Who were the Philistines?

 

The Philistines were part of a significant migration of people from Cyprus, Crete and Sardinia in Greece that settled along the Eastern Mediterranean in Israel, northern Syria and southern Anatolia (now Western Turkey). According to this museum, this occurred in the Late Bronze Age in the late 1200s. These migrants are known as “Sea People”. Why they left their homelands, and whether there were adverse factors there or just better conditions elsewhere is not known. This museum suggests that this migration occurred at a time of weakening of Egypt due to its conflict with the Hittite Empire and its inability to provide protection to weaker city states along the coast.

 

The Sea People who settled in the southern part of Israel are known in the Bible as the Philistines and they took over five large cities from the Canaanites – Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron. The first three were on the coast and the others were by the Sh’fela. These cities are often referred to as the Pentapolis. Gath was the largest. Other tribal groups from the Aegean occupied cities north of the Pentapolis, including Aphek, Jaffa and Dor, of which Dor was the largest. They also captured Acco and more inland, Megiddo and places near to this, including Yokne’am and Afula. Which of these places they were able to settle in permanently and their relationship to the indigenous Phoenicians is unclear. In the Bible, all Sea People are lumped together as Philistines even though they comprised different tribal groups.

 

The Sea People possessed a superior culture called the Mycenean culture that included technological advances in building and ship design. They had superior skills in metallurgy, which understandably they refused to share with the Israelites, who were now dependent on the Philistines for their metalwork (I Samuel 13:19-22).

 

In the first 14 verses of chapter 13 in the Book of Joshua, Joshua in his old age delineates the territory that has not yet been conquered by the Israelites. This included the five princes of the Pentapolis: “the five princes of the Philistines: the Azasites (from Gaza), the Ashdodites, Eshkelonites, Gittittes [from Gat], Ekronites, and the Avvim.” We will discuss who the Avvim were shortly.

 

By the time of Samson, the Philistines were ruling over Israelite tribes in the Sh’felah, namely the tribe of Dan and Judahites living near the coastal plain. By the time of Samuel, the Philistines had become a threat to the Israelites in the mountain range. It is unlikely that the Philistines wished to establish an empire, but it may well be that they recognized the Israelites as a threat to their own settlement and were determined to take the initiative. This was the impetus for the Jewish people to request a king who would be able to unite the Israelite tribes for warfare. Samuel reluctantly agreed and with the approval of God he elected Saul.

 

However, the Sea People also united. Saul and his sons fought against them and died in battle on Mount Gilboa overlooking the Jezreel Valley. In the Bible this is described as a battle against the Philistines. However, the location of this battle is far from the Pentapolis, and it may have comprised an alliance of southern and northern Sea People. Saul would have had good reason to fear this large and powerful army.

 

The power of the five Philistine kings was eventually weakened by King David to the extent that they ceased to be a threat to his kingdom. David also had a commercial relationship with the Phoenicians of Sidon. These were Canaanites and not a Sea People. The cities of the Pentapolis came under the control of later Judean kings. Eventually, they were totally destroyed by the Babylonians during the same period that the Judean and Israelite kingdoms were also destroyed.

 

At the time of the return of the exiles from Babylon, the Canaanites from Ashdod were also permitted to return and the Jewish people began intermarrying with them (Nehemiah 13:23). This could imply that there were always Canaanites in Ashdod, even at the time of the Philistines.  Both leaders Ezra and Nehemiah, realizing the threat that intermarriage presented to Jewish continuity, spoke passionately against this.

 

The approach taken by these essays is very much based on a literal understanding of the Bible, including its dating which places the Israelite conquest of Canaan to 1400 BCE. The dating of the 13th century provided by the museum for the arrival of the Philistines in Israel is based on Egyptian writing, and in particular a sculptured battle scene of Ramses III on the walls of a temple describing his repelling Sea People by land and sea. This would contradict the Bible, which strongly implies that the Philistines were already in Canaan by the time of Joshua. Is it possible to resolve this contradiction without moving the date of the Exodus to the 1200s BCE (which admittedly is accepted by many academics)?

 

Abraham and his son Isaac had dealings with Abimelech in Gerar, and Abraham made a covenant of friendship with him. Abimelach and his people are described as a Philistine. Gerar is between Gaza and Beersheba. In Deuteronomy, speaking in about 1450 BCE, Moses tells us the following: “And as for the Avvim who dwell in open cities until Gaza – the Caphtorim who went out of Caphtor (Crete) destroyed them and dwelled in their place” (Deuteronomy 2:23).

 

It is very likely that the Avvim were “the Philistines” from the time of Abraham and they were driven out by Philistines from Crete, although as Joshua mentions (quoted above) they were not completely driven out. Hence, there were already Philistine in this area at the time of the Exodus (which following Biblical chronology took place in about 1450 BCE). Moreover, God did not lead the Israelites out of Egypt along the coastal road and “through the way of the land of the Philistines” (Exodus 13:17) since the Israelites were not ready to fight a warlike people such as this.

 

All this suggests that the term Philistine in the Bible is based more on migration patterns than ethnic background. The Philistines at the time of Abraham were of Hamitic-Egyptian ancestry (Genesis 10:14). Because of the pact made with Abraham, the Children of Israel were not permitted to harm them. However, they were mainly dispossessed by Philistines from Crete..

 

It is possible that the migration of the Sea People was a gradual process over a prolonged period of time rather than a one-time invasion? Admittedly, there is no archeological evidence of early settlement of Philistines in Canaan, but absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence. There is also no evidence that the Philistines took over Canaanite cities violently by conquering them, and there could have been a prolonged period of co-existence.

 

In sum, there is still much to be discovered about the Philistines.