Is the term “Palestine” in the Bible?

Preface = I generally avoid contentious political topics on this website and this post for the most part succeeds Although it is hard not to recognize what motivates a recent surge in such questions on Quora. Some people are looking for any argument they can bring to support their Cause du Jour.

Answered on Quora.

Sigh. Since October we have been seeing more such questions on Quora. Some are more obviously loaded than others. It is not difficult to infer what motivates them.

The first question is simple. Does the GN (geographic name) Palestine appear in the Hebrew Bible aka Old Testament?

No. It does not show up in the New Testament either.

Although an earlier term (which probably is where the GN Palestine came from) does appear. Hebrew פְּלָֽשֶׁת* plashet normally rendered in English as “Philistia”.

*Pausal form which is is a segolate form so probably plashet < palashtu or pilashtu.

And the people who lived there are described as (Hebrew) פְּלִשְׁתִּ֖ים plishtim aka the “Philistines”.

There is some debate about when and where the Philistines came from. Scholars agree the Philistines came to Canaan aka the Levant in the 13th century BCE as part of the Sea Peoples migrations toward the end of the Bronze Age. And yet Abraham and Isaac in the book of Genesis interact with “Philistines”.

Are they the same people? Probably not. Perhaps the “Philistines” of Genesis were a Canaanite people who happened to live in what was later called plashet “Philistia” so whoever wrote these stories called them “Philistines”. Or they are two different groups which somehow share the same demonym.

These later “Philistines” set up city states in the southern Levant around what today is known as Gaza.

So where does the GN which is Anglicized as “Palestine” come from? Others have done a good job of addressing this. The word does not show up until later.

It is harder to make any coherent sense of the second question. Why did Israel take over land that was referred to as “Palestinian” if it was not mentioned before? The second part of that question seems to render the first part moot. The ancient people of Israel did not enter or settle or take over the region held by the “Philistines” (although see Judges 3:3 and 2 Samuel 21:20). They are not listed among the “nations” that the descendents of Abraham would displace (Deuteronomy 7:1) or that the people of Israel would conquer (20:17). Which is interesting.

Based on the other similar questions we have seen on Quora since October we can infer that the second question contains an implicit accusation against (the people who established) the modern state of Israel. How can you claim to have taken over this “Palestine” land if it was never mentioned in the Bible? (Such questions are part of a general “how dare the people of modern Israel [most of whom are Jewish] assert an historical claim on this land which is older and/or stronger than competing claims made by Palestinian Arabs”.)

At first glance the accusation makes no sense. Recently however I notice questions on Quora suggesting that Palestinian Arabs are descendants of the Philistines. A very strange argument. The Philistines were attacked and taken into exile by the Assyrians (around 722 BCE) and later by the Babylonians (around 604 BCE). There is no mention of them after the 5th century BCE.

Ed (and not posted on Quora) = Such a strange argument tells us something about those who object to the existence of modern Israel. They are throwing out any argument they can hoping something will stick. “Palestinians (read: Arabs from what was the British Mandate of Palestine) are descendants the Philistines! We were there first!”

I could spend a few paragraphs discussing the extent to which ancient Israel entered or settled or “took over” that chunk of Canaan and established the amphictyony of the Twelve(?) Tribes of Israel and later the United Monarchy and later the southern Kingdom of Judah and the northern Kingdom of Israel. But that is a much larger discussion. The question asks why. What does the Hebrew Bible say?

• God promised the land to the descendents of Abraham
• But not until the “sin of the Amorites is complete” (Genesis 15:16) whatever that means

People can argue “God never said that” or “is that what God actually said” but this post is already long enough.