Goliath, the not-so-giant giant?
Introduction
Back in
December 2022, an interloper swooped down into the “King James Bible / Textus
Receptus Defenders” Facebook group. He was anti-King James, anti-Masoretic
text, and pro-Greek Old Testament. In about three or four days he put up
hundreds of posts, then, either having expended all the contrary items he knew
or having worn out his welcome – or both – he moved on to play games elsewhere.
One of his
anti-KJV anti-Masoretic text screeds was about the height of Goliath, the
not-so-giant giant, reduced in height by 3 feet. The Hebrew Masoretic text was
wrong; the Greek LXX was right. Here is the relevant verse for inspection.
KJV English translation from the Masoretic text
1 Samuel
17:4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named
Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
וַיֵּצֵ֤א אִֽישׁ־הַבֵּנַ֙יִם֙
מִמַּחֲנ֣וֹת פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים גָּלְיָ֥ת שְׁמ֖וֹ מִגַּ֑ת גָּבְה֕וֹ שֵׁ֥שׁ אַמּ֖וֹת
וָזָֽרֶת׃
Brenton English translation from the LXX
1 Samuel
17:4 And there went forth a mighty man out of the army of the Philistines,
Goliath, by name, out of Geth, his height [was] four cubits and a span.
καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἀνὴρ
δυνατὸς ἐκ τῆς παρατάξεως τῶν ἀλλοφύλων Γολιὰθ ὄνομα αὐτῶν ἐκ Γέθ, ὕψος αὐτοῦ τεσσάρων
πήχεων καὶ σπιθαμῆς·
Immediately
a difference stands out – the Hebrew Goliath stands at 6 cubits and a span (about
9 feet 9 inches) while the Greek Goliath is two cubits shorter, four cubits and
a span (about 6 feet 9 inches).[i]
What to do?
Witnesses
for the short Goliath
The
interloper, with great intent to slight the Masoretic text, argued that the
Greek reading is supported by Josephus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In that he is
correct. Josephus stated:
Now there
came down a man out of the camp of the Philistines, whose name was Goliath, of
the city of Gath; a man of vast bulk, for he was of four cubits and a span in
tallness: and had about him weapons suitable to the largeness of his body: for
he had a breast-plate on that weighed five thousand shekels. Josephus, Antiquities, Book VI, Chapter 9, Verse 1
Josephus is
an historian to whom we often turn to see what he has to say about 1st century
Jewish and Christian history. Often, he can be very interesting and helpful. On
the other hand, he is neither inspired nor infallible. What his description
tells us is that he had access to a text that was corrupted in this verse,
perhaps like the Dead Sea Scroll or the Greek Old Testament. On the other hand,
folks like the interloper mentioned above mention the late date of the
Masoretic Text we are using. Then keep quiet about the date of the manuscripts
of Josephus. I believe none of them are older than the 11th century AD.[ii]
What
Josephus wrote has been known for centuries, but perhaps revived in interest
with the discovery of scroll 4QSam(a). Translated into English, the scroll
says something like:
“Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His
height was FOUR CUBITS and a span.” 1 Samuel 17:4, Dead Sea Scroll 4QSam(a) circa 75 BC
The Qumran
scrolls, discovered in 1947, had been out of the possession of both the Jews or
the Lord’s churches – or anyone else – for over one thousand nine hundred and
fifty years. They are a grand historical find, but they are not part of the
scriptures God preserved in the pillar and ground of his truth. We cannot
accept the Bible doctrine of the preservation of his word and also insert hidden
words outside the provenance of the Lord’s churches. These scrolls have been
preserved as historical documents, but not as words in use by the Lord’s
people. In fact, just who produced and used these still seems an unsettled question.
The
interloper boldly claimed, “The oldest Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts, which are
MSS of the Book of Samuel, go back to the 1st to the 3rd century BC. These
agree perfectly with the LXX today.” Quite the lie, known to be so by those who
carefully study the Dead Sea Scrolls. Either he was deceived himself, or set
out to deceive. Sometimes the scrolls agree with the Hebrew Masoretic Text, and
sometimes with the Greek Old Testament, and sometimes have differences from
both.[iii]
Here is a
closer look at the scroll “containing” 1 Samuel 17:4. For his readers, the
interloper did not give a fair and honest representation of the DSS 1 Samuel 7:14.
