Goliath

File:David gegen Goliath.jpg

David faces Goliath in single combat.

Goliath (גָּלְיָת "Passage; revolution", Standard Hebrew Golyat, Tiberian Hebrew Golyāṯ) was a legendary Philistine warrior in the Bible. A descendant of Rapha in a lineage of giants, he is most famous for his battle with David, the young patriot who would later become the King of Israel. In rabbinical tradition he is said to be the very warrior who had earlier captured the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites in the mid in the 11th century B.C.E. Goliath hailed from Gath, one of five ancient city states in Philistia. The account of David and Goliath (Jaloot) is given both in the Hebrew Bible and in the Qur'an. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that even if no race of giants actually existed in Gath at this time, a name similar to "Goliath" was indeed used in the area. An alternate biblical account says that Goliath was killed by a man name Elhanan, rather than David.

Biblical Account

File:Nephilim.gif

One of the fallen "sons of God" and his human lover, parents of giant Nephilim in Gen. 6:4

Goliath hailed from the Philistine city of Gath. One of four powerful sons of a man named Rapha, he is traditionally thought to be a descendant of a legenday race of giants called the Nephilim. These "men of renown" supposedly originated when angelic beings or gods ("ben-elohim" — the sons of God) had mated with human females in the time of Noah. (Gen. 6:4) They are again in evidence when the Israelites send spies to assess the feasibility of conquering Canaan in Numbers 13:33, indicating that they seem somehow to have survived the Flood.

Goliath was reportedly over nine feet tall and was unexcelled as a warrior, his weapons of choice being the sword, spear, and javelin. His spear shaft was so thick that it was compared to a weaver's beam, and it point was made of iron. This gave him a huge advantage not only in size and strength over his opponents, but also an edge in technology, since the Israelites did not yet possess iron weapons. When arrayed for battle, he wore a bronze helmet on his head and an immense coat of heavy bronze scale armor on his body. His legs were protected by bronze greaves.

Unfortunately, we are told little of Goliath's exploits before the day of his battle against the young David, but they must have been impressive indeed. Rabbinical tradition says that he boasted of being the Philistine warrior who captured the Ark of Covenant, slaying the two sons of the high priest Eli in the same battle. (1 Sam. 4) He is described as being strongly devoted to the god of the Philistines, Dagon.

According to the 1 Samuel 17, during the reign of King Saul the Philistine army gathered in the land of Judah to make war on the Israelites. The army set up camp on a hill overlooking the Valley of Elah, while the Israelites under Saul camped on the opposite hill. Goliath, who is described as a "champion" in the biblical text, positioned himself between the two armies and challenged the Israelites to send out a warrior to meet him in single combat. If the Israelite champion prevailed, the Philistines would become the subjects of Saul. If Goliath won, the converse would occur. For 40 days, in both the morning and evening, Goliath issued his challenge, taunting the Israelites and insulting their God. However, no man came forward to meet meet him.

The young Hebrew David hoists the severed head of the Philistine Goliath.

David was the youngest of the eight sons of the Bethlehemite Jesse. When delivering food to his brothers on the battlefield, David heard Goliath's haughty challenge and burned with anger. The youth came to Saul and offered to fight the giant. Though initially skeptical of David's capacity to defeat Goliath, Saul was persuaded to allow the match after the young Bethlehemite detailed his previous victorious encounters with a bear and a lion. David rejected the king's offer of armor and a sword and went out to fight Goliath with only a staff, sling, and five smooth stones he had taken from a nearby stream.

Goliath sent his shield-bearer before him, moving slowly closer to the Israelite champion. Seeing that he was in reality only a boy, Goliath took his presence as an insult, believing that the Israelites must send out the mightiest warrior to meet him. "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" he complained. Goliath cursed David by his own gods, and taunted: "Come here and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"

In the battle of words, his young opponent proved to be a worthy one, retorting: "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied... Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel."

Hearing enough, Goliath then closed in to attack. David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him, using his one advantage: speed. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck Goliath on the forehead before the mighty Philistine could even strike a blow. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. David then drew Goliath's own sword from its scabbard and cut off his head.

So powerful had this mighty warrior been that when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they ran from the field, and the Israelite army pursued them out of Judah, slaughtering many in the process. The young David went on to be a great warrior in his own right. Hounded by the jealous Saul, he would later form an alliance with Achish, the king of Gath, (1 Samuel 20:10) becoming his general and vassal. Eventually, he would become a king in his own right, first of Judah, and later of both Judah and Israel. Such was the man who conquered the mighty Goliath of Gath.

