Tayinat: The Capital of the “Land of Palastin”

TAP excavations on the Tayinat Citadel.
(Photograph by Tim Harrison)


Science Daily is reporting that an archaeological team from the University of Toronto has discovered a temple in Turkey that sheds light on the transition between the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. According to the report, the temple was built in the 10th/9th-centuries B.C., the same time Solomon was ruling in Jerusalem.

According to the report, the discovery by the Tayinat Archaeological Project (TAP) “casts doubt upon the traditional view that the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive.” The following is an excerpt from the article published by Science Daily:

Ancient sources — such as the Homeric epics and the Hebrew Bible — depict an era of widespread famine, ethnic conflict and population movement, most famously including the migrations of the Sea Peoples (or biblical Philistines) and the Israelites. This is thought to have precipitated a prolonged Dark Age marked by cultural decline and ethnic strife during the early centuries of the Iron Age. But recent discoveries — including the Tayinat excavations — have revealed that some ruling dynasties survived the collapse of the great Bronze Age powers.

"Our ongoing excavations have not only begun to uncover extensive remains from this Dark Age, but the emerging archaeological picture suggests that during this period Tayinat was the capital of a powerful kingdom, the ‘Land of Palastin’," says Timothy Harrison, professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Toronto and the director of the project. "Intriguingly, the early Iron Age settlement at Tayinat shows evidence of strong cultural connections, if not the direct presence of foreign settlers, from the Aegean world, the traditional homeland of the Sea Peoples."

The statement, “that during this period Tayinat was the capital of a powerful kingdom, the ‘Land of Palastin,’” is very intriguing because it confirms the presence of the Sea Peoples, especially the Philistines, in Asia Minor a few centuries after they entered the land of Canaan.

The report also says that the archaeological team from the University of Toronto will focus their excavation in 2009 (which begins on July 1) on the temple’s inner sanctuary, “the 'holy of holies.”

It is hoped that this year’s excavation will shed light on Tayinat and the presence of the “Palastin” in that region.

Note: for additional pictures of the site, visit the TAP webpage.

HT: Jim West and Duane Smith

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Philistines, Tayinat

The Oldest Hebrew Text

Photo: Archeologist Yossi Garfinkel displays a ceramic shard bearing a Hebrew inscription at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Garfinkel says the ceramic shard containing five lines of faded characters written 3,000 years ago at the time of the Old Testament's King David, was found in the ruins of an ancient fortified town south of Jerusalem and is the oldest Hebrew inscription ever discovered, according to Garfinkel.

Archaeology again may contribute to our understanding of Israelite history. Archeologists have found an ostraca with writings that dates back to 3,000 B.C., the period when David was king. According to the news report, the words “judge,” “slave,” and “king” appear on the five lines of texts. The written material was found on a site called Elah Fortress. The Valley of Elah was the place where Israel fought against the Philistines and David killed Goliath (1 Samuel 17:2).

Because of the importance of the finding, I am posting in its entirety the news report published by Reuters. According to the press release, the article was written by Ari Rabinovitch and edited by Sami Aboudi.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Archaeologists in Israel said on Thursday they had unearthed the oldest Hebrew text ever found, while excavating a fortress city overlooking a valley where the Bible says David slew Goliath.

Experts have not yet been able to decipher fully the five lines of text written in black ink on a shard of pottery dug up at a five-acre (two-hectare) archaeological site called Elah Fortress, or Khirbet Qeiyafa.

The Bible says David, later to become the famed Jewish king, killed Goliath, a Philistine warrior, in a battle in the Valley of Elah, now the site of wineries and an Israeli satellite station.

Archaeologists at Hebrew University said carbon dating of artifacts found at the fortress site, about 20 km (12 miles) southwest of Jerusalem, indicate the Hebrew inscription was written some 3,000 years ago, predating the Dead Sea Scrolls by 1,000 years.

They have been able to make out some of its words, including "judge," "slave" and "king."

Yosef Garfinkel, the lead archaeologist at the site, said the findings could shed significant light on the period of King David's rule over the Israelites.

