Sophisticated Philistines not vulgar Barbarians

The brutes of the Bible were music lovers and gastronomes.

The old testament recounts tales of the Philistines who made war with the Israelites. Now their name doubles for anyone ill mannered and uncultured, but recent archaelogical finds reveal a different side to these settlers.

Twelve centuries before the birth of Jesus, when tribal boundaries and allegiances were as shifting as the sands, waves of migrants swept onto the shores of the Levant. The Eygyptians called them the "Sea Peoples," and among them were the Philistines, who conquered the Canaanites and established themselves on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

They settled along a lush coastal strip from Gaza to Tell Qasile, near modern day Tel Aviv, on the trade route from Egypt to Syria. There, in a territory they named "Philistia," they built a league of five fortified cities - Ashdod, Ekron, Ashkelon, Gath and Gaza. These were each governed by lords, who made joint decisions on important matters and formed a cohesive social, economic and military unit.

Why did the Israelites and Philistines fight?

It was a territorial conflict. The bible relates how the Lord told Moses the following:

When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall drive out all of the inhabitants of the land from before you...Those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell (NUmbers 22: 50-53; 55)

The Israelites believed that the Philistines were encroaching on land that had long ago been vouchsafed to them by the Abrahamic God, and biblical accounts of the struggles between the two tribes go some way to explaining the Philistines' reputation for aggression.

Note: Who is actually the aggressor?? Some would conclude the Israelites where in this case.


The bible also recounts how the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred symbol created by Moses of God's presence among the Hebrew people.

Over the centuries between territorial skirmishing, there were long, productive periods of peace within Philistia, which the bible does not mention!

Nor does the bible describe the Philistines' sophisticated way of life. In modern usage the term "philistine" has come to be a byword for all that is brutish and bloodthirsty, but in reality the Philistines were a cultured people.

In recent years, systematic excavation of the Philistine cities, particulary Ashkelon and Ekron, has revealed that they were master builders and skilled artisans. They built well planned, walled cities with palaces and temples and sturdy dwellings with street drainage.

Loom weights attest to a weaving industry; vats, presses and amphorae to a thriving trade in wine and olive oil. Delicate pieces of silver jewelry suggest that the Philistines did have an aesthetic sense. A terracotta statuette of a woman playing a lyre shows that music was appreciated.

Clear evidence has been unearthed that the Philistines had also mastered the art of smelting iron and copper. The narrative in the bible suggests that they also kept control of the means of production. Strict laws prevented the Israelites from owning any iron weapons forged in Philistia, and even decreed that agricultural implements such as sickles and plowshares could only be repaired by Philistine metalsmiths. The work done - at a price - and the ruling was greatly resented:

Now there was no smith to be found through the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews makes swords or spears (1 Samuel, 13:19)

The victory of David over Goliath with a sling and stone, then, was more than the triumph of a slight boy over a monster. The story was a powerful allegory for the vitory of a disadvantaged but godly people over pagan braggarts as the Israelites would call them.

The victory turned out to be a fleeting one. For David and his kinsmen, the lack of iron weapons would lead to their subsequent defeat and death in battle.

For it came about on the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people. (1 Samuel 13:22)

David's searing lament for the Israelites' defeat has done much to burn into the imagination the idea of the barbarian who kills teh thing that is beautiful:

The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places" how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice (1 Samuel 1:19-20)

The Philistines have long since vanished into history, leaving only a name, "Palestine." The last record of them as a distinct society is in the 7th century BC, when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Philistia and took many hostages.

The uncircumcised Philistines ate pork and worshiped other gods and they were clearly not the vulgarians that their name now implies. The archaelogical evidence of their food and cloth industries, their artwork and pottery, and their literacy and numeracy shows them to have been - on the contrary - a cultured people of their time.

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Not that surprising, when war account are made the enemies of the writers where seen as Barbarians because of the simple fact they are in war with them. A good example of this would be the accounts of the Saxons and the goths from Roman accounts. The fact they didn't worship the same God and other practices as you said also should have made them "Barbarians" in the eyes of the Israelites.

Exactly! Good observation

I Dont' think the bible is questioning their level of sophistication.

It was their religious practices that were an abomination to God. The worshipping of pagan gods, which involved debased sex and human sacrifice.

Look at America today. Very sophisticated, but morally perverse.
Sodom & Gomorah were very rich.

Good article though.

And remember the part about them not wanting the Israelites to have weapons. Sound familiar?