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 waythe 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
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