The Philistines Their History and Civilization

by R. A. Stewart Macalister

Nations that came within the purview of theO ld Testament Writers nations seldom mentioned without stricture, whether for idolatry, immorality, or cruelty perhaps none were the object of so concentrated an aversion as were the Philistines. The licentiousness of the A morites. the hard-heartedness of theE gyptian taskmasters, the fiendish savagery of the Assyrian warriors each of these in turn receives its due share of condemnation. But the scornful judgement passed by the Hebrews on the Philistines has made a much deeper impression on theB ible-reading West than have their fulminations against other races and communities with which they had to do. In English, from at least the time of Dekker,1 the word 4P hilistine has been used in one or other of the senses of the modern colloquialism outsider ;and, especially since the publication of the essays of Mr. Matthew A rnold, it has become almost a technical term for a person boorish or bucolic of mind, impervious to the higher influences of art or of civilization. In French and German probably, indeed, in most of the languages of Europe the word is used in familiar speech with a greater or less approximation to the same meaning. The following little book is an attempt to collect in a convenient form the information so far available about the Philistine people. It is an expansion of a course of three lectures, delivered in 1911 before theB ritish Academy under theS chweich Fund. In preparing it for publication, the matter has been revised and re-written throughout; and the division into lectures primarily imposed by the exigencies of time-allowance has been abandoned for a more systematic and convenient division into chapters and sections. It is hoped that the perusal of these pages will at least suggest 1T heX eic English Dictionary quotes, Inter alia, Silke and satten, you mad Philistines ,silke and satten (D ek
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

Genres: History, Ancient History

148 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1911

Reviews

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 2 out of 5]

We don't really know anything about the Philistines. The end.

Okay but seriously, I should have paid more attention when I bought this because it's actually a very old text from the early 1900s that was actually a set of lectures. At least I got it for $.99. Or maybe it was free even, I can't remember.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting. If I knew Hebrew and Greek, had a degree in philology, was an Old Testament scholar as well as familiar with ancient Semitic languages and a student of obscure early Greek mythology I would probably have given it 5 stars.