Over at the TCI, we’ve just published a new article by Kaspars Ozoliņš on the question of who killed Goliath. The issue, if you’re unfamiliar (like I was), is that 2 Sam 21.19 is clearly in conflict with 1 Samuel 17:
And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
It also doesn’t match the parallel text in 1 Chron. 20.5:
And there was again war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair struck down Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
Kaspars argues that a series of scribal mistakes explains the differences between the two verses and that, once sorted, 2 Sam 21.19 offers no conflict with 1 Sam 17. I should note that the version Kaspars has published at TCI is a summarized version of his more detailed argument published recently in Vetus Testamentum.
I should also mention that, after reading his article, I checked the NET Bible notes and they offer basically the same solution (in much condensed form).
In any case, since we don’t have comments over at the TCI, I thought folks may want to discuss the argument here.