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A Lie About Goliath?

Great Events of Bible Times is a beautiful book with consists of large glossy pages, various illustrations, computer generated geographical maps, photos of ancient artifacts and paintings. One of the book’s consultants is the well-known and respected Professor B. M. Metzger; George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.
The other consultants are Dr. David Goldstein, Curator of Hebrew Books and Manuscripts at the British Library and John Ferguson, MA, BD, FIAL, formerly President of Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England. Combined these men have authored and or edited some eighty books. Besides the consultants, the book has eight writers plus an editor, assistant editor and managing editor. Who would not be intimidated and who would dare to question the information contained in such a publication?

There is a section of the book entitled David and Goliath, which discusses various aspects of the Biblical story. David’s killing of Goliath is found in 1st Samuel 17:50-51. The writer of this section states,

…in a little-known passage of the Bible, the credit for killing Goliath is actually given to somebody completely different – David’s champion Elhanan (2nd Samuel 21:19).”1

Notice that while the story of David and Goliath is well known it may be because of a little-known passage that you are not aware of a Biblical contradiction. Or perhaps there is another reason to insinuate that a Bible verse could be referred to as little-known. If the verse in 2nd Samuel is little-known then 1st Chronicles 20:4 must be just as obscure because it states the same thing as 2nd Samuel 21:19. But what is there to know since we have already been told that in one place the Bible states that David killed Goliath and in another it states that it was Elhanan? The case is closed isn’t it; we have a clear case of a biblical contradiction.

Another author that attempts to elucidate this apparent contradiction is Kenneth C. Davis who wrote a series of books on various subjects called Don’t Know Much About and then the subject matter is appended. In this case the book is entitled Don’t Know Much About The Bible: Everything You Needed to Know About the Good Book But Never Learned. Kenneth C. Davis likewise informs us that “later in the story somebody else kills Goliath.”2

Kenneth C. Davis has a lot to say about Goliath. For instance:

Goliath was only four cubits and a span, according to another version of the story found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, making him about six feet nine…he was no ten-foot giant.”3

Our response must begin by pointing out that he offers no specific citation to the Dead Sea Scroll to which he is making reference. At this point we either take his word for it or we conduct our own research. Let us also point out that the back cover of the book displays a quotation from a review by People magazine that states, “Davis makes clear he has no religious agenda.” Yet, apparently, he either does have a religious agenda or perhaps, an unreligious or antireligious agenda. Why? Because his bias is clearly displayed by the fact that he purports to know that Goliath is not as tall as the Bible states and why? Because one source outside of the Bible states that he was not. This is a substandard double standard in which anything that contradicts that Bible is instantly accepted as absolute truth.

Now to the Dead Sea Scrolls that we have researched. The texts upon which Kenneth C. Davis has relied in order to disbelieve the Bible is known as A Moses (or David) Apocryphon-4Q373, 2Q22. This fragment is not a manuscript of the Old Testament. The title of the fragment instantly lets us know that it is not even clear whether the fragment deals with Moses or David. The only name in the texts is Og (perhaps the King of Bashan) we find the following description of the fragment in The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English:

Some scholars “wonder whether the narrator is David and the subject is his fight with Goliath, a theory based on a few verbal similarities to I Samuel xvii, which cannot, however, easily account for the mention of Og,” other scholars “argued that the topic of the fragment is more likely to be the defeat of Og by Moses…On the whole, the second alternative seems slightly preferable.”4

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Here is the text of 4Q373 1-2 (2Q22) exactly as translated:

… all his servants Og … his height was … and a half cubit and two [cubits were his breath … ] a spear like a cedar tree … a shield like a tower. The nimble-footed … he who removed the seven stadia. [I] did not stand … and I did not change. The Lord our God broke him. I prepared wounding slings together with bows and not … for war to conquer fortified cities and to rout …

Even if we were to grant that this text refers to David and Goliath we find that whileKenneth C. Davis claimed that the text stated the Goliath was “four cubits and a span,”the text actually states that “his” height was “… and a half cubit and two.” Another scroll, 4QSam, as well as the LXX has 4 cubits and 1 span which is circa 6.75 feet.

Back to the claim of contradiction within the Biblical text, Kenneth C. Davis also states:

The King James Version of 1611 tried to cover up the discrepancy by insertingthe words ‘brother of’ before the second mention of Goliath, but older texts

don’t bear that version out.”5

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1 Samuel 17:51 is very clear in stating that after having hit Goliath with a slung stone, “David ran, and stood upon the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith.”
Yet, 2 Samuel 21:19 states, “And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” As any good hermeneuticist knows that italics means that the italicized word(s) are not in the original language but were added by the translators for the sake of clarity, understandability: this means that Jaareoregim slew Goliath. Thus, at first glance it appears that there a contradiction. However, 1 Chronicles 20:5 also reiterates this event thusly, “And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver’s beam.”

FYI: Jaareoregim and Jair are alternate spellings of the same name Ya’arey with one having oregiym appended to it thus: Jaare-Oregim. Also, Gittite refers to an inhabitant of Gath.

1 Chronicles 20 also relates that at Gezer, Sibbechai “slew Sippai, that was of the children of the giant” who contextually means Sippai was a son of Goliath. Now, it also related an un-italicized key point which is that Lahmi was “the brother of” Goliath. Here brother was in the manuscript as being the Hebrew ‘ach (Strong’s H251) which the KJV translates as brethren (332x), brother (269x), another (23x), brotherly (1x), kindred (1x), like (1x), another (1x), other (1x).

Thus, this goes to show that this is simply a case of either a missing word within 2 Samuel 21 or an added word in 1 Chronicles 20.

1 Chronicles 20 goes on to state that “a man of great stature…also was the son of the giant…Jonathan the son of Shimea David’s brother slew him.” For the sake of immediate context, here Shimea is said to be David’s ‘ach and this is verified by 1 Chronicles 2:13 “And Jesse begat…Shimma”; this name is Shim’a’ and is also variously transliterated as Shammah and Shimeah. Also, in order to avert confusion, note that Shimea was also the name of one of David’s sons as 1 Chronicles 3:1 which begins to list “the sons of David” and lists Shimea at verse 5.

1 Chronicles 20 goes on to note that “These were born unto the giant in Gath.” Thus, “a man of great stature” and Sippai were sons of and Lahmi the brother Goliath (Sippai was “of the children of”).

Now, if a word is missing within 2 Samuel 21 then Lahmi was Goliath’s brother and if added in 1 Chronicles 20 then Lahmi may have been Goliath’s son.

2 Samuel 21:15-22 and 1 Chronicles 20:4-7 relate various wars and specifies that Abishai slew Ishbibenob and Sibbechai slew Saph aka Sippai who were “of the sons of the giant.” Elhanan slew Lahmi, the one specified to have been the brother of Goliath. And Jonathan slew a “man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were four and twenty, six on each hand, and six on each foot” who was “also was born to the giant.”

This is merely an issue of considering the greater context. In this case, the parallel record provides information which rightly led the translators to insert the italicized term the brother of.

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