"the brother of"

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Athetotheist
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"the brother of"

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Post by Athetotheist »

Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
(1 Samuel 17:49-51)

Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
(2 Samuel 21:19)

It's fairly well known that the words "the brother of" were added to the 2 Sam. verse by the KJV translators to harmonize it with the 1 Samuel passage, as well as to harmonize it with 1 Chronicles 20:5----

Again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

Has anyone ever noticed that "Lahmi" [which is not a Philistine name] is part of the word Beyth-lahmi ("Bethlehemite"), and that it appears in the chronicler's text as the name of a giant instead of the identification of Elhanan as the son of a Bethlehemite which appears in Samuel?

And has anyone ever wondered why the chronicler refers to Lahmi----and only to Lahmi----as "the brother of Goliath" when the text says that all of the giants David and his men fought against were brothers?

And has anyone ever noticed that the author of Samuel specifies that there were four of those giants (2 Samuel 21:22) while the chronicler, who gives to Goliath another brother, doesn't give their number (1 Chronicles 20:8)?
"There is more room for a god in science than there is for no god in religious faith."
--Phil Plate

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