Biblical Philistines: Goliath, Samson and Delilah— and Undeserved Bad Rap? | Middle East And North Africa

Home | Category: Ancient Hebrews and Events During Their Time / David and Solomon / Ancient Hebrews and Events During Their Time / David and Solomon

PHILISTINES IN THE BIBLE

Kingdoms of the Levant in 830 BC with the Philistine states

The Philistines were the great enemies of the post-Moses Hebrews. They arrived in Canaan perhaps from Crete and lived along the Mediterranean coast in cities like Ekron (20 miles southwest of Jerusalem). Delilah was a Philistine who discovered the secret of Samson's strength and betrayed him. The Philistines killed the Hebrew King Saul. Goliath, the giant slain by David, was also a Philistine.

The Philistines were a seafaring people that settled on the Palestine coast in the 12th century B.C. They brought early Greek culture to Holy Land and are thought to have originated from Aegean region. They were one of about a half dozen or more Sea People that arrived in the eastern Mediterranean in the 12th century B.C. They were expert metalsmiths and similar to Phoenicians in some ways. While there are a number of theories abound as to where the Philistine came from — and how they arrived — no one really knows for sure.

In the Bible the Philistines were characterized as thuggish destroyers. The word Philistine has come to mean a hedonistic, uneducated person. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Philistine as a “smug, ignorant, especially middle-class person who is regarded as being indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values."

The Bible is the only lengthy written source on the Philistines. The bad rap the Philistines get seems to be based on the fact that they fought with the Israelites for the better part of two centuries.

Ilan Ben Zion wrote in Archaeology Magazine: Until archaeologists began to excavate the cities of the Pentapolis, also known as Philistia, the Philistines were largely known through the work of the scribes who first began to write the books of the Hebrew Bible hundreds of years after the Sea Peoples reached the Levant. These scribes cast the Philistines as the Israelites’ uncircumcised, pagan archenemies, who fought against some of the Bible’s most prominent figures. [Source: Ilan Ben Zion, Archaeology Magazine, July-August 2022]

“According to the Bible, the Israelite judge Samson slew 1,000 Philistine warriors with the jawbone of an ass and pulled down the pillars of a temple to Dagon, the principal Philistine god. After the Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant, Saul, Israel’s first king, fell on his sword rather than be taken captive. Saul’s son-in-law and eventual heir, King David, dueled with the Philistine hero Goliath of Gath and felled the giant with a slingshot. The Bible’s pejorative depiction of the Philistines has so pervaded Western culture that, more than 3,000 years on, “philistine” remains a byword for an unsophisticated person indifferent or hostile to artistic and intellectual pursuits.

Websites and Resources: Virtual Jewish Library jewishvirtuallibrary.org/index ; Judaism101 jewfaq.org ; torah.org torah.org ; Chabad,org chabad.org/library/bible ; Yivo Institute of Jewish Research yivoinstitute.org ; Bible and Biblical History: ; Biblical Archaeology Society biblicalarchaeology.org ; Bible History Online bible-history.com Bible Gateway and the New International Version (NIV) of The Bible biblegateway.com ; King James Version of the Bible gutenberg.org/ebooks ; Jewish History: Jewish History Timeline jewishhistory.org.il/history Jewish History Resource Center dinur.org ; Center for Jewish History cjh.org ; Jewish History.org jewishhistory.org ; Internet Jewish History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu

Battles between the Israelites and the Philistines

According to Encyclopædia Britannica: The Philistines expanded into neighbouring areas and soon came into conflict with the Israelites, a struggle represented by the Samson saga (Judges 13–16) in the Hebrew Bible. Possessing superior arms and military organization, the Philistines were able (c. 1050 bce) to occupy part of the Judaean hill country. The Philistines’ local monopoly on smithing iron (I Samuel 13:19), a skill they probably acquired in Anatolia, was likely a factor in their military dominance during this period. They were finally defeated by the Israelite king David (10th century), and thereafter their history was that of individual cities rather than of a people. After the division of Judah and Israel (10th century), the Philistines regained their independence and often engaged in border battles with those kingdoms. [Source: Encyclopædia Britannica]

Philistines defeat the Israelites

The following is a list of battles described in the Bible as having occurred between the Israelites and the Philistines:
The Battle of Shephelah (2 Chronicles 28:18).
Israelites defeated at the Battle of Aphek, Philistines capture the Ark (1 Samuel 4:1–10).
Philistines defeated at the Battle of Eben-Ezer (1 Samuel 7:3–14). [Source: Wikipedia +]

Some Philistine military success must have taken place subsequently, allowing the Philistines to subject the Israelites to a localised disarmament regime (1 Samuel 13:19–21 states that no Israelite blacksmiths were permitted and they had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their agricultural implements).

