51 How David Kills Goliath discrepancy by explaining that Elhanan had killed Lahmi, Goliath’s brother . This kind of harmonization, however, is artificial ; and we have to cope with the problem : who really killed Goliath the Gittite ? The issue will be dealt also below 5 . 2 . 1 . 3 ) . ( A few modern scholars tentatively suggest a “conspiracy theory”, according to which another individual, Elhanan of Bethlehem, was the one who really killed Goliath . Although later, he was robbed of this credit, and his exploit was transferred to David in order to glorify Others modif y the theory and attributethe new king as a great hero . 5 to Elhanan the killing of Goliath, while David had killed another unnamed Philistine giant . In a later period, the name of Goliath and the description of his special spear were transferred from Elhanan’s exploit to David’s . The last explanation is based upon the fact that in twenty - seven instances within our story, the opponent is addressed as the “Philistin...
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