Editing Goliath (section)

==Textual considerations==
===Goliath's height===
[[File: Andrea Vaccaro - David with the Head of Goliath.jpg|thumb|'' David with the Head of Goliath'', {{circa|1635}}, by [[Andrea Vaccaro]]]]

The oldest manuscripts, namely the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] text of Samuel from the late 1st century BCE, the 1st-century CE historian [[Josephus]], and the major [[Septuagint]] manuscripts, all give Goliath's height as "four [[cubit]]s and a [[Span (unit)|span]]" ({{convert|6|ft|9|in|disp=or}}), whereas the [[Masoretic Text]] has "six cubits and a span" ({{convert|9|ft|9|in|disp=or}}).<ref>Ehrlich, C. S. (1992). "Goliath (Person)". In D. N. Freedman (ed.), ''The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary'' (Vol. 2, p. 1073). New York: Doubleday</ref><ref name="autogenerated2005">{{cite journal |first=J. Daniel |last=Hays |title=Reconsidering the Height of Goliath |journal=[[Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society]] |volume=48 |issue=4 |date=December 2005 |pages=701–2 |url=http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/48/48-4/JETS_48-4_701-714.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230225659/http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/48/48-4/JETS_48-4_701-714.pdf |archive-date=2010-12-30 |url-status=live}}</ref> Many scholars have suggested that the smaller number grew in the course of transmission (only a few have suggested the reverse, that an original larger number was reduced), possibly when a scribe's eye was drawn to the number six in line 17:7.{{sfn|Driesbach|2016|p=73}}

===Goliath and Saul===
The underlying purpose of the story of Goliath is to show that Saul is not fit to be king (but that David is). Saul was chosen to lead the Israelites against their enemies, but when faced with Goliath, he refuses to do so; Saul is a head taller than anyone else in all Israel (1 Samuel 9:2), which implies he was over {{convert|6|ft|m}} tall and the obvious challenger for Goliath, yet David is the one who eventually defeated him. Also, Saul's armour and weaponry are apparently no better than Goliath's: {{quote|"David declares that when a lion or bear came and attacked his father's sheep, he battled against it and killed it, [but Saul] has been cowering in fear instead of rising up and attacking the threat to his sheep (i.e., Israel)."<ref name="autogenerated2005"/>}}

David's speech in 1 Samuel 17 can be interpreted as referring to both Saul and Goliath through its animal imagery. When this imagery is considered closely, David can be seen to function as the true king who manipulates wild beasts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beard |first=Brady A. |date=2020-11-01 |title=Snatched from the hand of a bear : a comparative perspective on the bear in David's speech in 1 Sam 17:34–37 |url=https://journals.co.za/doi/10.10520/EJC-20a3d4d2b9 |journal=Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |hdl=10520/EJC-20a3d4d2b9 }}</ref>

===Elhanan and Goliath===
In [[2 Samuel 21]], verse 19, the Hebrew Bible tells how Goliath was killed by "[[Elhanan son of Jair|Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim]], the Bethlehemite". The fourth-century BC [[Books of Chronicles|1 Chronicle 20:5]] explains the second Goliath by saying that Elhanan "slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath", which is thought by [[higher criticism|biblical source critics]] to have constructed the name [[Lahmi]] from the last portion of the word "Bethlehemite" ("''beit-ha’lahmi''"), and the [[King James Bible]] adopted this identification into 2 Samuel 21:18–19. Regardless, the Hebrew text at Goliath's name in 2 Samuel 21 makes no mention of the word "brother".{{sfn|Halpern|2003|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=tn8PG4XfuBAC&pg=PA8 7–10]}} Most scholars dismiss the later 1 Chronicles 20:5 material as "an obvious harmonization".<ref name="Hubbard Younger Arnold Konkel 2015 p. 1841">{{cite book | last1=Hubbard | first1=Robert L. | last2=Younger | first2=K. Lawson | last3=Arnold | first3=Bill T. | last4=Konkel | first4=August H. | last5=Hill | first5=Andrew E. | last6=Jobes | first6=Karen H. | title=NIVAC Bundle 2: Historical Books | publisher=Zondervan Academic | series=The NIV Application Commentary | year=2015 | isbn=978-0-310-53003-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=foGmCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT1841 | access-date=4 March 2022 | page=unpaginated | quote=Most scholars dismiss the parallel in 1 Chronicles 20:5 as an obvious harmonization}}</ref>

