Comments on: The “Philistines” to the North

By: Levi

Levi — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 20:04:22 +0000

I would guess the cow scapula is used for music, raking a stick across the incised groves.

By: pluto

pluto — Sun, 19 Feb 2017 23:56:02 +0000

listen up its easy keftiu is said to be in asia minor syria ethiopia egypt babylon
why are all these nations carrying cretan bull head rhyton w
why are these so called pharoahs being buried with cretan religious artifacts ?
an egyptian pharoah prefers religious cretan ware rather then his own egyptian religion ware and especially for the after life ? who are these people and vwere are they all from ?
in greek mythology homer doesnt have that problem identifying place names with rulers
the greeks are not from this earth but certainly the first set foot on it
long live ZEUS your all his children take it or leave it is what it is

By: Carl

Carl — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 20:55:50 +0000

After reading the current article in BAR, and looking over the color drawing of the sculpted reliefs. I wonder about the ethnic origins of these people. The reliefs are showing Egyptians fighting from their boats with these sea peoples. One group has Broom like head dresses, and are caucasian looking. Then there are darker skinned “Africans” wearing helmets with bull horns, but also some caucasian prisoners with the same helmets in an Egyptian boat. Do these helmets represent a connection to Bull worship? A connection to Santorini? Where did this mixed ethnic group come from, and why did they coalesce together? There names may give something away… Dananu. Could they be worshipers of goddess Dianna?

By: VidenteWikia

VidenteWikia — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 16:01:26 +0000

WJs is new erudits pubblish the new history … ahahahahahaha

By: Paul Ballotta

Paul Ballotta — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 02:08:17 +0000

Kurt makes a good point about the alleged Phillistine presence at Gerar long before the arrival of the Sea Peoples in 1200 B.C.E., and it seems that the term “Phillistines” was applied to other Sea Peoples who disappeared from the historical record, like the Minoans who were also from the island of Crete. During the period of Hyksos domination the Minoans established relations with the Hyksos rulers in Egypt at Tanis, the biblical Zoan. Recently scholars have focused on an obscure reference to what may have been a tsunami on a stela of the Pharaoh who expelled the Hyksos from Egypt, Ahmose I. It has been suggested that this was the turning point that ended Hyksos domination in Egypt since their seaports were destroyed.
In Psalm 78:12-13 there is a connection between the “field of Zoan” and the parting of the sea though it doesn’t say which sea. It’s possible that in verse 43 the “miracles in the field of Zoan” is the act of God that would change the course of history. This was thought to have taken place around 1600 B.C.E., a thousand years before the culture of horseback-riding was introduced from the steppes of Eurasia, so that the references to horse and rider in the sea in Exodus 15:1,21 is likely an eye witness account of the remnants of the Hyksos forces in the flood waters.
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news//reinterpreting-the-tempest-stela/

By: Kurt

Kurt — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 16:11:36 +0000

The island of Crete (usually held to be identical with Caphtor), though not necessarily the original home of the Philistines, was the place from which they migrated to the coast of Canaan. (Jer 47:4; Am 9:7; Just when this migration began is uncertain. However, as early as the time of Abraham and his son Isaac, Philistines resided at Gerar in southern Canaan. They had a king, Abimelech, and an army under the command of a certain Phicol.—Ge 20:1, 2; 21:32-34; 26:1-18;
Some object to the Genesis references to Philistine residence in Canaan, arguing that the Philistines did not settle there until the 12th century B.C.E. But this objection does not rest on a solid basis. The New Bible Dictionary edited by J. Douglas (1985, p. 933) observes: “Since the Philistines are not named in extra-biblical inscriptions until the 12th century BC, and the archaeological remains associated with them do not appear before this time, many commentators reject references to them in the patriarchal period as anachronistic.” However, in showing why such a position is not sound, mention is made of the evidence of a major expansion of Aegean trade reaching back to about the 20th century B.C.E. It is pointed out that a particular group’s not being prominent enough to be mentioned in the inscriptions of other nations does not prove that the group did not exist. The conclusion reached in that New Bible Dictionary is: “There is no reason why small groups of Philistines could not have been among the early Aegean traders, not prominent enough to be noticed by the larger states.”
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200274451

