Goliath, the giant who was felled by King David in the Hebrew Bible, is described as having a jaw-dropping height.
But that number may not have been a true physical measurement but rather a metaphor, drawn from the width of his hometown's city wall, new research suggests. That doesn't reveal whether other aspects of the story are true — for instance whether Goliath was a giant or whether his mismatched battle with David took place.
"We're not trying to make a statement on the veracity of the story," said Jeffrey Chadwick, Jerusalem Center Professor of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies at Brigham Young University, in a paper he presented at the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) virtual annual meeting on Nov 19. "The issue is the metric," he said, "where does it come from, where might it have been obtained?"
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