Who Were the Philistines?: Digging for Truth-Episode 45

welcome to this new episode of digging for truth I'm your co-host Henry Smith we're joined today by Gary Byers archaeologists on the ABR staff who will join us to talk about the Philistines found in the scriptures who were they why were they enemies of Israel and do we have evidence from archaeology to show who they were we hope you enjoy this episode well I think sometimes talking about the Philistines is something that's not a conversation we have every day right Palestine's but we're going to talk about the Philistines today and we want to begin by talking about what is a Philistine and and we use it in modern-day conversation don't we you might be called a Philistine I'm sure I've been called that a few times why don't we start there and let's just talk about the popular use of the word and then we're going to look at what the scripture says about and look at history look at the archaeology well so the Philistine our use of the word today really comes out of a story in Germany in the 1700s Jena place called Jena Germany had a university and and you know it was a little town that was there and the University students and the townspeople they refer to it as a towns versus gowns gowns in the sense of graduates and where you see their gear and academics towns versus gowns dispute and they mixed it up a little bit and I don't we don't have much violence and stuff that were but there was there was there was issues and um and so the the Dean of the school or the the the chaplain there at the University on that Sunday gave a sermon called the Philistines be upon you and it's to take off of Judges chapter 16 verse 20 with with Delilah said that to Samson Philistines be upon you to see what would happen and with his haircuts and so he blasted the town he for being uneducated uninterested in culture people and that actually became sort of a term of the philistine term in German and that it brought over in the English and so so if you're called a Philistine today now you may have been called a Neanderthal at times to just a few yeah you know yeah a Philistine would be uncultured anti-education anti-intellectual and that's all use of the term today and if it's based on a biblical text but the Bible is often criticized for making the Philistines sound like such uncultured people it really doesn't do that and certainly archaeology doesn't demonstrate that about him yeah yeah so they had they had quite an extensive culture all right so we read about we read about the Philistines they sort of show up on the scene after the after the conquest you know in the judges period right and but where Gary let's talk about you know who are they where did they come from and how did they become sort of the Nemesis of Israel and friend for so long you know until until finally believe David and Solomon finally brought them under control talk about that a little bit the Bible talks about the seven nations of Canaan there were seven people groups that were divided up into sort of nations like in Genesis chapter 10 the table of Nations so there were seven different groups that were Canaanite groups that lived in the Holy Land and they they they had city-states a major city and then land and villages and maybe even was another small city around it and and they they spent their time fighting with each other and then when the Egyptians showed up they try to reunite against the Egyptians but to no avail so Philistines were not original Canaanites they were not part of that original group the Bible puts them coming particularly from the the Aegean world so the Aegean Sea is the big Mediterranean Sea in the Aegean Sea between Western Turkey and Greece that that part is referred to as the Aegean Sea and all those Islands hundreds of them yeah yeah thousand even Oh everyone's even they're just small ones even and they basically all belong to Greece today Greek islands today but from that whole region from western Turkey from the mainland Greece from the islands and especially Crete and even Cyprus from that area the Philistines were a group of actually there's a list of seven like there seven nations of Canaan there's seven tribes or nations of sea people people who came in boats from the Aegean area and they went to Canaan they also went to Egypt and there's a there's a there's a famous battle scene that took place at the mouth of the Nile and what we don't know exactly how we relate that when they first settled in Canaan and when they had this battle and scholars battle about that as to which came first chicken of the egg yeah but either way the Philistines wind up living in mass as families on the coast of Canaan and so they're there see people who sailed in on their ships and settled there and did a pretty good job of influencing things for a couple hundred years before the Israelites really under David's leadership finally took them out all right so the the Philistines are from another land another from not an island nation yeah and they've migrated in and they're not Canaanite and I think that's confused by people all the time yeah they they kind of equate Canaanites Philistines through all the enemies of Israel right well and to be honest one of the the word Palestine the word Palestine which is a word we use for the Holy Land of course it was it was famous in the early 20th century it was Alistair Jordan