Who are the modern descendants of the Philistines?

Answer 1

The Philistines were a sea people who arrived in the Levant around 1250 BCE and settled in the fertile coastal plains and foothills from the Egyptian border north to present-day Tel Aviv.

Over time, they absorbed a wave of Nabatean immigrants and were then culturally absorbed by their Canaanite neighbours to the north. After the Alexandrian conquests, they absorbed the Greek language and culture, as did their neighbours, other than the Jews. Because of this, by New Testament times we find them sometimes see them referred to by the Jews as "Greeks", sometimes as gentiles.

The former Philistines were pagans in the Roman Empire, but with the arrival of Christianity, became Christians. The Arabs overran Palestine in the seventh century CE, after which most became Muslims but a significant number remained Christians even to this day. Modern Palestinians are considered to be descended from various races in the region, including Philistines, Canaanites, Greeks, Romans, Nabataeans, Peninsular Arabs and others.

Answer 2

A:

Genealogical records were not kept, so we can only look at what we know from history, not from family trees. We know that the Philistines still existed as an identifiable ethnic group into the post-Exilic period, although they had adapted to Canaanite culture and religious beliefs, as well as adopting the Greek language, for which they are often called 'Greeks' in The Bible. Incursions by the Greeks and Romans also resulted in foreign settlers, who would have been assimilated into the indigenous population. We know that in the New Testament period, these Gentiles continued to live along the Levantine coast. There is no historical reason for these people simply to disappear, so we can assume they and their descendants continued to exist in Palestine. The Arabic conquerors brought Islam and some fresh settlers, and some of the locals converted to Islam. Although the Palestinians tend to be regarded as Arabs, almost half the population of the Palestinian territories were Christian in the middle of the twentieth century. This proportion has fallen dramatically because it has been easier for Christians to migrate to Western countries of refuge, than for Muslims. Since the invading Arabs were Muslims, these Christians (and many of the Muslims) must have been descended from people who lived in Palestine before the Arabic invasion.

Clearly, the modern Palestinians are of mixed blood, just as modern Jews are, but the Philistines would be among the ancestors of modern Palestinians.

Answer 3

Modern genetic studies suggest that the Philistines were of mixed origins, likely including Aegean, Anatolian, and Levantine populations. There is no direct or consensus evidence of a specific modern group being descendants of the Philistines.