Contradiction claim
Who killed Goliath the Gittite?
1 Samuel narrates David killing the Philistine champion. 2 Samuel 21:19 reports that Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite — the King James Version supplies the words "the brother of" in italics, marking them as not present in the Hebrew. 1 Chronicles 20:5 reports that Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath.
2 source records · no review date recorded
How to read this record
Passages side by side
TextThe primary text, as seeded. Nothing here is summarised or paraphrased.
So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
And there was war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear staff was like a weaver’s beam.
Why they appear to conflict
AnalysisEach side states a proposition attributable to its passages. A claim is not assumed to have exactly two sides.
1 Samuel
David killed the Philistine champion.
David
1 Samuel 17:50
2 Samuel
Elhanan the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite.
Elhanan
2 Samuel 21:19
The words "the brother of" appear in italics in the King James Version, the convention that marks a word supplied by the translators rather than present in the Hebrew.
1 Chronicles
Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite.
Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother
1 Chronicles 20:5
Formal analysis
AnalysisA contradiction requires a proposition and its incompatible counterpart under materially equivalent conditions. Every dimension below must hold for the formal test to succeed.
No formal analysis has been recorded for this claim yet. Until one exists, the classification cannot be stronger than a descriptive category.
Analytical questions
AnalysisWhat a researcher must answer to classify this record. Open questions are recorded, not resolved by preference.
- Does the Hebrew of 2 Samuel 21:19 contain any word corresponding to "the brother of"?
- Is 1 Chronicles 20:5 an independent tradition, or a reading of the same underlying text?
- Are "Jaare-oregim" and "Jair" the same name, and if so what explains the difference?
- Which of the three passages, if any, is the primary witness to the underlying reading?
Hebrew / Greek relevance
LanguageNo original-language dependency has been recorded for this claim.
Textual variants
ManuscriptA variant is a transmission phenomenon, never in itself a logical contradiction.
No textual variant record is linked to this claim.
Manuscript evidence
ManuscriptManuscript evidence has not yet been curated for this record.
Narrator and speaker analysis
AnalysisWhat the narration establishes, distinguished from what would additionally establish that the reported event occurred.
No narrator or speaker analysis has been recorded for these passages yet.
Proposed harmonisations
InterpretationEach proposal records the premises it must supply that the text does not state. Premises are never injected silently.
No harmonisation has been recorded for this claim yet.
Critical responses
InterpretationArguments that the proposed reconciliations do not succeed, treated structurally the same way as the harmonisations.
No critical response has been recorded for this claim yet.
Analytical classification
Analysis- Classification
- Textual variant
- What it means
- The difference tracks a known variant unit between witnesses.
- Requires formal analysis
- No
- Review status
- reviewed
- Source collections
- codextrace_research
Sources
SourceEvery externally-sourced claim on this page resolves to one of these records.
- [1]
CodexTrace. "CodexTrace editorial research". licence: CC-BY-4.0
Critical / scholarlyotherCC-BY-4.0 - [2]
King James Version (Authorised Version)
"King James Version (Authorised Version)". licence: public-domain-us
Primarytranslationpublic-domain-usLink unverified
Related records
TextCommunity
CommunityCommunity discussion requires a configured Supabase project on this deployment. Research pages are unaffected.