In contrast, James King West finds that the hostilities between the Philistines and Hebrews appear to be of a " purely personal and local sort ".

Other than Israel ’ s arch-nemesis – the Philistines – the Hivites appear to be an exception to the rule of circumcision which does lend them quite a distinction among the tribes of Canaan during this time period.

Jacob Lassner and Selwyn Ilan Troen offer a different view, writing that Jund Filastin, the full name for the administrative province under the rule of the Arab caliphates, was traced by Muslim geographers back to the Philistines of the Bible.

Though the Philistines adopted local Canaanite culture and language before leaving any written texts ( and later adopted the Aramaic language ), an Indo-European origin has been suggested for a handful of known Philistine words that survived as loanwords in Hebrew.

Inscriptions written by the Philistines have not yet been found or conclusively identified ; however, their early history is known to scholars from inscriptions in other ancient documents, such as Ancient Egyptian texts.

Nevertheless, other classical rabbinical texts mock the tribe for the character it has in the deuteronomic history, claiming that Ephraim, being headstrong, left Egypt 30 years prior to the Exodus, and on arrival in Canaan was subjected to a disastrous battle with the Philistines ; in the Midrashic Jasher this is portrayed as a rebellion of Ephraim against God, resulting in the slaying of all but 10, and the bleached bones of the slaughtered being strewn across the roads, so much so that the circuitous route of the Exodus was simply an attempt by God to prevent the Israelites from having to suffer the sight of the remains.

The Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant from Shiloh and take it to the temple of their god Dagon, who recognises the supremacy of Yahweh.

In this account, the Philistines of Ashdod were stricken with a plague for the crime of stealing the Ark of the Covenant from the Children of Israel.

The Philistines are subdued, the Moabites to the east pay tribute, along with Hadadezer of Zobah, from whom David takes gold shields and bronze vessels.

The Philistines (,,, or ;, 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.

The Teresh are thought to have originated from the Anatolian coast and their association with the Peleshet in this inscription is seen as providing some information on the possible origin and identity of the Philistines.

The Torah does not record the Philistines as one of the nations to be displaced from Canaan.

In Genesis 15: 18-21 the Philistines are absent from the ten nations Abraham's descendents will displace as well as being absent from the list of nations Moses tells the people they will conquer ( Deut.

God also intentionally directed the Israelites away from the Philistines upon their exit from Egypt according to Exodus 13: 17.

The archaeological remains that are considered to date from the time of Solomon are notable for the fact that Canaanite material culture appears to have continued unabated ; there is a distinct lack of magnificent empire, or cultural development-indeed comparing pottery from areas traditionally assigned to Israel with that of the Philistines points to the Philistines having been significantly more sophisticated.

* () The Philistines return with an army to attack Israel, but, having amassed on a hillside opposite to the Israelite forces, suggest that to save effort and lives on both sides, it would be better to have a proxy combat between their champion, a Rephaim from Gath named Goliath, and someone of Saul's choosing.

Saul persuades David that the bride price would only be 100 foreskins from the Philistines ; he secretly hopes that David will be slain trying to achieve this.

* 1050 BC: Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant from Israel in battle.

* 1050 BC — Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant from Israel in battle.

The southern highlands of the region were later named Judea after the kingdom of Judah, while the coastal region came to be known as Παλαιστίνη in Greek ( Latin Palaestina ), from the name of the Philistines.

The Philistines, while an integral part of the Canaanite milieu, do not seem to have been ethnically homogenous with the Canaanites ; the Hurrians ( who spoke a language isolate ), Hittites ( Indo-European speakers ), as well as the Semitic Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites, are also considered " distinct " from generic Canaanites / Amorites, in scholarship or in tradition ( although in the Biblical Book of Nations, " Heth ", Hittites are a son of Canaan, despite the fact that it has been proven beyond doubt that the Hittites spoke an Indo-European language ).

A man of Kirjath-jearim widely identified as a Levite ( but possibly a Judahite ), in whose house the ark of the covenant was deposited after having been brought back from the land of the Philistines ().

Mount Ide, ( Ίδη ) or Pselorites ( Ψηλορείτης ) is located in Crete, and according to one theory the Philistines may originate from Crete.

Biblical scholars regard this as an eponym rather than an individual, and it is thought possible that the name is a corruption of Halusah ; with the identification of Ziklag as Haluza, this suggests that Ziklag was the original base from which the Philistines captured the remainder of their territory.

* Ark narrative ( 1 Samuel 4: 1b-7: 1 and 2 Samuel 6: 1-20 ): the ark's capture by the Philistines in the time of Eli and its transfer to Jerusalem by David-opinion is divided over whether this is actually an independent unit.

As time went on, the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle.

It is quite possible that for the initial period of time, the Philistines were housed in Egypt, only subsequently late in the troubled end of the reign of Ramses III would they have been allowed to settle Philistia.

() claims that by the time of David, the town was under the control of Philistines, but subsequently was given by their king-Achish-to David, who at that time was seemingly acting as a vassal of the Philistines.

A second time, however, the Philistines rallied their forces in this valley ().

Samson's activity takes place during a time when God was punishing the Israelites, by giving them " into the hand of the Philistines ".

He played bass guitar and sang for a time in the bands The Philistines and The Flying Padovanis.

His reign is synchronised to the time the High Priest Eli was judge in Israel, and the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines.

The five main cities of the Philistines during the time of the Kings of Israel were Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath.

" The third time, he told her, " If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web ...." On the fourth occasion, he gave her the true reason: that he did not cut his hair in fulfillment of a vow to God ; and Delilah, when Samson was asleep on her knees, called up her man to shave off the seven locks from his head, then betrayed him to his enemies: " The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass ; and he did grind in the prison house.

Apparently the Tabernacle was removed before the Philistines arrived, and it was shipped to Gibeon, where it remained until David's time.

During the wars in the time of Saul, Geba was held as a garrison by the Philistines ( 1Sa 13: 3 ), but they were ejected by Jonathan.

By the time Saul and his men came on the scene, many of the Philistines had slaughtered one another in confusion and the rest had taken to flight.

In the time of Saul, the Philistines massed their forces between Sokho and Azekah, putting forth Goliath as their champion ().

Derivations of this sudden expansion are the Sea Peoples that attacked Egypt unsuccessfully for some time, including the Philistines ( Pelasgians?

* Neal Bierling, Giving Goliath his Due: New Archaeological Light on the Philistines ( 1992 )

* Philadelphia: Patricians and Philistines, 1900 – 1950 ( New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1981 ).