"The chronology and geography of Khirbet Qeiyafa create a unique meeting point between the mythology, history, historiography and archaeology of King David," Garfinkel said.

It is amazing the kind of information archaeology can provide in clarifying the past. So far, the five lines of text have not been translated. However, if the words “judge” and “king” are correct, the ostraca may be a reference to the late period of the judges or the early years of the monarchy.

I just hope that archaeologists and epigraphers provide a translation of the text as soon as possible. This finding may radically transform our understanding of the early history of Israel.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, David, Elah, Goliath, King, Philistines, Yosef Garfinkel

Understanding Numbers 24:24

A few days ago, a reader asked me to explain Numbers 24:24. The interpretation of this verse is not easy because of the problems of translation and the issues raised by the text. In what follows, I will try to explain how three translations have dealt with the text and then try to explain the message of the text.

Numbers 24:24 is a section of the Balaam cycle. Balaam was the son of Beor. He was a diviner employed by Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, to curse Israel. According to the biblical text, Balaam tried to curse Israel but God told Balaam to bless Israel. Unable to curse Israel, Balaam told Balak to entice Israel by engaging Israelite men into having sexual relations with the women of Moab.

There are seven oracles in the Balaam cycle. Numbers 24:23-24 is Balaam’s seventh oracle, an oracle against Asshur and Eber. The three examples below reflect the ways the versions have translated Numbers 24:24:

New Revised Standard Version (NRS): “But ships shall come from Kittim and shall afflict Asshur and Eber; and he also shall perish forever.”

Douay-Rheims American Edition (DRA): “They shall come in galleys from Italy, they shall overcome the Assyrians, and shall waste the Hebrews, and at the last they themselves also shall perish.”

New King James Version (NKJ): “But ships shall come from the coasts of Cyprus, And they shall afflict Asshur and afflict Eber, And so shall Amalek, until he perishes.”

According to the text, Kittim refers to a place from which a group of invaders will come in ships to conquer Asshur and Eber. The name Kittim is probably a reference to a city in Cyprus named Kition. Kittim is also used to designate Cyprus (Isaiah 23:1). The invaders from Kittim have been identified with the Sea Peoples and more specifically, with the Philistines. In the Septuagint of Daniel 11:30 the word Kittim is translated as “Romans.” In 1 Maccabees 1:1, Kittim refers to the Greeks. In the literature of Qumran, Kittim becomes a word to describe the eschatological enemies of God

Asshur has been identified with the Assyrian empire that dominated the Ancient Near East from the ninth to the seventh centuries BCE. Some scholars have identified the word “Asshur” with the Asshurim (NIV: Asshurites), a nomadic group who lived in the Negev (Genesis 25:3, 18; Psalm 83:8). If Asshur is a reference to the Asshurim, then Eber must be one of their neighbors.

The name Eber appears in the genealogy of Shem (Genesis 11:14-17). Some have identified Eber with the inhabitants of Mesopotamia. The Septuagint translates the name Eber as “Hebrews.”

The Douay-Rheims version follows the Septuagint and translates Kittim as Italy and Eber as Hebrews.

The New King James Version (NKJ) adds the word “Amalek” to verse 24. The word “Amalek” does not appear in the Hebrew text. The word comes from verse 20. It seems that the translators of the New King James Version wanted to emphasize that Amalek was one of the nations that would also be destroyed.

Various interpretations have been proposed to solve the difficulties offered by the text. The most probable interpretation and one that has satisfied a number of commentators is that the words of Balaam are an oracle alluding to the conquest of the Moabites (24:17), the Edomites (24:18), the Amalekites (24:20), and the Philistines (24:24).

Thus, Numbers 24:24 says that the invaders from Kittim, that is the Philistines, would conquer the Asshurim and the Hebrews (the Israelites) but the Philistines would also be conquered and destroyed. The defeat of the Philistines was accomplished by David after he established his kingdom.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Asshur, Balaam, David, Eber, Numbers 24, Philistines

Zephaniah and the Palestinians

In his post “Zephaniah Calls Canaan Palestine,” Jim West declared that Zephaniah identified Canaan with Palestine, that the Canaanites were called Philistines, and that they were the inhabitants of the central highlands. From his conclusions, Jim then declares that “the ‘Palestinian’ presence in the central highlands goes back at least as far as Zephaniah’s era.”

