The Previously Unheard Story of David and Goliath

Good observations. There was also an incentive for the David and his scribes to exaggerate the size of Goliath and victory. It is a big story to tell and spread when the opponent is huge and fierce. Not so much if they are weak or if your victory was expected.
It is interesting that the reaction to suggesting that David’s victory was not that unexpected given the circumstances is negative among many. God sometimes works through natural means, and the miracle was putting David in that position at that time against all expectations, not whether hie could bop a big guy in the forehead with a rock. Also, giving David the smarts to use his sling rather than take Saul up on the offer of his armor… David always seemed to be a step ahead of his foes.

One thing that has come to mind for me on size is that Saul’s “head and shoulders above” probably means about 5’9"-6’0", given that average adult male height was something like 5’3". If Goliath was about as big as, or a bit larger than I am (a stocky 6’5.5"), but more athletic, he would be rather intimidating to someone 5’1"-5’6" and fairly thin, like a typical Israelite at the time.

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I agree. I think he was a roughly 6’5 athletic warrior who was dominating the front lines. So he was selected as champion and was defeated despite all belief from both sides by a young boy. At least in one tradition.

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Whatever the case, it is all speculation, as the text is limited in what information it gives.
One point that comes out of it however, is that we often focus on the wrong things. We tend to teach our children about the “supernatural” victory David had over Goliath, when the majority of the story really tells how God chose David and prepared him for the task from a young age, despite the cultural forces that made him an unlikely hero and future king. In like manner, we are attracted to the bells and whistles of much in the Bible, ignoring or not giving emphasis to the the underlying meaning. We can say that about Noah and the flood, as much of Christian culture misinterprets it, of the Tower of Babel, and of course, the creation story.

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Amen!
David,

  • The right guy:
  • In the right place;
  • At the right time;
  • With just the right skills; and
  • With just the right confidence.
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The issue that attracts controversy isn’t the involvement of the supernatural, but Goliath’s height.

Some manuscripts give it as six cubits and a span, which is nearly three metres tall. There are some people who insist that he really was that tall, and to suggest otherwise is “not believing the Bible.” (Even though others put it at the much more realistic value of four cubits and a span, or a little over two metres.)

That just comes down to which Bible you use and which manuscript they used.

True, and I have been in children’s programs where they made a drawing of Goliath on table paper that was in the over 8 ft range. And the emphasis was on how David could not have managed to defeat such a giant with his own strength, but had divine assistance. The line blurs as to whether that becomes a supernatural miracle or if it is God working through David, using the gifts David had.

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In God’s providence, no natural laws need to be broken – the term hypernatural has been used as a descriptor as opposed to supernatural miracles where natural laws are superseded. Which is which in each case is a discussion, especially in the OT. In the David & Goliath account, what natural laws were broken? None, but it was the right man with the right skills with the right equipment in the right place at the right time.

No, his brother Lahmi was. And no, David wasn’t Elhanan. And no Jesse wasn’t Jair. And no…

And what on Earth and in heaven’s name does any of this have to do with the proposition of God in Christ? ‘Background’?

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