The key notion in Christianity, the crucifixion of Jesus, might point where to search for evidence of the Holy Book’s other tale, the battle of the Philistine giant Goliath and young shepherd David, several researchers insist.
Several theorists, cited by the Daily Star, have suggested that the boy, who later became the King of Israel, buried or, at least, brought to display the chopped-off head of his adversary to an area known as Golgotha outside Jerusalem.
One of them, US-based Christian minister Bonnie Nelson, pointed out that both the name of the hill, which could be translated as the Place of the Skull, and the Genesis prophecies support this theory.
“I would say logically, in looking at this stuff, David took the head of Goliath, and buried in Jerusalem on the hill of Golgotha. And that is why it became known as, the hill of the skull. Could it really be that simple?” she suggested, noting that from her point of view, the Philistine giant represents the “seed of the serpent” predicted by the Bible’s first book, so “if Goliath’s head was buried there it fulfilled Genesis”.
She is echoed by Jewish-Christian thinker Ken Ammi, who pointed out that the name of the crucifixion site suggests its link to Goliath from the ancient city of Gath. According to him, Golgotha might be “a compound word which combines Goliath and Gath”.
“It may be that Golgotha was referred to as such due to the skull-like rocks or due to Goliath’s skull being buried there or a combination of the two: perhaps his skull was buried where the rocks look like a skull”, he said, voicing hope that “one day archaeologists will dig up Goliath’s skull” if it has not been moved.
One more theorist, Rick Shenk from Bethlehem College & Seminary, who implied that David might have impaled the skull on a hill outside of the city, also thinks that the name of Golgotha was no coincidence.
“Hundreds of years later, Jesus was crucified at the ‘place of the skull’ outside of Jerusalem. But why was that place called Golgotha in Jesus' day? The text does not tell us, but it is intriguing that this place name sounds very much like, Goliath”, he said.
According to him, even if the etymology of Golgotha’s name is different, it was located in the area of the very same city where David took the head of the defeated giant.
According to one of the most cited Biblical plots, the giant named Goliath was defeated by the future Israeli King David with only a sling. The story, described in the biblical Book of Samuel, says that the giant said to be between 6ft 9in and 9ft 9in tall challenged an Israelite, fighting the Philistines, to battle him. The young shepherd was the one who accepted the challenge and defeated the man with a single throw of a stone.
This summer, archaeologists discovered a key site that could help solve the mystery of the battle of David and Goliath - an ancient settlement right under the already unearthed Philistine city of Gath, believed to be the mammoth warrior’s birthplace.