Philistine warrior in the biblical narrative
Goliath
Two biblical texts assign his death to different heroes, David and Elhanan, making the episode a key example of critical method.
What the sources say
Each block is a sourced statement. Click the number to see the cited page.
3 statements
Contested interpretation
In 1 Samuel 17, David defeats the Philistine Goliath with a sling. But another biblical passage (2 Samuel 21:19) credits Goliath's killing to an obscure warrior, Elhanan of Bethlehem, described in the same terms.
Interpreters tried to reconcile the accounts by suggesting Elhanan was another name for David, but the Bible treats the two as different people. Chronicles, written much later than Samuel, claims that Elhanan killed Goliath's brother, a solution the authors find contrived.
Contested interpretation
The authors find it more likely that Goliath's real slayer was Elhanan, and that the famous version in 1 Samuel 17 is a later development meant to enhance King David's heroic image. The biblical duel, they conclude, probably does not reflect what actually happened.