The Name: Philistines: Palestines

 Nadene Goldfoot       

                                  

Ancient ship of Phoenecia or Philistines

The worst enemy the Kingdom of Israel ever had were the Philistines who originated from Asia Minor and Greek localities.  They reached Eretz Canaan in various waves.  

One group arrived in the pre-patriarchal period and settle South of Beersheba in Gerar in  the Western Negev where they came into conflict with Abraham (1948 BCE)  and his son, Isaac.  It's king was Abimelech.  Abraham concluded a pact of friendship (Gen.21.)  Their meeting sounds a little like the relations between Isaac and his father, Abraham.(Gen.26).  Abimelech was friendly with both Abraham and Isaac, our Patriarchs.  The biblical city of Gerar is thought to be located in the valley of Wady Sheri'a, in the western Negev of Israel. The mound of Tel Haror is generally considered to be the site of ancient Gerar. 

Another group, coming from Crete after being repulsed from  Egypt by Rameses III in 

1194 BCE, seized the Southern coastal area of Canaan.  There they founded 5 cities: 

Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath.   

By nature, these sea people were a fighting people, and they dominated parts of one of the 12 states of Israel, which was Judah,  in the period of the Judges; that is, before King Saul's years.  

King Saul (1030-1010 BCE)  at first repelled the danger but was ultimately defeated.  King David (1010-970 BCE) , however, ended the era of Philistine domination and overran Philistia.  According to the Old Testament, King David fought in at least two battles against the Philistines: one at Baal Perazim and one at the Valley of Rephaim. 

• David's first battle was against Goliath, a Philistine giant. David's victory over Goliath made him famous. 
• David's victories against the Philistines, along with his victories against other tribes, helped the Israelites expand their empire and secure their borders. 
• David's victories brought prestige to his realm and Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. 

When the Israelite kingdom dissolved after king Solomon's death in 920 BCE, the Philistines re-established their independence but were never thereafter a serious factor.  

In the Persian ((538-332 BCE)  and  the following Greek periods, foreign settlers--chiefly from the Mediterranean island---overran the Philistine districts.  

From the time of Herodotus (Ancient Greek: c. 484 – c. 425 BC) who was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BCE, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy, the  Greeks called the Kingdom of Israel's state of Judah, which in Hebrew was Eretz Yisrael, after the Philistines.  (People came from Syria Palaestina) with both names. Arabs asked where they were from and they replied:  Syria Palaestina.)  

Simeon Bar Kokhba

Under Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE/AD, the Romans gave the name officially to the former land of Judah.  What happened was that Bar Kokhba, nephew of Rabbi Eleazar of Modiin and reportedly of Davidic descent, was the Jewish leader of a rebellion against the Romans and fought from 132-135 when he was killed but had held Jerusalem for those 3 years.  It was embarrassing to the Romans to lose for that long against the Jews.  From then on the Romans called Eretz Yisrael as Palestine, to honor the Jews' worst enemy out of spite of losing to Bar Kokhba !  The Romans wanted to minimize the Jewish association of the   country.   Israel's enemies who were trying to take their land had been calling the land Palestine occasionally.  

There never was a country named Palestine which included a government and a special people.  It was the Jewish land of Judah renamed by the Jewish enemies from Rome for another more ancient enemy that they had had, the Philistines.  

Before Israel was re-born on May 14, 1948, Jews born in Eretz Yisrael were also labeled as Palestinians or being born in Palestine, just like the Arabs were called.  

Resource

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

JBS