By: Paul Ballotta

Paul Ballotta — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 02:13:26 +0000

That is Popeye and Bluto, not Brutus (which makes me seem brutish and uncultured for not getting that right). I don’t think it’s farfetched to use Popeye the Sailor to denote the status of Sampson as hailing from a seafaring culture or at least his tribe of Dan as being identified with the Sea Peoples since the name Dan is akin to the Denyen mentioned in Egyptian sources. Sampson was in his element when he tried to assimilate with the Phillistines by marrying a woman from Timnah within the territory of Dan (Joshua 19:46) before the Danites migrated north. So it was in Sampson’s time when the Phillistines controlled Joppa and the Sikil controlled Dor and if you wanted to be a success, the lifestyle of the Sea Peoples was likely your ticket, as was sung by Deborah; “and Dan – why did he linger by the ships?” (Judges 5:17). Joppa was the early Israelite’s link to the world and it was here that the apostle Peter received a vision to spread the gospel to the gentiles (Acts 10:8-23).
There is a record preserved on papyrus of an Egyptian military officer’s account of taking control of Joppa during the reign of Thuthmose III. The people of Joppa were deceived into thinking the 200 baskets given them was tribute while the soldiers hid inside. A similar tactic was used in the Arabian tale, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” In the animation, “Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves,” Popeye is on guard duty when he hears an alert about a thief and after flying around the globe in his boat/plane, he crashes in the desert. Popeye, Olive Oil and Wimpy eventually make it to a city where they find a cafe where Popeye (under his breath) orders a “desert with no sand.” Then the thieves arrive on horseback and the leader of the thieves, Abu Hassan, is played by Bluto who sings about what a terrible guy he is and who captures Olive Oil and makes her do the laundry. What does this have to do the Sea Peoples? Nothing.

By: Paul Ballotta

Paul Ballotta — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 01:43:43 +0000

It is interesting how only one tribe of Sea Peoples is mentioned in the bible; the Phillistines. If not for Egypt’s dry climate that preserves the papyrus writings that mention other tribes like the Sikil (Sicily) who established themselves as a maritime power at the city of Dor (which the author of this magazine article excavated).
“Apart from its significance in establishing the Sikil presence at Dor, ‘The Tale of Wen-Amon’ is the single most important source for the history of Palestine in the 11th century B.C.E., otherwise considered a Dark Age because of its lack of textual evidence” (“The Many Masters of Dor; Part 1, When Canaanites Became Phoenician Sailors,” by Ephraim Stern, BAR, Jan./Feb. 1993, p.26).
Though the Sea Peoples who settled in Canaan borrowed some local cultural traditions along with those they brought from the Aegean world, the last holdouts of traditional Canaanite culture were reduced to the portion of coastline along what is modern Lebanon. So while the Phillistines were more advanced than the Israelites in metallurgy (1 Samuel 13:19-22), they lacked the artistic refinery of the Phoenicians with whom David and Solomon had trade relations (1 Kings 5:15) and possibly a military alliance (2 Chronicles 1:16-17) that eventually put the squeeze on the Sea Peoples’ monopoly of northern Canaan.
Perhaps the story of the ark of the covenant being captured by the Phillistines alludes to the cultural superiority of the Israelites, who borrowed the pattern of the cherubim that adorn the ark from the Phoenicians. It has been suggested that the affliction of the Phillistines was not hemorrhoids but impotence. as has been hinted at when they were required to atone for their theft by offering golden “ophalim” (1 Samuel 5:17) that represent the phallus statues found in Gaza of which some appear to show that the Phillistines did practice circumcision, contrary to the popular term “uncircumcised Phillistine” (1 Samuel 17:26) that was slung at Goliath. It has also been noted that Sampson acquired the attributes of the Greek hero Heracles when he carried the gates of Gaza and set them down facing Hebron (Judges 16:3), like the Pillars of Heracles at the Strait of Gibraltar. To me this signifies that it is cultural stagnation on the part of the Phillistines (likely orchestrated by the Phillistine lords known as “seren” from which we derive the word “tyrant”) that they have to all act in concert just to frustrate Sampson’s love life, as if the contest between Popeye and Brutus wasn’t enough (Judges 14:20).
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