Height of Goliath

I preached last Sunday on 1 Samuel 17, the story of David and Goliath. During my study, I read articles in the recent Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society that deal with the height of Goliath. The NKJV states that Goliath's height was 'six cubits and a span.' Traditionally, it is thought that Goliath was well over eight feet tall, perhaps well over nine feet tall.

In the December 2005 edition of JETS, J. Daniel Hays argued that Goliath was only about 6'9" tall. He based his argument on a Dead Sea Scroll text, major early LXX texts, the fact that Goliath is never called a giant in the narrative [he is called a 'champion'], and the fact that the overall thrust of the narrative is the comparison between Saul and David. Hays argues that Saul should have been the one to fight Goliath; they were close to the same size.

Clyde Billington responds to Hays [and Hays responds to Billington] in this edition of the journal. He believes the MT reading is original, and Goliath was over 8 feet tall. Billington spends much of his article dealing with the Anakim giants of the Bible and in Egyptian texts, which Billington believe essentially agree.

This is a pretty good scholarly "smack-down," and a very interesting discussion. I suggest that you get hold of the article and make up your own mind. You might also want to track down Hays' original article to get his full argument. He makes a pretty convincing case, but I wonder if David's courage against Saul's fear is the only reason for the longest war narrative in the "David story." Would Saul have feared Goliath if they were essentially the same size? Perhaps, but I wonder?