Were the Philistines barbaric?

by Damien F. Mackey ‘I brought the Philistines from Crete, and the Syrians from Kir, just as I brought you from Egypt’. Amos 9:7 For the approximately century-long period known as the United Monarchy of Israel (kings Saul, David and Solomon), Israel will encounter basically the same hostile forces as were prevalent during the much longer period of the Judges. Chief among these were the Philistines and Amalek, also Ammon and Moab, Edom, the Canaanites and, sometimes, the Midianites (Ishmaelites). According to I Samuel 14:47-48, Saul fought against Moab, Ammon, Edom and the (Syrian) kings of Zobah. In addition, he fought against the Philistines and the Amalekites. Not much is said about the wars against Moab, Ammon, Edom and the kings of Zobah. The chief difference between the two eras (Judges and United Monarchy) will be the enmity also experienced by kings Saul, David and Solomon from the Syrians (Zobah), these not figuring notably in the Judges phase. With king David’s powerful Syrian foe, Hadadezer, to be identified as Shamsi-Adad I, who also ruled Assyria (or part thereof), we finally find our way back geographically to those more distant eastern regions that had fallen into a big gap in our history after the demise of the Akkadians, with Egypt then taking over as the main world power. Then, during the phases of the MBI Wanderings and the Conquest, and on through the centuries of more settled rule by the Judges, we had very little to say about Egypt, which, subdued, had fallen under foreign Hyksos rule. However, given the possibility that the supposedly Hyksos king, Khayan, may have been an ancestor of Shamsi-Adad, a Syrian, then could there actually have been some Syrian-Amorite connection with the Hyksos? Philistines Although today we use the word, “Philistine”, disparagingly, to mean “a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts” (Oxford languages), the Philistines or Cretans, wrongly called “Minoans”, led the way as one of the most advanced cultures of the early ancient world. Gavin Menzies had really managed to bring to life this people and their civilisation and technology (especially maritime) in his very readable book, The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History’s Greatest Mystery Revealed. He may even have gone very close to solving the long-standing mystery of Atlantis, with the eruption of Thera (Santorini). Despite their technological expertise, though, their magnificent palaces and art, their fleets, and incredible mining skills and metallurgy, the Philistines were barbaric in their religious beliefs and practices. Worshipping a cruel Mother Goddess, while child sacrifice/infanticide is evidenced, a slimy fish god (Dagon), and many other idols. In some ways they are a perfect mirror reflection of our woke world today, a marvellous technology accompanied by a superstitious worship of Mother (Earth) Gaia, universal child sacrifice, all manner of idolatry – especially the worship of money and self. In short, a society teetering precariously on the edge (eve) of destruction, facing, what was predicted, but conditionally, by Our Lady of the Rosary at Fatima, Portugal (1917): ‘Several entire nations will be annihilated’. The DNA of the Cretans reveals Anatolian origins, which is entirely consistent with the location of the Ark landing and traces of the earliest civilisations in NE Turkey. They would have been one of the early (Pre-Pottery) Neolithic cultures, as PPNA spread throughout the Fertile Crescent and beyond to the west. Certainly the Cretans were amongst the most successful of the Neolithic cultures - and wasn’t the rich island of Crete custom made for crops and farming, and animal husbandry! At least five palaces are known in Crete (viz. Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros and Kidonia), which just may, perhaps, suggest that the unusual confederacy of five kings (Pentarchy?) for which the Philistines became known in the land of Canaan (ruling Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gaza, Ekron, and Gath), had its origin type in Cretan rule. Gavin Menzies has badly mis-dated Cretan Neolithic I to about 100,000 BC, an unreasonably large figure for anyone to have to cope with. It needs to be divided by 50 to get close to what is should be, that is, about 2000 BC. Chronology is not a strong point in Menzies’ book, he being an experienced navigator (submariner), rather than a qualified historian or palaeontologist. Far more helpful, and scientific, I find, is Dr. Donovan Courville’s tracing of the distinctive Cretan pottery backwards from its appearances in Palestine at the time of King Saul, a major opponent of the Philistines, to Neolithic Crete 1 (in The Exodus Problem and its Ramifications, 1971). This needed to be done, Courville has done it, and no one else of whom I am aware so far appears to have become involved with it. And so continues the gross ignorance about the Philistines in relation to the Bible. Ancient historians, with their overblown chronology and an archaeology that does not properly co-ordinate across the board, have shown themselves to be totally ignorant about the biblical Philistines, for whom, they believe – confusing them with the badly mis-dated “Sea Peoples” (500 years too early) – they cannot find an archaeological locus in Palestine in the days of Abraham and Isaac (as according to Genesis). Whilst the pottery of the “Sea Peoples”, who do include Philistines (Palashtu) amongst their mobile thalassocracy, is of Aegean origin, as Courville has painstakingly shown, the pottery of the biblical Philistines (in the main) can be traced back to its most ancient Cretan origins, as non-Aegean ware. Courville will trace back this type of pottery from the time of King Saul, and Alalakh (needing to be re-dated), through the era of the Judges, to Neolithic Crete. Thanks to Dr. Peter Revesz, who has finally cracked the Cretan Linear A script, we can now know much more about the Cretans, their ancient interconnections, their language, culture and ethnicity. Watch, for example: Breakthrough Decipherment of Minoan Linear A and Cretan Hieroglyphs | Minoans Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiLyN9T2stY