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Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the same as I delivered the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir?
~ God

The Philistines were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. The Philistines are known for their biblical conflict with the Canaanite peoples of the region, in particular, the Israelites.

Origins[]

The Philistines originated as an immigrant group from the Aegean that settled in Canaan circa 1175 BC during the Late Bronze Age collapse. Over time, they gradually assimilated elements of the indigenous Levantine Semitic societies while preserving their own unique culture.

During the Late Bronze Age collapse, an apparent confederation of seafarers known as the Sea Peoples are recorded as attacking Ancient Egypt and other Eastern Mediterranean civilizations. While their exact origins are a mystery, and probably diverse, it is generally agreed that the Sea Peoples had origins in the greater Southern European and West Asian area, including western Asia Minor, the Aegean, and the islands of the East Mediterranean. Egypt, in particular, repelled numerous attempted invasions from the Sea Peoples, most famously at the Battle of the Delta (c. 1175 BC), where pharaoh Ramesses III defeated a massive invasion force which had already plundered Hattusa, Carchemish, Cyprus, and the Southern Levant.

Egyptian sources name one of these implicated Sea Peoples as the pwrꜣsꜣtj, generally transliterated as either Peleset or Pulasti. Following the Sea Peoples' defeat, Ramesses III allegedly relocated a number of the pwrꜣsꜣtj to southern Canaan, as recorded in an inscription from his funerary temple in Medinet Habu, and the Great Harris Papyrus. Though archaeological investigation has been unable to correlate any such settlement existing during this time period, this, coupled with the name Peleset/Pulasti and the peoples' supposed Aegean origins, have led many scholars to identify the pwrꜣsꜣtj with the Philistines.

In 604 BC, the Philistine polity, after having already been subjugated for centuries by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), was finally destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar II of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Subsequently, the Philistines were compelled into exile in Babylonia, where over time, they lost their unique ethnic identity. By the late fifth century BC, they vanished from both historical and archaeological records as a distinct group.

Biblical Account[]

Though the primary source of information about the Philistines is the Hebrew Bible, they are first attested to in reliefs at the Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, in which they are called the Peleset. By Iron Age II, the Philistines had formed an ethnic state centered around a pentapolis consisting of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gath. Whether or not historians are inclined to accept the historicity of the old canonical books of the Hebrew nation, their writers describe a series of conflicts between the Philistines and the Israelites during the period of the Judges, and, allegedly, the Philistines exercised lordship over Israel in the days of Saul and Samuel the prophet, forbidding the Israelites from making iron implements of war. According to their chronicles, the Philistines were eventually subjugated by David, before regaining independence in the wake of the United Monarchy's dissolution, after which there are only sparse references to them. The accuracy of these narratives is a subject of debate among scholars.

The following is a list of battles described in the Bible as having occurred between the Israelites and the Philistines:

  • The Battle of Shephelah
  • Israelites defeated at the Battle of Aphek, Philistines capture the Ark
  • Philistines defeated at the Battle of Eben-Ezer
  • Some Philistine military success must have taken place subsequently, allowing the Philistines to subject the Israelites to a localised disarmament regime. 1 Samuel 13:19-21 states that no Israelite blacksmiths were permitted and they had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their weapons and agricultural implements.
  • Battle of Michmash, Philistines routed by Jonathan and his men
  • Near the Valley of Elah, David defeats Goliath in single combat
  • The Philistines defeat Israelites on Mount Gilboa, killing King Saul and his three sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malkishua
  • Hezekiah defeats the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory.

Religion[]

The deities worshipped in the land of Philistine included Baal, Astaroth, Asherah, Dagan, and Yahweh. The Philistines may also have worshipped Qudshu and Anat. Beelzebub, a supposed hypostasis of Baal, is described in the Hebrew Bible as the patron deity of Ekron, though no explicit attestation of such a god or his worship has thus far been discovered, and the name Baal-zebub itself may be the result of an intentional distortion by the Israelites.

Although the Bible cites Dagan as the main Philistine god, there is a stark lack of any evidence indicating the Philistines had any particular proclivity to his worship. In fact, no evidence of Dagon worship whatsoever is discernible at Philistine sites, with even theophoric names invoking the deity being unattested in the already limited corpus of known Philistine names. A further assessment of the Iron Age I finds worship of Dagon in any immediate Canaanite context, let alone one which is indisputably Philistine, as seemingly non-existent. Still, Dagon-worship probably wasn't completely unheard of amongst the Philistines, as multiple mentions of a city known as Beth Dagon in Assyrian, Phoenician, and Egyptian sources may imply the god was venerated in at least some parts of Philistia. Furthermore, the inscription of the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, dating to the 6th century BC, calls Jaffa, a Philistine city, one of the "mighty lands of Dagan".

External links[]

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