Goliath: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|Philistine giant in the Bible}} |
|||
{{About|the biblical warrior}} |
|||
{{Redirect|David and Goliath}} |
{{Redirect|David and Goliath}} |
||
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} |
|||
{{Hatnote|This article is about the biblical warrior. For other uses of "Goliath", see [[Goliath (disambiguation)]].}} |
|||
[[File:Osmar Schindler David und Goliath.jpg|thumb|''David and Goliath'' |
[[File:Osmar Schindler David und Goliath.jpg|thumb|''David and Goliath'' (1888) by [[Osmar Schindler]]]] |
||
[[File:Michelangelo, David and Goliath 02.jpg|thumb|right|David and Goliath by [[Michelangelo]], on the [[Sistine Chapel ceiling]]]] |
|||
'''Goliath'''{{efn|group=upper-alpha|{{langx|he|גָּלְיָת|Goləyāṯ}}; {{langx|ar|جُليات|Ǧulyāt}} (Christian term) or {{lang|ar|جَالُوت}}, {{transliteration|ar|Ǧālūt}} (Quranic term)}} ({{IPAc-en|ɡ|ə|ˈ|l|aɪ|ə|θ}} {{respell|gə|LY|əth}}) is a [[Philistines|Philistine]] giant in the [[Book of Samuel]]. Descriptions of Goliath's [[giant|immense stature]] vary among biblical sources, with various texts describing him as either {{convert|6|ft|9|in|abbr=on}} or {{convert|9|ft|9|in|abbr=on}} tall.<ref name="autogenerated2005"/> According to the text, Goliath issued a challenge to the [[Israelites]], daring them to send forth a champion to engage him in [[single combat]]; he was ultimately defeated by the young shepherd [[David]], employing a [[Sling (weapon)#Biblical accounts|sling and stone]] as a weapon. The narrative signified [[Saul|King Saul]]'s unfitness to rule, as Saul himself should have fought for the [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Kingdom of Israel]].{{sfn|Nelson|2000|p=519}} |
|||
'''Goliath''' ({{hebrew Name|גָּלְיָת|Golyat|Golyāṯ}}; [[Arabic language|Arabic]]: جالوت, ''Ǧālūt'' <small>(Qur'anic term)</small>, جليات ''Ǧulyāt'' <small>(Christian term)</small>) or Goliath of [[Gath (city)|Gath]] (one of five city states of the Philistines) is a [[Giant (mythology)|giant]] [[Philistines|Philistine]] warrior defeated by the young [[David]], the future king of [[Israel]], in the Bible's [[Books of Samuel]] (1 Samuel 17). |
|||
Some modern scholars{{Who|date=July 2024}} believe that the original slayer of Goliath may have been [[Elhanan, son of Jair]], who features in 2 Samuel 21:19, in which Elhanan kills Goliath the Gittite,{{sfn|Finkelstein|Silberman|2007|pp=2, 57}} and that the authors of the [[Deuteronomist#Deuteronomistic history|Deuteronomistic history]] changed the original text to credit the victory to the more famous figure David.{{sfn|Halpern|2003|p=8}}{{sfn|Finkelstein|Silberman|2007|p=196}} |
|||
The original purpose of the story was to show David's identity as the true King of the Great Israel.<ref name="autogenerated2005">J. Daniel Hays, "Reconsidering the Height of Goliath", JETS 48/4 (December 2005) 701-14 ([http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/48/48-4/JETS_48-4_701-714.pdf available online as a pdf file])</ref> Post-Classical Jewish traditions stressed Goliath's status as the representative of [[paganism]], in contrast to David, the champion of the [[God in Judaism|God of Israel]]. Christian tradition gave him a distinctively Christian perspective, seeing in David's battle with Goliath the victory of God's King over the enemies of God's helpless people as a prefiguring of [[Jesus|Jesus']] victory over sin on the [[Crucifixion of Jesus|Cross]] and the [[Christian Church|Church]]'s victory over [[Satan]].<ref>[http://books.google.com.au/books?id=u8YQW0EBfh8C&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179&dq=The+David+Myth+in+Western+Literature&source=bl&ots=Yx_IlDdjJ4&sig=sGQ7Ne_g5Q3hG9IsGbvSya5zjYM&hl=en&ei=zuLNTcSmEMTYrQfLwuHCCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false Raymond-Jean Frontain and Jan Wojcik (eds.), "The David Myth in Western Literature" (Purdue University Press, 1980) p.57.]</ref> |
|||
The phrase "[[#Modern usages of David and Goliath|David and Goliath]]" has taken on a more popular meaning denoting an underdog situation, a contest wherein a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary.<ref name="oxford">{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/david-and-goliath | title=David, and Goliath | encyclopedia=Oxford Advanced American Dictionary | access-date=11 February 2015}} "used to describe a situation in which a small or weak person or organization tries to defeat another much larger or stronger opponent: ''The game looks like it will be a David and Goliath contest.''"</ref> |
|||
==Biblical account== |
|||
[[File:071A.David Slays Goliath.jpg|thumbnail|David hoists the severed head of Goliath as illustrated by [[Gustave Doré]] (1866).]] |
|||
The account of the battle between David and Goliath is told in [[1 Samuel]], chapter 17.<ref>{{bible verse||1sam|17}}.</ref> [[Saul]] and the [[Israelites]] are facing the [[Philistines]] near the [[Valley of Elah]]. Twice a day for 40 days, Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome in [[Single combat#Single combat|single combat]], but Saul and all the Israelites are afraid. [[David]], bringing food for his elder brothers, hears that Saul has promised to reward any man who defeats Goliath, and accepts the challenge. Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armor, which David declines, taking only his [[Sling (weapon)|sling]] and five stones from a brook. |
|||
==Biblical accounts== |
|||
David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and shield, David with his staff and sling. "The Philistine cursed David by his gods." but David replies: "This day Jehovah will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God’s, and he will give you into our hand."<ref>Many English translations give "The Lord" at this point for the Hebrew [[Tetragrammaton|YHWH]], which is not normally written in full as Yahweh or Jehovah.</ref> |
|||
[[File:071A.David Slays Goliath.jpg|thumb|David hoists the severed head of Goliath as illustrated by [[Gustave Doré]] (1866)]] |
|||
In [[1 Samuel 17]], [[Saul]] and the Israelites are facing the Philistines in the [[Valley of Elah]]. Twice a day for 40 days, morning and evening, Goliath, the [[Champion warfare|champion]] of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome in single combat, but Saul is afraid. David accepts the challenge. Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armour, which David declines, taking only his staff, sling, and five stones from a brook.<ref>{{bibleverse|1|Samuel|17:40|HE}}</ref> |
|||
David hurls a stone from his sling with all his might and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead, Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites "as far as Gath and the gates of [[Ekron]]". David puts the armor of Goliath in his own tent and takes the head to Jerusalem, and Saul sends [[Abner]] to bring the boy to him. The king asks whose son he is, and David answers, "I am the son of your servant [[Jesse]] the [[Bethlehem]]ite." |
|||
David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and [[javelin]], David with his [[wikt:staff|staff]] and [[Sling (weapon)|sling]]. "The Philistine cursed David by his gods", but David replies: {{quote|"This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a god in Israel and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God's, and he will give you into our hand."|{{Bibleverse|1 Samuel|17:46–47|NIV}}}} |
|||
==Textual considerations== |
|||
===Textual history=== |
|||
