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Journey of a Passage

1 Samuel 17:4

How tall was Goliath?

Six cubits and a span (about 2.9 m) in the Masoretic Text, the Vulgate and the KJV; four cubits and a span (about 2 m) in 4QSam-a, the library's Greek and Josephus.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
  • Related (shared ancestry)
Hebrew
  1. Original SamuelUnknown (debated)
  2. 4QSam-a (4Q51)Mid-1st century BCDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 1 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
  2. Josephus, Antiquities 6.171c. AD 93Related witness to Original Samuel
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Samuel

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 1 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    il avait quatre coudées et une spithame

    he was four cubits and a span

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical edition.

  3. Mid-1st century BC

    4QSam-a (4Q51)

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    four cubits and a span

    Reported in DJD XVII (ארבע אמות וזרת). Letters not transcribed here.

    Source: F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005); NET Bible, textual notes on 1 Samuel 17 ↗

  4. c. AD 93

    Josephus, Antiquities 6.171

    ⓘ Reports what manuscripts containedRelated witness to Original Samuel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Four cubits and a span.

    Source: Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, books 5–6

  5. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    altitudinis sex cubitorum et palmi

    Six.

  6. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    גָּבְהוֹ שֵׁשׁ אַמּוֹת וָזָרֶת

    his height six cubits and a span

  7. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    whose height was six cubits and a span

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

Using a cubit of about 45 cm and a span of about 22 cm (ancient standards varied): six cubits and a span is about 2.9 m (9 ft 6 in); four cubits and a span about 2 m (6 ft 9 in). The shorter figure has the oldest Hebrew support; the longer is in the standard text.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented4QSam-a, the Greek and Josephus read four cubits and a span.

    Source: F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005); NET Bible, textual notes on 1 Samuel 17 ↗

  • DisputedThe original read four cubits.

Sources

Related lessons

  • David and Goliath →In the valley of Elah a Philistine champion from Gath, Goliath, challenges Israel to single combat for forty days. David, bringing food to his brothers, volunteers. He refuses Saul's armor, takes five stones and a sling, and strikes Goliath in the forehead. The story survives in two ancient editions, and Goliath's height differs between witnesses.
  • Investigation: David and Goliath in Two Ancient Editions →The oldest Greek translation of 1 Samuel 17–18 is about 45% shorter than the Hebrew. It lacks David's arrival with food for his brothers, Saul's question "whose son is this?", Jonathan's first covenant and the Merab marriage. Many scholars think two Hebrew versions of David's introduction were combined. Separately, Goliath is six cubits tall in the Hebrew but four in the Greek, Qumran and Josephus.
  • How 1 Samuel Came to Us →Samuel was one book in the Hebrew Bible, divided in two by the Greek translators. Its Hebrew text is unusually difficult, and the Greek often reflects a different Hebrew. A Dead Sea Scroll, 4QSam-a, agrees with the Greek in many places, preserves a paragraph found nowhere else in the Bible, and changed how scholars study the text of the Old Testament.