For Guest, Doc John (if you're still around)---

As to the PPS in your original post, you needn't be concerned about the Philistines. They have been, and continue to be, rehabilitated by Israeli archaeolgists, Trude & (the late) Moshe Dothan, and those who have worked with them. That maligned peoples turn out not to be philistine in our current sense of the word, but a quite advanced culture of the second millenium BCE, along the Canaanite coast.

There is much material available on the internet accessible for the layman.