- The story of David and Goliath.
- And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Beth-lehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
- 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.
- It appears from the evidence, that the traditional story of David and Goliath is, in large part, a fanciful narrative from around 600 BC in the style of many Greek historical texts. Evidence suggests that the story had some basis in reality, but that Goliath may have been killed by an altogether different historical figure, Elhanan, the son of Jaare-oregim. It also appears that the original of even this fanciful version of the death of Goliath, only put Goliath at about 6 feet 9 inches.
- A fairly good discussion of controversy described in Wikipedia's "Goliath: Textual Considerations", where contradictory accounts exist of who killed Goliath.
- 2 sources exist
- 1 Samuel 17
- 2 Samuel 21:19 - Alternative versions of this text exist describing not that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath, but that Elhanan killed Goliath himself, and it is generally believed this alternative version is more original.
- 1 Chronicles 20:5 - Also states that Elhanan killed Goliath's brother. This was written a few centuries after 2 Samuel.
- Some believe that an attempt was made to attribute Goliath's killing to David as a part of a cultural tradition of glorifying the ancient king. One problem I see with this is that not much has been said about how the text in 1 Samuel 17 came to be. All the linguistic arguments here show how easy it would have been for the 2 Samuel text to be corrupted or misunderstood, but not where the longer more detailed story came from.
- Some believe that the Elhanan killing Goliath's brother IS more original, and hence, see no contradiction.
- Some believe that Elhanan is another name of David.
Notes
The slaying of Goliath has interesting parallels with Nephi's slaying of Laban, and Coriantumr's slaying of Shiz.
Cross-References