The Goliath Warriors Might Not Be As Huge As The Bible Describes

Early versions of the Bible describe Goliath - the ancient Philistine warrior known as a giant whose height in ancient terms reached four cubits and an arm span. But don't take that as a literal measurement, new research suggests.

Archaeological finds at sites of Biblical times including the home city of Goliath (a famous Philistine settlement known as Gath) have shown that these ancient measurements were as long as 2.38 meters, or 7 feet, 10 inches. 

Drawing depicting the warrior Goliath.

According to archaeologist Jeffrey Chadwick of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, that number is equal to the width of the walls forming a gateway to Gath excavated in 2019.

At the virtual annual meeting of the American School of Oriental Studies, Chadwick said: Instead of standing taller than any NBA player ever, Goliath was probably metaphorically described by an Old Testament writer as a warrior befitting the size and strength of Gath's defenses,

The Canaanites first occupied Gath in the early Bronze Age, about 4,700 to 4,500 years ago. The city was rebuilt more than a millennium later by the Philistines, known from the Old Testament as enemies of Israel. Gath reached its peak during the Iron Age about 3,000 years ago, when the Bible mentions Goliath.

Scholars are continuing to debate whether David and Goliath were the real people who met in battle around that time.

Gath's remains were found at a site called Tell es-Safi in Israel. A team led by archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel - with whom Chadwick collaborated to excavate the Gath Gate - has been investigating Tell es-Safi since 1996. Other discoveries at The Gath consists of a ceramic fragment engraved with two names that may be related to the Goliath name. Evidence of Gath's destruction some 2,850 years ago by an invading army has also been recovered.

One of the four inner pillars of an Iron Age gate at et-Tell (possibly the biblical city of Bethsaida), including this one, measures 2.38 meters, or four cubits and one span, wide. That's about the same width as the walls in Goliath's home city, Gath, and the same height that an Old Testament writer used to describe Goliath. (Photo: ERIC WELCH)

Archaeologists have long known that in ancient Egypt, a square corresponds to 52.5 cm, and suggested that similar measurements were used in Gath and elsewhere in and around ancient Israel. But careful assessments of the many structures excavated over the past few years have shown that standard measures differ slightly between the two sites, Chadwick said.

Chadwick has found buildings at Gath and several dozen other cities from ancient Israel and the nearby kingdoms of Judah and Philistia, excavated by other groups, built on three key measurements. These include a 54 cm cubit (compared to an Egyptian cubit 52.5 cm), a short 38 cm cubit and a 22 cm span corresponding to the distance on an adult's outstretched hand.

The dimensions of the masonry at these sites show different combinations of the three measurements, Chadwick said. For example, at a settlement called et-Tell in northern Israel, the two pillars in front of the city gate were 2.7 meters wide, or five 54 centimeters square. Each of the four pillars inside the gate is 2.38 meters wide, or four 54 cm cubes and 22 cm span. et-Tell excavators consider it the site of a biblical city called Bethsaida.

Chadwick's 2019 excavations have found one of perhaps several portals that allow access to Gath through the city's defensive walls. Like the pillars inside et-Tell's city gate, Gath's gate wall is 2.38 meters wide, or four cubits and a span, like the Biblical Goliath's stature.

Chadwick said: 'The ancient writer used a real architectural measure from that time to describe Goliath's height, likely indicating that he was as large and sturdy as the city walls. his street,' said Chadwick.

Although the study raises the possibility that Goliath's recorded size is the width of the wall, Chadwick 'will need to do more research to make this a compelling idea', the archaeologist and Biblical scholar Gary Arbino of Gateway Seminary in Mill Valley said One thing, Arbino suggested, needed to be determined that the measure applicable to the Goliath, four cubits and one span, was commonly used at the time as a measure The phrase means 'big and strong'.