Skirmish at Michmash, Philistines routed by Jonathan and his men (1 Samuel 14).
Near the Valley of Elah, David defeats Goliath in single combat (1 Samuel 17).
The Philistines defeat Israelites on Mount Gilboa, killing King Saul and his three sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malkishua (1 Samuel 31).
Hezekiah defeats the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory (2 Kings 18:5–8).

Samson and Delilah

Delilah, the central figure of Samson’s last love story (Judges 16) in the Old Testament, was a Philistine. She was bribed and coaxed Samson into revealing that the secret of his strength was his long hair. Samson lost his strength because Delilah tricked him into cutting off his hair . She was offered 1,100 pieces of silver for betraying Samson's secret and turned him over to his enemies. Her name has since been linked sexy, double-crossing women. One the lessons learned from Samson and Delilah, David Plotz wrote in “The Good Book”: “1) Women are deceptive and heartless” and “2) Men are too stupid and sex-crazed to realize this."

Delilah ordered a servant to cut Samson’s hair while he was sleeping and turned him over to his Philistine enemies, who gouged out his eyes.When the Philistines took Samson into their temple of Dagon, Samson asked to rest against one of the support pillars. After being given permission to do so he prayed to God and miraculously recovered his strength, allowing him to push over the columns, bringing the temple down, killing himself and all the Philistines with him. Some say Samson is buried in Tel Tzora in Israel. +

As Candida Moss tells the story in the Daily Beast: Despite several failed attempts by Delilah to discover his secret, Samson is not suspicious of Delilah’s motivations and eventually reveals to her that his Nazirite vow and uncut hair are the source of his abilities. Delilah lulls him to sleep and, as he rests, has his hair cut. When he wakes, he is captured by the Philistines, who gouge out his eyes, place him in shackles, and force him to work by turning a millstone to grind grain. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, July 19, 2020]

Sometime later the Philistines decide to throw a celebration to thank their deity, Dagon, for delivering Samson to them. They decide to trot out Samson for their entertainment, but in the intervening period Samson’s hair has grown long again. The now blind Samson asks a boy to lead him up to the Temple of Dagon. Once there he grasps the pillars of the temple and brings the structure down upon himself, the Philistines, and (presumably) the boy. We never learn what happened to Delilah.

Samson

Samson Destroys the Philstines with an ass jawbone

Samson (meaning "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last of the leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution of the monarchy. He is sometimes considered to be an Israelite version of the popular ancient folk heroes such as the Sumerian Enkidu and the Greek Heracles. The Bible describes Samson as a Nazirite who performed superhuman feats such as slaying a lion with his bare hands and slaughtering an entire army of Philistines using only the jawbone of a donkey. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Candida Moss wrote in the Daily Beast: In the Bible, Samson is an undeniably flawed figure. He is the last in a series of "judges" who lived during a period when God punished the Israelites by allowing them to fall victim to the military might of their enemies, the Philistines. Like many in the Bible, his birth was the result of divine intervention. His mother was unable to conceive, but an angel appeared to her and told her that her son would deliver the Israelites from the Philistines and instructed her that Samson must be a Nazirite from birth. A Nazirite is someone who vows not to drink alcohol, eat unclean foods, cut his hair, or shave. A number of remarkable events punctuate Samson’s biography and most of them relate to his superhuman strength: in one story, he rips a lion apart with his bare hands, in another, he kills a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, July 19, 2020]

Gerald A. Larue wrote in “Old Testament Life and Literature”: “Like many other heroes, Samson had a miraculous birth: his mother, hitherto barren, was informed by a divine messenger that she was to conceive, the child was to be a Nazirite, living under a vow of consecration. As a grown man, Samson's particular gift was his superhuman strength, and the secret of his magnificent strength lay in his Nazirite relationships to Yahweh, symbolized by his long hair. When he revealed this secret to his Philistine bride, Delilah, he was betrayed to his enemies. Samson's story is important for what it portrays of Hebrew-Philistine relationships. Despite the tendency to maintain separate national identities, there was intermarriage of the sadiqa type, in which the wife remained with her parents and the husband paid periodic visits. Rivalry between Hebrews and Philistines was keen and some skirmishes did occur, but there was no open warfare. It is interesting that no language problem appears to have existed; Hebrews and Philistines were able to communicate without difficulty. [Source: Gerald A. Larue, “Old Testament Life and Literature,” 1968, infidels.org]

