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GOLIATH

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 225 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GOLIATH , the name of the See also:

giant by slaying whom See also:David achieved renown (I Sam. xvii.). The See also:Philistines had come up to make See also:war against See also:Saul and, as the See also:rival camps See also:lay opposite each other, this See also:warrior came forth See also:day by day to See also:challenge to single combat. Only David ventured to See also:respond, and armed with a See also:sling and pebbles he overcame Goliath. The Philistines, seeing their See also:champion killed, lost See also:heart and were easily put to See also:flight. The giant's arms were placed in the See also:sanctuary, and it was his famous See also:sword which David took with him in his flight from Saul (1 Sam. xxi. 1-9). From another passage we learn that Goliath of See also:Gath, " the See also:shaft of whose See also:spear was like a See also:weaver's See also:beam," was slain by a certain Elhanan of See also:Bethlehem in one of David's conflicts with the Philistines (2 Sam. xxi. 18-22)—the parallel r Chron. xx. 5, avoids the See also:contradiction by See also:reading the " See also:brother of Goliath." But this old popular See also:story has probably preserved the more See also:original tradition, and if Elhanan is the son of See also:Dodo in the See also:list of David's mighty men (2 Sam. See also:xxiii. 9, 24), the resemblance between the two names may have led to the transference. The narratives of David's See also:early See also:life point to some exploit by means of which he gained the favour of Saul, See also:Jonathan and See also:Israel, but the See also:absence of all reference to his achievement in the subsequent chapters (r Sam. xxi. 11, See also:xxix.

5) is See also:

evidence of the relatively See also:late origin of a tradition which in course of See also:time became one of the best-known incidents in David's life (Ps. cxliv., LXX. See also:title, the apocryphal Ps. cli., Ecclus. xlvii. 4). See DAVID; See also:SAMUEL (BOOKS) and especially See also:Cheyne, See also:Aids and Devout Study of See also:Criticism, pp. 8o sqq., 125 sqq. In the old See also:Egyptian See also:romance of Sinuhit (ascribed to about 2000 B.C.), the story of the slaying of the Bedouin See also:hero has several points of resemblance with that of David and Goliath. See L. B. See also:Paton, Hist. of Syr. and See also:Pal. p. 6o; A. Jeremias, Das A.T. See also:im Lichte d. See also:alien Orients, 2nd ed. pp. 299, 491 ; A. R.

S. See also:

Kennedy, See also:Century See also:Bible: Samuel, p. 122, argues that David's See also:Philistine adversary was originally nameless, in I Sam. xvii. he is named only in v. 4.

End of Article: GOLIATH

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