Dave and the Big Guy
So you think you know the story of David & Goliath?
Weedy farmhand kills enormous giant with a slingshot and saves his people. Then he becomes king and ancestor of Jesus.
Right?
Truth be told, we all rely on the words of scribes who wrote the Old Testament and to this day Sunday School teachers trot it out and newspapers use it as a headline cliché.
I’ve never been fully convinced by those ancient writers who created a charming story about one of the key founders of their theocracy. Archaeology has found little proof of the facts, but sometimes a little is enough for someone like me to have a crack at it.
That’s why I wrote Line in the Sand. A bit of realism and a long hard look at why Middle East tensions were at fever pitch even back then.
I’ve lived in those lands where God and angels chose to manifest themselves and change history forever, mainly by storytelling. Hats off, that’s what authors do.
I’ve read the Old Testament accounts and talked to archaeologists working in the area. That gives me the right to retell the story with a hefty dose of realism.
What’s in a name?
Firstly, it wasn’t Dave. With apologies to Dave Smith et al, you have a western name so don’t go around fancying your chances against any giants that cross your path. For Line in the Sand, after chats with the very knowledgeable editors at Sapere Books, I settled on “Dawid”, pronounced “Dah-weed” or “Dah-veed”.
Goliath was most likely “Golyat” as discovered at the Gath excavation site, and the prophet wasn’t Samuel, he was most likely “Shemu’el”.
Who was Goliath?
At the outset of writing Line in the Sand, I listened to a very convincing lecture by Professor Jeffrey R. Zorn of Cornell University, entitled Who Was Goliath?, in which he suggests that the Philistine giant was an elite chariot warrior. Most modern depictions of Goliath are as a very large foot-soldier, but Zorn points out his armour and weapons as detailed in 1 Samuel 17: 4-7 would indicate an Aegean/Levantine chariot warrior who was probably transported to the ideal position in a battle to wreak the most havoc.
While researching for the book, I was in touch with Professor Aren Maier, director of the Tel es-Safi excavations that have uncovered so much about ancient Gath, whence the giant came, including an inscription thought to include his name or at least something similar.
It was ‘Golyat’, so you can see where the early transcribers of the Old Testament texts into English got the name.
Further studies
I am also indebted to the British Egyptologist and author David Rohl, not least for succinct explanations of his New Chronology theories, specifically his interpretation of the Amarna letters and probable references to King Saul, Israel’s first monarch who was a bit of a lout but had the courtesy to be father of Dave’s best friend, Jonathan (Yonatan to be accurate).
Books that have helped me include the Bible of course, The King David Report by Stefan Heym; The Source by James A. Michener; David’s Secret Demons by Baruch Halpern, and various books published by Osprey about warfare in the ancient Middle East.
I have read many books about ancient Israel both online and in my studies, too numerous to mention, all influential in their way. But somehow I still feel as though I know nothing when compared with the likes of Maier, Zorn and Rohl. I hope these knowledgeable historians will forgive my diversion from ‘what is known’ to ‘what might have been’.
Other bits
Might you just be a tad interested in who the heck these giants, like Goliath, actually were? This missive is entitled ‘Not In The Script’ and I have some material that definitely didn’t make it into the finished book.
When I started writing Line in the Sand, originally titled simply Goliath, I came over all weird with a prologue about their origin. It’s scary stuff. Some ancient writers insisted the giants were the offspring of fallen angels who came down to earth and behaved wickedly with the humans who lived here.
I’d love to share that story with you, but only if you insist. It’s not pretty. Gritty would be the adjective of choice. And a theme not much loved by publishers in the modern world.
So leave a comment if you’d like me to share that stuff. Or better still, head over to Line in the Sand on Amazon where you can pre-order for 99p or 99c the e-book ahead of publication in paperback on November 1st.
And you’ll find out if Dave really did kill the Big Guy…
Sapere Books has published three of my novels – Sea of Flames, Libertas and Vipers of Rome, with a fourth, Line in the Sand, all set for November 1st 2024. I’m now working on a new series, The Britannia Conspiracy, set in the period during Caesar’s invasion of Gaul when he set his sights on Britain. Espionage, politics, betrayal and the tensions between love and loyalty abound. Keep in touch through my website.
I would also recommend signing up to the Sapere Books Facebook page which specialises in great historical writing with many authors and eye-witness accounts from historians.
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