Black Samson

One biblical character who has — for Americans, at least — been consistently portrayed as Black, though, is the Hebrew Bible hero Samson. Candida Moss wrote in the Daily Beast: There’s nothing in the Bible itself that describes Samson’s physical appearance. Though later rabbinic sources discuss the breadth of his shoulders, the biblical text does not even say that Samson was tall or muscular, much less provide a description of his skin tone. It was not inevitable that African-Americans would identify with Samson, but they did, just as it was not inevitable that Jesus be conceived of as white. [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, July 19, 2020]

Black Samson

The richly documented and eye-opening “Black Samson”, co-authored by Temple University religious studies professors Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper, charts the history of Samson’s interpretation from before our nation’s founding all the way into 21st century TV and comic books. Junior and Schipper show that Samson has been a way for Americans from a “variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds to talk frankly about race for over two hundred years.” By researching previously ignored first-person narratives of enslaved and formerly enslaved people, newspaper articles, modern media, and poetry, they argue that the ambiguities in the Samson story make him an interesting and complicated figure with which to think about race and modes of resisting injustice.

It is because Samson “was blinded, captured, and enslaved, and a number of early American interpreters connect his experiences to those of enslaved Africans,” the authors told me. That enslaved Africans identified and were identified by others with Samson, in turn led to his conceptualization as a Black man, not only in recent blaxploitation movies like Black Samson but also in much earlier artwork, cartoons, and literary descriptions dating back to the colonial period. In some instances, like the recent History channel series The Bible, Samson’s depiction as a Black man contrasts quite starkly with the casting of, for example, Delilah, as a white woman. The casting choices drew some controversy. The authors cite scholar and blogger Wil Gafney, who pointed out at the time that the show perpetuated a stereotype of the physically strong “brutish” Black man with “a predilection for white women.”

Black Samson and Black Activism and Militantism

Candida Moss wrote in the Daily Beast: Where Samson is controversial is in the manner of his victory and death. Samson sacrifices himself in order to kill countless Philistines. On the one hand many, like Malcolm X, have seen Samson as a martyr, with whom they can identify and relate. When, in 1859, the white militant abolitionist John Brown was executed for trying to start an armed revolt, Fales Henry Newhall explicitly compared his actions to those of Samson. Frederick Douglass made the same point in the conclusion of his editorial about why “Captain John Brown Was Not Insane,” arguing that Brown had “like Samson… laid his hands upon the pillars of the great national temple of cruelty and blood.” [Source: Candida Moss, Daily Beast, July 19, 2020]

The association of militant activists with Black Samson was responsive as well. Junior and Schipper tell the story of Douglas Miranda, a captain for the Boston chapter of the Black Panthers, who was arrested with a group of other Panthers as he drove from New Haven, Connecticut, to Boston. The group was bailed out but not before police officers cut their hair as an effort to degrade and humiliate them. According to an article in the Black Panther newspaper “the pigs…were probably caught up in the fable of Samson.” As the authors wryly note, “The police officers’ abuse of the arrested Panthers would not dissuade their commitment to the revolutionary cause any more than Samson’s haircut had stopped his actions against the Philistines.”

For others, Samson’s quest for vengeance, which ultimately motivated his destruction of the temple, proved somewhat unpalatable. Marcus Garvey’s 1923 statement that, “If the world fails to give you consideration, because you are black men, because you are Negroes, four hundred millions of you shall, throughout organization, shake the pillars of the universe and bring down creation, even as Samson brought down the temple upon his head and upon the heads of the Philistines” brims with threats of almost cosmic violence. Though he himself was inaccurately accused of inciting others to violence, Martin Luther King, Jr., rejected the idea of Samson the martyr as a model for emulation. The “Samson complex,” some argued, was dangerous morally ambiguous. After all, as writer Ralph Ellison pointed out in the 1960s, the biblical Samson had led an innocent boy to his death. Toni Morrison highlights that the story ends poorly for everyone when she notes in The Bluest Eye that there “Ain’t no Samson never come to a good end.”

Goliath

David slays Goliath

The most famous Philistine was Goliath of Gath, a giant, who, according to the Bible, was defeated by David in a famous duel as was "six cubits and a span" (9 feet 6½ inches) tale. Most historians believe he was only about 6 feet 10 inches. According to the Bible the Philistines had issued a challenge for someone from the Jewish kingdom to fight Goliath, who carried a spear with a 20-pound head of iron and a shaft “like a weaver's beam” and wore a huge brass helmet and a coat of mail that weighed 160 pounds. No one came forward to take up the challenge.

David was delivering cheeses to three of his brothers when the challenge was made. He appeared to confront Goliath. He wore not armor; he was dressed only in shepherd's garments. His only weapon was a sling and five smooth stones. As Goliath approached him he placed a stone in the sling and let it fly. The stone penetrated Goliath's forehead and killed him. David cut off his head and presented it to the Jewish king. The event if it really took place occurred around 1060 B.C. According to The Bible: "And a champion went out from the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. And he had bronze armor on his legs and a bronze javelin between his shoulders. Now the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his iron spearhead weighed six hundred shekels; and a shield-bearer went before him" (1 Samuel 17:4–7).