and Israel were both Palestine and that was a term that was coined by the in the Roman period right and we think it was an anti Semitic term used to describe guys who a nation of people who came late and left early left in the sense of just sort of assimilated and just disappeared defeated assimilated disappeared and the Romans did that rather than giving the Jews any props they just turned it by somebody that was an enemy of the Jews who the Jews defeated but don't let history get in the way and so on so that term and today Palestinians who are Arab peoples living in the in the land they will try to make that connection and claim there's just no real good historical evidence for that so the Palestinians that we know today the Arab people and was robbed is the neighbor word the Hebrew word for desert and there there were desert dwellers that's what Arab the original word men in Hebrew and so they they live in that region but they're descendants of Abraham and wife couture and others according to our understanding they weren't related to the Philistines at all yeah so there's no ethnic relationship there's just a name that's been given no yeah yeah it shows you how important history is understanding that so circling back now to their arrival there you know Scott said that they're not Canaanite you know a lot of people confuse that so they have their own distinct material culture yes and they're in the five cities that are established or maybe talk about that a little bit the five cities okay so there's there's a there's five cities that are regularly mentioned and there doesn't seem to be a king over all of them they all seem to be working together and affect via the translation of the word for the leaders the lords of those cities they're often that translation even means tyrants so these were these were military political leaders of these cities then there's another word for Philistine commanders military leaders so they're quite a system of political system military system and these five cities were that were the major pour point of contact and two g's two a's and an e can you name them let's see hmm - geez gosh gasps gasps yeah Gesser yeah no no that was a Philistine city but not on the five ways so we got a ways Ascalon yeah it's quiz time digging for truth early you can prepare for this that's right there is a Crone all right you do it again for our audience okay Gary - jeez no one yeah Philistine one - jeez - a zani Gaza the Gaza Strip that was familiar with and that was actually a famous Egyptian outpost on the via Maris coming from Egypt up into the to Cyril Palestine - Canaan right along the coastline the road along the coastline and the Philistines went up taking over that city Gaza gasps Hebrew they say got and then Ashdod and ashkelon and a Crone and echoes of the one farthest inland I actually excavated in a Crone in 1985 back when I had hair yes yes I believe I had hair back then too their culture is very distinct their pottery is extremely different from the local Canaanite pottery different from Egyptian pottery and it actually has its roots you can see evidence of their pottery being very similar to stuff that was in my Sania Greece and Minoan Crete all of that kind of stuff shows up they have a whole bunch of dress clothing all kinds of cultural aspects they're very similar to that part of the world not somatic Canaanite not Egyptian at all yeah fascinating and and Henry used the phrase a moment ago material culture yeah it's kind of what we're talking about the material culture but you find what'd you find in doing the work of archaeology different types of pottery and designs and also things we know that they're Philistine yes in a culture of intense Bible denying skepticism associates for biblical research exists to strengthen followers of Jesus by affirming the authority of the Bible our archaeological fieldwork and original research form a strong foundation in upholding the reliability of the Scriptures for students or anyone asking if they can really trust the Bible please visit our website and partner with us by joining our prayer team or financially supporting this ministry and thank you for standing with us [Music] hi welcome back to digging for truth I'm your co-host Henry Smith we've been discussing with Gary Byers and Scott Lancer my fellow co-hosts about the Philistines who were they and where did they come from we talked about the fact that they came from the region of Greece and they landed on the coast of Canaan we're gonna pick up that conversation now we hope you enjoy this segment I was thinking about an apologetic question Gary we've talked about this many times but for our audience you know the Israelites conquer the land a lot of people think it was the whole land but it wasn't the whole land right away mainly the Highlands they controlled the coastal plain was still controlled by Egypt and then along come these Philistines talk about how that that sort of fits in the biblical picture here of of you know the Philistines come along and settle when it appears some people think that well I thought Israel control the whole land so want you to take that around with it very good even in the book of Joshua it's noted that Israel did not conquer all the land that they could have had yes they they inherited that land God gave it to him and gave the boundaries but they never controlled it never