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ost people assume that the name Palestine derives from "Land of the Philistines" (Peleshet in the Hebrew Bible; see Psalms 60:10; Isaiah 14:29,31), via the Greek Palaistine and the Latin Palaestina. But there is evidence, both philological and geographical, that questions this traditional attribution. The name Palestine, surprisingly, may have originated as a Greek pun on the translations of "Israel" and the "Land of the Philistines."
Let us first consider the geographical problem. The Greek Palaistine and the Latin Palaestina appear frequently in ancient literature, but for the most part, they appear to refer not to the Land of the Philistines, but to the Land of Israel!
The Philistines-called Pelishtim in the Bible-arrived on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean from Greece or Cyprus by way of Egypt at the end of the Late Bronze Age (in about the 13th century B.C.E.). We know this because Philistine material culture has close affinities with contemporaneous Mycenaean culture, especially their pottery. The earliest references to the Philistines are found in Egyptian inscriptions, where they are referred to as Prst, one of several Sea Peoples. Egyptian reliefs portray Philistines in distinctive headgear engaged in a sea battle aboard ships that clearly differ from those of the Egyptians (see photo, above).*
In the late seventh century B.C.E., the Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar (the same one who two decades later destroyed Jerusalem and brought an end to the Davidic Monarchy) invaded the Land of the Philistines, leaving a swath of destruction. Some Philistines were even exiled to Babylon, just as the Israelites were. What happened to the Philistines afterward is a mystery. They seem to have lost their ethnic identity, for the Philistines, as we know them, simply disappear from the historical record.**
The Land of the Philistines is clearly demarcated in the Bible. The Israelites' traditional foes, the Philistines lived in a small area along the Mediterranean coast south of what is today Tel Aviv, an area that embraced the five towns of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron.1 The Philistine champion Goliath came from Gath. Samsons Philistine paramour, Delilah, lived in Gaza.
As early as the Histories of Herodotus, written in the second half of the fifth century B.C.E., the term Palaistine is used to describe not just...