The website QUORA invited their atheist readers to submit their favorite Bible contradictions. Here is an intriguing one: “I Samuel 17:50-51 states first the David killed Goliath without a sword and second that David killed Goliath using Goliath's own sword.”
Rather than, as the author of that contradiction states, this being a problem that no one else had pointed out earlier, it is in fact well known to Bible scholars. And similarly, there have been several approaches to dealing with the issue.
Multiple Sources
For the more liberal commentators, this poses absolutely no problem since they have consistently stated that most books in the Old Testament were composed over extended periods by multiple editors piecing together multiple original sources. Thus, in this particular case they propose that verses 50 and 51 come from two different source materials, each one giving a slightly different slant on the same episode being narrated. Their assumption is that the final editor did not know which account was the most historically correct, so he simply wrote down both narrations side-by-side, even though that might result in an apparent contradiction.
Verse 50 as a Summary Account
McKenzie, for example, accepts the previous scenario and deals with it in the following way: “These verses make it appear as though David killed the Philistine twice, once with the sling stone (v. 50) and once by beheading him with his own sword (v. 51). The repetition results from the combination of two versions of the story, but v. 50 can be read as an overview of the entire episode.”
Deletion of Verse 50
A sort of Gordian knot approach is simply to delete the problem verse 50 altogether as a later addition to the text. The Anchor Bible does just that, explaining “Here MT [the Hebrew text] and other MSS add a verse missing from LXX [the Greek version].” So basically, it rejects the older, majority Hebrew manuscripts in favor of a later one in another language. Few other modern translations have taken such a drastic approach.
Porter gives more textual information: “Chapters 17 and 18 seem originally to have existed in two different forms, a longer one represented by the present Heb. text...and a shorter one represented by the Vatican MS of LXX. This latter omits 17:12-31, 41, 50; 17:55-18:5.”
Other English Translations
Modern versions attempt to smooth over any problems in the original Hebrew by resorting to various expediencies:
NIV renders the end of v. 51 as “after he killed him, he cut off his head with a sword.” This assumes that Goliath was already dead at the end of v. 50.
NEB takes the opposite view that Goliath was still alive in v. 50 and so reads the two verses as David “gave him a mortal wound” (v. 50) and “dispatched him” in v. 51. The Message paraphrase agrees with this approach in their translation of v. 51 as a “finished the job by.”
NRSV reads the conclusion of v. 50 as “he fell face down on the ground” but omits “he killed him.” Similarly, Li states, “David first caused Goliath to fall [v. 50], and then he killed him [v. 51].”
Literary Approach #1
Tsumura comments on v. 50 during this explanation: “This verse interrupts the flow of the narrative from v. 49 to v. 51; it is a little off the main line, and the narrator exults over this seemingly impossible victory. Verse 51 returns to the main line of narrative, and the emphasis is again on what David did. Thus, vv. 49-51 constitutes an AXB pattern. By the insertion [of v. 50] the quick tempo of the narrative is slowed down 'so that the real significance of the day's victory over the Philistines can be underlined' (R.P. Gordon).”
The “quick tempo” mentioned by Tsumura has been also noted by Murphy, who counts no less than thirty-six action verbs in I Samuel 17:48-54.
Literary Approach #2
My own personal favorite way of treating situations such as this where duplications in the Old Testament are suspected to indicate multiple versions, is to ascribe it to the noted propensity of Hebrew writers to purposely say the same thing more than once. This is especially true in the poetry sections of the OT where practically every verse contains multiple stanzas, each one echoing the other(s) in thought. But the phenomenon can also appear in narrative accounts. Thus, one can outline the parallelism between verses 50 and 51 as follows:
A. David prevailed over the Philistine (50a)
B. killing him (50b)
C. And there was no sword in his hand (50c)
A'. David stood over the Philistine (51a)
C'. He grasped Goliath's sword (51b)
B'. and killed him (51c)
Parallel Passages
The history books of the OT relate some similar stories to the David and Goliath tale that are interesting to compare to it.
Perhaps the closest in theme and literary approach is the death of the attacking general Sisera at the hand of a housewife (Judges 5). As you may remember, she first rendered the general unconscious with a meal including hot milk, which put him to sleep. Then she picked up a hammer and tent peg and pierced his ear with it. Thematically, this is practically identical to the death of the giant antagonist Goliath at the hand of a mere shepherd youth with no military training. And in terms of literary technique, there is just as strong a correspondence.
In the first place, the account of Sisera's death in verses 26-27 is also loaded with action verbs – twelve in these two verses alone. Also, there is a form of symmetry in the story of his actual death:
He sank
he fell
he lay still
at her feet
he lay still
he fell
Where he sank
there he died.
If one were to read this as a straightforward, chronological account instead, on would certainly see logical contradictions in the multiple sinking, falling, and laying still. And just as in I Samuel, it is fairly obvious that the method of narration, if taken chronologically, appears to give the false impression that Sisera died multiple times, as well as implying that he was sleeping while standing up. Otherwise why did he “sink” when the stake was pounded into his head? And did Jael have to stand up on a stool to reach up to where she could deliver the blow?
Another somewhat similar story, at least in theme if not in style, is found in Judges 9:52-54 where the attacking commander Abimelech is killed by a woman up on a tower who dropped a millstone on his head. But before dying, the commander has his aide finish him off with a sword so that no one can say that a mere women killed him.
The third parallel as far as style is concerned is found slightly earlier in the same chapter in I Samuel (17:34-36). The shepherd David gives Saul his qualifications before being sent out to battle the giant. It can be diagrammed as follows:
A. Whenever a lion or bear came, I would strike it,
B. I would kill it.
B'. I have killed
A'. both lions and bears.
David is basically repeating himself, using Hebrew poetic parallelism.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments