A few years ago, a family friend jokingly called me a philistine. In a modern context, the term is meant to imply a person’s willful ignorance toward culture. Being the uncultured person that I am, I’d had to look up the modern meaning of philistine because the only thing I could conjure at the time was an image of the nine-foot Philistine warrior Goliath from 1 Samuel 17, and I knew that I certainly wasn’t that.
Of all the famous p(P)hilistines past and present, I imagine Goliath is the most well-known, though I admit that I’d have been hard-pressed to list any other historical example by name. I understood in a general sense that the Philistines were both a physical and symbolic enemy of God’s people in the Old Testament.
Additionally, I’d always been captivated by David’s question, “Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26, NLT), and assertion, “Today the Lord will conquer you…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!” (1 Samuel 17:46, NLT), when he’d confronted Goliath. Both those verses and the overall thrust of the narrative serve as compelling reminders of both God’s power and purposes through his people. In that way, the Philistines were just a footnote in the grand narrative of God’s redemptive work throughout history.
“The Philistines were just a footnote in the grand narrative of God’s redemptive work throughout history.”
A quick online search reveals a number of what I assume are educated guesses or assertions about ancient Philistine culture, history, and geographical movements. Though those also come with the disclaimer seen alongside many other studies of the “-ites” of the Old Testament that says there is much we don’t know.
What seems the most helpful route for me is to delve into the biblical references to determine what more the modern Christian might understand about the ancient Philistines.
To begin, I’ll note that the Hebrew word pᵊlištî (Philistine(s)) appears just under 300 times in the Old Testament alongside eight occurrences of pᵊlešeṯ (Philistia or Palestina). The first form of the word is seen in Genesis 10 where the Philistines are listed as a descendant of Noah’s son Ham. Subsequent uses including Amos 9:7 suggest that the Philistines were initially established in the region of kap̄tôr (Caphtor, possibly Crete), but a majority of the biblical narrative sees the Philistines residing near the Jewish patriarchs/Israelite kingdom along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea beginning with Abraham (Genesis 21:34) and extending to Isaac (Genesis 26:1). During those two men’s accounts, there is already a notable tension between the two groups (Genesis 26:14).
“There is already a notable tension between the two groups.”
The Philistines are mentioned next during the account of the Exodus when God notes that He is deliberately leading the Jews away from Philistine territory to avoid conflict (Exodus 13:17), though He later includes their region as part of the Promised Land (Exodus 23:31). However, their territory and five major cities (Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza) are listed among the unconquered regions after Joshua’s conquest (Joshua 13:3), and Joshua’s final warnings foreshadowed the bitter struggle the Israelites would endure because of their failure to conquer those lands.
“But if you turn away from [God] and cling to the customs of the survivors of these nations remaining among you, and if you intermarry with them, then know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive them out of your land. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap to you, a whip for your backs and thorny brambles in your eyes, and you will vanish from this good land the Lord your God has given you.” (Joshua 23:12-13, NLT)
The majority of the subsequent references to the Philistines revolve around that bitter and enduring conflict, and that same struggle is a major theme in the accounts of Old Testament heroes like the judge Samson, the prophet Samuel, and the kings Saul and David.
“The majority of the subsequent references to the Philistines revolve around that bitter and enduring conflict.”
During the early judges’ and Samson’s account, it is noted that God used the survival of groups like the Philistines to teach warfare to the Jewish generations who came after Joshua’s conquest (Judges 3:2) and that God used groups like the Philistines “to test the Israelites—to see whether they would obey the commands the Lord had given to their ancestors through Moses” (Judges 3:4, NLT). And because of Israel’s eventual disobedience, its people were ultimately handed over to and oppressed by the Philistines and other groups (Judges 10:7-8). It is also noted in Samson’s account that the Philistine god was called Dagon (Judges 16:23). 
In Samuel’s account, it is recorded that the Philistines had both an awareness of and a reverence for what God had done for Israel. During a military conflict between the two nations, the Philistines tremble at the presence of the Ark of the Covenant saying,
“The gods have come into their [Israel’s] camp!…This is a disaster! We have never had to face anything like this before! Help! Who can save us from these mighty gods of Israel? They are the same gods who destroyed the Egyptians with plagues when Israel was in the wilderness. Fight as never before, Philistines! If you don’t, we will become the Hebrews’ slaves just as they have been ours!” (1 Samuel 4:7-9, NLT)
“The Philistines had both an awareness of and a reverence for what God had done for Israel.”
However, because of Israel’s disobedience, the Lord gives the Philistines victory over Israel, and the Ark of the Covenant is captured and taken to Ashdod where there was a temple dedicated to Dagon. There the Lord miraculously destroys an idol of Dagon and then afflicts at least three Philistine cities (Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron) and the five Philistine rulers with a plague. To save themselves from God’s wrath, the Philistines reverently carry out a guilt offering and return the Ark to Israelite-controlled territory (1 Samuel 5:1-6:18).
Yet the conflict between the two nations continues into Saul’s account after he is anointed king of Israel by Samuel. Scripture says that Saul was anointed king of Israel so that he might be used to rescue God’s people from the Philistines’ oppression (1 Samuel 9:16), but because of Saul’s disobedience, his dynasty is brought to an end and handed to someone else (1 Samuel 13:13-14): David. And ultimately, Saul meets his end at the hands of the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:1-6).
Moving on to David’s account, I won’t take it for granted that the reader knows about the aforementioned Goliath. It’s recorded in 1 Samuel 17 that Goliath was a Philistine champion from the city of Gath during the time of Saul’s reign.
“He was over nine feet tall! He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin over his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds.” (1 Samuel 17:4-7, NLT)
“It’s recorded in 1 Samuel 17 that Goliath was a Philistine champion from the city of Gath during the time of Saul’s reign.”
Goliath is recorded to have been a designated representative of the Philistines. As such, if he was defeated in single combat, it would mean that the Philistines would become Israel’s slaves. He is noted to have been openly defiant toward the armies of Israel (and by extension God, as David noted in 1 Samuel 17:26). In the end, God uses a faith-filled David to defeat Goliath, instead of the anointed but fear-filled king Saul.
From the accounts of David’s life, we see, unsurprisingly, that the Philistines feared and respected David (1 Samuel 21:10-11) and that during David’s season of living away from Israel during Saul’s reign, he sought refuge in Philistine lands, even living for a time inside the royal city of Gath (where Goliath had been from) until the Philistine king (Achish) gave David and his men their own city to live in within the territory (1 Samuel 27:2-7), though the relationship ultimately deteriorated (1 Samuel 29). After Saul’s death and David’s return to Israel (where he is anointed king), the Philistines attempt to capture David but are thoroughly defeated (2 Samuel 5:17-25) and are ultimately subdued by David who conquers Gath (2 Samuel 8:1).
“After Saul’s death and David’s return to Israel (where he is anointed king), the Philistines attempt to capture David but are thoroughly defeated and are ultimately subdued by David who conquers Gath.”
However, the Philistines continue to be a problem throughout David’s reign and nearly kill him many years later (2 Samuel 21:15-16). It is also noted during that section that the lineage of Philistine giants had continued, four of which were killed by David’s army in the latter years of his reign (2 Samuel 21:22). Though after David’s death, the Philistines’ lands are included among the conquered nations under the reign of King Solomon (David’s son, 1 Kings 4:21), and they appear only in a few more minor references throughout the failing lineage of Israel and Judah’s subsequent kings, which are recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles.
The final references to the Philistines occur across various verses throughout the Minor and Major Prophets whose warnings and encouragement align with the narratives in Kings and Chronicles. We do, however, learn a few more details about the Philistines from these passages. They practiced magic and divination (Isaiah 2:6), the destruction of their cities Gaza and Ashkelon are prophesied to be at the hands of the Egyptians (Jeremiah 47), and lastly, perhaps most importantly, they are prophesied to someday be grafted into the family of God.
“I will destroy the pride of the Philistines. I will grab the bloody meat from their mouths and snatch the detestable sacrifices from their teeth. Then the surviving Philistines will worship our God and become like a clan in Judah. The Philistines of Ekron will join my people…” (Zechariah 9:6-7, NLT)
