How tall was Goliath? | GotQuestions.org
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How tall was Goliath in reality? Did Giants exist in Bible times? Was Goliath a giant? A Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, records Goliath’s height as four cubits and one span. How tall is that? In this video, we answer your question: How tall was Goliath?
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- How tall was Goliath? Goliath is a
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- Biblical character found in 1 Samuel 17. The Bible says he was a large man who fought as a champion for the
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- Philistine army against God's people, the Israelites. How tall was Goliath in reality?
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- Normally, we equate him with a giant, as most Bible translations state that he was over 9 feet tall.
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- The Masoretic text, the Hebrew text that has long been accepted by the Jewish people, states that Goliath's height was 6 cubits and 1 span.
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- Taking a cubit to be approximately 18 inches, and a span to equal 6, this figures to a height of approximately 9 feet 6 inches.
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- It seems Goliath may have had some Anakim blood in him. There is, however, a variation found in some ancient texts on the matter of Goliath's height.
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- A Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, records Goliath's height as 4 cubits and 1 span.
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- Current measurements translate this to about 6 feet 6 inches. While this would shorten Goliath some, he still would have been quite a bit taller than the average man's height at the time, about 5 and a half feet.
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- There are other sources that corroborate the shorter measurement, including one Hebrew text among the
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- Dead Sea Scrolls and the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus. The NET Bible goes with the shorter height, saying that Goliath was close to 7 feet tall.
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- When it comes to the deviation between these measurements, it's important to note a couple things. First, the
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- Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew. The difference may be due to how the measurements were translated into Greek for the
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- Septuagint. Second, a measurement of a cubit is not precise, since a cubit was based on the distance from a person's elbow to the tip of the finger.
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- Thus, the length of a cubit would vary somewhat according to the one doing the measurement and the length of his arm.
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- Regardless of Goliath's precise height, we know from God's Word that he was a formidable opponent.
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- He was not only tall, at least a foot taller than David and possibly several feet taller, he was also strong.
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- His bronze armor alone weighed 125 pounds. And he carried a giant -sized spear.
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- There was a reason that Goliath was the champion of the Philistines. In the end, however, a young man named
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- David, armed with only a simple sling, a few rocks, and faith, defeated this enemy of Israel.
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- David proved stronger than Goliath because he had the Almighty God on his side. Got questions?