The Philistines ( /ˈfɪlɨstiːnz/, /ˈfɪlɨstaɪnz/, /fɨˈlɪstɨnz/, or /fɨˈlɪstiːnz/; Hebrew: פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Plištim), Pleshet or Peleset, were a people who as part of the Sea peoples appeared in the southern coastal area of Canaan at the beginning of the Iron Age (circa 1175 BC), most probably from the Aegean region. According to the Bible, they ruled the five city-states (the "Philistine Pentapolis") of Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath, from Wadi Gaza in the south to the Yarqon River in the north, but with no fixed border to the east. The Bible paints them as the Kingdom of Israel's most dangerous enemy. Originating somewhere in the Aegean, their population was around 25,000 in the 12th century BC, rising to a peak of 30,000 in the 11th century BC, of which the Aegean element was not more than half the total, and perhaps much less.
Nothing is known for certain about the language of the Philistines. 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.
Read more about Philistines: Etymology, Timeline, Origins, Philistines in The Bible
Famous quotes containing the word philistines:
“It will be difficult for me not to make sport for the Philistines by pulling down a house or two, since when I once take pen in hand, I must say what comes uppermost, or fling it away.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Dada hurts. Dada does not jest, for the reason that it was experienced by revolutionary men and not by philistines who demand that art be a decoration for the mendacity of their own emotions.... I am firmly convinced that all art will become dadaistic in the course of time, because from Dada proceeds the perpetual urge for its renovation.”
—Richard Huelsenbeck (1892–1974)