The earliest manuscripts, such as the fourth-century AD [[Codex Vaticanus|Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209]] do not contain the verses describing David coming each day with food for his brothers, nor 1 Samuel 17:55–58 in which Saul seems unaware of David’s identity, referring to him as "this youth" and asking Abner to find out the name of his father. The narrative therefore reads that Goliath challenges the Israelites to combat, the Israelites are afraid, and David, already with Saul, accepts the challenge.<ref>[http://kukis.org/Samuel/1Sam_17.htm#The%20LXX%20%E2%82%AC%20of%20I%20Samuel%2017%20(with%20the%20Missing%20Portions%20in%20Magenta) Compare texts of short and long versions of 1 Samuel 17].</ref> This removes a number of ambiguities which have puzzled commentators: it removes 1 Samuel 17:55–58 in which Saul seems not to know David, despite having taken him as his shield-bearer and harpist; it removes 1 Samuel 17:50, the presence of which makes it seem as if David kills Goliath twice, once with his sling and then again with a sword;<ref>1 Samuel 17:49 describes how David "took out a stone, and slung it, and struck (נכה) the Philistine on his forehead … and he fell on his face to the ground"; 17:50 describes how "David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him"; 1 Samuel 17:51 describes how David "took [Goliath’s] sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed (מות) him, and cut off his head with it."</ref> and it gives David a clear reason, as Saul’s personal shield-bearer, for accepting Goliath’s challenge. Scholars drawing on studies of oral transmission and folklore have concluded that the non-Septuagint material “is a folktale grafted onto the initial text of … 1 Samuel.”<ref>[http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn/OralTrans.html#Parallels See end of section, “The Effects of Oral Tradition”].</ref> |
|||
David hurls a stone from his sling and hits Goliath in the center of his [[forehead]], Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites "as far as [[Gath (city)|Gath]] and the gates of [[Ekron]]". David puts the armor of Goliath in his own tent and takes the head to [[Jerusalem]], and Saul sends [[Abner]] to bring the boy to him. The king asks whose son he is, and David answers: {{quote|"I am the son of your servant [[Jesse (biblical figure)|Jesse]] the [[Bethlehem]]ite."|{{Bibleverse|1 Samuel|17:58|NIV}}}} |
|||
=== Goliath's height === |
|||
[[File:David and Goliath.jpg|thumb|''Goliath laughs at David'', 1915, by [[Ilya Repin]]]] |
|||
[[File:Andrea Vaccaro - David with the Head of Goliath.jpg|thumb|right|''David with the Head of Goliath'', circa 1635, by [[Andrea Vaccaro]]]] |
|||
Goliath's stature grew at the hand of narrators or scribes: the oldest manuscripts — the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] text of Samuel, the 1st century historian [[Josephus]], and the 4th century Septuagint manuscripts — all give his height as "four [[cubit]]s and a [[Span (unit)|span]]" ({{convert|6|ft|9|in|disp=or}}); later manuscripts increase this to "six cubits and a span" ({{convert|9|ft|9|in|disp=or}}).<ref name="autogenerated2005"/> |
|||
==Composition of the Book of Samuel== |
|||
=== Goliath's injury and fall === |
|||
The [[Books of Samuel]], together with the books of [[Book of Joshua|Joshua]], [[Book of Judges|Judges]] and [[Books of Kings|Kings]], make up a unified history of Israel which biblical scholars call the [[Deuteronomistic History]]. The first edition of the history was probably written at the court of Judah's King [[Josiah]] (late 7th century BCE) and a revised second edition during the exile (6th century BCE), with further revisions in the post-exilic period. {{sfn|Campbell|O'Brien|2000|p=2 and fn6}}{{sfn|Person|2010|p=10–11}} Traces of this can be seen in contradictions within the Goliath story, such as that between 1 Samuel 17:54, which says that David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem, although according to 2 Samuel 5 Jerusalem at that time was still a Jebusite stronghold and was not captured until David became king.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1samuel/17|title=1 Samuel, CHAPTER 17 | USCCB|website=bible.usccb.org}}</ref> |
|||
The biblical account describes Goliath as falling on his face after he is struck by a stone that sank into his forehead. British rabbi [[Jonathan Magonet]] has discussed some of the textual difficulties this raises.<ref>Magonet, Jonathan (1992) ''Biblical Lives''. London: SCM, 59 - 60</ref> In the first place, he notes that archaeological information suggests that Philistine helmets generally had a forehead covering, in some cases extending down to the nose. Why (he asks) should David aim at such an impenetrable spot (and how did it hit with such force to penetrate thick bone)? And why should Goliath fall forward when struck by something heavy enough to stop him, rather than backwards? An answer to both questions, Magonet suggests, lies in the Hebrew word ''meitzach'', normally translated forehead. A word almost identical with it appears earlier in the passage — the word ''mitzchat'', translated as "greaves" — the flexible leg-armour that protected Goliath's lower leg (see I Samuel 17: 6). It is possible, grammatically in the passage, for the same word to be used in verse 49, a reconstruction of which, replacing ''meitzach'' with ''mitzchat'', would imply that the stone sank down behind Goliath's leg-armour (as his leg was bent), making it impossible for him to straighten his leg, and causing him to stumble and fall. Then David removed the head of Goliath to show all that the giant was killed. |
|||
== |
==Structure of the David and Goliath narrative== |
||
The Goliath story is made up of base-narrative with numerous additions made probably after the exile:{{sfn|Campbell|O'Brien|2000|p=259-269 fn58}} |
|||
:'' Original story'' |
|||
A Goliath makes another appearance in 2 Samuel 21:19, which tells how Goliath the [[Gittite]] was killed by “[[Elhanan son of Jair|Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim]], the Bethlehemite.” The fourth-century B.C. [[Books of Chronicles|1 Chronicles]] explains the second Goliath by saying that Elhanan "slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath", apparently constructing the name Lahmi from the last portion of the word "Bethlehemite" ("''beit-ha’lahmi''").<ref>[http://prophetess.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/Narrative.htm Ralph W. Klein, ''Narrative Texts: Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah'', see section "Representative Changes in Chronicles of Texts Taken from Samuel-Kings"]. Compare 1 Samuel 16:1, "I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite (''beit-ha’lahmi''), for I have found among his sons a king for me."</ref> The [[Authorized King James Version|King James Bible]] translators adopted this into their translation of 2 Samuel 21:18–19, although the Hebrew text at this point makes no mention of the word "brother". "Most likely, storytellers displaced the deed from the otherwise obscure Elhanan onto the more famous character, David."<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=tn8PG4XfuBAC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=lahmi+bethlehemite&source=web&ots=WaPbURmioi&sig=MlsQ1hyzeYlZbhI7i_KQ9KL6Qis#PPA8,M1 David’s Secret Demons], Baruch Halpern, (2004), p.8</ref> |
|||
* The Israelites and Philistines face each other; Goliath makes his challenge to single combat; |
|||
* David volunteers to fight Goliath; |
|||
* David selects five smooth stones from a creek-bed to be used in his [[Sling (weapon)|sling]]; |
|||
* David's courage strengthens others and eventually others defeat four other giants, possibly brothers, but relatives, reference 2 Samuel 21:15-22. |
|||
* David defeats Goliath, the Philistines flee the battlefield. |
|||
:''Additions'' |
|||
=== Goliath and the Philistines === |
|||
* David is sent by his father to bring food to his brothers, hears the challenge, and expresses his desire to accept; |
|||
* Details of the account of the battle; |
|||
* Saul asks who David is, and he is introduced to the king through Abner. {{sfn|Johnson|2015|p=10-11}}{{efn|group=upper-alpha|[http://kukis.org/Samuel/1Sam_17.htm#The%20LXX%20%E2%82%AC%20of%20I%20Samuel%2017%20(with%20the%20Missing%20Portions%20in%20Magenta) Compare texts of short and long versions of 1 Samuel 17].}} |
|||
==Textual considerations== |
|||
[[Tell es-Safi]], the biblical 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 destroyed in the ninth century BC, an event from which it never recovered. A [[Sherd|potsherd]] discovered at the site, and reliably dated to the tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC, is inscribed with the two names “alwt” and “wlt.” While the names are not directly connected with the biblical Goliath, they are etymologically related and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of late-tenth/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 [http://web.archive.org/web/20080109230143/http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~maeira/Goliath/Goliath+Inscription.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 (In press). An Iron Age I/IIA Archaic Alphabetic Inscription from Tell es-Safi/Gath: Paleography, 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> |
