Episode 17 – David and Goliath – the History Part 2

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script Notes:

[Goliath] wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield. Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!”

1 Samuel Chapter 17, verses 6 through 10, New Living Translation

Now David was the son of a man named Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. Jesse was an old man at that time, and he had eight sons. Jesse’s three oldest sons…had already joined Saul’s army to fight the Philistines. David was the youngest son. David’s three oldest brothers stayed with Saul’s army, but David went back and forth so he could help his father with the sheep in Bethlehem.

1 Samuel Chapter 17, verses 12 through 15, New Living Translation

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VK: Hello! I’m Victoria K and I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Anchored by Truth. Today we are continuing to talk about one of the best known stories from the Bible – the classic fight between David and Goliath. With us in the studio is the Founder of Crystal Sea Books and author, RD Fierro. What’s on tap for today, RD?

RD: Well, today we want to spend a little more time discussing the historical background for the David and Goliath story. As our listeners may recall we’ve mentioned many times on Anchored by Truth that it’s important for those who trust the Bible as the word of God to be able to answer questions about the evidentiary support for the our belief. And part of doing that is having a basic understanding of the historical underpinnings for the major events in the Bible. Since the story of David and Goliath is such a popular story, it’s one we wanted to spend some time on.

VK: Well, before we get into the serious stuff, let’s start on a lighter note by using one of Crystal Sea’s Life Lessons with a Laugh series on David and Goliath. Today we’re at the third in the series of five life lessons. And today, surprisingly enough we’re going to find out that the original reason David went down to the valley of Elah was …

RD: A pizza delivery run.

VK: Pizza. In ancient Israel. Really. Oh, well. Let’s listen…

---- David and Goliath, Lesson 3

VK: Well, I might have to take a little issue with the characterization of David going to Elah on a pizza delivery run. But it certainly was a grocery run of sorts. Amazing to think that possibly the most famous duel of all time was started because David’s father was just sending bread to his boys. And the impact of David obeying his father went far beyond just the death of Goliath. The Bible goes on to say that the Philistines were so demoralized that they turned tail and ran away. So David’s victory over Goliath sparked a great victory for the entire Hebrew army. It helps remind us that sometimes God uses seemingly insignificant beginnings to accomplish great things.

RD: There’s an expression that says “the devil’s in the details,” but it’s actually God who’s in the details. God can, and often does, uses ordinary people and seemingly ordinary events to accomplish extraordinary purposes. That’s one of the reasons it can be so important to our faith to study the Bible and to be faithful to the ordinary tasks that God asks us to undertake every day.

VK: So let’s move on to talking some more about the historicity of the story. Last time, we covered the fact that there is good support from archeology and written records of the time that the main elements of the story’s setting are true. During the late 11th century BC the Philistines occupied a good bit of the Mediterranean coast line that was in the territory claimed by Israel and that there were frequent clashes between the two sides. Historical records also confirm that the reason the conflict occurred at the valley of Elah is because the valley was more or less on the boundary between the two nations. What do you have for us today?

RD: Today I’d like to take a closer look at the weapons and armor that the Bible says were used by Goliath and see how remarkably extra-Biblical sources confirm the details of the Biblical account. In today’s scripture reading we see that the Bible actually goes into quite a bit of detail about Goliath’s armor and weapons so I think it’s an interesting question to meditate on why the human author would have taken such pains to describe such a seemingly mundane part of the story. I’m sure part of the reason the human author did it was because it helped to emphasize the disparate nature of the two combatants. If they hadn’t been so unequal … well, today talking about David and Goliath wouldn’t be such a proverbial way of talking about little guys taking on bad guys.

VK: Remind us - then - of what the Bible actually tells us about how Goliath was equipped for the fight.

RD: The Bible says that Goliath had a bronze helmet and a bronze coat of mail that weighed about 125 pounds. But importantly, the Bible also says that Goliath had a huge spear tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed about 15 pounds. So I’d like to focus on those details just to gain a better appreciation of how even the minute details of scripture have been confirmed in many instances.

VK: Ok. What do you have in mind?

