when the Jews came down out of the hills of Canaan and took over the surrounding towns,they were the terrorists of their day-going into towns and killing everybody,or in some instances the men and boys-all at the express wish of God;(their priests assured them). They were the Palestinian terrorists, and possibly the Isis of their day.
"We also see from their bones that they were hard workers, they practised inbreeding and they used their teeth as tools, probably in the weaving industry." Not unlike most modern-day Americans will do after the next election.
Goliath's size was an anomaly among the Philistines. It is written that he also had 6 fingers on each hand. Why would anyone think they would find any giant skeletons among the graves of the Philistines?
The bible says that they were born to the giant, in other words Goliath and some of his siblings were giants. There was at least one other who almost killed King David during a battle. Read about Ishbi-benob and 2 other giants in 2nd Samuel 21 :16-22.
The chapter concludes by saying that all 4 were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hands of David and his servants.
Meaning Goliath was killed by David and then his 3 brothers (making 4) were killed by David's men.
EvenSteven How do you think history was kept and passed on back then? You say stories, but yet you believe that the people existed , but no history of them? If it was written any any other book you would jump on it as truth.
OH yes they will....I already planned for because I bought the double Urn from a place I found in Maine with everything I like written and pictures on it too. They sell on eBay these days!
It would be interesting to see who the Philistines are most closely related to today. Like the article indicates, they're probably from Greece, but the DNA may surprise us.
No, but they found a pali, right beside them, waving happily and roaring that it is ALLAH that put him there... and he is really on his way to see the 72 virgins...but took the wrong turn in the tunnels they were visiting, on the way to Israel...Abbas told him so and Yasser was there before too....
The Masoretic is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text for Rabbinic Judaism and it describes Goliath's height as "six cubits and a span" (9 feet 9 inches or 2.97 metres). In modern times there have been 17 individuals who were known to have grown to be over 8 feet tall. Robert Wadlow (February 22, 1918 - July 15, 1940 ) reached a height of 8ft. 11inches and John W. Rogan (February 16, 1865 - September 12, 1905) grew to a height of 8 ft. 9 inches. John F. Carroll who was born around 1932 and died in 1969 was 8 ft. 7.75 inches, but suffered a spinal condition that shorten his height considerably. It has been estimated that if his curvature of the spine could have been corrected, that he would have exceeded 9 feet in height.
Just as in our society what we call giants are rare so it could have been with Goliath. They did find a piece of pottery wth that name,but this does not mean it refers to the Goliath.
We know in people the anterior lobe of the pituitary excretes growth hormone hGH until about age 28 when long bone growth ceases. But in rare cases this hGH activity doesn't cease but can cause gigantism with some humans growing to 8/9 ft. tall.
@Ebil. No. They often fought the Israelites and Samson mrried one so they were not. Goliath was like an exception as the Israelites were shocked to see the size of him.
Alternatively, oral histories are prone to exaggerations. Much like when the fish your dad caught grew 5 inches over time. Now multiply that by a few millennium.
They were the niphilim of the OT, legends. Although there have been many claims of the bones of giants being excavated the bones almost all seem to mysteriously get lost, stolen, or confiscated by the Smithsonian.
It also doesn't mean an outlier could have been taller.
Still, the odds are high that the Israelite's were a Canaanite tribe in the Jerusalem Hills, occasionally fighting different invaders. When the Babylonians wiped out just about everybody on the coast, the Israelite's expanded. Of course "We won victory in battle" sounded better at the time than "We were goat herders and moved into empty areas."
Actually it depends on the climate and food sources more than anything, if there was meat, cheese, milk and plenty of protein available in the diets the peoples tended to larger, if diets were more along the grain and vegetable sides they were smaller and slimmer, then there the lack of food which was always a worry back then due to famine, war, ect, those generations tended be much shorter and slimmer due to growing up without proper nutrition.
Your average Roman was not very tall 5'2 to 5'4, while you average Kelt or German were 5'9 and heavier in build simple due to their high protein diets which was good for short burst of activity but wore out quickly, but the diets of fish and vegetables, grain left gave the Romans a body type that was made for activity over a long period of time.
Your average Viking was between 5'6 to 5'8 in Norway and Denmark, the Swedes were 5'10 simply because they have better lands to raise cattle and crops on and had access to better protein sources than there neighbors.
Of course there was always a few people who grew bigger than the others we still see that today.
When you work out with weights the lifting and technique, are only part of the process, diet is the main key.