===Goliath and the Greeks===
The armor described in 1 Samuel 17 appears typical of Greek armor of the sixth century BCE; narrative formulae such as the settlement of battle by [[single combat]] between champions has been thought characteristic of the [[Homeric epics]] (the ''[[Iliad]]'') rather than of the ancient Near East. The designation of Goliath as a {{lang|he|איש הביניים}}, "man of the in-between" (a longstanding difficulty in translating 1 Samuel 17) appears to be a borrowing from Greek "man of the ''{{transliteration|grc|metaikhmion}}'' ({{lang|grc|μεταίχμιον}})", i.e., the space between two opposite army camps where [[Champion warfare|champion combat]] would take place.<ref>{{cite journal|url= http://berlinarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/yadin-goliaths-armor.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141225131622/http://berlinarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/yadin-goliaths-armor.pdf |archive-date=2014-12-25 |url-status=live|author=Azzan Yadin|title=Goliath's Armor and the Israelite Collective Memory|journal=[[Vetus Testamentum]]|volume=LIV|issue=3|pages=373–95|date=2004}}<br/>– See also {{cite journal|author=Israel Finkelstein|author-link=Israel Finkelstein|title=The Philistines in the Bible: A Late Monarchic Perspective|journal=[[Journal for the Study of the Old Testament]]|volume=27|issue=131|page=67}}<br/>– For a brief online overview, see {{cite web|title=Yadin on "David and Goliath" in VT 54 (2004)|url= http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/?p=398|work=Higgaion|author=Christopher Heard|date=28 Apr 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013211237/http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/?p=398|archive-date=2007-10-13|url-status=usurped}}</ref> Other scholars argue the description is a trustworthy reflection of the armaments that a Philistine warrior would have worn in the tenth century BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Reconsidering Goliath: An Iron Age I Philistine Chariot Warrior |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/BASOR41104416 |last=Zorn |first=Jeffrey R. |volume=360 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1086/BASOR41104416 |year=2010|s2cid=163281106 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{efn|group=upper-alpha|Hoffmeier (2011): "A number of critical evalua-tions of more minimalist readings of David and Goliath duel quickly followed Finkelstein and A. Yadin’s articles. Philip King’s analysis of Goliath’s weapons in the Seymour Gitin Festschrift is worth men-tioning.<sup>33</sup> Contrary to Finkelstein’s conclusion, King determines that “Goliath’s bronze helmet, cuirass, greaves, long range bronze jav-elin, spear with socketed blade, shield-bearer, and sword have their counterparts in the repertoire of a Mycenaean soldier."<sup>34</sup> He flatly rejects the portrayal of Goliath as a 7th century Greek hoplite. In the Lawrence Stager Fest-schrift, Alan Millard likewise offered a critical response to Finkel-stein and A. Yadin.<sup>35</sup> Most recently, Moshe Garsiel wrote a comprehen-sive critique of the recent mini-malistic literary and archaeological readings of this classic narrative.<sup>36</sup>"{{sfn|Hoffmeier|2011|p=92}}}}

A story very similar to that of David and Goliath appears in the [[Iliad]], written {{circa|760}}–710&nbsp;BCE, where the young [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]] fights and conquers the giant Ereuthalion.{{sfn|Finkelstein|Silberman|2007|pp=198–199}}<ref>[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'' Book 7 ll.132–160.</ref> Each giant wields a distinctive weapon—an iron club in Ereuthalion's case, a massive bronze spear in Goliath's; each giant, clad in armor, comes out of the enemy's massed array to challenge all the warriors in the opposing army; in each case the seasoned warriors are afraid, and the challenge is taken up by a stripling, the youngest in his family (Nestor is the twelfth son of [[Neleus]], David the seventh or eighth son of [[Jesse (biblical figure)|Jesse]]). In each case an older and more experienced father figure (Nestor's own father, David's patron Saul) tells the boy that he is too young and inexperienced, but in each case the young hero receives divine aid and the giant is left sprawling on the ground. Nestor, fighting on foot, then takes the chariot of his enemy, while David, on foot, takes the sword of Goliath. The enemy army then flees, the victors pursue and slaughter them and return with their bodies, and the boy-hero is acclaimed by the people.{{sfn|West|1997|pp=370, 376}} However, some scholars question whether the biblical writers would have ever had access to the Iliad, and argue that the similarities between both tales are also present in other ancient Near Eastern accounts of duels.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Homeric and Ancient Near Eastern Intertextuality in 1 Samuel 17 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |last=Frolov |first=Serge |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/41304213 |volume=130 |issue=3 |pages=451–471 |last2=Wright |first2=Allen |year=2011 |doi=10.2307/41304213 |issn=0021-9231 |jstor=41304213|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{sfn|Hoffmeier|2011|pp=93–94}}