There are several statements in Jim’s post that need correction. The way Jim’s post was written, it can be interpreted as a political statement which advocates a Palestinian right to the land of Canaan, or in modern political understanding, the land of Israel. However, the proper exegesis of Zephaniah 2:4-5 will demonstrate that Jim’s view is based on a misinterpretation of the text.

1. The Old Testament never calls Canaan “Palestine.” The word “Palestine” appears in the King James Version of Joel 3:4: “Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine?” However, this translation is incorrect because the word in Hebrew should be translated “Philistia.” The word “Philistia” appears in all translations and it is used elsewhere in the King James Version (except, of course, in Joel 3:4).

2. Jim says that in his oracle Zephaniah is referring to two different people: “the coastal folks known as the Cherethites and the central highland’s inhabitants which he calls the Philistines.”

This interpretation that Jim proposes is not correct. What Zephaniah is using here is probably a parallelismus membrorum. In the parallelism, “the inhabitants of the sea-coast, the nation of the Cherethites” is the same as “Canaan, the land of the Philistines.”

To Zephaniah, the Cherethites and the Philistine are different names for the same people. Gesenius §131a calls this construction “apposition.” According to Gesenius, “apposition in the stricter sense is the collocation of two substantives in the same case in order to define more exactly the one by the other.”

It is easy to misinterpret synonymous parallelisms in the Old Testament because what appears to be two different items is in reality one idea. One example of synonymous parallelism is Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”

In the Old Testament, the land of Canaan is never called the land of the Philistines, except in Zephaniah 2:5. To the contrary, in Joshua 13:3, the land of the Philistines is considered to be part of the Canaanite territory. The same idea also appears in Genesis 10:19 where it says that Canaanite territory extended as far as Gaza.

3. Jim wrote: “I can’t think of anyone who argues that the Canaanites lived elsewhere besides the central highlands-and hence the inhabitants of that area are called Philistines.”

This statement is also incorrect. The Canaanites lived in Sidon, Tyre, and other coastal cities, for the land of Canaan also included the coastal areas. The book of Joshua extends the land of Canaan “from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron” (Joshua 13:3). In addition, the people who lived in the highlands were not called Philistines, although there was a Philistine presence in the highlands.

4. Jim wrote: “Therefore, the ‘Palestinian’ presence in the central highlands goes back at least as far as Zephaniah’s era.”

This statement is also incorrect. When the Philistines entered Canaan a few years after the Israelites, they gained control of the western part of Canaan, settling in five cities, commonly known as “The Philistine Pentapolis”: Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron (Joshua 13:3). After the battle of Aphek, when the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4), the Philistines began to extend their presence in Canaan, moving into the central mountain range. It was this threat posed by the Philistines that forced the people of Israel to select Saul as a king who would unify the tribes and confront the Philistine threat. Thus, the Philistines were present in the central highlands as early as the days of Samuel.

What Jim fails to recognize in his post is what Zephaniah intended with his oracles against the Philistines.

Zephaniah addresses his oracles against four of the Philistine cities. In his oracle, Zephaniah mentioned Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron. Only the Philistine city of Gath is missing. The reason for its absence was that since the days of David, Gath had been under the control of Judah: “David defeated the Philistines and subdued them, and he took Gath and its villages out of the hand of the Philistines” (1 Chronicles 18:1).

After the Assyrian invasion of Canaan, the four cities mentioned by Zephaniah became vassals of Assyria and under Sargon II, they became an Assyrian province named Ashdod.

