I thoroughly enjoyed my blog last week about the
allusion, and I wanted to continue with that because I did have one question
stick out to me. The story of David and goliath is a great story, but I always
find myself caught by one verse. In 1Samuel
chapter 17 verse 4 states: “A champion named Goliath, who was
from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a
span”. Now I imagine that is a pretty
big height, but exactly how tall he was is not clear to me at all. So my
question is how exactly tall was Goliath?
While doing a little digging online I found various height listed for
goliath. One website that I found stated the following : According to the Masoretic Text of the Old
Testament[1]
Goliath was six cubits and a span tall, 3.2 meters (9 feet, 6 inches), if
measured by the 18 inch cubit, and 3.5 meters (just over 11 feet), if the 21
inch cubit is used.
This was shocking
to me because I cannot imagine someone being 9 feet tall or 11 feet tall. That is
simply unheard of for any time period, but it’s strange to think someone was
that tall. If you would like look at the
website for further reading you can click here: http://bibleapologetics.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/how-tall-was-goliath/
While this website
helped my understanding of his height I wanted more information. So I went and
found another source to help my understanding of his height. In the article I was shocked to find that
another height was listed for him. In the Dead Sea scrolls there is a portion
of the scrolls about Solomon and this text list goliath as merely 6 feet tall. “The height of Goliath is given as “four cubits and a
span,” or only about six feet, nine inches.
Interestingly enough this height is also listed in
an earlier version of the Old Testament called the “Septuagint”. The website http://www.fundamentallyreformed.com/2011/11/18/how-tall-was-goliath/ was a good read through, and although both sources
listed different heights I did come to a conclusion about his height. Whether Goliath
was 9, 11, or 4 feet tall he obviously a tall man. His actual height might be
the median of all three heights listed, but remember in those times people had
no real measurement system like today. So he was probably around 7 feet tall,
and the extreme heights are listed to embellish or make the story a lot more
shocking to its readers.