In English translations we find many of the words either bracketed or
italicized as below – because this portion of the scroll is very fragmentary.
All the relevant words are not actually visible and must be supplied!
[Then] a
cha[mpion named Goliath, who was from Gath, ca]me out [of the Philistine camp.
His height was f]our [cubits] and a span.[iv]
A champion out
of the camp of the Philistines named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was
four cubits
and a span went out.[v]
Notice in both
presentations (though slightly different) there are more unreadable words than
readable ones. This is problematic in that are entire change in the Bible could
rest on either the skill or guesswork of those trying to reconstruct this text.
Concerning
the Greek translation of the Old Testament, we also must understand that there
is not one THE Septuagint – not just one that is complete, final, and authoritative.
There are numerous ones, some of which have five cubits or six cubits rather
than four cubits.[vi]
For example, see a reference book on Origen’s Hexapla on 1 Samuel 17:4.[vii]
Notably, Greek
Old Testaments have other corruptions in 1 Samuel. For example, the text
preferred in the Brenton translation is missing 17:12-31, 41, 50, 55-58, 18:1-5
– but the Alexandrine text has these verses, which Brenton supplies in an appendix.[viii]
Witnesses supporting the Masoretic text
Those clamoring
for the “shorter” reading sometimes fail to recognize or mention other witnesses
in addition to the Masoretic Text – such as the Vulgate, Peshitta (“his height was six cubits and a half cubit”), and Targums (Jonathan, שִׁתָּא אַמִין וְזֵירְתָא). The Greek translation of the Old Testament by the Jew Symmachus (circa AD 200) has six cubits and a span. He attempted to accurately translate the Hebrew into Greek. The use of “six cubits and a span” indicates he had a manuscript at that time, with that reading. The fifth column of Origen’s Hexapla also contains the reading six cubits and a span. The Latin Vulgate of Jerome in the fourth century is another witness to the greater elevation of Goliath – “sex cubitorum et palmo,” that is, “six cubits and a span.” This height may
also be found in Midrash Jewish exegesis.[ix]
Other Bible evidence
It is worthwhile to note other mentions of height in the Bible, though there are not
that many.
Several
commentators and historians (including the NET Bible), however accurately, put
the average height of an Israelite male around the time of David and Goliath at
about 5 feet 3 inches.[x]
Saul was head and shoulders taller than the tallest Israelite of his time – maybe
around 6 feet tall, or perhaps a little more (1 Samuel 9:2). Og king of Bashan’s
height is not given in the Scriptures, but he had a nine-cubit bedstead (13-1/2
feet). LXX (ἐννέα πήχεων) agrees here. It is unlikely that a “7 ft. giant”
would need or want a 13 ft bed. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada slew an Egyptian
who was five cubits high (that is, about 7-1/2 ft. See 2 Samuel 23:21; 1 Chronicles
11:23). This Egyptian would be taller than the LXX Goliath. He is simply called
a man of great stature.
Many exegetes
have noted the size and weight of Goliath’s armor and weapon. The staff of his
spear was “like a weaver’s beam” with the head itself weighing about 15 pounds.[xi]
His armor probably weighed about 130 pounds. This is not conclusive, but certainly
is suggestive of the larger Goliath.
