What is the importance of the story of David and Goliath?

Answer 1

A:Millions of young children have been taught the famous story of the future King David slaying the Philistine giant, Goliath, to guide them to understand the greatness of David and, perhaps, his God. David had already had intimate acquaintance with King Saul, when he became the king's armour bearer and then his personal musician (1 Samuel 16:21,23). A little later, David told Saul that he would fight Goliath, so Saul offered him his own personal armour, but did not appear to recognise David (1 Samuel 17:30-39). The Bible says that David went on to become king of Israel, with 2 Samuel saying that the defeat of Goliath was a key reason for his ready acceptance by the Israelites.

Another episode, at 2 Samuel 21:19 casts further light on the legend of Goliath, saying that Elhanan killed 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 has added 'the brother of' to this account [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. This begins to suggest that the story of David and Goliath was a legend without actual historical foundation and therefore that its importance was in the perception that later Hebrews had of a perceived glorious past.

The Book of Chronicles does not mention David's victory over Goliath although it is essentially a post-Exilic rewrite of the Books of Samuel and Kings, and therefore does not attribute his kingship to this famous victory. This suggests that the Chronicler either did not believe the story to be true or did not regard it as at all important.