Zephaniah 2:5 must be understood in the context of Zephaniah’s oracle against the nations in Zephaniah 2:4-15. In verse 8 Zephaniah also mentions Moab and Ammon. In Zephaniah’s day, Philistia, Ammon, and Moab were Assyrian vassals. Zephaniah’s oracle is an anti-Assyria oracle that may reflect Josiah’s efforts at revolt against Assyrian control. This oracle indicates that Assyrian control was still present but the threat of reprisal against rebellious vassals was diminished because of the rise of Babylon.

Zephaniah’s oracle against the four Philistine cities declares that the cities will be punished with the loss of their inhabitants. Gaza will become a forsaken territory, Ashkelon will be devastated, Ashdod will be deported, and Ekron will be eradicated. The cry of lament, “Woe” (Hebrew hoy), when used in prophetic oracles indicates that the subject has entered the realm of judgment that will result in death.

What Zephaniah has done with this oracle is to take the political situation of the seventh century and couch his words in the language of the conquest of Canaan. The enemies of Judah are seen as Canaanites. Philistia is to receive the same fate of the Canaanites and lose its inhabitation by conquest and complete annihilation. The Philistines are present in the land promised to Israel but they do not belong there; so, like the Canaanites of old, they will be eradicated. The Philistine cities will be depleted of their residents and occupied by Judean shepherds (Zephaniah 2:6-7).

The words of Zephaniah found fulfillment with the Babylonian invasion of Canaan. As Kenneth A. Kitchen in his article, “The Philistines,” in People of Old Testament Times, ed. D. J. Wiseman (Oxford: Claredon Press, 1973), p. 67, wrote: “Ashkelon sought to resist the Neo-Babylon advance in 604 B.C.; Nebuchadrezzar II subdued it and exiled its king in Babylon, where his sons appear in the ration-tablets with Jehoiachin of Judah and his relations. These, with mentions of kings of Gaza and Ashdod at the Babylonian court, are the last traces of Philistia as an entity, before her final disappearance as a political unit.”

Thus, Zephaniah is not defending a Philistine right to the land. To the contrary; Zephaniah is saying that the Philistines do not belong there. The Palestinians are not the remnants of the Philistines. If anyone desires to use a biblical text to justify the Palestinian's right to the land, Zephaniah 2:5 is not the right text.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Canaan, Palestine, Palestinians, Philistines, Zephaniah

The Philistines and Their Cooking Methods

Haaretz has published an article in which it reports some of the results of the excavations carried out by Professor Aren Maeir, the director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project. One of the most interesting aspects of the report is the information about the Philistines’ cooking methods.

The following is an excerpt from the report:

Few peoples are described in the Bible with as much hostility as the Philistines, who lived in the coastal plain during the period it documents. In Judges and in 1 Samuel, the Philistines are described as being "uncircumcised" and presented as one of the most despised enemies of the Jewish people and its leaders, from Samson to King David. Recent archaeological discoveries in Israel, however, cast a different light on the relations between the two peoples. Research into the dispersal of Philistine cooking methods among various populations in Israel shows that the Philistines spread their culture beyond the areas under their control. While the two cultures never mixed, the early Hebrews apparently copied many important components of the Philistine lifestyle.

Unlike most of the peoples living in the region in the biblical era, the Philistines were not Semites, but rather one of the Sea Peoples who immigrated from the Aegean Sea region of today's Greece and western Turkey. They brought with them technologies new to the area, including a wide range of pottery vessels and a sophisticated political organization.

They prepared meals in a characteristic sealed pottery vessel suited to long cooking times at low heat, while most inhabitants of Canaan at the time used open pots and faster cooking methods. The bones found at the Philistine cities showed that their diet was also different from those of their neighbors. While the Canaanites and Israelites ate mainly beef and lamb, the Philistines ate mainly pork, with an occasional meal of dog meat. The Philistines' wine culture was also very well-developed.

The Philistines were a very interesting people who brought to Canaan a distinct culture that has left some of its imprint on the pages of the Bible. Philistine culture continued to exist even after the Israelite monarchy was established in Canaan. As Maeir said in the article, “the Philistines preserved many aspects of their culture” for many centuries after their arrival in Canaan.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Aren Maeir, Gath, Philistines