David vs. Goliath

Most people will be familiar with the Old Testament story related in 1 Samuel, chapter 17, in which a shepherd boy, David, armed only with a slingshot, slays the giant, Goliath.

The background to this story is that Goliath of Gath, a hero of the Philistine army, standing some six cubits1 and a span in height (299cm; nearly ten feet), challenged the Israelite army to provide a man to fight him. Despite Goliath's vast size and the fact his armour consisted of a bronze helmet, bronze mail armour weighing 5000 shekels (or 80kg - compare this with 14th-Century full-body plate armour which weighed up to 36kg) and a shield, David was able to kill him with single stone directed at his forehead.

The David of this story was a shepherd and skilful minstrel and, indeed, by the time of this event he was a musician at the court of Saul, the first king of Israel. In his book The Bible as History, Hodder and Stoughton (1956), Werner Keller says:
"For his poetry alone a modern David would have been a Nobel Prize winner. Yet like the mediaeval troubadours he was poet, composer and musician rolled into one.
Following this triumph, Saul took David on as commander of his troops."

David was the son of Jesse, a farmer of Bethlehem, and eventually became the first king to rule a united Israel in Palestine. According to the genealogies given in Matthew and Luke, David was an ancestor of Christ and so is of vast significance theologically. Christ was the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary, and Joseph was a descendant of David. But theologically, Christ is considered to be the son of God himself, thus making Joseph Christ's foster father.

The question is, were David and Goliath real people, or is this story merely a myth written centuries after it was supposed to have occurred, as some scholars claim? Is there any evidence that this event could really have occurred?