The problem with your theory is that these giants were from a line of giants and mighty men that were produced during antiquity in which the watchers had sexual relations with human women and had giant children. Therefore Goliath isn’t going to be just a normal human being with a deformity or tumor.
Agree but in the oldest pergaments found in the Dead Sea, wich are about 3.000 years old or so, Goliath is described as being only 4 cubits and a span, not 6. That means he was only about 6 foot 9 inches tall, just over 2 meters. Even more than that, the oldest pergaments don't even mention that goliath was particullary a giant, but, who knows, the most probably theory is that Goliath wasn't actually 9 feet tall, but, even with the oldest pergaments we cannot agree because, of course, he lived a very very very long time ago. Or, if you want to find out more and hear about the Goliath's true height, i 100% recomend you the Malcolm Gladwell's video about David and Goliath story, where indeed the truth height is accepted as 6'9 and you will hear what exactly happened. And of course, the height 6"9' is only an aproximation based on the size of the cubits and span. The true height can be inches plus or minus, but of course, not far from 6"9', but even near. Sorry for my english, i'm from romania🙂🇷🇴, Europe.
Goliath was a true Giant at six cubits and a span which is 9'9" or a longer six cubits and a span which is 20 inches. Goliath would have been 10'9" or 10'11"
The earliest manuscript evidence--the Septuagint/LXX and the Dead Sea Scrolls (and Josephus)--have him at just shy of 7 ft. and the much later Masoretic Text has him at just shy of 10 ft.
@@58jn89 I'm assuming that by "tax" you mean text or manuscript. In the earlier manuscripts he is just shy of 7 and in the latter just shy of 10--although, I am unsure how this matters: what does it matter that someone was tall?
You will come to find that when you see to find even one single reliable reference to one you will get someone claiming that they heard someone say something they heard from someone who heard something or, perhaps claiming that if a snipped in a very old newspaper stated it then it must be infallibly true.
The first problem is the utilization of the vague, generic, and subjective English term "giants" since some use it to render "Nephilim" and also "Rephaim" and while it comes from the Greek "gigantes" which merely means "earth-born," modern people have used it to mean something about unusual height. Now, only two specific heights are specified in the Bible: one is of an Egyptian who was 7.5 and the other is Goliath now the earliest manuscript evidence--the Septuagint/LXX and the Dead Sea Scrolls (and Josephus)--have him at just shy of 7 ft. and the much later Masoretic Text has him at just shy of 10 ft. Other than that we either get vague statements about, for example, Anakim being "tall" or "of great stature" yet, this is subjective and compared to the average Israelite male of those days who was 5.0-5.3 ft. Then we get metaphors such as likening people to trees, etc. which no one should take "literally."
Agreed Ken. Although I would add, that many scholars are of the opinion that proto MT is contemporary to the aforementioned versions, and is generally believed to be nearly identical to the later MT. This is especially true of the first 5 books of Moses. The jury is still out on a proto MT version of Samuel.
Your right, in the scheme of things Goliath's size doesn't add or detract from the story. That said, this is a much asked question on RU-vid, hence the amount of time I have given it. All the best.
Love the video! I had a question. It says in 1st Samuel that Goliath's spear point weighed 600 shekels of iron (Or about 15lbs). From what I have looked up, spears were usually between 2.2-4.4lbs. Do you think this is another instance of an measurement error, or did Goliath possess superhuman strength? Thanks and God bless!
Thanks for the question. I made a video on the topic of Goliath's armor and spear. Yes, there's a range as to how much it could have weighed. He definitely needed to have been very strong, though not super. Check out the video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yUInyCJlBas.html All the best!
@@JoeBack Thanks! I went ahead and watched the video. The weight of the spear is interesting. From the research I have done, spears were light so that they could be more agile in combat. Even much heavier pole weapons like the halberd (which was invented much later) weighed less than Goliath's spear. So Goliath would be using a weapon 3 or 4 times its normal weight. That seems pretty super to me. Also, if he was only 6ft 9in, why did his coat of bronze weigh double that of a regular person? Yes, he would be strong enough to carry that weight in theory, but its not in a backpack or evenly dispersed about his body, it is just his coat. That would have to be a pretty big coat of bronze. This also does not take into account his helmet, leg armor, and sword which (based upon his heavy armor and heavy spear) I would assume to be heavier as well. With these in mind, I just struggle to believe he was just a "strong guy" you know?
Valid points Micah (pun intended). Following the Masoretic Text would make Goliath between 9'3" tp 9'6", so he would definitely have the extra strength you are in search of. He would also be at the maximum threshold of human growth and would likely have the health problems that would be associated with such a large height. That wouldn't exclude him from being an elite warrior, just would be likely that he was still young, and had very limited endurance. Another possibility, is that the spear could have been ceremonial and never used as an actual weapon. Goliath was the champion, and was dressed differently than the average Philistine. It could be that all this bling he wore was to increase the fear factor.
@@JoeBack (Ha! points! lol) I do not think his height would make him strong enough to use this spear. From what I know about the square-cube law (feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this), an increase in size would not directly translate to an increase in strength. So even though Goliath was (give or take) twice the height of a normal human, he would be stronger... but much less than twice as strong as a normal human, and no where near the 3-4 times as strong he would have to be to wield this spear. I have heard of giant weapons not used for war, the giant katana from Japan, for example, is quite an interesting work of art. I do not think that is the case here, though. It does not explicitly say that Goliath intended to use this spear for battle, but it is described along with all the other items he DEFINITELY used (helmet, armor, leg armor, sword). In addition, from what I know about the history of swords, they were used as more of a side arm than a main weapon, so it is unlikely Goliath went into battle with just his sword. He also has a shield-barer, which implies Goliath was carrying a two-handed weapon. If not, he would carry a shield in his off hand(he could possibly have a second shield in his hand I guess, but that is not mentioned in the text, so I assume this did not occur). There is no archeological evidence I was able to find that suggests Philistines ever had two handed swords, lots of one handed swords have been found, though. This leads me to believe that Goliath carried this spear with the intent of killing his opponent with it. Another thing to mention about the armor is maneuverability. As you mentioned in another video, marines can carry extreme amounts of weight when they are hiking. During firefights, however, they usually drop their rucks on the ground for more maneuverability. Also, these marines are not fighting with swords and spears(with the exception of bayonets, but the application of those in combat are extremely rare nowadays) they take a lot more movement and speed than a rifle. So from what I gather, the weight of Goliath's coat (not to mention everything else he carried) would be far too much of a burden to justify wearing, even for a fear factor. Humans just were not meant to fight with so much weight. We also need to account for where all that weight is going. Even the heavier medieval suits of FULL BODY armor (55lbs) do not weigh as much as Goliath's mail coat. So this mail coat must be HUGE. The conclusions I draw from this is that 1: that he had to be unnaturally strong to wear all this weight (along with wielding the spear) and 2: Goliath had to be pretty big to wear this huge armor.
Goliath coat/body armour weighed about 57kg. Which was about 140 pounds. Medieval knights armour weighed about 25kg. Goliath was an extraordinary strong man.
Modern people thing that the cubit was a set measure. It was NOT. Until Henry VIII, the cubit was dependent on the height of the person. To me at 5'11" a cubit is 19" for my lady-friend at 5'1", the cubit is closer to 15". The first thing a merchant would do when selling 15-cubits was to agree on which cubit they would use. If I am buying, I want to use my cubit. If she is selling, she wants to use her cubit. To someone who is 5' tall, 4-cubits is 5' but to me 4 cubits is 6'. So it all depends on the person describing the man.