The Companion
Bible points out the characterization of Goliath by the number six: “Note his
number ‘6’ is stamped like a ‘hallmark’ on this ‘man’” – the six cubits, “the six
pieces of armour,” and the six hundred shekels of iron.[xii]
Conclusion
To me, it
seems like a thread running through the supporters of short Goliath is the difficulty
to believe this man could actually have been over nine feet tall. In “The Height of Goliath: A Text Critical Question,” Jonathan Burke wrote:
“This is a
height which is not only highly unlikely for any Iron Age man, but far beyond what would have been considered a giant at the time.” (2011, p. 1)
Burke continues,
“Archaeology has shown that the heroes buried in the ‘royal tombs’ at Mycenae were 1.76 ‐ 1.80 mtr. tall, [about 5’10”] while the height of the average man at that period (according to the skeletons excavated) was 1.64 mtr. [about 5’4”] both in the Aegean lands and in Canaan.”[xiii]
In contrast
to Burke, the Unger’s Bible Dictionary (among other sources) claims that “Skeltons
recovered in Palestine attest the fact that men as tall as Goliath [i.e., “over
nine feet”] once lived in that general region.”[xiv]
Modern textual critics seem split on the issue. Peter Gurry and John Meade write:
“Although
the six-nine Goliath has the earlier and perhaps better external evidence, the
nine-nine Goliath is probably more likely original because a later scribe
probably found a contextual reason (1 Sam. 9:2) to shorten Goliath to six nine.”[xv]
Benjamin J.
M. Johnson concludes similarly Gurry and Meade. Johnson argues that the change
to “six” in cubits from reading the number later in “six hundred” is unlikely,
and that the height of the giant is so iconic that a scribe would not likely
miss that. He argues rather that it is more likely an intentional change from
six to four.
“…the
reference to ‘six hundred’ in v. 7 seems fairly far removed from v. 4. For
example in 4QSama it is four lines apart. Furthermore, if the
reception history of this story is anything to judge by, it strikes me as
unlikely that a scribe would accidentally change something as iconic as the
height of Goliath. It seems more likely that the change in height is the result
of intentional exegesis…there does seem to be a good narrative reason for a
scribe to lower the height of Goliath. If Goliath is merely four cubits, or
around six foot six inches tall, then, though a towering figure, he is not a
creature of legend but merely an extremely big man. Rather than give the account
verisimilitude, this shortening of Goliath serves as a critique of Saul, who is
head and shoulders taller than everyone in Israel (1 Sam 9:2). After all, who
better to face the Philistine giant, than the Israelite giant—Saul?[xvi]
Modern
translators are slow to agree with a short Goliath. For example, on Bible Gateway, of 54 translations of 1 Samuel 17:4, 50 of these accept the Masoretic reading,
3 take the LXX reading, and 1 vaguely says “almost twice as tall as most
men.” The majority of translators are not beating a path to the LXX door
on this verse.
The
interloper’s argument mostly falls flat as an anti-KJV screed. We should never fear believing our King James and Masoretic Text, six cubits and a span / שֵׁ֥שׁ אַמּ֖וֹת וָזָֽרֶת.
[i] In
this essay, I am using the measurement of a cubit equaling about 18 inches, and
a span about half that, 9 inches. There are other opinions about these measurements.
[ii]
Josephus: all the Greek Manuscripts. This, in my mind, leaves open the possibility that his text was “corrected” to match the Septuagint reading. I have not researched this carefully. It is just
an initial thought. Others may have already proven whether this could or could
not be so. Other things that could be researched – possibly have been and I am
not aware of it – are (1) might Josephus have been a member of the Jewish party
who used the Dead Sea Scrolls, and (2) could the cubit have been adjusted to
what translators felt was a changing standard of how many increments comprised
a cubit.
[iii] Scrolls
editor Emanuel Tov identifies 5 different groups of DSS texts: 1. Texts written in Qumran practice (about 20% of the texts); 2. Proto-Masoretic texts (about 35%); 3. Pre-Samaritan texts (about 5%); 4. Texts close to the presumed Hebrew source of G (about 5%); and Non-aligned texts (about 35%). Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (2nd revised edition), Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2001, pp. 114-116.
[iv] The
Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time
into English, Martin G. Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, Eugene Ulrich, Editors
(translation and commentary) HarperCollins, p. 229
[v] Words
in italics cannot be seen in the scroll, since the scroll is fragmentary. Words
present in the scroll but with some letters unreadable or missing are in blue. Dead Sea Scrolls English Bible Translation.
[vi] LXXA
and LXXL have 4, while LXXB has 6. The “odd man out” is the
8th century manuscript known as Codex Venetus, which has the reading five
cubits and a span (i.e., circa 7 feet 3 inches). 1 Samuel is not in Sinaiticus.
