THE HEIGHT OF GOLIATH (1 SAMUEL 17:4-7)

The reading of 6.5 cubits (9 6; using a cubit = 17.5 and a span being half a cubit) is attested by the Masoretic text in general,
including the oldest copies that include this verse, the Aleppo Codex (10th C. CE) and the Leningrad Codex (11th C. CE). It is also
seen in the translations by Symmachus (Greek; 2nd C. CE), Origen (Greek in 5th column of Hexapla; 3rd C. CE), and the Vulgate
(Latin; 4th C. CE) which reflect the reading in the proto-Masoretic text. A reading of 4.5 cubits (6 7) is found in the Dead Sea scroll
4QSama (Hebrew; 1st C. BCE), Antiquities of the Jews (6, 9, 1) by Josephus (Greek; 1st C. CE), and in 2 manuscripts of the 4th C.
CE (with the Hebrew scriptures being rendered in the LXX translation), Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.
The predecessors of these manuscripts with the reading of 4.5 cubits would seem to have been produced some time BCE.
Perhaps some had trouble accepting that a person could grow to be so huge and so changed the reading during copying. There
are two excellent reasons for accepting the 6.5 cubits reading: That there have been people of this size in past history, and that the
weight indicated for the armor in all manuscripts shows it was made for, and could only be worn by, a giant.
Giants in the past. The Bible speaks of races of tall people who lived in the area of Palestine. A race of people of extraordinary
size who inhabited the mountainous regions of Canaan as well as some coastal areas 10 of the spies subsequently gave a
frightening report of the experience, alleging that these men were descendants of the pre-Flood Nephilim and that, by comparison
with them, the Hebrews were like grasshoppers. (Nu 13:28-33; De 1:28) Their great stature caused them to be used as a standard
of comparison in describing even the giantlike men of the Emim and the Rephaim. Their strength apparently produced the
proverbial saying: Who can make a firm stand before the sons of Anak?De 2:10, 11, 20, 21; 9:1-3 (Insight under Anakim).
A tall people or tribe At some early period the Rephaim evidently dwelt E of the Dead Sea There the Israelites defeated Og
the king of Bashan De 3:3, 11, 13 who alone remained of what was left of the Rephaim When David was fighting the
Philistines, he and his servants struck down four men born to the Rephaim in Gath. One of them was described as a man of
extraordinary size whose fingers and toes were in sixes, twenty-four. The description of their armor indicates that they were all men
of great stature. One of these was Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite (1Ch 20:4-8) (Insight under Rephaim).
Thus, Goliath was one of a race of large persons. One of his ancestors, Og, king of Bashan, had an iron bier (sarcophagus of
black basalt; ftn) that was 13.1 ft long by 5.8 ft wide (Deut 3:11). He, of course, was not that big, but Moses quoted this as an
example of what powerful ones Jehovah had enabled the Israelites to conquer.
Other giants mentioned in ancient literature: The tallest man that has been seen in our times, was one Gabbaras by name, who
was brought from Arabia by the Emperor Claudius; his height was nine feet and as many inches [9 6]. In the reign of Augustus,
there were two persons, Posio and Secundilla by name, who were half a foot taller than him [10]; their bodies have been preserved
as objects of curiosity in the museum of the Sallustian family (Pliny 7, 16; 1st Century CE). A Roman foot is 11.65 of our inches.
When Tiberius had heard of these things, he desired to have a league of friendship made between him and Artabanus [II of Parthia;
c. 37 CE] Artabanus also, not long afterward, sent his son Darius as an hostage, with many presents, among which there was a
man seven cubits tall [10 3], a Jew he was by birth, and his name was Eleazar, who, for his tallness, was called a giant (Antiq of
Jews 18, 4, 5).
Wikipedia lists several 20th Cent. men who attained heights from 8 4 to 8 11 (http://en.wikipedia.org under List of tallest people).
The weight of his armor and equipment. The coat of mail, being 5,000 shekels (having this reading in the Vulgate and the LXX),
with a shekel being .403 oz advp, is 126 lbs. The blade of the spear, being 600 shekels, is 15 lbs. Adding the helmet and the
greaves to the coat of mail would easily bring the armors weight to 150 lbs, and adding the sword, the spear, and the javelin (vs 45)
would easily bring the total to 200 (or ever 225) lbs. If we were to take the reading of 6 7 and allow Goliath the body weight of 300
pounds, this foot soldier would be going on the field of battle, where swiftness and agility are very necessary, bearing weight equal
to of his body mass. This would make him very slow and clumsy, besides the fact that the weights given are not in line with the
weight of armor that a man of that size would wear. An armoured knight, trained for wearing it since his teens, could comfortably
run, crawl, climb ladders, as well as mount and dismount his horse without recourse to a crane A full suit of medieval plate is
thought to have weighed little more than 60 lb (27 kg) on average (http://en.wikipedia.org under Armor). This would be about
of the knights weight.
Since we are not considering here a full suit of armor, but only a coat of mail, the following, describing Roman armor, is more
applicable: Lorica Hamata translates as hook armor Mail showed up in the Roman armies in the first half of the 2nd
century BC. A typical mail coat might weigh 15 lbs Lorica Squamata Literally translates as scale armor. This armor consisted
of row upon row of overlaping bronze or iron scales, which resembeled a coat of feathers when completed. Each scale was wired to
those adjacent and sewn to a cloth backing (http://www.redrampant.com/roma/armor.html quoting Roman Military Equipment by
Bishop and Coulston pp. 98-100, 2nd Ed., Oxbow, 2006). With a normal coat of mail weighing only this much, the weight of that
worn by Goliath would indicate one sized to fit a giant.
Taking a man of 5 6 as having a weight of 150 lbs, then, proportionately, Goliath would have weighed 776 lbs (9 6 5 6 = 1.73;
1.733 = 5.17; 150 x 5.17 = 776). His armor and weapons, weighing 200 lbs, would have been a little over of his body weight, a
much more feasible percentage.
Whether or not a certain reading has more ancient manuscripts backing it up, the reading that harmonizes with the rest of the Bible
is the one that must be chosen over those that do not (Rom 3:4; John 17:17). Just because we do not possess manuscripts
reading 6.5 cubits that are older than the ones reading 4.5 cubits does not prove that they did not exist and were not representative
of the original reading.