Did you just call me a philistine?

Some years ago, indeed, many years ago, back in my Navy days, our ship spent a long weekend in San Francisco to provide a scenic backdrop for some now forgotten event the city was celebrating. On one of our days off, another officer and I decided to take in an exhibit of the "Treasures of Tutankhamun" hosted by the city's de Young Museum. As I recall, the exhibit had drawn a large crowd forcing us to wait in line for quite some time. And once we entered we were ushered through the exhibit rather quickly. But even so, it was hard not to be impressed by this collection of remarkable objects found in the young pharaoh's tomb.

After leaving the exhibit my friend and I decided to spend time viewing some of the museum's other collections. As we paused before one rather disturbing abstract painting, I suggested that it looked as if it were painted by "an insane three year old." That's when I heard a man's voice behind me snarl, "Another ____ing philistine." (I'll let you fill in the blanks of this somewhat alliterative phrase.) When I turned around to challenge this condescending snob -- for what else could he be? -- the coward had already walked off toward one of the doors. I let the insult pass, even though I knew my friend would ensure every officer in the wardroom heard an exaggerated version of the story by the following morning.

I have been called many things in my life, but this was the first and only time I have been called a philistine...at least to my knowledge. It's an interesting word and in modern usage usually refers to someone who is anti-intellectual and disdains or doesn't appreciate artistic values. As for me, I greatly appreciate artistic values, then and now. The disagreement centers on defining what is and is not artistic; but that's a subject for another time.

Still a bit miffed, I remember turning back to that odd painting and wondering how the Philistines, the ancient enemy of Israel, came to lend their name to a word with such a meaning. I later discovered that the Philistines, unlike the Israelites, had no written language and apparently looked down upon those that did. The Hebrews placed great value in the written word, while the Philistines were more action-oriented. One can only assume that when it came to the arts, like the Spartans, the Philistines concentrated on the art of war.

Anyway, all of this came to mind yesterday when I read an article discussing ongoing archaeology aimed at discovering more about these villains of the Old Testament. We really know very little about the Philistines who sometime around 1,200 B.C. came to the area by sea, probably from what is today Greece (Sparta perhaps?). Having settled along the coastal plain, they became the perennial enemy of Israel until the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar crushed them in 604 B.C. That, presumably, was the end of the Philistines since history tells us nothing more of them.

The archaeologists' work centers on Tell Es-Safi, thought to be the site of the ancient city of Gath in southern Israel. [See map above.] Gath, one of the five cities of the Philistines mentioned in Scripture [1 Sam 6:17], was also the hometown of young David's supersized opponent, Goliath [1 Sam 17]. And Gath is again mentioned [1 Sam 5] as one of the cities to which the Philistines carried the stolen Ark of the Covenant. The archaeologist in charge of the dig, Dr. Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, is confident that the site they are excavating is actually the Biblical Gath. If, like me, you have an active interest in archaeology in the Holy Land, here's a link to detailed information on this particular dig: Tell Es-Safi/Gath Archaeology.

Already there have been a number of interesting discoveries. One involves the remains of a temple-like structure which contained two large pillars, not unlike the structure the Bible tells us Samson destroyed [Jgs 16:30]. No one suggests that this was the specific temple Samson destroyed, but the find does lend credence to the Biblical account, showing that the Philistines actually constructed temples as described in Scripture.

As for Gath being Goliath's hometown, Dr. Maeir notes that "It doesn't mean that we're one day going to find a skull with a hole in its head from the stone that David slung...but it nevertheless tells that this reflects a cultural milieu that was actually there at the time."

And then there is the evidence in Gath of a great earthquake in the 8th century B.C. which confirms the words of the prophet Amos [Am 1:1; 9:1-9]. Here's a brief video in which Dr. Maeir discusses the earthquake:

It's all very interesting and like so much of the recent archaeological work being conducted in the Holy Land, simply confirms the Biblical text.

Here's another rather cleverly designed video, a tour of the Gath site conducted by a student involved in the dig.