Ang mga Filisteoy nasa isang burol at ang mga Israelita namay nasa kabilang burol. Naghanda sila sa pakikipagdigma laban sa mga Filisteo. Tinipon din ni Saul ang mga Israelita, at nagkampo sila malapit sa Lambak ng Elah. Nagkampo sila sa Efes Damim, sa gitna ng Soco at Azeka.
This is hardly surprising. Each one of them tells a different story. There is another one in the second book of Samuel, and yet a third one in the first book of Chronicles. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him.”But there is not one single account of Goliath’s death. At least, if one is reading the first book of Samuel (1 Samuel 17, 49-50):“And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine on his forehead the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground. That is what the Bible says.
As read in Pope Paul VI’s Dei Verbum (III, 12) “truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse. It is an anthology of texts written, edited, and codified over millennia.Read more: The only book in the Bible that doesn’t mention GodAlso, these differences allow us to realize there are many different literary forms in the Bible, thus enriching our understanding and appreciation of it. It is also the byproduct of the patient, minute, delicate, and painstaking work of generations and generations of inspired writers, compilers, and editors. Quite the contrary.These dissimilarities help the reader keep in mind that the Bible is not a book, but rather a collection of several separate books, most (if not all) of them made from the interweaving of different sources, oral and written alike. But these apparent “contradictions” should not scare the reader away at all.
His courageous challenging of a seemingly invincible foe, armed only with what he sincerely, authentically, truly is (remember he rejects wearing someone else’s armor, and wielding someone else’s sword) is everything we would want to find in an epic hero. David’s prowess, as told in the first book, is still one of the most inspiring tales one can find not only in the Bible, but also outside of it. Presenting David as dueling Goliath (like the first book of Samuel does) would only highlight his courage, determination, and leadership.That is, it is somewhat irrelevant if Elhanan is the hero in the historical germ of the story as introduced in the second book of Samuel. In that sense, the expression “David killed Goliath” works pretty much like “Caesar defeated Vercingetorix,” or “Scipio defeated Hannibal.” Even if these legendary warriors never faced each other in single combat, we still say they defeated their adversaries. The second book of Samuel presents Elhanan as a member of David’s army —in fact, he could have been a member of the famous Gibborim, also known as “David’s Mighty Men,” David’s elite forces, the Davidic version of Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. Even if Elhanan’s killing of Goliath can be trusted to be the earlier story (most scholars agree) reworking it to make David get the credit for slaying the mighty warrior makes perfect sense.But who is this giant-slayer, Elhanan, credited with killing either Goliath, or his brother, or both? How did these very different accounts of whatever might have happened in the battlefield make their way into the Bible? Do these seemingly contradictory narratives need to be harmonized? If so, why, and how?Read more: There are no “10 commandments” in the BibleA possible answer to most of these questions is relatively simple.
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