RD: First, it’s commonly thought that the Philistines had arrived in Palestine from somewhere else with the general region of the Mediterranean region quite possibly from somewhere near the Aegean Sea. Well, “Goliath’s dress and armour (bronze helmet, coat of mail, bronze greaves [leg guards], and javelin) as well as the duel between champions are all well-known features of Aegean arms and warfare. They clearly indicate Aegean traditions carried on by the Philistines. The 12th century Warriors’ Vase from Mycenae shows Mycenaean warriors very similarly equipped.” https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/8/4/1

So, the general description of Goliath’s armor is consistent with what we find from historical sources outside the Bible. But let’s take a look a couple of the specifics, like the weight of Goliath’s coat of mail which was said to be about 125 pounds.

VK: Well, that does sound like a pretty heavy coat to be carrying around. Your description in the humor piece of Goliath carrying the weight of the world around on his shoulders sounds pretty accurate?

RD: That does sound like a lot – but consider this. According to one of the articles I looked at – which happened to come from the Modern War Institute at my alma mater, West Point:

“The Infantry has a weight problem. The amount of weight soldiers or Marines are asked to carry has grown exponentially while their ability to carry that load has not. This issue was brought to the forefront recently when retired Army Col. Ellen Haring wrote an opinion piece for the Marine Corps Times in which she was critical of the requirement for Marine Corps infantry officers to carry a load of up to 152 pounds for more than nine miles, at a twenty-minute-per-mile pace—a standard that Haring argues is unrealistic and prevents women from successfully completing the Marine Corps Infantry Officer Course. At first glance this may seem like a reasonable argument: 152 pounds seems like more than most humans can carry.

VK: Wait. Did I just hear that correctly? Marine Corps infantry officers are supposed to be able to carry 152 pounds of gear for more than 9 miles at a 20 minute a mile pace. Sounds like Goliath was lucky he wasn’t facing a US Marine.

RD: Or a West Point graduate. Anyway:

Many of the rebuttal articles, including one on Tom Ricks Best Defense blog by former Marine infantryman Aaron Ferencik, state that not only is this a realistic requirement, it happens regularly in Afghanistan. Ferencik writes that he was required to carry almost 200 pounds of gear, armor, and weapons. (see https://mwi.usma.edu/the-overweight-infantryman/)

And of course Goliath was a lot bigger than the average Army soldier or Marine today. I can promise you that most soldiers in the US Army and Marines today are not 9 feet tall. So, to put it back into context 125 pound coat of mail sounds like a lot but it is not unreasonable. Here’s another way to look at it.

With a body mass index of 25 – which is considered to be the upper limit of a healthy BMI – Goliath would have weighed over 400 pounds. So, it’s likely Goliath would have been 200 pounds heavier that most infantrymen of today.

VK: I don’t usually picture Goliath has having the physique of an Olympic athlete. I tend to see him more as a little on the heavy side. Especially, if he indulged in much bread and cheese.

RD: Well, as the Philistine’s designated champion I doubt Goliath missed many meals. At any rate, while 125 coat of mail sounds like a lot when you look at it, in context, for a trained infantryman Goliath’s size it would actually have been quite manageable.

Also, remember that Goliath was likely trained to either be a champion – someone designated to fight these kind of duels – but at a minimum he would have been what Homer called “a first man” – an infantryman designed to fight in the front lines. As such the additional weight of the coat of mail would have added impact as he advanced into an opposing line of soldiers. This also explains the reason the Bible noted that Goliath had bronze leg armor. As he approached an enemy soldier, for someone of Goliath’s size he wasn’t much in danger from someone attacking him from above, but his legs would have been exposed and the most likely target. Leg armor was used by Mycenaean warriors from the 13th century BC onward and can be seen depicted on their pottery. Bronze leggings also have been found in tombs in Cyprus.

Goliath’s status also explains the weight of his spearhead. His spear wasn’t designed for throwing but for jabbing and thrusting so a spearhead that heavy would have been useful for battering opposing soldiers – like Thor’s hammer in Norse mythology.

VK: Or some current action movies. Hmmm. What did you say you studied at West Point again?

RD: Weapon systems engineering – though thankfully, I didn’t have to spend much time on spear heads, swords, or coats of mail. But it is interesting to note that modern US infantrymen actually wear body armor which they didn’t during World War II, Vietnam, or earlier wars. So we’ve actually taken a page out of the warriors from Biblical times to help protect our own soldiers.