Alternate account

A little known later account (1 Samuel 21:19) actually reports that it was not David, but one of David's warriors named Elhanan, who killed Goliath. In this version, the battle takes place not at the beginning of Saul's reign, but just after its end. The recently enthroned King David has turned on his former Philistine allies and seeks to drive them out of the territory of Judah. In the course of the ensuing battles, Goliath and his three brothers — the sons of Rapha — are slain. None of them is killed by David himself.

• Ishbi-Benob vows to kill David, but the king is rescued by Abishai, son of Zeriah.

• In another battle, Rapha's son Saph is killed by Sibbecai the Hushathite.

• At Gath, David's nephew, Jonathan son of Shimeah, kills an unnamed son of Rapha, "a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot." Jonathan kills him "when he taunted Israel."

• In a battle at Gob, it is a soldier named Elhanan, son of Jaare-Oregim, who kills Goliath, the son of Rapha "who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's beam."

Thus, what we may have in the story of "David and Goliath" is a legend which takes several earlier stories of battles against giants, combines them into one, and attributes them to the young David. Such processes are not uncommon in folk literature.

The above account is repeated virtually word for word in 1 Chron. 20:4-8, except that an editor has apparantly inserted the words "the brother of" in front of Goliath's name in order to deal with the conflict between this account and that of David and Goliath. A similar insertion has been made in the King James version of 1 Sam 21.

Rabbinical Literature

File:Goliath's-Sword.jpg

The priest Ahimelech presents Goliath's sword to David. (1 Samuel 21:9)

Quite a lot has been said about Goliath by various rabbinical authorities. Most of these make him out to be a villainous character. For example, Goliath was thought to be of ignoble birth. One legend states that his mother was a Moabitess, Ruth's sister Orpah (Midr. II Sam. 22:16). This would make him a not too distant cousin of David himself. In contrast to the pious Ruth, Orpah led an immoral life after he sister accompanied their mother-in-law Noami to join her kinsman Boaz in Judah. Thus Goliath was of uncertain paternity (Midr. Ruth 1:14). Orpah also bore three other giants beside Goliath. (Tan., Wayiggash 8)

Goliath's sword, which would become the sword of David, had miraculous powers (Midrash Golyat). In his taunts, Goliath boasted of having slain the two sons of the judge Eli and to be the very warrior who captured the Ark of the Covenant and brought it to the house of Dagon. Goliath especially targeted Saul with his taunts, accusing him of being a weakling and a coward. (Targum to I Sam. 17:8) In some of the rabbinical legends, Goliath's size and stength become almost ridiculously exaggerated. His armor weighed, according to Rabbi Hanina, 60 tons; according to Rabbi Abba bar Kahana, 120 tons (Sotah 48b). His height was amazing, and the reason that Goliath fell forward on his face was so that David should not have to go far when rushing upon him to behead him.

According to Rabbi Huna, Goliath had the picture of Dagon engraved upon his heart. Goliath is mentioned as the typical case where strength leads to downfall, and he died like a dog.(Ex. R. 31) Rashi identifies Elhanan, the slayer of Goliath, as being the same person as David.

Account of the Qur'an

In the Qur'an, the story of David and Goliath differs only slightly from the biblical version. Goliath's name is rendered as "Jalut." In this version, when Goliath (Jalut) challenged any soldier from King Saul's (Talut's) army to single combat, the king offered the hand of his beautiful daughter in marriage to the man who would fight Goliath. However, even this tempting offer did not change the deadly silence among his soldiers.

Then, to everyone's surprise, David (Dawud) stepped forward. A roar of laughter echoed from the Philistine side, and even Saul's men shook their heads. Although Saul was very impressed by David's boldness, he said: "I admire your courage, but you are no match for that mighty warrior. Let the strong men come forward." Proudly, David told the king that only the day before he had killed a lion which had threatened his father's sheep, and on another occasion he had killed a bear. He asked Saul not to judge him by his appearance, for he feared neither man or wild beast. Saul, surprised by young David's brave stance, agreed: "My brave soldier, if you are willing, then may Allah guard you and grant you strength!"