|||
===Goliath's height=== |
|||
[[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 | title=Tall tale of a Philistine: researchers unearth a Goliath cereal bowl | date=2005-11-15}}</ref> |
|||
[[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=== |
===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"/>}} |
|||
[[File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn 029.jpg|thumb|''David Presents the Head of Goliath to King Saul, ''1627, [[Rembrandt]]]] |
|||
The underlying purpose of the story of Goliath is to show that Saul is not fit to be king (and that David is). Saul was chosen to lead the Israelites against their enemies, but when faced with Goliath he refuses to do so; Goliath is a giant, and Saul is a very tall man. His exact height is not given, but he's a head taller than anyone else in all Israel [1 Samuel 9:2]) which implies he was over 6-feet-tall (1.83 m); and Saul's armour and weaponry are apparently no worse than Goliath's (and David, of course, refuses Saul's armour in any case). "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> |
|||
=== Goliath and the Greeks === |
|||
The armor described in 1 Samuel 17 is typical of Greek armor of the sixth century BC rather than of [[Philistines]] armor of the tenth century, and narrative formulae such as the settlement of battle by single combat between champions is characteristic of the [[Homeric epics]] (the [[Iliad]]) but not of the [[ancient Near East]]. The designation of Goliath as a 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 ''metaikhmion'' (μεταίχμιον)", i.e. the space between two opposite army camps where champion combat would take place.<ref>Azzan Yadin’s "Goliath’s Armor and the Israelite Collective Memory", appeared in ''[[Vetus Testamentum]]'' 54:373–95 (2004). See also [[Israel Finkelstein]], "The Philistines in the Bible: A Late Monarchic Perspective", ''[[Journal for the Study of the Old Testament]]'', 27:131:67. For a brief online overview, see [http://www.heardworld.com/higgaion/?p=398 Higgaion], a blog by Christopher Heard, Associate Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University.</ref> |
|||
===Elhanan and Goliath=== |
|||
A story very similar to that of David and Goliath appears in the [[Iliad]], where the young [[Nestor (mythology)|Nestor]] fights and conquers the giant Ereuthalion.<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]]). 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.<ref>[[Martin Litchfield West|M.L. West]], ''The East Face of [[Helicon (river)|Helicon]]. West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth'', Clarendon Press, Oxford 1997 pp. 370, 376.</ref> |
|||
In [[2 Samuel 21]], verse 19, the Hebrew Bible tells how Goliath the [[Gittite]] 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", constructing the name [[Lahmi]] from the last portion of the word "Bethlehemite" ("''beit-ha’lahmi''"), and the [[King James Bible]] adopted this into 2 Samuel 21:18–19, but the Hebrew text at Goliath's name 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" attempt.<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=== |
|||
== Later traditions == |
|||
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 }}</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 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}} |
|||
=== Jewish === |
|||
According to the [[Babylonian Talmud]] ([[Sotah (Talmud)|Sotah]] 42b) Goliath was a son of [[Orpah]], the sister-in-law of [[Ruth (biblical figure)|Ruth]], David's own great grandmother (Ruth → Obed → Jesse → David). [[Ruth Rabbah]], a haggadic and homiletic interpretation of the [[Book of Ruth]], makes the blood-relationship even closer, considering Orpah and Ruth to have been full sisters. Orpah was said to have made a pretense of accompanying Ruth but after forty paces left her. Thereafter she led a dissolute life. According to the [[Jerusalem Talmud]] Goliath was born by [[polyspermy]], and had about one hundred fathers.<ref>[[Jerusalem Talmud]] Yebamoth, 24b.</ref> |
|||
===Goliath's name=== |
|||
The Talmud stresses the [[wikt:thrasonical|thrasonical]] Goliath's ungodliness: his taunts before the Israelites included the boast that it was he who had captured the [[Ark of the Covenant]] and brought it to the temple of [[Dagon]]; and his challenges to combat were made at morning and evening in order to disturb the Israelites in their prayers. His armour weighed 60 tons, according to rabbi [[Hanina]]; 120, according to rabbi [[Abba bar Kahana]]; and his sword, which became the sword of David, had marvellous powers. On his death it was found that his heart carried the image of Dagon, who thereby also came to a shameful downfall.<ref>For a brief overview of Talmudic traditions on Goliath, see [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=336&letter=G Jewish Encyclopedia, "Goliath"].</ref> |
|||
[[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 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 |
|||
In [[Pseudo-Philo]], believed to have been composed between 135 BCE. and 70 CE, David picks up seven stones and writes on them the names of his fathers, his own name, and the name of God, one name per stone; then, speaking to Goliath, he says "Hear this word before you die: were not the two woman from whom you and I were born, sisters? And your mother was Orpah and my mother Ruth ..." After David strikes Goliath with the stone he runs to Goliath before he dies and Goliath says "Hurry and kill me and rejoice." and David replies "Before you die, open your eyes and see your slayer." Goliath sees an angel and tells David that it is not he who has killed him but the angel. Pseudo-Philo then goes on to say that the angel of the Lord changes David's appearance so that no one recognizes him, and thus Saul asks who he is.<ref>Charlesworth, James H. 1983. ''The Old Testament pseudepigrapha'' vol 2. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.ISBN 0-385-18813-7 p. 374.</ref> |
|||
| 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> |
|||
==Later traditions== |
|||
===Judaism=== |
|||
[[File:Peter Paul Rubens David Slaying Goliath.jpg|thumb|''David and Goliath'' (1616) by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]]] |
|||
[[File: David and Goliath -1700s.jpg|thumb|''David Giving Thanks to God'' (18th century) by [[Charles Errard]]]] |
|||
According to the [[Babylonian Talmud]] ([[Sotah (Talmud)|Sotah]] 42b), Goliath was a son of [[Orpah]], the sister-in-law of [[Ruth (biblical figure)|Ruth]], David's own great-grandmother (Ruth → [[Obed (biblical figure)|Obed]] → [[Jesse (biblical figure)|Jesse]] → David). [[Ruth Rabbah]], a haggadic and homiletic interpretation of the [[Book of Ruth]], makes the blood relationship even closer, considering Orpah and Ruth to have been full sisters. Orpah was said to have made a pretense of accompanying Ruth but after forty paces left her. Thereafter she led a dissolute life. According to the [[Jerusalem Talmud]], Goliath was born by [[polyspermy]], and had about one hundred fathers.<ref>[[Jerusalem Talmud]] Yebamoth, 24b.</ref> |
|||
The Talmud stresses Goliath's ungodliness: his taunts before the Israelites included the boast that it was he who had captured the [[Ark of the Covenant]] and brought it to the temple of [[Dagon]], and his challenges to combat were made at morning and evening to disturb the Israelites in their prayers. His armor weighed 60 tons, according to rabbi [[Hanina]]; 120, according to rabbi [[Abba bar Kahana]]; and his sword, which became the sword of David, had marvelous powers. On his death it was found that his heart carried the image of Dagon, who thereby also came to a shameful downfall.<ref>For a brief overview of Talmudic traditions on Goliath, see [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=336&letter=G Jewish Encyclopedia, "Goliath"].</ref> |
|||
