Philistines (Heb. Pelishtim; Gr. allopuloi, 'strangers'), a people mentioned in the Bible as being in frequent contact with the Jews, and who lived on the coast of the Mediterranean, to the south-west of Judæa, from Ekron towards the Egyptian frontier, bordering principally on the tribes of Dan, Simeon, and Judah. Our information about the origin of the Philistines is extremely obscure. The genealogical table in Genesis (x. 14) counts them among the Egyptian colonies (the 'Casluhim, out of whom came the Philistines'); according to Amos, ix. 7, Jeremiah, xlvii. 4, and Deuteronomy, ii. 23, they came from Caphtor—formerly, from mere resemblance of the word, identified with Cappadocia. Others have, groundlessly, derived them from the Pelasgians. Of late the tendency is to believe that the Philistines, who were undoubtedly immigrants, came from Crete, the collocation of Cherethites (Cretans) and Pelethites (2 Sam. viii. and xv.) favouring this view. But they seem to have become thoroughly Semitised in speech, their language being undistinguishable from pure Hebrew; and their gods Baalzebub and Dagon (q. v.) are apparently Semitic.
It is doubtful if Abimelech, king of Gerar (Gen. xxi., xxvi.), was king of this people or merely of the country afterwards Philistine; more probably the expulsion of the Danites (Judges, v., xviii.), presumably before the new invaders, marks their first appearance as aggressive enemies. They were subject to five princes, who ruled over the provinces of Gaza, Ashdod, Askalon, Gath, and Ekron. They were so powerful at the time of Eli that they carried away the ark itself. Under Samuel their rule was terminated by the battle of Mizpah. Saul was constantly engaged in warding off their new encroachments, and at Gilboa he and his sons fell in a disastrous battle against them. David succeeded in routing them repeatedly; and under Solomon their whole country seems to have been all but incorporated in the Jewish empire. The internal troubles of Judæa emboldened the Philistines once more to open resistance; but Hezekiah subdued their country with the aid of the Egyptians. The Assyrians afterwards took Ashdod; and in the time of the Maccabees the Philistines were Syrian subjects; by the time of Herod the name of the country had long been lost in that of Palestine. A civilised, agricultural, commercial, and warlike nation, they traded largely, and their wares seem to have been much sought after.
See the various histories of the Israelites cited at JEWS; Schrader's Keilinschriften (2d ed. 1883); Wright's Comp. Gram. of the Semitic Languages (1890).—German students call those who have ceased to be students, as well as non-students, tradesmen, &c., Philister or Philistines; hence the further sense of 'uncultured,' 'narrow-minded,' in which application the term has come to be used in Britain, especially through Mr Matthew Arnold's influence.