PHILISTINES
During the time of the Judges and the early kings, Saul and David, the Philistines established themselves in the coastal region of the Mediterranean between Tell Refah (Raphia) and Ioppe (Jaffa), covering approximately 100 km in length and varying in width from about 20 km in the north to about 60 km in the south. Their principal cities were the five city-states of Gaza, Ascalon, Azotus, Gath, and Accaron, each governed by rulers called *seranim*, independent of one another but allied at least for military campaigns. During the time of the Judges, the Philistines advanced inland into the territory of the tribe of Dan (which eventually migrated to the sources of the Jordan: Judg. 18), as well as into the territories of Judah and Benjamin. The Israelites suffered a severe defeat in which even the sacred Ark was captured (1 Sam. 4:10ff.). The victories won by the Israelites under Samuel (1 Sam. 7:13ff.) did not prevent the Philistines from gradually advancing as far as Michmash and Geba (1 Sam. 13:3, 5, 11ff.), while the Israelites were disarmed and powerless (1 Sam. 13:19ff.).
During the same period, the Philistines also seem to have occupied the plains of Sharon and Jezreel, thereby controlling the commercial route leading toward Mesopotamia. Saul defeated them repeatedly and drove them back from the hill country into the plain (1 Sam. 13–14; 17), but in the decisive battle at Mount Gilboa he was defeated and took his own life (1 Sam. 31; 2 Sam. 1). David, who had fled from Saul’s court and had spent some time in Gath (1 Sam. 27:1–7) serving King Achish, initially maintained good relations with the Philistines. However, after he captured the strong city of Jerusalem (Jebus) and united the Israelite tribes under his rule, he felt strong enough to break the vassalage relationship. He defeated the Philistines and pushed them back definitively into their original territory (2 Sam. 5:17–25; 8:1; cf. 21:15–22; 23:9–17). From that time onward, the Philistines no longer launched major campaigns against the Israelites; instead, disputes arose over borders (cf. 1 Kings 13:27; 16:15). Indeed, with the passage of time, the Israelites took the offensive: King Uzziah (8th century BC) dismantled the cities of Gath and Jabneh and built fortresses in Philistine territory (2 Chron. 26:6ff.; cf. Amos 6:2), and Hezekiah struck the Philistines as far as Gaza and throughout their territory (2 Kings 18:8). The Philistines were also forced to pay tribute to the Assyrians; their cities fell into the hands of the invaders—Gaza to Tiglath-Pileser III (735 BC), Accaron to Sennacherib, and Azotus (Ashdod), which had been made tributary by Tiglath-Pileser (734 BC), was captured in 711 BC by Sargon and for a time served as the capital of the Assyrian province of Ashdod (Isa. 20:1). From that time onward, under the Neo-Babylonians, the Persians, and the successors of Alexander the Great, the history of the Philistine cities unfolded.
As for the origin of the Philistines, according to the Bible they came from Caphtor (Amos 9:7; Jer. 47:4ff.; cf. Deut. 2:23). Later Jewish interpreters, along with the Septuagint and not a few Church Fathers, identified Caphtor with Cappadocia, but secular sources do not support this explanation; the Assyrian *Kaptara* and the Egyptian *Kefiia* rather seem to indicate the island of Crete. In the Old Testament, the Philistines are also associated with the Cherethites (Cretans): cf. Zeph. 2:5; Ezek. 25:16; and probably also the formula *Cherethites and Pelethites* (2 Sam. 8:18; 15:18; 20:7, 23), in which *Pelethites* seems to be the name of the Philistines (*Pelethi*), assimilated to the preceding *Cherethites*. Some authors understand Caphtor to refer to the island of Crete and the nearby coasts of Asia Minor, or only to those coasts. In any case, it may be said that the immediate point of departure of the Philistines was the island of Crete, although they may have arrived via Asia Minor. On this assumption, the Philistines were part of the powerful wave of maritime peoples who, toward the end of the 13th century BC, invaded the Aegean Islands, Syria, and Phoenicia and spread, partly by land, as far as southern Palestine, where they were defeated by Ramses III (c. 1044 BC). In his palace at Medinet Habu (near Thebes), the defeated peoples are depicted in a manner reminiscent of the description of the Philistine Goliath (1 Sam. 17:4–7). Moreover, one of the peoples represented there is called *Irsi* (*Peleset*), which is the Egyptian pronunciation of *Pelethi*; another is the *Zahari*, whom Wen-Amon, around 1100 BC, found settled north of the Philistines at ancient Dor (about 11 km north of Caesarea). For this reason, scholars generally believe that, although defeated by Ramses III, the Philistines managed to maintain themselves in the southern part of the Palestinian coast, while their kinsmen, the *Zahari*, occupied the plain of Sharon. The Old Testament already mentions the Philistines and the Philistine land in the time of the Patriarchs (Gen. 21:32, 34; 26:1, 8, 14, 19, 28), during the Exodus (Exod. 13:17), and in the time of Joshua (Josh. 13:2)—whether as a purely literary anticipation of later terminology or because, even in the time of the Patriarchs, the Egyptians maintained military garrisons in that region composed of Cretan mercenaries (who, in later terminology, are called Philistines).
It is generally agreed that the Philistines were not Semitic. The Israelites themselves called them “the uncircumcised” (1 Sam. 17:26; 18:25; Judg. 14:3; 15:18), thereby indicating their difference from the Semitic peoples; the Septuagint in most cases translates the proper name *Philistines* as *Allophyloi* (Vulgate: *advenae*). Even the few remaining traces of the Philistine language that have been preserved are not Semitic: the word *seranim* (“king”) seems to be of Lydian or Phrygian origin, like the Greek *tyrannos*; the name *Goliath* may be identical with *’Almatu*; and the name *Achish*, king of Gath (1 Sam. 21:11ff.), is preserved in Egyptian as the name *Akāsu* of a *Kefiia* (Cretan). Apart from these few remnants, the Philistines’ own language is unknown; they seem to have quickly adopted the language of the indigenous population, Canaanite, and later Aramaic (the “Ashdodite” of Neh. 13:24 appears to be an Aramaic dialect, not the Philistine language).
Little remains of Philistine civilization. They brought with them the iron industry, and with it a military and cultural superiority that posed a severe challenge to the Israelites, to whom they forbade the manufacture of iron weapons and tools (1 Sam. 13:19ff.). Furnaces for smelting iron have been found at Tell Jemmeh (in the Wadi Gaza) and at ‘Ajjul (Beth-shemesh), probably of Philistine origin. On the other hand, the so-called “Philistine pottery” is not certainly connected with the Philistine invasion; it is a type akin to the final phase of Mycenaean pottery, mixed with indigenous elements, and is found in the 12th century BC also elsewhere in Palestine and Syria.
Nothing is preserved regarding the religion of the Philistines. The Old Testament records that in Gaza and Azotus the god Dagon was worshipped (cf. Judg. 16:23; 1 Sam. 5:1–7; 1 Macc. 10:83ff.); in Ascalon the cult of Atargatis or Derceto, a later name for Astarte, was practiced (cf. 1 Sam. 31:10), and in Accaron that of Baalzebub (Aramaic: Beelzebub: 2 Kings 1:1–16). However, all these deities were of Semitic origin.