Question by Fr. Leka-ire Henry Mario, Cmf:
My Lord, can you please explain to me who killed Goliath? I ask this question because, according to 1 Sam. 17:4ff., it was David who killed Goliath. However, in 2 Sam. 21:19ff., it was Elhanan who killed Goliath. The question now is: are we talking about two different Goliaths or the same person? What is the possible time gap between 1 and 2 Samuel? Which account contains the truth? Surely both cannot be right.
Answer by Bishop Joseph Osei-Bonsu
The author or authors of 1 and 2 Samuel are not known. These books recount the stories of Samuel, Saul, and David. Saul’s reign began between 1050-1030 B.C. and ended in 1010. David then reigned until 971. The books were probably written soon after the end of his reign.
The first book comprises a period of about a hundred years, and nearly coincides with the life of Samuel. It contains (1) the history of Eli (1-4); (2) the history of Samuel (5-12); (3) the history of Saul, and of David in exile (13-31).
The second book, comprising a period of perhaps fifty years, contains a history of the reign of David (1) over Judah (1-4), and (2) over all Israel (5-24), mainly in its political aspects. The last four chapters of 2 Samuel may be regarded as a sort of appendix recording various events, but not chronologically.
1 and 2 Samuel contain two conflicting reports of Goliath’s death. 1 Sam 17:48-51 reports that David killed Goliath: “So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him”.
The “Philistine” in this verse is identified as Goliath in verse 4. However, 2 Sam 21:19 reports that it was Elhanan who killed Goliath: “And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam”. The size of Goliath’s spear shaft is a detail shared by both passages (1 Sam. 17:7; 2 Sam 21:19). The obvious difference is who killed Goliath – was it David or Elhanan?
Unless David and Elhanan are different names for the same person – or there were two giants named Goliath – these verses seem to contradict each other. Bringing clarity to the issue is 1 Chronicles 20:5, which says, “In another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod”.
This verse repeats the detail of the size of the spear shaft mentioned by the two passages from 1 and 2 Samuel, and it clearly says that Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother, rather than Goliath himself.
Why the discrepancy between 1 Sam 17:48-51 (according to which David killed Goliath) and 2 Sam 21:19 (according to which Elhanan killed Goliath)? One viable theory is that, somewhere in the chain of copying the text, a scribe made a mistake.
The Hebrew word for “the brother of” was wrongly written, which changed the grammar of the sentence and led to a problematic sentence structure for the next scribe. The second scribe’s attempt to solve the problem produced a reading that omitted the important detail of Goliath’s brother.
Fortunately, we have 1 Chronicles 20:5, which contains the correct Hebrew wording and informs us, by implication, that 2 Samuel 21:19 is missing the words the brother of. We can be confident that David killed Goliath. Elhanan later killed Goliath’s brother.
Further, the context of 2 Samuel 21:19 makes it clear that it is describing an entirely separate event from David’s slaying of Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:50. 2 Samuel 21:11-14 puts the passage after the death of Saul, who was alive when David killed Goliath (1 Samuel 17:31-39, 55-58). 2 Samuel 21:15-17 indicates that Elhanan killed “Goliath” when David was the king of Israel, not when he was a servant of King Saul.
| For further explanations or enquiries, you may contact the author, Most Rev. Joseph Osei-Bonsu, Catholic Bishop of Konongo-Mampong, on this number: 0244488904, or on WhatsApp (with the same number). |
