Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

 Brian, we're shifting here to guessing games, e.g. that both are really one 
person, or ,as someone cited, that David's name was not really David.
 
  The simplest way to understand this is that we are indeed dealing with two 
individuals. Elhanan was remembered for the feat of slaying Goliath. Later 
on, when more and more stories were added for the glorification of David, 
Elhanan achievement was attributed to him.
 
  This would be a fine example of the reconstruction of important biblical 
personalties. By that I do not mean to imply that such personalities did not 
exist historically.
 
 Uri

Brian Roberts <formoria AT carolina.rr.com> wrote:
Has anyone seriously given attention to the possibility that David and 
El-hanan (both variously said to have slain Goliath) could be one and 
the same person? I've read online looking for papers, but I find nothing 
more probing than the assertion in the Encyclopedia Judaica that Elhanan 
was David's original name. This would seem to be a natural avenue to 
explore, given the ancient Hebrews' penchant for evolving names over 
time. In a cursory look, it could be argued that II Sam. 11:19 
represents the first recording of Elhanan, while I Chron. 20:5 is a 
later writer's attempt to understand the two stories and avoid 
confusion. Was "David" a title (champion) used elsewhere for others?) Is 
ja'are an error for ja'ir and are both errors for Jesse?

yr[y ry[y r[y r[yy'y

Best SAlaams,

Brian Roberts

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>From jwest AT highland.net  Tue Jan 25 12:14:46 2005
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Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 12:11:22 -0500
From: Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>
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Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: David
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Uri Hurwitz wrote:

> Brian, we're shifting here to guessing games, e.g. that both are 
> really one person, or ,as someone cited, that David's name was not 
> really David.
>
>  The simplest way to understand this is that we are indeed dealing 
> with two individuals. Elhanan was remembered for the feat of slaying 
> Goliath. Later on, when more and more stories were added for the 
> glorification of David, Elhanan achievement was attributed to him.
>
>  This would be a fine example of the reconstruction of important 
> biblical personalties. By that I do not mean to imply that such 
> personalities did not exist historically.
>
>
Listers may find that Baruch Halpern's "David's Secret Demons" is of 
relevance.

Best

Jim

-- 
Jim West
Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies
Quartz Hill School of Theology

http://web.infoave.net/~jwest
http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com