In [[Pseudo-Philo]], believed to have been composed between 135 BCE and 70 CE, David picks up seven stones and writes on them his father's name, his own name, and the name of God, one name per stone; then, speaking to Goliath, he says: {{quote|"Hear this word before you die: were not the two woman from whom you and I were born, sisters? And your mother was Orpah and my mother Ruth ..."}} After David strikes Goliath with the stone he runs to Goliath before he dies, and Goliath says: "Hurry and kill me and rejoice." David replies: "Before you die, open your eyes and see your slayer." Goliath sees an angel and tells David that it is not he who has killed him but the angel. Pseudo-Philo then goes on to say that the angel of the Lord changes David's appearance so that no one recognizes him, and thus Saul asks who he is.<ref>Charlesworth, James H. 1983. ''The Old Testament pseudepigrapha'' vol 2. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. {{ISBN|0-385-18813-7}} p. 374.</ref> |
|||
===Islam=== |
===Islam=== |
||
Goliath appears in chapter 2 of the [[ |
Goliath appears in chapter 2 of the [[Quran]] (2: 247–252), in the narrative of David and Saul's battle against the Philistines.<ref name="autogenerated1">''Encyclopedia of Islam'', G. Vajda, ''Djalut''</ref> Called {{transliteration|ar|Jalut}} in Arabic ({{lang|ar|جالوت}}), Goliath's mention in the Quran is concise, although it remains a parallel to the account in the [[Hebrew Bible]]. Muslim scholars have tried to trace Goliath's origins, most commonly with the [[Amalek]]ites.<ref name="autogenerated3">''Hughes Dictionary of Islam'', T.P. Hughes, ''Goliath''</ref> Goliath, in early scholarly tradition, became a kind of byword or collective name for the oppressors of the [[Israelite]] nation before [[David]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/> Muslim tradition sees the battle with Goliath as a prefiguration of [[Muhammad]]'s [[battle of Badr]], and sees Goliath as parallel to the enemies that Muhammad faced.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> |
||
==Modern usages of David and Goliath== |
|||
==Adaptations== |
|||
In modern usage, the phrase "David and Goliath" has taken on a secular meaning, denoting an [[Underdog (term)|underdog]] situation, a contest where a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary; if successful, the underdog may win in an unusual or surprising way.<ref name="oxford" /><ref name="Macmillan">{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/david-and-goliath | title=David and Goliath | encyclopedia=Macmillan Dictionary | access-date=11 February 2015}} "used for describing a situation in which a small person or organization defeats a much larger one in a surprising way"</ref> |
|||
American actor [[Ted Cassidy]] portrayed Goliath in the TV series ''[[Greatest Heroes of the Bible]]'' in 1978.<ref>{{cite web|url= |
|||
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1095791/|title='Greatest Heroes of the Bible' David & Goliath (TV episode 1978)|publisher=imdb|accessdate=2011-04-28}}</ref> Italian actor [[George Eastman (actor)|Luigi Montefiori]] portrayed this nine-foot-tall giant in [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]]'s 1985 live-action movie ''[[King David (film)|King David]]'' as part of a flashback. Big Idea's popular ''[[VeggieTales]]'' episode was called "[[Dave and the Giant Pickle]]", where [[Phil Vischer]] voiced Goliath. |
|||
Theology professor Leonard Greenspoon, in his essay, "David vs. Goliath in the Sports Pages", explains that "most writers use the story for its [[underdog]] overtones (the little guy wins) ... Less likely to show up in newsprint is the contrast that was most important to the biblical authors: David's victory shows the power of his God, while Goliath's defeat reveals the weakness of the Philistine deities."<ref>{{cite web |author=Greenspoon, Leonard |title=David vs. Goliath in the Sports Pages |url=http://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/david-versus-goliath-in-the-sports-pages.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923184437/http://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/david-versus-goliath-in-the-sports-pages.aspx |archive-date=23 September 2015 |access-date=12 February 2015 |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature}}</ref> |
|||
In 2005, Lightstone Studios released a direct-to-DVD movie musical titled "One Smooth Stone", which was later changed to "David and Goliath". It is part of the [[Liken the scriptures|Liken the Scriptures]] (now just Liken) series of movie musicals on DVD based on scripture stories. [[Thurl Bailey]], a former NBA basketball player, was cast to play the part of Goliath in this film. |
|||
The phrase is widely used in news media to succinctly characterize underdog situations in many contexts without religious overtones. Contemporary headlines include: sports ("Haye relishes underdog role in 'David and Goliath' fight with Nikolai Valuev"—''[[The Guardian]]''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/nov/03/david-haye-nikolai-valuev-donald-mcrae | title=Haye relishes underdog role in 'David and Goliath' fight with Nikolai Valuev | work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London | date=3 November 2009 | access-date=3 November 2009 | author=McRae, Donald}} Smaller boxer battles gigantic WBA world heavyweight champion.</ref>); business ("On Internet, David-and-Goliath Battle Over Instant Messages"—''[[The New York Times]]''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/24/nyregion/on-internet-david-and-goliath-battle-over-instant-messages.html | title=On Internet, David-and-Goliath Battle Over Instant Messages | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=24 June 2000 | access-date=27 March 2015 | author=Blair, Jayson | author-link=Jayson Blair}} Tiny online start-up battles Internet giant.</ref>); science ("David and Goliath: How a tiny spider catches much larger prey"—''[[ScienceDaily]]'';<ref name="sciencedaily">{{cite web | url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140612095035.htm | title=David and Goliath: How a tiny spider catches much larger prey | website=ScienceDaily | date=12 June 2014 | access-date=10 February 2016}} Tiny spider preys on ants up to almost four times its size.</ref> politics ("Dissent in Cuba: David and Goliath"—''[[The Economist]]''<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.economist.com/node/1537865 | title=Dissent in Cuba: David and Goliath | newspaper=[[The Economist]] | date=16 January 2003 | access-date=27 March 2015}} "A one-party election faces a small but unprecedented challenge."</ref>); social justice ("David-and-Goliath Saga Brings Cable to Skid Row"—''[[Los Angeles Times]]''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-nov-21-mn-6603-story.html | title=David-and-Goliath Saga Brings Cable to Skid Row | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | date=21 November 2001 | access-date=27 March 2015 | author=Rivera, Carla}} Skid row resident battles telecoms giant to win cable access.</ref>). |
|||
Goliath was portrayed by [[Conan Stevens]] in the 2013 TV miniseries ''[[The Bible (TV miniseries)|The Bible]]''. |
|||
Aside from the above allegorical use of "David and Goliath", there is also the use of "Goliath" for a particularly tall person.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Goliath|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Goliath|access-date=26 Mar 2021|website=Merriam-Webster}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Goliath|url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/goliath|access-date=26 Mar 2021|website=Cambridge English Dictionary}}</ref> For example, basketball player [[Wilt Chamberlain]] was nicknamed "Goliath", which he disliked.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Legends profile: Wilt Chamberlain|url=https://www.nba.com/history/legends/profiles/wilt-chamberlain|access-date=26 Mar 2021|website=NBA}}</ref> |
|||
===The Italian Goliath film series (1960-1964)=== |
|||
