What eventually happened to the Philistines, are they still around today?

toughynutter

The Philistines lost their independence to Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria by 732 BC, and revolts in following years were all crushed. Later, Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon eventually conquered all of Syria and the Kingdom of Judah, and the former Philistine cities became part of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. All traces of the Philistines as a people or ethnic group disappered" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philistines Mar 06 07, 3:43 PM

amp2006

They are pretty much gone. Although some of thier descendents may be the present-day Palestinians, the culture of Philistia has disapeared. Just as the Northern Kingdom of Israel was crushed by the Assyrians, so were the Philistines. Later, just as Judah was conquered by the New Babylonian Empire a couple of hundred years later, so were the Philistine areas. Mar 06 07, 4:04 PM

Arpeggionist

The Philistine people were intergrated into whatever cultures settled in the Levant over the years, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans and Byzantines, and probably even some of the Jewish population of the area is of Philistine descent. While the culture of the biblical Philistines vanished along with most of the other "sea people" - the Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Minoans (for example) - the people did not have a shortage of national identities to choose from. Mar 06 07, 4:34 PM

queproblema

Unless you're talking about cultural Philistines, as defined in the article "Philistinism" in Wikipedia: "A person called a Philistine (in the relevant sense), is said to despise or undervalue art, beauty, intellectual content, and/or spiritual values. Philistines are also said to be materialistic, to favor conventional social values unthinkingly, and to favor forms of art that have a cheap and easy appeal (e.g. kitsch)." Here's George Santayana's classic essay on the subject: http://www.pseudopodium.org/repress/shorts/Satanaya-Philistine.html and here's a fun series of quizzes to see if, oh, horrors, YOU might be one: (Enjoy!) http://reverent.org/this_is_art.html Mar 06 07, 7:13 PM

lanfranco

The Santayana essay is cute, qp; but the art quiz is just TOO easy! Mar 06 07, 8:20 PM

queproblema

Easy for Brahmins, Bohemians, saints, and voluptuaries. Hmmm, eenie, meenie,.... Mar 06 07, 10:53 PM

Arpeggionist

Yes, but the term "Philistinism" bears no relation to the actual Philistines. It was coined by Robert Schumann in the 1830s as a way of advancing his own art against the "Philistinism" of his rivals (Liszt and Wagner). Schumann claimed these rivals played the Philistines to his David, hence the term which stuck ever since. Mar 07 07, 1:57 AM