Everything about Philistia totally explained
The
Philistines (
Hebrew פלשתים,
plishtim) (see "other uses" below) were a
people who inhabited the southern coast of
Canaan, their territory being named
Philistia in later contexts. Their origin has been debated among scholars, but modern
archaeology has suggested early cultural links with the
Mycenean world in mainland
Greece. Though the Philistines adopted local
Canaanite culture and language before leaving any written texts, an
Indo-European origin has been suggested for a handful of known Philistine words (See
Philistine language).
Etymology
The etymology of the word into English is from Old French
Philistin, from Late Latin
Philistinus, from Late Greek
Philistinoi, from Hebrew
P'lishtim, (See, for example, 1 Samuel 17:26, 17:36; 2 Samuel 1:20; Judges 14:3), "people of P'lesheth" ("Philistia"); cf. Akkadian
Palastu, Egyptian
Palusata; the word probably is the people's name for itself.
Biblical scholars often trace the word to the semitic root
p-l-sh which means
to divide, go through, to roll in, cover or invade, with a possible sense in this name as "migrant" or "invader".
Jones suggests that the name Philistine is a corruption of the Greek "phyle histia" ("tribe of the hearth", with the Ionic spelling of "hestia"). He goes on to suggests that they were responsible for introducing the fixed hearth to the Levant. Very interestingly, this suggestion was raised before the archaeological evidence for the use of the hearths was documented at Philistine sites.
History
If the Philistines are to be identified as one of the "
Sea Peoples" (see
Origins below), then their occupation of Canaan would have to have taken place during the reign of
Ramesses III of the
Twentieth Dynasty,
ca. 1180 to
1150 BC. Their maritime knowledge presumably would have made them important to the
Phoenicians.
In Egypt, a people called the
"Peleset" (or, more precisely,
prst), generally identified with the Philistines, appear in the
Medinet Habu inscription of
Ramesses III, where he describes his victory against the
Sea Peoples, as well as the
Onomasticon of Amenope (late
Twentieth Dynasty) and
Papyrus Harris I, a summary of
Ramesses III's reign written in the reign of
Ramesses IV.
Nineteenth-century Bible scholars identified the land of the Philistines (
Philistia) with
Palastu and
Pilista in
Assyrian inscriptions, according to
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897).
The Philistines occupied the five cities of
Gaza,
Ashkelon,
Ashdod,
Ekron, and
Gath, along the coastal strip of southwestern
Canaan, that belonged to
Egypt up to the closing days of the
Nineteenth Dynasty (ended
1185 BC). The
biblical stories of
Samson,
Samuel,
Saul and
David include accounts of Philistine-
Israelite conflicts. The Philistines long held a
monopoly on
iron smithing (a skill they possibly acquired during conquests in
Anatolia), and the biblical description of
Goliath's armor is consistent with this iron-smithing technology.
This powerful association of tribes made frequent incursions against the
Hebrews. There was almost perpetual war between the two peoples. The Philistine cities were ruled by
seranim (סְרָנִים, "lords"), who acted together for the common good, though to what extent they'd a sense of a "nation" isn't clear without literary sources. After their defeat by the Hebrew king
David, who originally for a time worked as a mercenary for
Achish of
Gath, kings replaced the
seranim, governing from various cities. Some of these kings were called
Abimelech, which was initially a name and later a dynastic title.
The Philistines lost their independence to
Tiglath-Pileser III of
Assyria by
732 BC, and revolts in following years were all crushed. Later,
Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon eventually conquered all of
Syria and the
Kingdom of Judah, and the former Philistine cities became part of the
Neo-Babylonian Empire. There are few references to the Philistines after this time period. However, Ezekiel 25:16, Zechariah 9:6, and I Macabees 3 make mention of the Philistines, indicating that they still existed as a people in some capacity after the Babylonian invasion. Eventually all traces of the Philistines as a people or ethnic group disappear. Subsequently the cities were under the control of
Persians,
Jews (
Hasmonean Kingdom),
Greeks (
Seleucid Empire),
Romans, and subsequent empires.
The name "
Palestine" comes, via
Greek and
Latin, from the Philistines; see
History of Palestine.
Origin of the Philistines
Most authorities agree that the Philistines are not to the regions of Israel/Palestine which the
Bible describes them inhabiting. The Bible contains roughly 250 references to the Philistines or Philistia, and repeatedly refers to them as "
uncircumcised", unlike the
Semitic peoples, such as
Canaanites, which the Bible relates encountered the
Israelites following
the Exodus. (
See, for example, 1 Samuel 17:26, 17:36;
2 Samuel 1:20;
Judges 14:3).
It has been suggested that the Philistines formed part of the great naval confederacy, the "
Sea Peoples," who had wandered, at the beginning of the
12th century BC, from their homeland in
Crete and the
Aegean islands to the shores of the
Mediterranean and repeatedly attacked
Egypt during the later
Nineteenth Dynasty. Though they were eventually repulsed by
Ramesses III, he finally resettled them, according to the theory, to rebuild the coastal towns in Canaan.
Papyrus Harris I details the achievements of the reign of Ramesses III. In the brief description of the outcome of the battles in Year 8 is the description of the fate of the Sea Peoples. Ramesses tells us that, having brought the imprisoned Sea Peoples to Egypt, he "settled them in strongholds, bound in my name. Numerous were their classes like hundred-thousands. I taxed them all, in clothing and grain from the storehouses and granaries each year." Some scholars suggest it's likely that these "strongholds" were fortified towns in southern Canaan, which would eventually become the five cities (the
Pentapolis) of the Philistines (Redford 1992, p. 289).