The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of Biblical adventure films (peplums) in the early 1960s. He possessed amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to their Hercules and [[Maciste]] movies. After the classic ''[[Hercules (1958 film)|Hercules]]'' (1958) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, a 1959 Steve Reeves film ''Terrore dei Barbari'' (''Terror of the Barbarians'') was retitled ''[[Goliath and the Barbarians]]'' in the United States, (after [[Joseph E. Levine]] claimed the sole right to the name of ''Hercules''); the film was so successful at the box office, it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of four more films featuring a beefcake hero named Goliath, although the films were not really related to each other. (The 1960 Italian film ''David and Goliath'' starring [[Orson Welles]] was not one of these, since that movie was a straightforward adaptation of the Biblical story). |
|||
==In popular culture== |
|||
The four titles in the Italian ''Goliath'' series were as follows: |
|||
[[File:Michelangelo, David and Goliath 02.jpg|thumb|''David and Goliath'' (1509) by [[Michelangelo]], on the [[Sistine Chapel ceiling]]]] |
|||
* ''Goliath contro i giganti''/''Goliath Against the Giants'' (1960) starring [[Brad Harris]] |
|||
* ''Goliath e la schiava ribelle''/''Goliath and the Rebel Slave'' (a.k.a. ''The Tyrant of Lydia vs. The Son of Hercules'') (1963) starring [[Gordon Scott]] |
|||
* ''Golia e il cavaliere mascherato''/''Goliath and the Masked Rider'' (a.k.a. ''Hercules and the Masked Rider'') (1964) starring Alan Steel |
|||
* ''Golia alla conquista di Bagdad''/''Goliath at the Conquest of Baghdad''(a.k.a. ''Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus'', 1964) starring [[Peter Lupus]] |
|||
American actor [[Ted Cassidy]] portrayed Goliath in the TV series ''Greatest Heroes of the Bible'' (1978).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1095791/|title='Greatest Heroes of the Bible' David & Goliath (TV episode 1978)|publisher=imdb|access-date=2011-04-28}}</ref> Italian actor [[George Eastman (actor)|Luigi Montefiori]] portrayed this {{height|ft=9|in=0}}-tall giant in [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]]'s 1985 live-action film ''[[King David (film)|King David]]'' as part of a flashback. This film includes the King of the Philistines saying: "Goliath has challenged the Israelites six times and no one has responded." It is then on the seventh time that David meets his challenge. |
|||
The name Goliath was later inserted into the film titles of three other Italian muscle man movies that were retitled for distribution in the United States in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally made as Goliath movies in Italy. |
|||
[[Toho]] and [[Tsuburaya Productions]] collaborated on a film called ''[[Daigoro vs. Goliath]]'' (1972), which follows the story relatively closely but recasts the main characters as ''[[kaiju]]''.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} |
|||
Both ''Goliath and the Vampires'' (1961) and ''Goliath and the Sins of Babylon'' (1963) actually featured the famed superhero Maciste in the original Italian versions, but American distributors didn't feel the name Maciste had any meaning to American audiences. ''Goliath and the Dragon'' (1960) was originally an Italian Hercules movie called ''The Revenge of Hercules''. |
|||
In 2005, Lightstone Studios released a direct-to-DVD movie musical titled "One Smooth Stone", which was later changed to "David and Goliath". It is part of the [[Liken the scriptures]] (now just Liken) series of movie musicals on DVD based on scripture stories. [[Thurl Bailey]], a former NBA basketball player, was cast to play the part of Goliath in this film.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} |
|||
== See also == |
|||
{{commonscat|David and Goliath}} |
|||
In 2009, [[NBC]] aired [[Kings (U.S. TV series)|Kings]], which has a narrative loosely based on the biblical story of [[King David]], but set in a kingdom that culturally and technologically resembles the present-day United States.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.newsweek.com/what-would-jesus-watch-82121 |title=What Would Jesus Watch? |last=Alston |first=Joshua |date=2009-07-16 |website=Newsweek|access-date=2016-06-19 }}</ref> The part of Goliath is portrayed by a tank, which David destroys with a shoulder-fired [[rocket launcher]].{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} |
|||
* [[Battle of Ain Jalut]] ('Battle of Goliath Well') |
|||
* [[List of artifacts significant to the Bible]] |
|||
In 1975, [[Kaveret]] recorded and released a humorous interpretation of the Goliath story, with several changes made such as Goliath being the "Demon from [[Ascalon|Ashkelon]]", and David randomly meeting Goliath rather than dueling each other on a battlefield. |
|||
===Italian Goliath film series (1960–1964)=== |
|||
The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of biblical adventure films ([[Peplum (film genre)|peplum]]s) in the early 1960s. He possessed amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to their [[Hercules]] and [[Maciste]] movies. After the classic ''[[Hercules (1958 film)|Hercules]]'' (1958) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, the 1959 [[Steve Reeves]] film ''Terrore dei Barbari'' (''Terror of the Barbarians'') was retitled ''[[Goliath and the Barbarians]]'' in the United States, (after [[Joseph E. Levine]] claimed the sole right to the name of ''Hercules''); the film was so successful at the box office, it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of four more films featuring a beefcake hero named Goliath, although the films were not really related to each other. Note that the Italian film ''David and Goliath'' (1960), starring [[Orson Welles]], was not one of these, since that film was a straightforward adaptation of the biblical story.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} |
|||
The four titles in the Italian ''Goliath'' series were as follows:{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} |
|||
* ''Goliath contro i giganti''/''[[Goliath Against the Giants]]'' (1960) starring [[Brad Harris]] |
|||
* ''Goliath e la schiava ribelle''/''[[Goliath and the Rebel Slave]]'' (a.k.a. ''The Tyrant of Lydia vs. The Son of Hercules'') (1963) starring [[Gordon Scott]] |
|||
* ''Golia e il cavaliere mascherato''/''Goliath and the Masked Rider'' (a.k.a. ''[[Hercules and the Masked Rider]]'') (1964) starring [[Alan Steel]] |
|||
* ''Golia alla conquista di Bagdad''/''Goliath at the Conquest of Baghdad'' (a.k.a. ''[[Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus]]'', 1964) starring [[Peter Lupus]] |
|||
The name Goliath was later inserted into the film titles of three other Italian muscle man movies that were retitled for distribution in the United States in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally made as Goliath films in Italy.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} |
|||
Both ''[[Goliath and the Vampires]]'' (1961) and ''[[Goliath and the Sins of Babylon]]'' (1963) actually featured the famed superhero Maciste in the original Italian versions, but American distributors did not feel the name Maciste had any meaning to American audiences. ''[[Goliath and the Dragon]]'' (1960) was originally an Italian Hercules film called ''The Revenge of Hercules''.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} |
|||
==See also== |
|||
* [[Og]] |
|||
* ''[[An Army of Davids]]'' |
* ''[[An Army of Davids]]'' |
||
* [[Battle of Ain Jalut]] |
|||
* [[Gilgamesh]] |
|||
* [[List of tallest people]] |
|||
* [[David Plates]] |
|||
== |
==References== |
||
===Notes=== |
|||
{{notelist|group=upper-alpha}} |
|||
===Citations=== |
|||
{{reflist}} |
{{reflist}} |
||
===Bibliography=== |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
| last1 = Campbell |
|||
| first1 = Antony F. |
|||
| last2 = O'Brien |
|||
| first2 = Mark A. |
|||
| title = Unfolding the Deuteronomistic History |
|||
| year = 2000 |
|||
| publisher = Fortress Press |
|||
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AvZWPFqd2sEC&q=%22Deuteronomistic+history%22%22one+of+the+three+major+narrative+texts%22&pg=PA2 |
|||
| isbn = 9781451413687 |
|||
}} |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
|last = Driesbach |
|||
|first = Jason |
|||
|title = 4QSamuela and the Text of Samuel |
|||
