The Sean McDowell Show Who Really Killed Goliath? The Bible’s “Contradiction” Explained
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Feb 3, 2026 Dominick Hernandez, an Old Testament and Hebrew scholar who studies textual criticism, tackles the puzzling clash between 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel about who killed Goliath. He explains how scribal errors, Hebrew orthography, and manuscript variants can create apparent contradictions. Multiple short takes explore textual criticism, translation choices, and a simple way to explain the issue to kids.
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Personal Connection To The Goliath Story
- Dominick shared that David and Goliath was his favorite story as a child and he listened to a record of it repeatedly.
- That early love motivated his desire to resolve textual challenges around the story.
Textual Criticism Explains Variants
- Textual (lower) criticism studies manuscript variants to recover the original wording and can resolve apparent contradictions.
- Scholars compare Hebrew, Greek, and other witnesses to infer likely scribal errors or copyist confusions.
Scribal Orthography Can Create Confusion
- The Chronicler may have copied or misread words from Samuel, creating discrepancies in names and phrases.
- Orthographic similarities in Hebrew make accidental conflations plausible between the accounts.