Other Philistine Giants

Tim Chaffey wrote in answersingenesis.org: “The Bible mentions four more Philistine giants, who were relatives of Goliath from the region of Gath. Samuel 21:15–22 provides a more detailed account of these giants than the record of 1 Chronicles 20:4–8, but the latter passage does provide some extra information that helps us make sense of the passage. The additional details from 1 Chronicles are provided in brackets. [Source: Tim Chaffey, answersingenesis.org, February 22, 2012 ]

"When the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint. Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.” "

"Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob [or “Gezer”].19 Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph [or “Sippai”], who was one of the sons of the giant. Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim [or “Jair”] the Bethlehemite killed [“Lahmi”] the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. "

"Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant. So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. " "These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants" (2 Samuel 21:15–22). David’s mighty men killed giants named Ishbi-Benob, Saph (Sippai), and Lahmi, as well as an unnamed giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.20 Each of these men could have descended from the remnant of Anakim that survived in the region of Gath, Gaza, and Ashdod (Joshua 11:22).

Why the Philistines are Linked with Ignorance and Materialism

from the Ashdod-Philistine Culture Museum

Today the word philistine describes a person who is narrow-minded and materialistic but has no taste. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Philistine as a “smug, ignorant, especially middle-class person who is regarded as being indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values." In the fields of philosophy and æsthetics, the derogatory term philistinism denotes an anti-intellectual attitude that undervalues and despises art, beauty and spirituality.

Since the 19th century, the contemporary denotation of philistinism, as the behaviour of "ignorant, ill-behaved persons lacking in culture or artistic appreciation, and only concerned with materialistic values" derives from Matthew Arnold's adaptation to English of the German word Philister, as applied by university students in their antagonistic relations with the townspeople of Jena, Germany, where, in 1689, a row resulted in several deaths. [Source: Wikipedia +]

In the aftermath, the university cleric addressed the town-vs-gown matter with an admonishing sermon "The Philistines Be Upon Thee", drawn from the Book of Judges (Chapt. 16, 'Samson vs the Philistines'), of the Tanakh and of the Christian Old Testament. In Word Research and Word History, the philologist Friedrich Kluge said that the word philistine originally had a positive meaning that identified a tall and strong man, such as Goliath; later the meaning changed to identify the "guards of the city". +

Newly Discovered Cemetery At Odds with the Philistines Bad Reputation

A team of archaeologists working at excavation site in the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon have uncovered a Philistine cemetery that appears to indicate they were not the thugish brutes they have been made out to be. The Leon Levy Expedition, which has been excavating in and around the Ashkelon since 1985, says the find is the first of its kind. "When we found this cemetery right next to a Philistine city, we knew we had it," Daniel Master, co-director of the expedition, tells The New York Times. "We have the first Philistine cemetery that's ever been discovered." [Source: Colin Dwyer, NPR, July 10, 2016]

Colin Dwyer of NPR wrote: “Researchers say the site — which is dated from between the 11th and 8th centuries B.C. — contains the remains of more than 150 bodies, variously arranged in single graves and larger burial chambers. And already, the circumstances of these burials are beginning to give lie to the Philistines' reputation as uncultured boors. For instance, small vials of perfume lay near the bodies, "presumably so that the deceased could smell perfume throughout eternity," according to the Israeli publication Haaretz. Among the remains, researchers also found arrowheads, bracelets and earrings. "This forms a baseline for what 'Philistine' is. We can already say that the cultural practices we see here are substantially different from the Canaanites and the highlanders in the east," Master tells Haaretz, referencing the Philistines' nearest neighbors.

“The discovery offers insight into the rituals with which the Philistines observed the end of an individual's life — yet the researchers say the most significant gift of the find may rest instead with a beginning of sorts: They hope that DNA and radiocarbon tests will eventually reveal the origins of the people, who made a mysterious entrance onto the historical stage in the early 12th century B.C., according to National Geographic. "The basic question we want to know is where this people are from," anthropologist Sherry Fox tells Haaretz. The Times reports the team will begin testing bone samples found at the site to see if indeed the people came from the Aegean Sea, as many believe, or another place of origin.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia, Commons, Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bible in Bildern, 1860, Black Samson from Christian Post

Text Sources: Internet Jewish History Sourcebook sourcebooks.fordham.edu “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “ Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); “Old Testament Life and Literature” by Gerald A. Larue, New International Version (NIV) of The Bible, biblegateway.com; Wikipedia, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, and various books and other publications.

Last updated March 2024