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tIr2DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA73 |
|||
|year = 2016 |
|||
|publisher = BRILL |
|||
|isbn = 978-90-04-32420-6 |
|||
}} |
|||
* {{cite book|first1=Israel|last1=Finkelstein|first2=Neil Asher|last2=Silberman|title=David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hvq6JbIHBDEC&pg=PA198|date=3 April 2007|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0-7432-4363-6}} |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
| last1 = Halpern |
|||
| first1 = Baruch |
|||
| title = David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King |
|||
| year = 2003 |
|||
| publisher = Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |
|||
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tn8PG4XfuBAC&pg=PP1 |
|||
| isbn = 978-0802827975 |
|||
}} |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
| title = Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature: Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Haifa, 3-7 May 2009 |
|||
| last = Hoffmeier |
|||
| first = James K. |
|||
| publisher = BRILL |
|||
| year = 2011 |
|||
| isbn = 978-90-04-19493-9 |
|||
| editor-last = Bar |
|||
| editor-first = S. |
|||
| chapter = David's Triumph Over Goliath: 1 Samuel 17:54 and Ancient Near Eastern Analogues |
|||
| editor-last2 = Kahn |
|||
| editor-first2 = D. |
|||
| editor-last3 = Shirley |
|||
| editor-first3 = J. J. |
|||
| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UC3KdEzloiYC&pg=PA87 |
|||
}} |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
| last1 = Johnson |
|||
| first1 = Benjamin J.M. |
|||
| title = Reading David and Goliath in Greek and Hebrew: A Literary Approach |
|||
| year = 2015 |
|||
| publisher = Mohr Siebeck |
|||
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5OaaKpCpqsQC&q=%22Version+1+and+version+2+of+the+David+and+Goliath+story%22&pg=PA10 |
|||
| isbn = 9783161540462 |
|||
}} |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
| last1 = Nelson |
|||
| first1 = William R. |
|||
| chapter = Goliath |
|||
| editor1-last = Freedman |
|||
| editor1-first = David Noel |
|||
| editor2-last = Myers |
|||
| editor2-first = Allen C. |
|||
| title = Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible |
|||
| year = 2000 |
|||
| publisher = Eerdmans |
|||
| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qRtUqxkB7wkC&pg=PA519 |
|||
| isbn = 9789053565032 |
|||
}} |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
| last = Person |
|||
| first = Raymond F. |
|||
| title = The Deuteronomic History and the Book of Chronicles |
|||
| year = 2010 |
|||
| publisher = Society of Biblical Literature |
|||
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XGdcDBDMaPQC&pg=PA31 |
|||
| isbn = 9781589835177 |
|||
}} |
|||
* {{cite book |
|||
| last = West |
|||
| first = M.L. |
|||
|author-link= Martin Litchfield West |
|||
| title = The East Face of Helicon. West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth |
|||
| year = 1997 |
|||
| publisher = Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |
|||
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fIp0RYIjazQC&pg=PA214 |
|||
| isbn = 9780191591044 |
|||
}} |
|||
==External links== |
|||
==Further reading: Goliath in Islam== |
|||
*{{commons category-inline|Goliath}} |
|||
* ''K. Al-Tidian'', Hyderabad, 1347/1928, 178 f. |
|||
* Ya'kubi, ''Tarikh'', 51f. (''Smit Bijbel en Legende'', 61f.) |
|||
* Tabari, Volume I: ''Prophets and Patriarchs'', 370-76, c.f. 278-80 |
|||
* Masudi, ''Murudj'', i, 105-108; iii, 241 |
|||
* Kisa'i ''Vita Prophetarum'', 250-54 |
|||
* ''Mukhtasar al-adja'ib'' (''Abrege des Merveilles''), trans. Carra de Vaux, 101 |
|||
{{The Bible and warfare}} |
|||
{{Qur'anic people}} |
|||
{{Authority control}} |
|||
[[Category: |
[[Category:Books of Chronicles people]] |
||
[[Category: |
[[Category:Books of Samuel people]] |
||
[[Category:Philistines]] |
|||
[[Category:David]] |
[[Category:David]] |
||
[[Category: |
[[Category:Deaths by decapitation]] |
||
[[Category: |
[[Category:Gath (city)]] |
||
[[Category:Giants in Islam]] |
|||
[[Category:Giants in the Hebrew Bible]] |
|||
[[Category:Goliath]] |
|||
[[Category:Military personnel killed in action]] |
|||
[[Category:Philistines]] |
|||
[[Category:Warriors of Asia]] |
Latest revision as of 23:57, 24 December 2024
Goliath[A] (/ɡəˈlaɪəθ/ gə-LY-əth) is a Philistine giant in the Book of Samuel. Descriptions of Goliath's immense stature vary among biblical sources, with various texts describing him as either 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) or 9 ft 9 in (2.97 m) tall.[1] According to the text, Goliath issued a challenge to the Israelites, daring them to send forth a champion to engage him in single combat; he was ultimately defeated by the young shepherd David, employing a sling and stone as a weapon. The narrative signified King Saul's unfitness to rule, as Saul himself should have fought for the Kingdom of Israel.[2]
Some modern scholars[who?] believe that the original slayer of Goliath may have been Elhanan, son of Jair, who features in 2 Samuel 21:19, in which Elhanan kills Goliath the Gittite,[3] and that the authors of the Deuteronomistic history changed the original text to credit the victory to the more famous figure David.[4][5]
The phrase "David and Goliath" has taken on a more popular meaning denoting an underdog situation, a contest wherein a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary.[6]
Biblical accounts
[edit]In 1 Samuel 17, Saul and the Israelites are facing the Philistines in the Valley of Elah. Twice a day for 40 days, morning and evening, Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, comes out between the lines and challenges the Israelites to send out a champion of their own to decide the outcome in single combat, but Saul is afraid. David accepts the challenge. Saul reluctantly agrees and offers his armour, which David declines, taking only his staff, sling, and five stones from a brook.[7]
David and Goliath confront each other, Goliath with his armor and javelin, David with his staff and sling. "The Philistine cursed David by his gods", but David replies:
"This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down, and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a god in Israel and that all this assembly may know that God saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is God's, and he will give you into our hand."
David hurls a stone from his sling and hits Goliath in the center of his forehead, Goliath falls on his face to the ground, and David cuts off his head. The Philistines flee and are pursued by the Israelites "as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron". David puts the armor of Goliath in his own tent and takes the head to Jerusalem, and Saul sends Abner to bring the boy to him. The king asks whose son he is, and David answers:
"I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."
Composition of the Book of Samuel
[edit]The Books of Samuel, together with the books of Joshua, Judges and Kings, make up a unified history of Israel which biblical scholars call the Deuteronomistic History. The first edition of the history was probably written at the court of Judah's King Josiah (late 7th century BCE) and a revised second edition during the exile (6th century BCE), with further revisions in the post-exilic period. [8][9] Traces of this can be seen in contradictions within the Goliath story, such as that between 1 Samuel 17:54, which says that David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem, although according to 2 Samuel 5 Jerusalem at that time was still a Jebusite stronghold and was not captured until David became king.[10]
Structure of the David and Goliath narrative
[edit]The Goliath story is made up of base-narrative with numerous additions made probably after the exile:[11]
- Original story
- The Israelites and Philistines face each other; Goliath makes his challenge to single combat;
- David volunteers to fight Goliath;
- David selects five smooth stones from a creek-bed to be used in his sling;
- David's courage strengthens others and eventually others defeat four other giants, possibly brothers, but relatives, reference 2 Samuel 21:15-22.
- David defeats Goliath, the Philistines flee the battlefield.