Then I guess Gen. G. A. Custer was a vegan. His uniform would fit a 5th grader. We have been growing for many reasons-protein,vitamins, LACK OF BAD THINGS and the need to put up with sliding ads. As for Romans/Germans-why are northern deer and moose so much bigger than warm weather animal of the same species? Hell, if I knew what I was talking about, I'd be rich and doing something better than this.
At 5'8" Napoleon Bonaparte was above average in height for that era, like a 6 footer today. But thanks to a mistranslation in French units of measure, his enemies pounced on the idea that he was a dwarf. Tolstoy in "War and Peace" has Napoleon appear in the story and describes him basically as a midget. Even today we speak of a pushy short man as having a "Napoleon Complex".
David T, when the Babylonians wiped out the Philistines, they were also destroying Jerusalem and the temple and deporting the upper classes of Judah (Israel had already been defeated decades earlier) back to Babylon. Only the poorest survived and were left behind, according to the Bible. The prophet Daniel was among those who were taken into captivity. The prophet Jeremiah was among those who were left behind.
Actually, this isn't true entirely. The agricultural revolution had a drastic effect on height. Prior to the agricultural revolution, and remaining in hunter gatherer societies, people were much taller. In fact, we didn't reach the average size of the average hunter gatherer until the second half of the twentieth century.
The problem is that cereal grains are actually not a particularly good food for humans.
Different invasion, Lee. There have been a few. Israel is on the main route between Africa and Asia and lots of people have conquered it.
The Babylonian exile was what you said it was. However, my understanding is that the Philistines were wiped out by earlier invaders from the same area.
Goliath's height was specifically stated at 4 cubits and a span. That translates to 6'-9" or a little over two meters. So, if true, he would be very tall at any period in humanity's existence.
There are always men and women who by a combination of good genes, healthy habits and plain old luck, defy the limitations of the age. The Viking warlord Harald Hardrada was 7 feet tall. The Greek orator Isocrates was writing great speeches in his 90s.
I visited the Medici palace in Florence, there was a display of actual clothes worn by the people hundreds of years ago and I was shocked at how small they must have been to fit into them.
France's King François I was about 6ft5 I believe - his armor is heads taller than anyone else's in the display cases (if I may say, ahem). Some princess from the Siberian steppes 5000 years ago was 5ft8. The potential for even most 'average' people of being fairly tall is always there, but there are so many things that can and do happen to prevent realizing that potential.
The biblical narrative says there -in this case -was only one giant and that was Goliath. It never refers to the Philistines as being a race of Giants!
Or it is possible that the physical size of the Philistine people was blown out of proportion in order to exaggerate the accomplishment of the young King David.
Not necessarily a lie. History embellishment is a common practice across cultures, especially when it involves prominent individuals. It is used to enhance or degrade one's image. Whatever the true account is, it accurately captures the society's perception of the person. In modern terms, it would be called a bias. The only difference is that they tend to do it more liberally in the past.
I am Joe Kwok Sing Wong, the author of " A Discovery Of The Ancient Common Language And A New method Of Teaching English." The word of Goliath is in the Chinese language it means ' Tall People Are." The word Li is like in the word Israeli. Li means people. I think Philistine, Phil means Phoenix, colorful, tine means relative just like in the word Latin. Latin means late relative. Chinese people considered White people are very tall and have long arms. So, Philistine are White people. I have moved back from Socorro New Mexico to Flagstaff Arizona in January 2014. Flagstaff Arizona is my home town since 1961. I am now 76 years old..
There are number of medical conditions which can cause gigantic growth in some individual and large guy would be often fighting champion of the tribe. However, big guy with some armor, shield and sword, would have difficulty hunting down young shepherd with sling. David wasn't nicest guy buy he was talented in military tactic, and knew how to use his advantage.
David was a 17 year old shepherd boy when he went up against Goliath. Too young for war. He offed the armor and sword given to him by King Saul, stating "I am not proven with this...".
He used his sling and some smooth stones taken from a brook, with which he was experienced. Bopped Goliath in the head with a stone. When Goliath fell, David took Goliath's sword and cut off his head.
The actual events are written in 1 Samuel 17. A good read.
Goliath of the philistines, was actually embued with the leftover giant dna of the anakim, the angels who left their place and mated with daughters of men..Hence why he was so incredibly large. we still see some of that very same dna on the occasion today...however it has deteriorated so much, those poor folk don't live very long.
