The Biblical Elhanan (Hebrew: אֶלְחָנָן ʾElḥānān) was the son of Dodo (2 Samuel 23:24, 1 Chronicles 11:26). He was a member of King David’s elite fighters known as The Thirty.
Interpretation
[edit]Moshe Garsiel believes he was in fact the same person as the Elhanan mentioned in 2 Samuel 21:19 and 1 Chronicles 20:5, the son of Jair from Bethlehem, and that the Bible is crediting him as the killer of Goliath.[1] To explain the discrepancies in the text, Garsiel says that they are the same Elhanan and concludes "that Elhanan is David’s previous name before he became king."[2]
However, the view of most scholars is that the latter Elhanan was a different figure, and that Elhanan ben Jair was the person originally credited as slaying Goliath before the text was redacted by the Deuteronomist.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ Moshe Garsiel, "David's Elite Warriors and their Exploits in the Books of Samuel and Chronicles Archived 2019-07-28 at the Wayback Machine", Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Volume 11 Article 5 (2011)
- ^ Garsiel, p.16.
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