The Bible Says Palestinians Are Philistines
I suggest in my book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia, that modern Palestinians have a stronger genetic link to the ancient Philistines than to any other people group.” Since the book was published, in 1990, I have become more convinced that this is the case. But I get constant pushback about it, even by people who say they believe the Bible. For, this idea is not original with me. Rather, it is in the Bible prophecy, which is the most difficult genre in the Bible to comprehend.
The foremost verse in the Bible that indicates Palestinians have descended mostly from the Philistines is Isaiah 11.14. Isaiah 11 is a messianic text. It begins, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11.1). “Jesse” was the name of the father of King David. The word “branch” is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to refer to Israel’s God-promised Messiah (Jeremiah 23.5; 33.15; cf. Isa 53.2), and that is what it refers to here in Isaiah 11.1.
Isaiah 11 then prophesies about the Spirit of the LORD (Yahweh) abiding upon the Messiah (v. 2). Isaiah then says the Messiah “will slay the wicked,” which refers to the final Antichrist as the apostle Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2.7 and the LXX suggests as well by “wicked one.” Isaiah then describes the messianic age of the future (vv . 5-9). Isaiah backtracks to the end time when Messiah appears, which is “on that day” (v. 11). At that time Ephraim and Judah, referring to the Northern and Southern Jewish kingdoms of old, will together “swoop down on the backs of the Philistines in the west, together they will plunder the people of the east” (v. 14). This refers to what is called the Messianic Destruction, which is the result of war.
Notice that Isaiah 11.14 says “Philistines.” This must refer to Palestinians having there own state in the coastal plain, probably being located similarly to where ancient Philistia was located. I believe it must indicate that Palestinians have a stronger genetic link to the ancient Philistines than to any other people group. Now, another and new study may indicate as much.
DNA Match May Prove Palestinians=Philistines
The online greekreporter.com has an article today about a study just published in the Nature journal in which “scientists analyzed the genes from the teeth of nineteen people across various archaeological sites within mainland Greece and Crete.” Those skeletal remains date back to various times between 3,000 BC and 1,340 BC. This study affirms the concept I have been touting for decades since my book was published in 1990 and entitled Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia.
This concept is that the original genetic makeup of an ethnic group in antiquity often is not altered much in a certain living people today despite the mix of intervening ethnic groups in the interim history. This DNA continuity between antiquity and the present—which has been strongly refuted in the academy for a long time—has been shown in other recent studies, for example, that present-day Lebanese are 93% Canaanite (Marc Haber report, AJHG).
I assert in my book that there are several end times prophecies in the Tanakh indicating “Philistines” will exist as a nation in the approximate location they had in antiquity—in the Mediterranean coastal plain. I conclude from these prophecies that Palestinians descended from Philistines. I have since argued that uncorrupted DNA from the Philistine skeletons—which are 3,000 years old and that were discovered by the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon—could be compared to the DNA of present day Palestinians. And if this comparison was made, it might reveal that Palestinians are indeed Philistines.
Israel Opposes Traditional Two-State Solution
But Israel owns those Philistine skeletons. And I suspect Israel does not want such a DNA comparison to be made. Why? The Knesset recently voted overwhelmingly against the creation of a Palestinian state. However, this vote regarded the traditional two-state solution, with a Palestinian state located in the two separated territories of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. As an observer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for fifty years, I have maintained all that time that the traditional two-state solution has always been a non-starter. Why? It is based only on present demographics, meaning that’s where Palestinians live. You can change the demographics, but you cannot change history and religion. What do I mean?
Jewish settlers in the West Bank are there because that is the very heartland of ancient Israel. Indeed, the West Bank amazingly represents Judea and Samaria, and that is why many Israeli Jews call it that instead of the West Bank. Those Jews are reclaiming their ancestral land because their religion tells them to do that and that it is a sacred act to reclaim the “holy” land that God gave their ancestors. You can’t change that history and that religion. Therefore, working at trying to accomplish the traditional two-state solution has been, quite sorrowfully I would say, a waste of time, money, and therefore energy.
The Need for an Alternative Two-State Solution
As I’ve been saying for a long time, there needs to be an alternative two-state solution. I maintain it is the one I am proposing. But it is not original with me—it’s in the Bible. Read my book (it’s free at kermitzarley.com by clicking Theology and On Palestine.) Learn from scripture that God identifies today’s Palestinians as Philistines. A DNA could prove it.
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