- Additions
- David is sent by his father to bring food to his brothers, hears the challenge, and expresses his desire to accept;
- Details of the account of the battle;
- Saul asks who David is, and he is introduced to the king through Abner. [12][B]
Textual considerations
[edit]Goliath's height
[edit]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 cubits and a span" (6 feet 9 inches or 2.06 metres), whereas the Masoretic Text has "six cubits and a span" (9 feet 9 inches or 2.97 metres).[13][1] 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.[14]
Goliath and Saul
[edit]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 6 feet (1.8 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:
"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)."[1]
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.[15]
Elhanan and Goliath
[edit]In 2 Samuel 21, verse 19, the Hebrew Bible tells how Goliath the Gittite was killed by "Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite". The fourth-century BC 1 Chronicle 20:5 explains the second Goliath by saying that Elhanan "slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath", constructing the name Lahmi from the last portion of the word "Bethlehemite" ("beit-ha’lahmi"), and the King James Bible adopted this into 2 Samuel 21:18–19, but the Hebrew text at Goliath's name makes no mention of the word "brother".[16] Most scholars dismiss the later 1 Chronicles 20:5 material as "an obvious harmonization" attempt.[17]
Goliath and the Greeks
[edit]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 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 metaikhmion (μεταίχμιον)", i.e., the space between two opposite army camps where champion combat would take place.[18] Other scholars argue the description is a trustworthy reflection of the armaments that a Philistine warrior would have worn in the tenth century BCE.[19][C]
A story very similar to that of David and Goliath appears in the Iliad, written circa 760–710 BCE, where the young Nestor fights and conquers the giant Ereuthalion.[21][22] 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). 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.[23]
Goliath's name
[edit]Tell es-Safi, the biblical 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 destroyed in the ninth century BC, an event from which it never recovered. The Tell es-Safi inscription, a 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 (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 Lydian king Alyattes, which also fits the Philistine context of the biblical Goliath story.[24] A similar name, Uliat, is also attested in Carian inscriptions.[25] 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."[26]
Based on the southwest Anatolian onomastic considerations, Roger D. Woodard proposed *Walwatta as a reconstruction of the form ancestral to both Hebrew Goliath and Lydian Alyattes. In this case, the original meaning of Goliath's name would be "Lion-man," thus placing him within the realm of Indo-European warrior-beast mythology.[27]
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.[28]
Later traditions
[edit]Judaism
[edit]According to the Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 42b), Goliath was a son of Orpah, the sister-in-law of Ruth, David's own great-grandmother (Ruth → Obed → Jesse → David). Ruth Rabbah, a haggadic and homiletic interpretation of the Book of Ruth, makes the blood relationship even closer, considering Orpah and Ruth to have been full sisters. Orpah was said to have made a pretense of accompanying Ruth but after forty paces left her. Thereafter she led a dissolute life. According to the Jerusalem Talmud, Goliath was born by polyspermy, and had about one hundred fathers.[29]
The Talmud stresses Goliath's ungodliness: his taunts before the Israelites included the boast that it was he who had captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to the temple of Dagon, and his challenges to combat were made at morning and evening to disturb the Israelites in their prayers. His armor weighed 60 tons, according to rabbi Hanina; 120, according to rabbi Abba bar Kahana; and his sword, which became the sword of David, had marvelous powers. On his death it was found that his heart carried the image of Dagon, who thereby also came to a shameful downfall.[30]
In Pseudo-Philo, believed to have been composed between 135 BCE and 70 CE, David picks up seven stones and writes on them his father's name, his own name, and the name of God, one name per stone; then, speaking to Goliath, he says:
"Hear this word before you die: were not the two woman from whom you and I were born, sisters? And your mother was Orpah and my mother Ruth ..."
After David strikes Goliath with the stone he runs to Goliath before he dies, and Goliath says: "Hurry and kill me and rejoice." David replies: "Before you die, open your eyes and see your slayer." Goliath sees an angel and tells David that it is not he who has killed him but the angel. Pseudo-Philo then goes on to say that the angel of the Lord changes David's appearance so that no one recognizes him, and thus Saul asks who he is.[31]
Islam
[edit]Goliath appears in chapter 2 of the Quran (2: 247–252), in the narrative of David and Saul's battle against the Philistines.[32] Called Jalut in Arabic (جالوت), Goliath's mention in the Quran is concise, although it remains a parallel to the account in the Hebrew Bible. Muslim scholars have tried to trace Goliath's origins, most commonly with the Amalekites.[33] Goliath, in early scholarly tradition, became a kind of byword or collective name for the oppressors of the Israelite nation before David.[32] Muslim tradition sees the battle with Goliath as a prefiguration of Muhammad's battle of Badr, and sees Goliath as parallel to the enemies that Muhammad faced.[33]
Modern usages of David and Goliath
[edit]In modern usage, the phrase "David and Goliath" has taken on a secular meaning, denoting an underdog situation, a contest where a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary; if successful, the underdog may win in an unusual or surprising way.[6][34]
Theology professor Leonard Greenspoon, in his essay, "David vs. Goliath in the Sports Pages", explains that "most writers use the story for its underdog overtones (the little guy wins) ... Less likely to show up in newsprint is the contrast that was most important to the biblical authors: David's victory shows the power of his God, while Goliath's defeat reveals the weakness of the Philistine deities."[35]
The phrase is widely used in news media to succinctly characterize underdog situations in many contexts without religious overtones. Contemporary headlines include: sports ("Haye relishes underdog role in 'David and Goliath' fight with Nikolai Valuev"—The Guardian[36]); business ("On Internet, David-and-Goliath Battle Over Instant Messages"—The New York Times[37]); science ("David and Goliath: How a tiny spider catches much larger prey"—ScienceDaily;[38] politics ("Dissent in Cuba: David and Goliath"—The Economist[39]); social justice ("David-and-Goliath Saga Brings Cable to Skid Row"—Los Angeles Times[40]).
Aside from the above allegorical use of "David and Goliath", there is also the use of "Goliath" for a particularly tall person.[41][42] For example, basketball player Wilt Chamberlain was nicknamed "Goliath", which he disliked.[43]
In popular culture
[edit]American actor Ted Cassidy portrayed Goliath in the TV series Greatest Heroes of the Bible (1978).[44] Italian actor Luigi Montefiori portrayed this 9 ft 0 in (2.74 m)-tall giant in Paramount's 1985 live-action film King David as part of a flashback. This film includes the King of the Philistines saying: "Goliath has challenged the Israelites six times and no one has responded." It is then on the seventh time that David meets his challenge.
Toho and Tsuburaya Productions collaborated on a film called Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972), which follows the story relatively closely but recasts the main characters as kaiju.[citation needed]
In 2005, Lightstone Studios released a direct-to-DVD movie musical titled "One Smooth Stone", which was later changed to "David and Goliath". It is part of the Liken the scriptures (now just Liken) series of movie musicals on DVD based on scripture stories. Thurl Bailey, a former NBA basketball player, was cast to play the part of Goliath in this film.[citation needed]
In 2009, NBC aired Kings, which has a narrative loosely based on the biblical story of King David, but set in a kingdom that culturally and technologically resembles the present-day United States.[45] The part of Goliath is portrayed by a tank, which David destroys with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher.[citation needed]
In 1975, Kaveret recorded and released a humorous interpretation of the Goliath story, with several changes made such as Goliath being the "Demon from Ashkelon", and David randomly meeting Goliath rather than dueling each other on a battlefield.
Italian Goliath film series (1960–1964)
[edit]The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of biblical adventure films (peplums) in the early 1960s. He possessed amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to their Hercules and Maciste movies. After the classic Hercules (1958) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, the 1959 Steve Reeves film Terrore dei Barbari (Terror of the Barbarians) was retitled Goliath and the Barbarians in the United States, (after Joseph E. Levine claimed the sole right to the name of Hercules); the film was so successful at the box office, it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of four more films featuring a beefcake hero named Goliath, although the films were not really related to each other. Note that the Italian film David and Goliath (1960), starring Orson Welles, was not one of these, since that film was a straightforward adaptation of the biblical story.[citation needed]
The four titles in the Italian Goliath series were as follows:[citation needed]
- Goliath contro i giganti/Goliath Against the Giants (1960) starring Brad Harris
- Goliath e la schiava ribelle/Goliath and the Rebel Slave (a.k.a. The Tyrant of Lydia vs. The Son of Hercules) (1963) starring Gordon Scott
- Golia e il cavaliere mascherato/Goliath and the Masked Rider (a.k.a. Hercules and the Masked Rider) (1964) starring Alan Steel
- Golia alla conquista di Bagdad/Goliath at the Conquest of Baghdad (a.k.a. Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus, 1964) starring Peter Lupus
The name Goliath was later inserted into the film titles of three other Italian muscle man movies that were retitled for distribution in the United States in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally made as Goliath films in Italy.[citation needed]
Both Goliath and the Vampires (1961) and Goliath and the Sins of Babylon (1963) actually featured the famed superhero Maciste in the original Italian versions, but American distributors did not feel the name Maciste had any meaning to American audiences. Goliath and the Dragon (1960) was originally an Italian Hercules film called The Revenge of Hercules.[citation needed]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Hebrew: גָּלְיָת, romanized: Goləyāṯ; Arabic: جُليات, romanized: Ǧulyāt (Christian term) or جَالُوت, Ǧālūt (Quranic term)
- ^ Compare texts of short and long versions of 1 Samuel 17.
