Giving Goliath His Due: New Archaeological Light on the Philistines

Rating:
Summary: No Rocks In The Head
Review: Actually not bad. This book suffers from the author's reliance on the conventional pseudochronology, but it is worth exploring, particularly for students of the Bible.

A lot of rubbish has been written about the Bible, both pro and con, but ultimately it is the only thing that resembles a coherent and continuous history that can be found until Greek times. Like the Greeks, the Hebrews mingled their faith with then-current events. Unlike the Greek accounts, the Hebrews' is rejected, probably in large part due to anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and hostility toward Christianity.

The Philistines remain enigmatic, and while they seem to have thrived, most of what we know still comes from the Old Testament. Bierling attempts to gather together everything that is known about the area in which the Philistines are said to have lived. Since they cease to appear as a distinct people sometime during the period of the Biblical kings, and since their very existence is only known from the Biblical account, interpretations of new data which suggest otherwise merely support the need for chronological revision and a retirement of hostility toward the historical content of the Bible.

See also Immanuel Velikovsky's (new and used) "Ages In Chaos", "Ramses II and His Time", "Peoples of the Sea", and "Worlds In Collision", as well as David Rohl's "Pharaohs and Kings", Peter James' "Centuries of Darkness", Ryan and Pitman's "Noah's Flood", and "The End of the Bronze Age" by Robert Drews.

Rating:
Summary: No Rocks In The Head
Review: Actually not bad. This book suffers from the author's reliance on the conventional pseudochronology, but it is worth exploring, particularly for students of the Bible.

A lot of rubbish has been written about the Bible, both pro and con, but ultimately it is the only thing that resembles a coherent and continuous history that can be found until Greek times. Like the Greeks, the Hebrews mingled their faith with then-current events. Unlike the Greek accounts, the Hebrews' is rejected, probably in large part due to anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and hostility toward Christianity.

The Philistines remain enigmatic, and while they seem to have thrived, most of what we know still comes from the Old Testament. Bierling attempts to gather together everything that is known about the area in which the Philistines are said to have lived. Since they cease to appear as a distinct people sometime during the period of the Biblical kings, and since their very existence is only known from the Biblical account, interpretations of new data which suggest otherwise merely support the need for chronological revision and a retirement of hostility toward the historical content of the Bible.

See also Immanuel Velikovsky's (new and used) "Ages In Chaos", "Ramses II and His Time", "Peoples of the Sea", and "Worlds In Collision", as well as David Rohl's "Pharaohs and Kings", Peter James' "Centuries of Darkness", Ryan and Pitman's "Noah's Flood", and "The End of the Bronze Age" by Robert Drews.

Rating:
Summary: Hope a revised version comes out soon!
Review: I understand that a new study by Prof. Bierling is due out soon. This work only suffers from being ten years out of date. We have found out a lot more about Philistine sites since tis book was published.

Rating:
Summary: Hope a revised version comes out soon!
Review: I understand that a new study by Prof. Bierling is due out soon. This work only suffers from being ten years out of date. We have found out a lot more about Philistine sites since tis book was published.