Philistine Cemetery Found...and What to Make of It

BBC News and almost every international news organization has reported on the recent discovery of a Philistine cemetery at the location they believe was ancient Gath, the ancient hometown of the ancient giant, Goliath.

The fact that proof of an ancient Philistine civilization should be of no surprise to anyone because of their mention in our Bible. Archaeologists have known little about ancient Philistia because they have buried their heads in the sand and dismissed written history in favour of buried remains and the interpretations they can generate. 

The red-and-black pottery has now led them to believe they were a Mycenaean Greek peoples of the sea. The Australian ABC Online news amazingly reported that "Goliath's people not giants after all". This is amazing because the Bible, itself, does not claim that the Philistines were all giants. Rather, Goliath was their champion against the Israelites expressly because of his unusual height (some 12 feet by today's estimation). The Bible does speak of giants, though, and even mentions that the Anakim settled in various places, including Gath: "None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; they remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod." (Jos 11:22 NKJV) Goliath was the Philistine champion but actually a Gittite which means he could have come by his giantism through an Anakim ancestry. If so, Goliath's ancestors came from the Kiriath-Arba (Hebron) where the Anakim dsecended from their father, Arba (Num 13:22). The Anakim were the giants that the Israelites drove out, the same ones that made them look as small as grasshoppers so tall were they. 

If we value a written record over the meager information we can glean from a spade, the Bible further instructs us as to where the Philistines originated: "Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim)" (Gen 10:14 NKJV; see also 1 Chr. 1:12) The Pathrusim were the people of Pathros in Upper Egypt. (Pathros was the Hebrew name for Upper Egypt just as Mizraim was their name for Egypt itself.) The Philistines, therefore, were descended from the line of Ham. This indicates nothing about their physical likeness for the Amorites descended from Ham, too, and left records of themselves as having blue eyes and blonde hair (one and same as the Amurri according to Dr. Archibald Sayce, Assyriologist, Oxford University), and the Phoenicians, also descended from Ham, were famous for their red hair (from whom the Fenians of Ireland claim part descent). Of course, the genetic pool for the women in Noah's times was still vast being only 10 generations removed from Adam and Eve. 

This is not to exclude the possibility that the Philistines did not have a link to the sea peoples in the region. It is thought that the tribe, the Pelethites (2 Sam. 8:18; 15:18), mentioned in the Bible were also Philistines and that the Cherethites (Ezek. 25:16) mentioned along with them were originally inhabitants of the island of Crete. 

In one sense, the recent discovery of the Philistine cemetery is somewhat old hat. In 2008, the newspapers mentioned the discovery of a shard dating from the very period referencing a shepherd boy (David) killing Goliath.(see left picture, although, amazingly again, Dr. Aaron Mayer has confused the Bible's narrative about Goliath with another account of Goliath's son being slain by one of Daivd's later warriors). Similarly a coin was found substantiating the tale of Samson killing the lion. 

The notion that there were giants in ancient times is one I will not go into right now except to say that all the ancients wrote of giants in antiquity, In fact, many misinterpret Genesis 6 in thinking that giants resulted from the intermarriage of the sons of God with the daughters of men. These sons of God were not angels because Jesus taught that angels cannot marry, let alone give birth to offspring. Moreover God would not have punished humankind with a Great Flood on account of this seeing as no compliance is necessary (and therefore no sin) if an invisible angel was actually able to breed with humans! Many have gotten this wrong, including the infamous Flavius Josephus. Though perhaps a fraud, the most credible version of the Book of Jasher corrects this and sees the sons of God as direct lineal descendants of Adam and Eve and their sons (Adam was called a son of God) marrying frequently and promiscuously with the daughters of men (thus explaining what Jesus meant when He said that the days of Noah would be recreated at the end time, people marrying and giving in marriage).

It is true that objective science is not always objective and definitely deficient in the knowledge that comes from simply studying the Bible as a historical basis for truth. Thus, we shouldn't be surprised that, when Microsoft brought out their first computer game, Age of Civilizations, they introduced the battles with the Assyrians by stating that "nothing was ever known about Assyria except for the Bible's account." This should be a clue that maybe a fuller understanding of ancient Palestine (Philistia) might begin there too!