What are the two different versions of how David came into Saul's employment?

Answer 1

A:First, in 1 Samuel 16:21,23, David became King Saul's armour bearer and then his personal musician.

A little later (1 Samuel 17:30-39), David, who was once again a mere shepherd boy, told Saul that he would fight Goliath. Saul offered him his own personal armour, but did not appear to recognise David. After David had slain Goliath, Saul had the young warrior brought to him, but once again did not recognise David (1 Samuel 17:58). Saul's son, Jonathan, found he loved David and so Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father (1 Samuel 18:1-2).

We can understand this anomaly by looking at 2 Samuel 21:19, where we find a different legend of the slaying of Goliath. The Hebrew Bible in English (JPS 1917 Edition) says: "And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam." The King James (KJV) translation for 2 Samuel 21:19 avoids a contradiction by adding 'the brother of' [in italics to indicate that this was not an exact translation], but most other English translations of the Book of Samuel seem to have continued with the Hebrew Bible version. In other words, there seems to be another tradition that Elhanan killed Goliath.

The simple explanation is that the older tradition was that Elhanan killed Goliath but a later tradition gave the great, legendary King David credit for the same victory. Even after the credit for this feat was given to David, the original tradition was passed down and came to be recorded in The Bible without reference to the other tradition.