Artwork and pottery show the Philistines were linked with the Mycenaean's of the Agean during their heyday, they were an early Greek colony, they know where they are from this article is misleading.
Jack, actually the Myceneaens didn't disappear mysteriously, first smallpox decimated them then war with those we called the Sea Peoples from Anatolia conquered them and destroyed their kingdom leaving the Aegean in a dark age for some 400 years until rise of the classical Greek states, the Minoans were the ones who disappeared mysteriously there for a while but new evidence points to first the eruption of Santorini disrupting their culture then conquest by the Mycenaean's who basically absorbed them into their kingdom.
Peace and love exist for a few people who choose that, if of course they are not victimized.
But as for humanity....no.
We descended from violent apes, have been that way for millennia, and are still largely just violent apes who think they are more than that. Our slaughter of the people of Iraq, with an unjustified war, proved that Americans are no different.
No. If your population is growing, you need more land, which means you have to take it from your neighbors. The easiest way is to simply kill them, but there are benefits to keeping some of them as slaves to work your new lands for you.
@Arjuna I object to your victimisation of Americans Without the USA we would be speaking Nazi German If any of us were still living? Only the slaves would exist ?@shosetsucker states the Nazi case admirably
There was peace in the garden of Eden before Adam took the fruit from Eve and ate it. Since then there has been no peace.
And there will never be peace again (except for short periods of time in a few places at a time) until we return to following Christ. There are only 2 commandments: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor in exactly the same way you love yourself." They are not separable. And we will not be able to do this until Christ returns.
Well, there is absolutely no archeological evidence of the existence of intergroup warfare prior to the advent of agriculture approximately 12,000 years ago. Only when humans became sedentary and began to feel as though they "owned" the land did they start fighting among each other. That's an interesting piece of information, isn't it? Our notorious tendency towards collective aggression and warfare may well be rooted in something as simple as land ownership and hoarding of resources -- in a word, capitalism.
Arjuna, try and assure yourself all you can, but He will come. Whether in death or at the end, we will meet the LORD. And then, what will we say to Him?
I'd say 80% of the world is in peace. 20% in war and/or turmoil. The same through history. Pretty good numbers as bad news makes big news. Also evidence of God.
Doe's Jesus die on the cross again? Will someone get a ladder/pair of pliers and help him out this time? If he dies and rises from the dead, will he still have to pay federal income taxes?
No Godnar, you must pray that you will not see Him coming in the clouds , if you do, it will not be good for you everyone will pray for rocks to fall on them.He is live and well, the harvester are getting ready to put the wheat into the barns, and throw the weeds into the fire.
"despite similar-sounding names, there is no connection between the Philistines and today's Palestinians" correct! Palestinians are Arabs that choose to believe they are a people of Hebrew land renamed "Palestine" by the Romans
Like Philistia, some nations today viciously oppose God’s worshipers. Christian Witnesses of Jehovah have been confined in prisons and concentration camps. They have been banned. A number have been killed. Opponents continue to “make sharp attacks on the soul of the righteous one.” (Psalm 94:21) To their enemies, this Christian group may seem “lowly” and “poor.” However, with Jehovah’s support, they enjoy spiritual plenty, while their enemies suffer famine. (Isaiah 65:13, 14; Amos 8:11) When Jehovah stretches out his hand against the modern-day Philistines, these “lowly ones” will be secure. Where? In association with “the household of God,” of which Jesus is the sure foundation cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:19, 20) And they will be under the protection of “heavenly Jerusalem,” Jehovah’s celestial Kingdom, which has Jesus Christ as King.—Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 14:1.
We only oppose those (like witnesses) who think they know what God thinks and try to shove their belief down the throat of every one else, in the Bible God said "No man can know the mind of God" yet these fools actually think they can read Gods mind and decide what he wants,its pathetic really if every one kept their religion to themselves we would have a whole lot better world in other words quit trying to save everyone else and worry about saving yourself your the one with the problem your the one who thinks you have to earn Gods love instead of realizing he probably loves you even though your a nut.
15,000 trained soldiers, some mounted, some with chariots, trained 2,000,000 slaves and their families, who had been given gold by Egyptian families to get them to leave to stop the devastating plagues. What is unbelievable about people fleeing with their families to prevent slaughter or a return to slavery?
One trained soldier with a "single shot bow" against 133 Hebrews with the whole country at stake I'll take the Hebrews, since their god told them to go kill every living thing in "The promised land"