Saul worried and asked him how on earth, with a sling and a couple of stones, was David going to defend himself against the giant. David replied: "Allah Who protected me from the claws of the bear and the fangs of the lion will certainly protect me from this brute!"

When Goliath set eyes on the lean young man who looked like a boy, he laughed loudly and roared: "Are you out to play war with one of your playmates, or are you tired of your life? I will simply cut off your head with one swipe of my sword!" David shouted back: "You may have armor, shield, and sword, but I face you in the name of Allah, the Lord of the Israelites, Whose laws you have mocked. Today you will see that it is not the sword that kills but the will and power of Allah!"

After the battle, David became a hero overnight. Saul kept his word and married his daughter Michal (Miqel) to the young warrior taking him under his wing as one of his chief advisors.

Extra-Biblical evidence

File:Inscription scan 600 touched with scale.jpg

Unearthed shard of pottery bearing an inscription consisting of two names "alwt" and "wlt", which are etymologically quite similar to the name Goliath

Archaeologists digging at Tell es-Safi in central Israel, the accepted location of the biblical home of Goliath ("Gath of the Philistines") have unearthed a shard of pottery bearing an inscription, written in Proto-Semitic letters, consisting of two names ("alwt" and "wlt"), which are etymologically quite similar to the name Goliath, and most probably are semitizised versions of an Indo-European name (similar, for example to Lydian Alyattes). This find demonstrates that the biblical description of the figure Goliath (and in particular, his name), fits in with the cultural millieu that existed in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age IIA (10th-9th centuries B.C.E.).

The shard dates back to around 950 B.C.E., within 70 years of when biblical chronology asserts David squared off against Goliath, making it the oldest Philistine inscription ever found, the archaeologists said.

Scientists made the discovery at Tell es-Safi, a dig site in southern Israel thought to be the location of the Philistine city of Gath.

Medical speculation

Some intriguing medical hypotheses have been made concerning Goliath's size and general health. Given his grossly abnormal height (traditionally believed to have been 9 feet, 6½ inches, or 2.91 m), some have suggested that he suffered from gigantism due to a growth hormone-secreting pituitary adenoma. Given the pituitary's position adjacent to the optic chiasm, pituitary masses also tend to impinge on the decussating fibers delivering images from both peripheral visual fields. This causes bitemporal hemianopsia. Some have suggested that this may have allowed David to sneak up on Goliath and deliver a fatal sling shot to the Philistine.

Filmography

The Italians used Goliath as an action superhero in a series of Biblical adventure films (peplums) in the early 1960's. He was possessed of amazing strength, and the films were similar in theme to their Hercules and Maciste movies. After the classic "HERCULES" (1957) became a blockbuster sensation in the film industry, a 1959 Steve Reeves film ("Terror of the Barbarians") was retitled "Goliath and the Barbarians" in 1960 in the USA, and the film was so successful at the box office, it inspired Italian filmmakers to do a series of 4 films featuring a beefcake hero named Goliath. (The 1960 Italian film "DAVID AND GOLIATH" starring Orson Welles was not part of this series, as it was a straightforward adaptation of the original Biblical story).

The titles in the Italian "Goliath" peplum series were as follows:

• Goliath Against the Giants (1960) starring Brad Harris as Goliath.
• Goliath and the Rebel Slave (aka The Tyrant of Lydia Vs. The Son of Hercules, 1963) starring Gordon Scott as Goliath (Note* - this film was sold directly to American TV in a syndication package known as "Sons of Hercules", in this case referring to Goliath as a Son of Hercules, simply for marketing reasons).
• Goliath and the Masked Rider (aka Hercules and the Masked Rider, 1964) starring Alan Steel as Goliath. (This film was marketed on USA television as a Hercules movie)
• Goliath at the Conquest of Baghdad (aka Goliath at the Conquest of Damascus, 1964) starring Peter Lupus as Goliath.

The name Goliath was also used in the film titles of a few other Italian movies that were retitled for distribution in the USA in an attempt to cash in on the Goliath craze, but these films were not originally Goliath movies in Italy. 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", and it is a mystery to this day why U.S. distributors didn't market the film under that title, since Hercules films always tended to do much better at the box office than "Goliath" movies. (Filmography supplied by Frank Verzyl)

External links

• Goliath - Bible Verses pertaining to Goliath
• Sword and sandal (film genre)

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Goliath  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Goliath"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.