Goliath (/gəˈlaɪəθ/; Hebrew: גָּלְיָת, Modern Golyat, Tiberian Golyāṯ; Arabic: ?????, Ǧālūt (Qur’anic term), ????? Ǧulyāt (Christian term)) of Gath (one of five city states of the Philistines) was a giant Philistine warrior defeated by the young David, the future king of Israel. The story is told in the Bible’s Books of Samuel (1 Samuel 17).
The original purpose of the story was to show David’s identity as the true king of Israel. Post-Classical Jewish traditions stressed Goliath’s status as the representative of paganism, in contrast to David, the champion of the God of Israel. Christian tradition gave him a distinctively Christian perspective, seeing in David’s battle with Goliath the victory of God’s king over the enemies of God’s helpless people as a prefiguring of Jesus’ victory over sin on the cross and the Church’s victory over Satan.
The phrase “David and Goliath” has taken on a more secular meaning, denoting an underdog situation, a contest where a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary.
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Acromegaly, Goliath, Goliath giant, David Goliath, Giant, How tall was Goliath, Height of Goliath
Bible reference(s): 1 Samuel 17:4-10, 1 Samuel 17:23, 1 Samuel 21:9, 1 Samuel 22:10, 2 Samuel 21:16, 2 Samuel 21:19-20, 2 Samuel 21:22, 1 Chronicles 20:4-6, 1 Chronicles 20:8
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Goliath,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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