Israel Finkelstein has suggested that there may be a period of 25-50 years after the sacking of the Philistine cities and their reoccupation by the Philistines. It is quite possible that for the initial period of time, the Philistines were housed in Egypt, only subsequently late in the troubled end of the reign of
Rameses III would they've been allowed to settle Philistia.
Archaeology
The connection between
Mycenean culture and Philistine culture was made clearer by finds at the excavation of
Ashdod,
Ekron,
Ashkelon, and more recently
Tell es-Safi (probably
Gath), four of the five Philistine cities in Canaan. The fifth city is
Gaza. Especially notable is the early Philistine pottery, a locally-made version of the
Aegean Mycenaean
Late Helladic IIIC pottery, which is decorated in shades of brown and black. This later developed into the distinctive Philistine pottery of the
Iron Age I, with black and red decorations on white slip known as
Philistine Bichrome ware. Also of particular interest is a large, well-constructed building covering 240 square meters, discovered at Ekron. Its walls are broad, designed to support a second story, and its wide, elaborate entrance leads to a large hall, partly covered with a roof supported on a row of columns. In the floor of the hall is a circular hearth paved with pebbles, as is typical in Mycenean
megaron hall buildings; other unusual architectural features are paved benches and podiums. Among the finds are three small bronze wheels with eight spokes. Such wheels are known to have been used for portable cultic stands in the Aegean region during this period, and it's therefore assumed that this building served
cultic functions. Further evidence concerns an inscription in Ekron to PYGN or PYTN, which some have suggested refers to "
Potnia," the title given to an ancient
Mycenaean goddess. Excavations in
Ashkelon,
Ekron, and
Gath reveal
dog and
pig bones which show signs of having been butchered, implying that these animals were part of the residents' diet.
Pelasgians
One name the Greeks used for the previous inhabitants of Greece and the Aegean was
Pelasgians, but no definite connection has been established between this name and that of the Philistines. The theory that the Sea Peoples included Greek-speaking tribes has been developed even further to postulate that the Philistines originated in either western
Anatolia or the Greek peninsula.
Philistine language
There is some limited evidence in favor of the assumption that the Philistines did originally speak some Indo-European language. A number of Philistine-related words found in the Bible are not Semitic, and can in some cases, with reservations, be traced back to
Proto-Indo-European roots. For example, the Philistine word for captain,
seren, may be related to the Greek word
tyrannos (which, however, hasn't been traced to a PIE root). Some of the Philistine names, such as
Goliath,
Achish, and
Phicol, appear to be of non-Semitic origin, and Indo-European etymologies have been suggested. Recently, an inscription dating to the late 10th/early 9th centuries BC with two names, very similar to one of the suggested etymologies of the popular Philistine name Goliath (
Lydian Alyattes) was found in the excavations at
Tell es-Safi/
Gath. The appearance of additional non-Semitic names in Philistine inscriptions from later stages of the Iron Age is an additional indication of the non-Semitic origins of this group.
Statements in the Bible
The Hebrew
tradition recorded in
Genesis 10:14 states that the "
Pelishtim" (
פְּלִשְׁתִּים,
Standard Hebrew /pəlištim/,
Tiberian Hebrew /pəlištîm/) proceeded from the "
Pathrusim" (פַּתְרֻסִים) and the "
Casluhim" (כַּסְלֻחִים), who descended from
Mizraim (מִצְרַיִם, Egypt), son of
Ham. The Philistines settled "
Pelesheth" (
פְּלֶשֶׁת,
Standard Hebrew /pəléšet/ or /pəlášet/,
Tiberian Hebrew /pəléšeṯ/ or /Pəlāšeṯ/) along the eastern
Mediterranean coast at about the time when the
Israelites settled in the
Judean highlands. Biblical references to Philistines living in the area before this, at the time of
Abraham or
Isaac (for example Gen. 21:32-34), are generally regarded by modern scholars to be anachronisms.
The Philistines are spoken of in the
Book of Amos as originating in
Caphtor: "saith the LORD: Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?" (
Amos 9:7). Later, in the
7th century BC,
Jeremiah makes the same association with Caphtor. "For the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor, (Jeremiah 47:4). Scholars variously identify the land of Caphtor with
Cyprus and
Crete and other locations in the eastern Mediterranean.
Other uses of the term 'Philistine'
- British writers of the 19th century and very early 20th century sometimes referred to the Arabs of Palestine as "Philistines". This was apparently not due to a belief in a strong connection with the ancient Philistines, but merely reflects the former convention that "Philistine" simply denotes "native of Palestine." The Arabic word for Palestine, فلسطين, which is pronounced "Falasṭīn," derives from the Latin term Palaestina. After the Bar-Kokhba revolt of the Judeans and the subsequent Roman repression and exile, the Romans renamed the entire district of Judea "Palaestina" as a mark of insult to their defeated enemies. This is because of their knowledge of the region's history and the fact that the Philistines and the Israelites were warring peoples. The Arabic language's lack of the "p" phoneme, and the tendency to arabacize the "t" and "k" of foreign words as the corresponding Semitic emphatic consonants, resulted in this nomenclature after the Muslim conquest brought Arabs to the region in 636 AD, often used interchangeably for the entire greater Syrian district (Arabic: "Shaam").
In non-historical usage, the word philistine was introduced by Matthew Arnold to denote a person deficient in the culture of the liberal arts, or a smug and intolerant opponent of the bohemian, one who exhibits a restrictive moral code. See Philistinism.Further Information
Get more info on 'Philistia'.
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