[vii] 4.
שֵׁשׁ. Ο. τεσσάρων. Alia exempl. Πεντε.7
Σ και οι λοιποι εξ.8 7. Sic Codd. XI, 29, 52, 55 alii (inter quos 243). So Codices 11, 29, 52, 55 others (including 243). 8. Cod. 243. Sic in textu Ald., Codd. III, 44, 74, alii, Arm. I. Codex
243. Thus in the text Ald., Codd. III, 44, 74, others, Arm. I. Origenis Hexaplorum Quae Supersunt; Sive Veterum Interpretum Graecorum in Totum vetus Testamentum Fragmenta, Tomus I, Genesis-Esther, Fridericus Field, Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1875, p. 515.
[viii]
Brenton’s translation is based on Codex Vaticanus, via Sixtine edition of 1587
and the Valpy edition of 1819 (which was Brenton’s immediate source). For more
on LXX manuscripts, see Manuscripts of the Septuagint. An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Additional Notes, by Henry Barclay Swete.
[ix] On I Samuel 17:49, medieval French rabbi Rashi cites Midrash Tehillim 18:32, which says that Goliath fell forward rather than backwards, “so that David wouldn’t have to go to so much trouble to cut off his head. He gained twelve cubits and two spans.” Noticeably, this is twice the height of Goliath, if he is considered to be six cubits and a span. Midrashes Vayikra Rabbah and Shir Hashirim Rabbah also say that Goliath fell forward toward David, although they only give Goliath’s actual height, six cubits and a span. Some interpreters think all three of these intend to express the same idea – the former (Tehillim) expressing it in the distance difference of falling forward instead of backward (12 cubits and 2 spans), while the other two simply express how far he fell forward (6 cubits and a span).
[x] NET
Bible note on 1 Samuel 17:4 – tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span.”
The LXX, a Qumran manuscript of 1 Samuel, and Josephus read “four cubits and a
span.” A cubit was approximately 17.5 inches, a span half that. So the
Masoretic text places Goliath at about 9½ feet tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over
nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres” while the other
textual witnesses place him at about 6 feet, 7 inches (cf. NAB “six and a half
feet”). Note, too, that the cubit was adjusted through history, also attested
in Babylon (NIDOTTE 421-424 s.v. אַמָּה). If the cubits measuring Goliath were
reckoned as the cubit of Moses, his height at 6 cubits and a span would be
approximately 7 feet 9 inches tall. This is one of many places in Samuel where
the LXX and Qumran evidence seems superior to the Masoretic text. It is
possible that the scribe’s eye skipped briefly to the number 6 a few lines
below in a similar environment of letters. The average Israelite male of the
time was about 5 feet 3 inches, so a man 6 feet 7 inches would be a very
impressive height. Saul, being head and shoulder above most Israelites, would
have been nearly 6 feet tall. That is still shorter than Goliath, even at “four
cubits and a span,” and makes a sharper contrast between David and Saul. There
would have been a greater expectation that a 6 foot tall Saul would confront a
6 feet 7 inches Goliath, placing Saul in a bad light while still positioning
David as a hero of faith, which is fitting to the context.
[xi]
Oddly, Jonathan Burke argues that the description refers to being like looped
cords on a weaver’s beam, “that enabled a warrior to throw it harder and further.”
Then he says “spears were commonly used to thrust at short range rather than thrown
(note Goliath does not throw his spear.” Burke, p. 2.
[xii] The
Companion Bible, E. W. Bullinger, editor. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications,
(original) 1922, p.389.
[xiii]
Burke, page 1, fn 1; from Margalith, “The Sea Peoples in the Bible,” p. 49
(1994).
[xiv] Unger’s
Bible Dictionary, Merrill F. Unger, Chicago, IL: Moody Press, p. 419.
[xv] “How Tall Was Goliath? A Textual Dilemma,” at Crossway.
[xvi] B.
J. M. Johnson, “Reconsidering 4QSama and the Textual Support for the Long and Short Versions of the David and Goliath Story,” Vetus Testamentum 62 (2012), pp. 539-540.