took it over never occupied all of it which they could have should have and that's in Joshua the first chapter of Judges is a really sad statement the whole book of Judges sort of the dark ages of Israel yeah the first chapter it mentions eight different tribes that did not take control of all the land God gave them a terrible indictment of God's people not stepping up and doing what they were given to do could have done empowered to do but whatever the reasons we just don't seem to get around to it I got that disease yeah yeah right so we all so the Canaanites the the Israelites really did take the central mountains really did control that and other other places but really the the rest of the land was was still in the hands of the Canaanites and the Philistines came in on the coast and that coastal area they really carved out now there's there's material culture evidence of Canaanite stuff along with all this Philistine stuff and even some what we would call Israelite stuff connected so they there was there were trading relationships there was some interaction on some level we have no idea how much but there certainly was and so there was it was Canaanite stuff there there was Israelite stuff there there was Egyptian stuff there but it was overwhelmingly Philistine so maybe we could talk a little bit about you know our audience those familiar with the Bible anyone who's gone to Sunday school grew up a church knows about Philistines right so we got some major events we have these two have Samson right it's one of the probably the classic and the other classic is David and Goliath yeah right so so the Philistines are real people coming from a real place who've invaded the land so maybe talk about a couple of these events in scripture whatever you like and sort of let's connect them up a little bit okay well the Philistines especially in the in the Samson story Samson gets married to to this Philistine girl and there's there's a lot of drinking going on and and the very very famous American archaeologist William Fox well albright referred to them as my teeka rousers mighty corral how do you preserve and there's even a vessel a beautiful vessel not just Philistine but we there's a beautiful and regular vessel we find parts of all the time and it had a big spout with holes in it and it was considered to be possibly it could have been that plus other things but a beer jug where the Philistines they would make their barley beer and they would be pouring it out the spout and the holes would would keep the the husks of the bar coming out in there barley beer as they were getting ready to drink it so so that they found these jugs and we got the all these guys in all these drinking parties and so we've decided the mighty carouses and that was part of the the negative image certainly that people said well the Bible says that they were those kind of guys but the Israelites did their share drinking to on more than one occasion and some other bad stuff so they weren't the only ones so the Samson story he does defeat them it's an it's an interesting story how he destroys their their temple at his death and in the Bible phrase Samson actually slew more Philistines in his death than he did in his Lions life and you know it's an interesting legacy that for some of us maybe on our passing we'd go out the right way and we actually have a greater impact for God then maybe we did in our whole lives and and and you know if that's the way I gotta go I'm okay with that I wanna I want to have an impact now but if that's the way I should go out then I I hope I'll do it well so so Samson and and the Philistines and and he really did they didn't really go at it and archaeologically we think the idea of the temple falling down and the pillars archaeologically we've got evidence of pillars inside Philistine temples and a couple couple phases one in particular that we that we know oven you can actually get a sense of that story happening not necessarily as we saw in Sunday school but that you can really get a sense of that story being a real story so the the the Samson thing where the Philistines was very real in the book of Judges and he wasn't the only one that messed with him but but others did too but that was the major story by Boleyn spade is a non-technical quarterly publication published by the associates for biblical research written from a scholarly and conservative viewpoint Bible and spade supports the inerrancy of the biblical record and as it must read for both the serious Bible student and anyone asking if they can really trust the Bible archaeological evidence properly interpreted upholding the history of the Bible subscribe today at Bible archaeology org [Music] [Music] hi welcome back to digging for truth we've been having a roundtable discussion with Gary Byers archaeologists and member of the ABR staff and we've been talking about the Philistines who were they why are they important and some of the archaeological evidence related to the biblical accounts we'll pick up our conversation now in our next segment we hope you enjoy it Goliath is referred to as a get tight you know what I get ideas I do not if somebody lives in gasps yea-ah fight is a good Tigers a good size it's soda like that of the Philistines yeah yeah yep and he was one one of the people of that city presumably he was Philistine by by by ethnic background but it could have been