James,
We're skirting the bounds of relevance for B-Hebrew here. But, because there is a linguistic component under consideration, I'll allow it.
Firstly, if we identify the Philistines as the 'Pereset' of the
Egyptian inscriptions of Ramesses III, then the Philistines did indeed come to the Levant from Egypt. However, they didn't originate in Egypt - they were just repelled from Egypt by Ramesses III after coming from the Aegean. Ramesses III claims to have settled them along the southern coast of the Levant, where we find them in biblical texts.
Gen 10 is probably preserving the memory of the Philistine movement (which implies that Gen 10 is dated after the early 12th century BC).
Furthermore, it is probable that the Indo-European Philistines, who originally wouldn't have spoken a Semitic language, formed only a particular stratum of the society that made up the Philistine city
states. It is most likely that the Philistine fighters, whom Ramesses III settled along the southern Levantine coast, became the overlords (or something like that) of the local population, who were Semitic speakers. In time, the smaller military stratum (the invaders) of the society took on the language of the local populace. Before long, therefore, the Indo-European Philistines became Semitic speakers.
Regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au
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