Reappraising a common insult.
Why is “philistine” a term of abuse? Is it an ethnic slur? Who is out there defending the rights of any remaining Philistines? In his jovially self-deprecating way, the deputy editor may recently have planted the seed of a movement. In his review of the After Impressionism exhibition at the National Gallery (Herald, May 2023) the P word turns up twice, doubling Captain Haddock’s output.
There is more to the Philistines than meets the eye – or the ear. Although the spelling is different, the English pronunciation is very similar to the Arabic word for Palestine: Filastin. Names are important. Look at the fuss over the spelling of Cezanne/Cézanne. The numerous labels on the walls of the After Impressionism exhibition are trigger warnings for members of the Académie Française and others with strong feelings on the subject.
That accent aigu in Paul C’s name raises more eyebrows than the use of the word Philistine. As usual, the problem goes back to the Bible. Both the Hebrew and Christian versions have plenty to say about the occupants of Philistia. They are described as warlike enemies of the Jewish people, but not unthinking brutes. Goliath is an arrogant freak of nature, with no mention of his artistic sensibility. The other key Philistine in Hebrew and Christian tradition is Delilah: sly and duplicitous rather than uncouth.
The modern concept of a philistine with a small “p” has little in common with accounts of the upper-case Philistines. We might be tempted to use the term to describe iconoclasts or other cultural vandals (another group that has been badly served by the English language). Within Jewish culture, iconoclasm would have been a compliment where graven images were concerned.
The creative legacy of the Philistines is more promising than that. What remains from their golden age, circa 1200-600 BC, is largely about Mycenaen-style pottery. They were iconophiles who used variants of ancient Greek coinage with accompanying deities, which is appropriate as many archaeologists believe Greece is where they originated.
These days there is a growing belief that the Philistines were just one of the many groupings that had always existed in the Middle East. DNA tests of ancient burial grounds suggest they were pretty much the same thing as their neighbours, including the Jews. The whereabouts of the descendants of the Philistine people are unclear. The heirs to their homeland are the modern Palestinians, or Filastinin. They are also likely to be at least partly descended by blood.
The majority of those heirs are Muslims, with an ever-dwindling Christian population in places like Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Israel blames Muslim prejudice for the gradual disappearance of the Christians; the Palestinian leadership blames Israel for treating them as badly as they treat the Muslims. The region’s Christian bishops have joined in with comments about the level of prejudice in the Israeli education system.
It all sounds like a 3,000-year-old ancestral vendetta between Israelites/Israelis and Philistines/Palestinians. As with the current rivalry, the Philistines are accused of just about everything except being philistines. The honour of coining this insult goes to Germany more than three centuries ago. No one can say that the Germans have not been equitable in their application of blood libels.
The modern rivalry has been taken up by evangelical Christians. In America it seems there are more Christian Zionists than Jewish Zionists. People who might in other circumstances be committed anti-Semites are zealots for the State of Israel. The Catholic Church has been more supportive of the successors of the Philistines. Both Popes Benedict XVI and Francis went to the Palestinian Territories and pledged their support for a proper homeland – without a wall.
Whatever may have been achieved in Palestine during antiquity, centuries of Ottoman rule did little to nurture creativity among Muslims, Jews or Christians. There is one especially distinctive Catholic contribution, though. Continued in a less elegant manner in the modern era, travelling Franciscans init- iated the production of wonderful creations in wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl around 500 years ago. Some were large and enchanting models of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, along with crosses and rosaries. A few of these superior tourist wares ended up in English stately homes. One made it into the 2017 Living with Gods exhibition at the British Museum. An 18th-century Franciscan wooden model was the only item from the Holy Land.
The heart of the ancient Philistine kingdom was the coastal cities of the Gaza Strip. They may have lost some of their lustre over the millennia but they are at least still cities, and in the ancient Greek and Roman way of thinking urban equals civilised. Although few recent settlements have called themselves Philistia, the Palestine name has travelled far. Before it came to be seen by many as the fanatical foe of Israel, communities sprang up in locations as distant as Connecticut and Texas, and as close as the parish of Over Wallop in Hampshire.
The putative descendants of the biblical Philistines have also roamed the earth. Wikipedia’s list of prominent Palestinians is endless, international and sometimes questionable. Along with a profusion of writers, artists and thinkers in the modern era are older influencers such as Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Peter.
When the kingdom of the Philistines was crushed by Assyrians and Babylonians around the 6th century BC, it is thought their culture and people disappeared. Why is the memory of whatever their crimes may have been still alive? Their main offences were being foreign, uncircumcised and at war with the Chosen People. Another failing of the Philistines was their choice of a chief deity. On this point, ancient Hebrew scripture would be fully aligned with the extremes of the Protestant worldwide (mainly American) web. A recurring conspiracy hypothesis accuses Catholics of being followers of the Philistine fish god Dagon.
Serenhedd James may well have encountered his “inner Philistine” as he drifted through the seemingly endless land of After Impressionism France. The Philistines appear to have been a civilised people, vilified by Victorians and other slaves to biblical history. He was certainly right to note that religion was “pretty much absent” from the exhibition. What I would have given for a sighting of Dagon or his mitre-wearing worshippers.
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