions designed for military training should be of mournful character serves to remind us that social psychology in the ancient Near East differed considerably from ours.

16 Herodotus, 1, 65.

17 See E. Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, 2nd ed., III, Stuttgart, 1937, p. 515.

18 The text is Krt : 83-4, 174-5.

19 The Mahabharata and Ramayana narratives are digested and explained in M. Winternitz, A History of Indian Literature I, Calcutta, 1927, and N. K. Sidhanta, The Heroic Age of India : A Comparative Study, London and New York, 1929.

20 The bibliography on the Philistines is too extensive for repetition in an article like this one. But there is one outstanding book that should not be passed over in silence; to wit, R. A. S. Macalister, The Philistines : Their History and Civilization, London, 1914. From the varied new data bearing on the problem, it might be worth singling out the fact that navigation between Ugarit and mât kaptu-ri ‘ the land of Caphtor ‘ is now attested in an Akkadian tablet from Ugarit; see J. Nougayrol, Le palais royal d’Ugarit III, Paris, 1955, p. 107 and pl. LXIX, text 16.238:10.