Philistines: Were they really all that bad?



(David and Goliath by Osmar Schindler)

The Associated Press recently pointed out that Philistines are often viewed as “the bad guys of the Hebrew Bible.”  That’s because the Bible was not written by Philistines.  Had it been, their adversaries might instead have been dubbed “the bad guys of the Philistine Bible.”  Perspective looms large in historical accounts...

So who were these "infamous" Philistines?  Archaeologists have been assiduously trying to find out.  July might mean “fun in the sun” for many - but in modern-day Israel it is the beginning of the “annual digging season.”  In the city of Gath (aka “Goliath’s home town”), Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University has resumed his ongoing (since 1996) search for clues.  Along with an international team of 100 diggers, he is determined to uncover more and more pieces of the giant Philistine puzzle.

So far these pieces (such as shards of painted jugs that resemble ancient Greek art) point to Philistine roots in Aegean civilization.  Ancient bones which indicate a steady diet of grass pea lentils (an Aegean staple) were also found on site.  Wikipedia reports that the “Aegean area” is now thought to have included “the Archipelago with Crete and Cyprus, the Hellenic peninsula with the Ionian islands, and Western Anatolia.”  Needless to say, that covers a lot of sophisticated civilization – far more than a giant getting brought down by a shepherd boy’s slingshot might indicate.

It might therefore be more than high time to polish the tarnished Philistine image.  One place to begin might be with a rewrite of these Urban Dictionary definitions of the term Philistine:  No Culture…  a conformist in everything they do…  little to no use for art… of limited intelligence…  the fuel behind reality television…  If that weren’t demeaning enough, there’s also this quote from Goethe:  What is a Philistine?  A hollow gut, full of fear and hope that God will have mercy!”

It all comes down to this:  Whose side is God on, anyway?  Perhaps everyone’s – in which case there is no longer a need for “good guys vs. bad guys”…

Resources

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/americas/at-site-in-israel-archaeologists-seek-to-sketch-the-lives-of-goliaths-countrymen/2011/07/08/gIQAnMAM3H_story.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean_civilization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistinism

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=philistine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath

Copyright July 10, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved