PHILISTINES. – A people known almost exclusively from the books of the Old Testament.
In the time of the Judges and of the first kings, Saul and David, the P. settled in the Mediterranean coastal region between Tell Refah (Raphia) and Ioppe (Jaffa), approximately 100 km. long and approximately 20 km. wide in the north and 60 km. in the south. Their centres were the five cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Azotus, Geth, and Accaron, governed by rulers who called themselves sérānim, independent of one another but allied
(from B. Germaine, Alfermat). Boll. sen. Alice I., Bellina-Lipino, B.B., p. 20. PHILISTINES – Female divinity of Byblos.
at least for military enterprises. In the time of the Judges the P. advanced into the interior toward the tribe of Dan (which withdrew and moved to the sources of the Jordan: Iudc. 18), Judah, and Benjamin. The Israelites were defeated in a fierce battle, from which the sacred Ark was also carried off as booty (I Sam. 4, 10 ff.); the victories won by the Israelites under Samuel (I Sam. 7, 13 ff.) did not prevent the P. from gradually advancing as far as Machmas and Gabaa (I Sam. 13, 3.5.11 ff.), while the people of Israel were unarmed and powerless (I Sam. 13, 19 ff.).
During the same period the P. also seem to have occupied the plains of Saron and Edfelon, thereby gaining control of the trade route leading toward Mesopotamia. Saul defeated them several times and drove them from the mountain country toward the plain (I Sam. 13–14; 17); but in the decisive and fierce battle near Mount Gelboe he was defeated and took his own life (I Sam. 31; II Sam. 1). David, who, having fled from Saul’s court, had spent some time at Geth (I Sam. 27, 1–7), offering his services to King Achis, initially maintained good relations with the P. during his reign; then, having occupied the strong city of Jerusalem (Iebus) and incorporated the Israelite tribes into his kingdom, he felt strong enough to break the vassal relationship: he defeated the P. and drove them permanently back within their original borders (II Sam. 5, 17–25; 8, 1; cf. 22, 15–22; 23, 9–17). From that time onward the P. no longer undertook major campaigns against the Israelites, but there were rather disputes over the frontiers (cf. I Reg. 15, 27; 16, 15); indeed, in time the Israelites took the offensive: King Oria (8th century) dismantled the cities of Geth and Iabne and built fortresses in the Philistine region (II Par. 26, 6 ff.; cf. Am. 6, 2), and Erechia struck the P. as far as Gaza and throughout their territory (I Reg. 18, 8). The P. too were made tributaries by the Assyrians; their cities fell into the hands of the invaders: Gaza under Theglathphalasar III (735), and Accaron under Sennacherib. Azotus (Ashdod), made tributary by Theglathphalasar (734) and conquered in 711 by Sargon, was for some time the capital of the Assyrian province of Asdodu (Iz. 20, 1). From those times onward, under the Neo-Babylonians, the Persians, and the successors of Alexander the Great, each of the Philistine cities had its own history.
As regards the origin of the P., according to the Bible they came from Caphtor (Am. 9, 7; Ier. 47, 4 ff.; cf. Deut. 2, 23). The later Jewish interpreters, as well as the Septuagint and not a few Fathers, identify Caphtor with Cappadocia, but the profane sources do not support this explanation; the Assyrian Kaptura or the Egyptian Kefitiu seem rather to indicate the island of Crete. In the Old Testament too the P. are associated with the Kéréthim (Cretans); cf. Soph. 2, 5; Ev. 25, 16; and probably also the formula Kéréthi and Pélethi (II Sam. 8, 18; 15, 18; 20, 7, 23), in which Pélethi seems to be the name of the P. (Pélethi), assimilated to the preceding Kéréthi. Some authors include under the name
Caphtor the island of Crete and the neighbouring coasts of Asia Minor, or those coasts alone. In any case, it may be said that the immediate point of departure of the P. was the island of Crete, although they may perhaps have arrived there from Asia Minor. On this supposition the P. formed part of the powerful wave of the “Sea Peoples,” who toward the end of the 13th century invaded the Aegean islands, Syria,
and Phoenicia, and advanced, partly by sea and partly by land, as far as southern Palestine, where they were defeated by Ramses III (ca. 1194). In his palace at Medinet Habu (near Thebes), the conquered peoples are represented in a manner that recalls the description of the Philistine Goliath (I Sam. 17, 4–7). Moreover, one of the peoples represented there is called Príti (Purusati), the Egyptian pronunciation of Péleth; another are the Zahari, whom the Egyptian Wen-Amón around 1100 found settled north of the P. in ancient Dot (approximately 11 km. north of Caesarea). Consequently, authors generally hold that the P., although defeated by Ramses III, succeeded in maintaining themselves in the southern part of the Palestinian coast, while the Zahari, their relatives, occupied the plain of Saron. The Old Testament speaks of the P. and of the land of the Philistines already in the time of the Patriarchs (Gen. 21, 32, 34; 26, 1.8.14 ff. 18), of the Exodus (Ev. 13, 17), and of Joshua (Ios. 13, 2), either because of a purely literary anticipation of later terminology or because, from the time of the Patriarchs, the Egyptians maintained military garrisons in that region composed of Cretan mercenaries (who, in later terminology, are called P.).
It is commonly accepted that the P. were not Semites. The Israelites themselves called them “uncircumcised” (I Sam. 17, 26; 18, 25; Iude. 14, 3; 15, 18), thereby indicating their difference from the Semitic peoples; the Septuagint translates the proper name of the P. in the majority of cases as ἀλλόφυλος (Vulg. alienigena). Even the very few remnants of the Philistine language that have been preserved are not Semitic: the name ἀνάμνη (“king”) seems to be, like the Greek τύραννος, of Lydian or Phrygian origin; the name Goliath could be identical with Ἀλλόφυλος; the name Achis of the king of Geth (I Sam. 21, 11 etc.) has been preserved in Egyptian in the name Aksau of a Kefitiu (Cretan). Apart from these few remnants, the P.’ own language is unknown; they seem to have early adopted the language of the indigenous population, Canaanite, and later Aramaic (the “Ashdodite” of Neh. 13, 24 seems to have been an Aramaic dialect, not the Philistine language).
Nor has the civilization of the P. been preserved. They brought with them the working of iron, and thereby a military and cultural superiority that placed the Israelites under severe strain, since they forbade them to manufacture weapons and implements of iron (I Sam. 13, 19 ff.). At Tell Gemmeh (in Wadi Ghazzeh) and at ‘Ajn Sema (Bethsames), furnaces for smelting iron have been found, probably originating with the P. By contrast, the so-called “Philistine” pottery cannot with certainty be connected with the Philistine invasion; rather, it is a type related to the final phase of Mycenaean pottery, mixed with indigenous elements, and is found in the 12th century elsewhere in Palestine and in Syria as well.
Nothing has been preserved of the religion of the P. From the Old Testament it is known that the god Dagen was worshipped at Gaza and Azotus (v. cf. Iude. 16, 23; I Sam. 5, 1–7; I Mach. 10, 83 ff); at Ascalon the cult of Atargatis or Derketo was practised, a more recent designation of the goddess Astarte (cf. I Sam. 31, 10), and at Ascaron that of Baalzebub (Aram. Beelzebub): II Reg. 1, 1–16. But all these divinities were of Semitic origin.