Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/135

 History of the Israelites and their Religion. 117 able critics can alone detect, but which would escape ordinary readers. Many, however, have long been discovered, and would have been pointed out long ago, had it not been for the general prejudice against applying to sacred history, the same methods that are current for secular writings. 1 When, after minute analysis, the various elements have been designed and carefully classified according to their relative value, the following result is obtained : the Thothmes, Seti, Ramses, were the representatives of Egypt when in the zenith of her power. At that time there was to the north of Syria the great military empire of the Kheta or Hittites, which extended from the Orontes to the Euphrates ; whilst central Syria divided it from Egypt, and was occupied by people of no great importance in the Eastern world. We have stated elsewhere, how the Phoenicians, one of these groups, owing to their maritime position and peculiar genius, were the first to rise in the social scale and play an important part in history. We said that they had spread over the whole seaboard, Joppa, now Jaffa, being their southernmost harbour ; but that, for unknown reasons, they had failed to seize that portion of the coast which lies between Joppa and the Egyptian ouadi, an arid tract which forms a natural boundary between Syria and the valley of the Nile. In this corner, bounded by both countries, were the Philistines, a people which have given rise to much argument ; but all we know with regard to them is their being mentioned in the Old Testament as " Pelethites." The name, however, is not enlightening, for it means nothing more than strangers, foreigners, oiXk6<j)vkoi ; 2 nor are we more advanced when we read in Amos 3 that they had originally come from Kaphtor ; since this word has not been satisfactorily identified with Crete, as believed by most. Should this hypothesis be deemed feasible, then the Philistines 1 No one has studied with more care, nor has shown with greater lucidity the contradictions of detail of Jewish writers than M. Kuenen, professor of Sacred History at the Faculty of Theology, Leyden University. His course of Lectures have been translated into French by A. Pierson, with a preface by E. Renan ; under the title, Hist. Crit. des Livres de V Ancien Testament, 2 vols. in-8°. 1866, M. Lévy. The publication of this work, together with the progress of Semitic philology and the mass of evidence that has come to hand, have had for result the establishing of obscure facts and a juster comprehension of doubtful and burning questions. His study upon the Pentateuch, which occupies the first half of vol. i., is a model of sound criticism. 2 Some derive it from "wanderers," "immigrants." — Editor. 3 Deut. ii. 23 ; Jer. xlvii. 4 ; Amos ix. 7.