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 makes 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

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 while
Kenneth 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."
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 inserting
the words 'brother of' before the second mention of Goliath, but older texts
don't bear that version out."5

Thus, we are back to the little-known passage and we should probably see what it says. Here it is in the New King James Version,

Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of
Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the
Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

At first glance it appears that there is no contradiction since the verse states that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath. However, as any good Bible student, and any good skeptic, should know that the italics means that the word or words that are italicized are not in the original language but were added by the translators for the sake of clarity or language understandability. And so it now seems that the contradiction stands because removing the italics the verse reads, "…Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite…" Indeed this is just how the New American Standard Bible 1995 ed. renders it,

There was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of
Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose
spear was like a weaver's beam.

This is a case in which looking at one single verse is not enough context and so we must expand our research. Let us look at 2nd Samuel 21 but this time verses 15 through 22,

When the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint. Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, 'You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.' Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant. Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant. So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him. These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

This is how it breaks down:

Abishai killed Ishbi-Benob.
Sibbechai killed Saph.
Elhanan killed Goliath.
Jonathan killed a man of great stature.

The bottom line of this issue is that "These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants." Thus, the answer to the alleged contradiction is that Goliath had four sons and one of them was named Goliath. In our modern language we would call him Goliath the second or Goliath, Jr. Note that before David confronted Goliath, Sr. "…he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had…" (1st Samuel 17:40). This is hypothesis but it may be that David chose five stones because Goliath's four sons were hanging around and in case they joined the fight David had the five stones one for Goliath and one for each son.

This also comes to show why the italicized statement in the NKJV or any other translations are to be taken with a grain of salt. In this case the italics told us that the man that Elhanan killed was an unnamed brother of Goliath but according to the context that we have just been researching, this man was not the brother of Goliath but was Goliath, Sr.'s son.

1. 1. Great Events of Bible Times: New Perspectives on the People, Places and History of the Biblical World (New York: Doubleday & Co. Inc., 1987), p. 78
2. 2. Kenneth C. Davis, Don't Know Much About The Bible: Everything You Needed to Know About the Good Book But Never Learned (New York, NY: Perennial An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 1989), p. 176
3. 3. Davis, p. 176
4. 4. Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (New York, NY: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1962, 1997 ed.), p. 545
5. 5. Davis, p. 176