- ^ 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.33 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."34 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.35 Most recently, Moshe Garsiel wrote a comprehen-sive critique of the recent mini-malistic literary and archaeological readings of this classic narrative.36"[20]
Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c Hays, J. Daniel (December 2005). "Reconsidering the Height of Goliath" (PDF). Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 48 (4): 701–2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 December 2010.
- ^ Nelson 2000, p. 519.
- ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, pp. 2, 57.
- ^ Halpern 2003, p. 8.
- ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, p. 196.
- ^ a b "David, and Goliath". Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Retrieved 11 February 2015. "used to describe a situation in which a small or weak person or organization tries to defeat another much larger or stronger opponent: The game looks like it will be a David and Goliath contest."
- ^ 1 Samuel 17:40
- ^ Campbell & O'Brien 2000, p. 2 and fn6.
- ^ Person 2010, p. 10–11.
- ^ "1 Samuel, CHAPTER 17 | USCCB". bible.usccb.org.
- ^ Campbell & O'Brien 2000, p. 259-269 fn58.
- ^ Johnson 2015, p. 10-11.
- ^ Ehrlich, C. S. (1992). "Goliath (Person)". In D. N. Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 2, p. 1073). New York: Doubleday
- ^ Driesbach 2016, p. 73.
- ^ Beard, Brady A. (1 November 2020). "Snatched from the hand of a bear : a comparative perspective on the bear in David's speech in 1 Sam 17:34–37". Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages. 46 (1): 1–20. hdl:10520/EJC-20a3d4d2b9.
- ^ Halpern 2003, pp. 7–10.
- ^ Hubbard, Robert L.; Younger, K. Lawson; Arnold, Bill T.; Konkel, August H.; Hill, Andrew E.; Jobes, Karen H. (2015). NIVAC Bundle 2: Historical Books. The NIV Application Commentary. Zondervan Academic. p. unpaginated. ISBN 978-0-310-53003-9. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
Most scholars dismiss the parallel in 1 Chronicles 20:5 as an obvious harmonization
- ^ Azzan Yadin (2004). "Goliath's Armor and the Israelite Collective Memory" (PDF). Vetus Testamentum. LIV (3): 373–95. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 December 2014.
– See also Israel Finkelstein. "The Philistines in the Bible: A Late Monarchic Perspective". Journal for the Study of the Old Testament. 27 (131): 67.
– For a brief online overview, see Christopher Heard (28 April 2006). "Yadin on "David and Goliath" in VT 54 (2004)". Higgaion. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007.{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Zorn, Jeffrey R. (2010). "Reconsidering Goliath: An Iron Age I Philistine Chariot Warrior". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 360: 1–22. doi:10.1086/BASOR41104416. S2CID 163281106.
- ^ Hoffmeier 2011, p. 92.
- ^ Finkelstein & Silberman 2007, pp. 198–199.
- ^ Homer, Iliad Book 7 ll.132–160.
- ^ West 1997, pp. 370, 376.
- ^ Tell es-Safi/Gath weblog and 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.
- ^ Vernet Pons, M. (2012). "The etymology of Goliath in the light of Carian Wljat/Wliat: a new proposal". Kadmos, 51, 143–164.
- ^ "Tall tale of a Philistine: researchers unearth a Goliath cereal bowl". The Sydney Morning Herald. Reuters. 15 November 2005.
- ^ Woodard, Roger D. (2022), "On Goliath, Alyattes, Indo-European Wolves, and Lydian Lions: A Reexamination of 1 Sam 17:1–11, 32–40" (PDF), in Rollston, Christopher (ed.), Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr. (Ancient Near East Monographs), SBL Press, pp. 239–254
- ^
For example in Shakespeare:
Hassel, R. Chris (12 May 200). Shakespeare's Religious Language: A Dictionary. Athlone Shakespeare dictionary series. London: A&C Black. p. 144. ISBN 9780826458902. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
GOLIAH[:] Goliath, the giant whom David slew.
- ^ Jerusalem Talmud Yebamoth, 24b.
- ^ For a brief overview of Talmudic traditions on Goliath, see Jewish Encyclopedia, "Goliath".
- ^ Charlesworth, James H. 1983. The Old Testament pseudepigrapha vol 2. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-18813-7 p. 374.
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of Islam, G. Vajda, Djalut
- ^ a b Hughes Dictionary of Islam, T.P. Hughes, Goliath
- ^ "David and Goliath". Macmillan Dictionary. Retrieved 11 February 2015. "used for describing a situation in which a small person or organization defeats a much larger one in a surprising way"
- ^ Greenspoon, Leonard. "David vs. Goliath in the Sports Pages". Society of Biblical Literature. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- ^ McRae, Donald (3 November 2009). "Haye relishes underdog role in 'David and Goliath' fight with Nikolai Valuev". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 November 2009. Smaller boxer battles gigantic WBA world heavyweight champion.
- ^ Blair, Jayson (24 June 2000). "On Internet, David-and-Goliath Battle Over Instant Messages". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2015. Tiny online start-up battles Internet giant.
- ^ "David and Goliath: How a tiny spider catches much larger prey". ScienceDaily. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 10 February 2016. Tiny spider preys on ants up to almost four times its size.
- ^ "Dissent in Cuba: David and Goliath". The Economist. 16 January 2003. Retrieved 27 March 2015. "A one-party election faces a small but unprecedented challenge."
- ^ Rivera, Carla (21 November 2001). "David-and-Goliath Saga Brings Cable to Skid Row". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 27 March 2015. Skid row resident battles telecoms giant to win cable access.
- ^ "Goliath". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ "Goliath". Cambridge English Dictionary. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ "Legends profile: Wilt Chamberlain". NBA. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ "'Greatest Heroes of the Bible' David & Goliath (TV episode 1978)". imdb. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
- ^ Alston, Joshua (16 July 2009). "What Would Jesus Watch?". Newsweek. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
Bibliography
[edit]- Campbell, Antony F.; O'Brien, Mark A. (2000). Unfolding the Deuteronomistic History. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451413687.
- Driesbach, Jason (2016). 4QSamuela and the Text of Samuel. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-32420-6.
- Finkelstein, Israel; Silberman, Neil Asher (3 April 2007). David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-4363-6.
- Halpern, Baruch (2003). David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0802827975.
- Hoffmeier, James K. (2011). "David's Triumph Over Goliath: 1 Samuel 17:54 and Ancient Near Eastern Analogues". In Bar, S.; Kahn, D.; Shirley, J. J. (eds.). Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature: Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Haifa, 3-7 May 2009. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-19493-9.
- Johnson, Benjamin J.M. (2015). Reading David and Goliath in Greek and Hebrew: A Literary Approach. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161540462.
- Nelson, William R. (2000). "Goliath". In Freedman, David Noel; Myers, Allen C. (eds.). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Eerdmans. ISBN 9789053565032.
- Person, Raymond F. (2010). The Deuteronomic History and the Book of Chronicles. Society of Biblical Literature. ISBN 9781589835177.
- West, M.L. (1997). The East Face of Helicon. West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780191591044.
External links
[edit]- Media related to Goliath at Wikimedia Commons