Question about David and Goliath?

[NathanH83]

Do you think that if in the story of David and Goliath, when David killed Goliath, and it says that Goliath was 6 cubits and a span, which if you go by the long cubit of 20.67 inches which would be about 11 feet (6 cubits x 20.67 inches = 124.02 inches / 12 inches per foot = 10.335 feet), but if you read it in the Greek Septuagint when it say 6 cubits in the Hebrew Masoretic the Septuagint says 4 cubits, which would be about 7 feet (4 cubits x 20.67 inches = 82.68 inches / 12 inches per foot = 6.89 feet) then if these two sizes are given for Goliath, one in the Hebrew Masoretic and one in the Greek Septuagint and they add up to different heights?

 

[Castle Church]

I am sorry, your post does not seem to contain a definable question that I can see. Are you asking why the two numbers are different?

Personally I would go with the Septuagint on this one. It is fairly common in Near East literature to use height or stature to poetically convey importance and position in a army or society, age is also used in a similar way. It is entirely reasonable that the real height was close to 7 ft, but the Near East cultural use of stature was employed to give him the 11ft height to convey his stature in the Philistine army.

 

[NathanH83]

I am sorry, your post does not seem to contain a definable question that I can see. Are you asking why the two numbers are different?

Personally I would go with the Septuagint on this one. It is fairly common in Near East literature to use height or stature to poetically convey importance and position in a army or society, age is also used in a similar way. It is entirely reasonable that the real height was close to 7 ft, but the Near East cultural use of stature was employed to give him the 11ft height to convey his stature in the Philistine army.

What I mean to ask is that if the Greek Septuagint clocks him in at about 7 feet, and if the Hebrew Masoretic clocks him in at about 11 feet, and clearly an 11 foot tall person is a giant, but a 7 foot tall person is just a tall person, as we have many people in the NBA today who are 7 feet, and if when Josephus also records him at 4 cubits or 7 feet, which is in agreement with the Greek Septuagint, even though Josephus had access to Hebrew texts that were laid up in the temple?

 

[Castle Church]

What I mean to ask is that if the Greek Septuagint clocks him in at about 7 feet, and if the Hebrew Masoretic clocks him in at about 11 feet, and clearly an 11 foot tall person is a giant, but a 7 foot tall person is just a tall person, as we have many people in the NBA today who are 7 feet, and if when Josephus also records him at 4 cubits or 7 feet, which is in agreement with the Greek Septuagint, even though Josephus had access to Hebrew texts that were laid up in the temple?

My opinion is that Josephus knew that the 7ft height is the more correct one. Given that he had access to the other texts, but he was also familiar with Near East cultural use of height and stature to represent respect and placement in a society, he knew the texts that use the taller height were mixing the cultural use and true height - thereby the 7ft height being more accurate.

Also, 7ft is still far from common to this day. We may have very tall people in society, but they are far from common. With the amount of people around now, and genetics, food, healthcare, etc. being better, naturally we will have taller people. Considering the average height was around 5.5ft at the time, a 7ft man wearing armor would seem the giant to many people. Indeed, a 7ft man that would be assumedly muscular and war weathered would seem the giant to me even to this day.

 

[Fritz Kobus]

How tall were normal people in the days of David and Goliath? Goliath, even at 7 feet, may have been taller than our modern-day basketball players relative to average height.

 

[Albion]

How tall were normal people in the days of David and Goliath? Goliath, even at 7 feet, may have been taller than our modern-day basketball players relative to average height.

That's certainly so. Men in the Western world averaged not much more than 5 feet in ancient times, so you can imagine what was thought in those days to represent a "tall" person, let alone anyone who might be called a giant. And men were, on average, only about 5'4'' at approximately the time of the American Revolution.