1 The Height of Goliath: A Text Critical Question According to the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament Goliath was six cubits and a span tall, 3.2 metres (9 feet, 6 inches), if measured by the 18 inch cubit, and 3.5 metres (just over 11 feet), if the 21 inch cubit is used. This is a height which is not only highly unlikely for any Iron Age man, 1 but far beyond what would have been considered a giant at the time. The New English Translation (2005), describes Goliath’s height as just under seven feet, significantly below the traditional height. 2 A footnote in the NET explains the textual basis on which the translation committee made its decision. 3 The evidence of the Masoretic Text is dated very late, 4 though this reading can be found in some earlier Greek translations of the Old Testament, 5 as well as the Latin Vulgate. 6 However, the textual evidence for a shorter height is more significant, being found in the oldest Greek and Hebrew texts. 78 1 'Archaeology has shown that the heroes buried in the "royal tombs" at Mycenae were 1.76‐1.80 mtr. tall, while the height of the average man at that period (according to the skeletons excavated) was 1.64 mtr. both in the Aegean lands and in Canaan.', Margalith, 'The Sea Peoples in the Bible', p. 49 (1994). 2 1 Samuel 17:4 Then a champion came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath; he was from Gath. He was close to seven feet tall. 3 ‘ 7 tc Heb “his height was six cubits and a span” (cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV). A cubit was approximately eighteen inches, a span nine inches. So, according to the Hebrew tradition, Goliath was about nine feet, nine inches tall (cf. NIV, CEV, NLT “over nine feet”; NCV “nine feet, four inches”; TEV “nearly 3 metres”). However, some Greek witnesses, Josephus, and a manuscript of 1 Samuel from Qumran read “four cubits and a span” here, that is, about six feet, nine inches (cf. NAB “six and a half feet”). This seems more reasonable; it is likely that Goliath’s height was exaggerated as the story was retold. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 286, 291.’, NET, footnote on 1 Samuel 17:4 (1 st ed. 2005). 4 ‘What is the evidence for the variant which reads six cubits and a span (9'9")? All of the manuscripts of the MT have this reading. However, one should keep in mind that the earliest MT manuscript evidence that we have for 1 Samuel is the Aleppo Codex, produced in AD 935. Likewise, the Leningrad Codex, the Hebrew manuscript on which BHK and BHS are based, and thus the major Hebrew text on which most of our English OT versions are based, was completed in AD 1010. Thus there is no extant Hebrew text any earlier than AD 935 that puts Goliath at six cubits and a span.’, Hays, ‘Reconsidering the Height of Goliath’, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (48.5.705), (2005). 5 ‘However, the variant reading "six cubits and a span" is probably much older than these MT manuscripts. Symmachus, for example, reflects the six cubits and a span height in his translation. Symmachus was a Jew who around AD 200 prepared a Greek translation of the OT for the Jewish community in Caesarea of Palestine. His goal was to produce a Greek translation that was an accurate translation of the Hebrew.7 The fact that he gives Goliath's height as six cubits and a span is strong evidence that this variant reading was already present in the proto‐MT or Vorlage to the MT, that is, the Hebrew text tradition that by this time had become the standardized text of the Jews. Likewise, Origen, in his Greek translation found in the fifth column of his Hexapla, includes the longer version of 1‐2 Samuel found in the MT and also lists Goliath's height as six cubits and a span.’, ibid., p. 705. 6 ‘Jerome's fourth‐century AD Latin translation (the Vulgate), which appears to follow the Hebrew proto‐MT faithfully, likewise puts Goliath at six cubits and a span. The Vulgate gradually grew in popularity in the Western churches and eventually became the "received text" for the Western churches, thus codifying the 9'9" giant into Western culture.’, ibid., p. 705. 7 ‘However, the textual evidence for the variant reading of "four cubits and a span" is significantly stronger.’, ibid., p. 706; Hays (pp. 705‐706), notes that Codex Venetus, an 8 th century manuscript (also known as ‘Codex Venetus 5’, a Greek manuscript of the Old and New Testaments), has the reading ‘five cubits and a span’ (8 feet 3 inches), but dismisses this as a rogue reading unsupported by any other textual evidence. 8 ‘Thus the textual witnesses for the variant that cites Goliath's height at four cubits and a span (6'9") include: (1) 4QSama, the oldest extant Hebrew manuscript for this text; (2) Vaticanus, the oldest complete Greek codex of the Bible; (3) Josephus, a non‐biblical first‐century ad reference; (4) the Lucian Greek recension, a third‐century ad witness; and (5) other early codices such as Alexandrinus.’, ibid., p. 705.