Who+Killed+Goliath

toc = = =Verses:=

a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.” (1 Samuel 17:50) || “In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.” (2 Samuel 21:19) || “In another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.” (1 Chronicles 20:5) || a young shepherd boy, killed Goliath. || 2 Samuel 21:19 states that another man named Elhanan, a Bethlehemite, killed the Philistine Giant || 1 Chronicles 20:5 states that Elhanan killed Golaith’s brother Lahmi. ||  ||   ||.
 * < “So David triumphed over the Philistine with
 * The Bible states in 1 Samuel 17 that David,

= 1 Samuel 17 Account: =

The 1 Samuel 17:50 account is interpreted to mean that the young David armed with his staff, five smooth rocks and his sling faced Goliath, the champion of the Philistines. Goliath initially is insulted by the fact Israel chose David to be his adversary, but David states that he comes representing the Lord God of Israel, and warns the giant of his destruction at his hand. David waits for his opportunity and slings one of the smooth rocks toward the giant sinking the rock deep into his forehead, causing Goliath to fall to the ground. David then took Goliath’s own sword and severs off his head, effectively killing the Giant. ** (i) ** = = = 2 Samuel 21:19 Account: =

The 2 Samuel 21:19 account can be interpreted in different ways. The text itself states that Elhanan killed Goliath the Gittie, but that is taken to mean several things. One is of course that Elhanan killed Goliath and that the Bible just contradicted itself, a view taken by liberals and those who want to disprove the trustworthiness of the Word of God. Another is that this Elhanan killed another Goliath and not the same one David killed in the 1 Samuel account. **(ii)** For it is possible the word “goliath” meant big and was merely describing another Philistine. **(iii)** Others try to prove that David and Elhanan are the same person. The Encylopedia Judaica makes the claim that Elhanan was David’s original name. A fourth interpretation is that the scribe that translated the text made a mistake in the translation, thus creating all the confusion, and that wouldn’t be that unreasonable considering 2 Samuel has other copying errors. ** (iv) **

= 1 Chronicles 20:5 Account: =

The 1 Chronicles 20:5 account says that Elhanan actually killed Goliath’s brother Lahmi and not Goliath himself. And when comparing the account in 2 Samuel and the account in 2 Chronicles, it is likely the copyist error theory makes the most sense. There remains the possibility that Elhanan is but another name for David, leading to the conclusion that David killed both Goliath and his brother Lahmi. But this theory can be dismissed by the fact that both the 2 Samuel and the 1 Chronicles accounts state that Elhanan is the son of Jair the Bethlehemite **(v)**. In other words both accounts state that the father of Elhanan is Jair and not Jesse, (David's father, Matthew 1:6) supporting the conclusion that Elhanan and David are two different people. **(vi)** = Solution: =

The solution can lie in the theory that the passage in 2 Samuel was mistranslated and utilize the 1 Chronicles to correct the mistranslation. 1. The sign of the direct object, which in Chronicles comes just before "Lahmi," was '-t; the copyist mistook it for b-t or b-y-t ("Beth") and thus got Bet hal-Lahmi ("the Bethlehemite") out of it. 2. He misread the word for "brother" ('-h) as the sign of the direct object ('-t) right before g-l-y-t ("Goliath"). Thus he made "Goliath" the object of "killed" (wayyak), instead of the "brother" of Goliath (as the Chronicles passage does). 3. The copyist misplaced the word for "weavers" ('-r-g-ym) so as to put it right after "Elhanan" as his patronymic (ben Y-'-r-y'-r--g-ym, or ben ya 'arey 'ore -gim -- "the son of the forests of weavers" -- a most unlikely name for anyone's father!). In Chronicles the 'ore grim ("weavers") comes right after menor ("a beam of ") -- thus making perfectly good senses **(vii)**

So in reality David killed Goliath as stated in the 1 Samuel account, and Elhanan, son of Jair, killed Goliath’s brother Lahmi as stated in the 1 Chronicles account, and the only reason it does not accord with the 2 Samuel account is because the scribe that translated that portion of the Bible made a mistake, where instead of saying Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother, Lahmi, he merely said he killed Goliath. But the biggest problem is that the copying error was made so early on that there aren’t any available manuscripts that predate the erroneous ones and hence no way to confirm the theory. **(viii)**

__ References:

(i)Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel, InterVasity Press (2004) 102-11

(ii) Klein, Ralph W.. Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 10, 1 Samuel Thomas Nelson (1983) 155

(iii) P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., I Samuel, Doubleday & Company, Inc (1980) 300-315 (iv)Jacob M. Meyers, I Chronicles, Doubleday & Company, Inc (1965) 131-136

(v) Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel (Vol 7), Broadman & Holman Publishers (1984)195-200, 442-445 (vi) Leonard, G., //Encyclopedia of bible difficulties//: Zondervan (1982) 85

(vii)Leonard, G., //Encyclopedia of bible difficulties//: Zondervan (1982) 85

(viii) Robert D. Bergen, 1, 2 Samuel (Vol 7), Broadman & Holman Publishers (1984)195-200, 442-445

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