===Goliath's name===
[[Tell es-Safi]], the biblical [[Gath (city)|Gath]] and traditional home of Goliath, has been the subject of extensive excavations by Israel's [[Bar-Ilan University]]. The archaeologists have established that this was one of the largest of the Philistine cities until it was destroyed in the ninth century BC, an event from which it never recovered. The [[Tell es-Safi inscription]], a [[Sherd|potsherd]] discovered at the site, and reliably dated to between the tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC, is inscribed with the two names ''ʾLWT'' and ''WLT''. While the names are not directly connected with the biblical Goliath ({{Script/Hebrew|גלית}}, ''GLYT''), they are etymologically related and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of the late tenth- to early ninth-century BC Philistine culture. The name "Goliath" itself is non-Semitic and has been linked with the [[Lydia]]n king [[Alyattes I|Alyattes]], which also fits the Philistine context of the biblical Goliath story.<ref>[http://gath.wordpress.com/2006/02/16/comment-on-the-news-item-in-bar-on-the-goliath-inscription/ Tell es-Safi/Gath weblog] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20080109230143/http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~maeira/Goliath/Goliath%20Inscription.html Bar-Ilan University]; For the editio princeps and an in-depth discussion of the inscription, see now: Maeir, A.M., Wimmer, S.J., Zukerman, A., and Demsky, A. (2008). "A Late Iron Age I/Early Iron Age II Old Canaanite Inscription from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfī/Gath, Israel: Palaeography, Dating, and Historical-Cultural Significance". ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research''.</ref> A similar name, Uliat, is also attested in [[Carian language|Carian]] inscriptions.<ref>Vernet Pons, M. (2012). "The etymology of Goliath in the light of Carian Wljat/Wliat: a new proposal". ''Kadmos'', 51, 143–164.</ref> [[Aren Maeir]], director of the excavation, comments: "Here we have very nice evidence [that] the name Goliath appearing in the Bible in the context of the story of David and Goliath… is not some later literary creation."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/tall-tale-of-a-philistine-researchers-unearth-a-goliath-cerealbowl/2005/11/14/1131951099130.html?oneclick=true | work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |agency=[[Reuters]] | title=Tall tale of a Philistine: researchers unearth a Goliath cereal bowl | date=November 15, 2005}}</ref>

Based on the southwest [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian]] [[onomastics|onomastic]] considerations, Roger D. Woodard proposed *''Walwatta'' as a reconstruction of the form ancestral to both Hebrew Goliath and Lydian [[Alyattes I|Alyattes]]. In this case, the original meaning of Goliath's name would be "Lion-man," thus placing him within the realm of [[Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] warrior-beast mythology.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Woodard
| first = Roger D.
| contribution = On Goliath, Alyattes, Indo-European Wolves, and Lydian Lions: A Reexamination of 1 Sam 17:1–11, 32–40
| editor-last = Rollston
| editor-first = Christopher
| title = Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr. (Ancient Near East Monographs)
| pages = 239–254
| publisher = SBL Press
| date = 2022
| contribution-url = https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/9780884145165_OA.pdf}}</ref>

The [[Babylonian Talmud]] explains the name "Goliath, son of Gath" through a reference to his mother's promiscuity, based on the Aramaic גַּת (''gat'', [[winepress]]), as everyone threshed his mother as people do to grapes in a winepress (Sotah, 42b).

The name sometimes appears in English as Goliah.<ref>
For example in Shakespeare:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Hassel
 |first1               = R. Chris
 |date                 = 12 May 200
 |title                = Shakespeare's Religious Language: A Dictionary
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=PYxf2vcqPy0C
 |series               = Athlone Shakespeare dictionary series
 |location             = London
 |publisher            = A&C Black
 |page                 = 144
 |isbn                 = 9780826458902
 |access-date          = 24 November 2023
 |quote                = GOLIAH[:] Goliath, the giant whom David slew.
}} 
</ref>