VK: You have also said that the Biblical details of Goliath’s arms and armor are supported by texts and reliefs in temples in Egypt, right?

RD: Absolutely, one of the most vivid depictions of the Philistine warriors is in a “mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in Thebes. The battle scenes depicted on the walls of this temple are our most precious and most graphic representation of the Sea Peoples’ dress, weaponry, chariotry, naval equipment, and battle tactics. The Philistine infantry is shown fighting in small phalanges of four men each; three men are each armed with a long, straight sword and a pair of spears, the fourth with only a sword.” https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/8/4/1

Notice that the Egyptian drawings show the Philistine infantry armed with a pair of spears exactly like Goliath – although the Bible is more precise and notes that the second spear is a javelin which was used for throwing.

VK: Also, it’s important to note that Goliath’s helmet and coat of mail are said to be made of bronze, as was his javelin. Last time we talked about the fact that one reason the Philistines were so formidable because they were the only ones in that area that had iron smiths which were skilled in making weapons and armor of iron, which was probably learned from the nation of Anatolia. Anatolia was an early center for the development in the use of iron manufacturing. But even though the battle took place as the Iron Age was beginning there would still have been a lot of bronze weapons and armor in use. Bronze had been in common use since about 3000 BC whereas iron only began to come into common use around the 11th century. Probably because bronze has a much lower melting point than iron – about 1000 degrees Celsius. Iron’s melting point is closer to 1600 degrees Celsius.

RD: The Bible’s description of Goliath’s armor, especially the coat of mail, is important for another reason. Some scholars who are critical of the Bible’s account of the fight between David and Goliath have alleged that the story was actually just a fictional account probably made around the 6th or 7th century BC. The assertion is that the story was concocted to make the Hebrews who were either still captives in Babylon or only recently returned have a greater sense of national pride. Part of the reason critics used to get away with that assertion is that:

the shirt of scale armor that Goliath was purported to have was not thought to be within the Mycenaean panoply. Their soldiers were wrapped in wide bronze bands connected by hinges, protecting their bodies from neck to groin… Scale armor had been thought to have gone out of use before the Mycenaean heyday, around 1400 B.C.E. But in 2006, bronze scale armor was discovered in a Mycenaean palace on the island of Salamis,…Now, if the story had been 7th or 6th century B.C.E. fiction, written hundreds of years after the event, the author would have had no idea how warriors had been garbed in the earlier Bronze Age.” (https://patternsofevidence.com/2018/10/26/david-battles-goliath/)

VK: So once again the Biblical record contained a detail that had been lost to secular history, just like the book of Jonah kept alive the name of Nineveh as the capital of Assyria even though it’s location was unknown until its rediscovery in the 19th century?

RD: Exactly. I’d like to remind everyone that the reason it’s so important to take the time to study the evidentiary support for Bible stories like that of David and Goliath is because the amazing elements of the story can so easily be mischaracterized in such a way as to introduce doubt about the historicity of the story – and by extension the historical validity of the Bible. The good news is – the really good news is – that the Bible can withstand such scrutiny if we will take the time and effort to properly prepare ourselves for questions that may come from doubters. When we do so, we are being obedient to the Bible’s command to be able to offer a reason for the hope that lies within us.

VK: You know it’s interesting to think how careful the Bible writers were to get things right. If they hadn’t been, then we couldn’t be nearly as confident that the faith we have is built on an absolutely sure foundation. For our prayer today – in recognition of the fact that we have many today who don’t share that foundation, let’s listen to a prayer for restoration of true and genuine worship.

---- Prayer for Restoration of the Worship of the One True God

VK: Next time on Anchored by Truth we’re going to continue with our study of the historical background of David and Goliath. We hope you’ll be with us then and we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quotes from the New Living Translation)

1 Samuel Chapter 17, verses 6 through 10, New Living Translation

1 Samuel Chapter 17, verses 12 through 15, New Living Translation

https://scientistsforjesus.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/david-and-goliath-factual-evidence/

https://patternsofevidence.com/2018/10/26/david-battles-goliath/

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2015/05/18/who-were-the-philistines-in-the-bible/

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/where-did-the-philistines-come-from/

https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/8/4/1

https://mwi.usma.edu/the-overweight-infantryman/