Who Killed Goliath in Your Bible?

This is the WINNER from the Topical Index of Baptist Doctrine.

This paper, written by someone identified as a pastor, addresses the differences between modern, 20th century, English translations of the bible and the King James Version. Included is the minor problem of who killed Goliath? David right? Probably, but there is at least one place in the Hebrew text that seems to contradict that.

The Hebrew text of 2 Samuel 21:19 says “In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's rod.”

Hold it, wait a minute. Who’s this Elhanan dude and what about the story of the shepherd boy and the sling and all that good stuff as told in 1 Samuel? Good question, especially considering that 1 Chronicles 20:5 doesn’t contradict 1 Samuel and 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.”

If one looks carefully at the verses surrounding 2 Samuel 21:19, and compares them with the verses surrounding 1 Chronicles 20:5, it appears that this is simply a scribal boo-boo. 2 Samuel 21 mentions three Philistines. Saph, killed by Sibbecai in 21:18. Goliath, killed by Elhanan in 21:19 and “a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot” killed by Jonathan, son of Shimeah, in 21:20-21.

But in 2 Samuel 21:22 it says “These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.”

Two problems with 2 Samuel 21:22. First there are only THREE Philistines mentioned and none of them are said to have been killed by David. Only David’s men are given credit for kills.

1 Chronicles 20 however DOES mention four. Sippai, killed by Sibbecai in 20:4. Lahmi, the brother of Goliath, killed by Elhanan in 20:5, Goliath, whom we were already told was killed by David himself in 1 Samuel 17, and “a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot” killed by Jonathan, son of Shimea, in 20:6-7.

Therefore based upon the preponderance of the evidence in 1 Samuel 17 and 1 Chronicles 20, it would appear that the omission of “Lahmi, the brother of” in 2 Samuel was the equivalent of a typo at some point in the copying history of the Tanakh.

Now for the fun part. However, the King James Version of 1611 CORRECTS the error in the Hebrew Masoretic Text or is based upon a source that corrected it. In the KJV 2 Samuel 21:19 says “And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.”

Virtually all of the modern translations stay true to the Hebrew text but add a footnote to the effect that Chronicles indicates that Elhanan slew the brother of Goliath and not Goliath himself.

So what’s the problem? Well, according to this paper “God promised His preserved words are pure” so how could there be such a blatant error? Obviously there can’t be so the KJV tells “the truth about Goliath and Elhanan” and “had this figured out way back in 1611” therefore one has to ask “Why do the modern Bibles lie when they record this well-known Bible fact?”

Although the paper promises to answer this question later on, it never really does. It simply provides additional examples of what it calls “the flagrant changes made to the words of God by modern 'scribes' and 'disputers'" and then quotes scripture about God making foolish the wisdom of this world which is what the inerrant bible tribe always quotes when scholarship comes up with anything that appears to contradict their cherished positions.

I guess this is an example of KJV Onlyism which sort of takes the position that the KJV is the ONLY reliable English translation of scripture. Some people even go further than that, and claim that the KJV is the only accurate bible, even more accurate than any of the ancient Greek manuscripts!

Notice how a simple decision to stay true to the Hebrew texts gets translated into lying. How about it was simply a bad decision? A lie implies that one KNOWS what he is saying is false and is attempting to deceive. Well clearly the modern translators are not attempting to deceive because they openly acknowledge the discrepancy in the footnotes.

As for some of the other “flagrant changes” identified to the New Testament, such as 1 John 5:7-8, the famous Johannine Comma, they are the result of (1) relying more upon the older Alexandrian type face than the Byzantine type face and (2) applying a critical text analysis to derive a common Greek New Testament rather than a simple majority text analysis.

While one can argue about the correctness of such decisions, it’s a little strong to declare that “the modern Bibles stand opposed to the pure words and nature of Almighty God.”

There are more than 5,000 whole and partial Greek manuscripts of the New Testament books and NONE of them match. Some process had to be used in an attempt to reproduce the original autographs as God appears to have NOT taken any effort to preserve them now has he?

The real problem of course is that after declaring the KJV the literal, inerrant Word of God for more than 300 years, it’s a little tough to realize that, while the language is gorgeous, the translation may in fact have a number of errors brought to light through the availability of older Greek manuscripts and modern scholarship.