a Canaanite who was there and he just his conscripted he's he's a he's clearly a Philistine soldier but maybe or maybe he was and maybe came from you know his people may or may not come from the Aegean interesting at at Gath a pottery shared from roughly the time of David maybe just a little later but in that very time period 10th century for sure there's a pottery sure that was found with two names and it wasn't the name Goliath but the names were so similar to Goliath that scholars said well it's it's it's so similar that it's coming from the same culture the same language etymologically it's basically the same word so we we don't have a pottery shade that says Goliath on it but we've got names two names that are so similar that you know part of the same family the right time the right place the right kind of language is like kind of people interestingly enough so he's there among them he's a large man the Bible makes that clear depending on which text he's he's nine foot nine or he's about six foot six the Septuagint has a little different twist on it but either way larger than most when we measure the skeletal remains from - from from the Iron Age the Israelite period you really don't get people that are six-foot so Goliath was was a large man he was from Gathol get tight he was fighting with the Philistines whether Philistine ethnically Philistine or not and they decided with the Israelites that they would have this contest of Champions our champion will fight your champion and whoever wins wins the battle yeah the idea there is we won't fight a war these two are gonna represent us and we'll all agree whoever wins you win that is not a normal thing that was done in the Canaanite Egyptian world yeah but that was done in the Greek world yeah the story of Troy the Iliad the Odyssey that that was what they did and they're coming out of that it's sort of the pre Greek well not pre Greek but classical Greek would be Alexander later but there they come out of the Aegean Sea people's culture and and we would roughly date the destruction of Troy we would roughly date that around 1200 and we're putting the Philistines in within 50 years on the coast so it was it was it that was their world and so it was their idea and you know the Israelites were struggling with it first off because the guy was really big and and secondly they weren't familiar with the concept and so was the biggest guy there and he had good armor but he wasn't going out and and course the you know story David decided that he would that's fascinating yeah very interesting so did we establish when the Philistines arrived when did they show up we we have now the Bible makes reference to Philistines in the days of Abraham on the coast and so we we believe that there were a Gian people the Bible word is Philistine there were Aegean people who came by the sea and did settle in in certain certain places so we think this pre it wasn't the Philistine migration and an empire or a nation group that they were nothing like that but there were Philistines there earlier but the Philistine invasion maybe it wasn't an invasion maybe they're just a migration whatever it was they did fight the major sea battle there at the mouth of the Nile with the Egyptians during the days of Ramses the third we put that about eleven eleven seventy seven something like that and so we know they came in mass in force at that time and there there is some evidence of Philistines on the land and Philistines on the sea and around that time in that time period is when we see them also sitting on the coast of Canaan the Israelites our understanding is the Israelites showed up a couple hundred years earlier so they're already there in the mountains Philistines came later then the Israelites did to the to the Holy Land very interesting well I think it's fascinating that the word Philistine has traveled down to this time to be a kind of a pejorative term if you're called a Philistine but it's not really rooted in in what we find in biblical history at all these were austere people these were warriors and they seem to have their act together they knew how to sail across the Aegean they knew how to get to two to the LaVon area and and and and fight wars there and and caused a lot of grief for establishing material culture yeah so they weren't barbarians by any stretch of the imagination yeah so the biblical accounts really are as it's amazing the the the conflict between the Philistines and the Israelites well we're going to continue this fascinating discussion aren't we and with this the Philistines are a fascinating subject area we really appreciate you being here today today we had a great conversation with Gary Byers about the reliability of the biblical accounts as it relates to the Philistines we discovered that there's a great deal of archaeological evidence that shows the accuracy of the Scriptures this is no surprise to us since we know the Bible's the Word of God but nonetheless the archaeology helps demonstrate that we can trust what the Bible says we hope you enjoyed today's program thank you for joining us [Music] [Music]

Channel: Associates for Biblical Research

Views: 41,136

Rating: 4.7284594 out of 5

Keywords: Philistines, Golaith, Gath, Ekron, Ashkelon, Archaeology, Bible, King David, Ashdod

Id: OWVtZLHm6kA

Length: 26min 35sec (1595 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2019