GOLIATH'S ARMOR AND ISRAELITE COLLECTIVE MEMORY

Two interpretive paradigms have been applied to the battle of David and Goliath. One school interprets the battle as historically accurate, and mines it for information on 11th century reality; another views it as a work of fiction or royal propaganda. This article argues for a third view: the battle narrative retrojects the historical reality of 6th century Palestine (when DtrH is redacted), at which time the residents of biblical Philistia are culturally Greek, onto the early tradition of the battle. The characterization of the battle, including Goliath's armor, undermines the Greek epic tradition and, indeed, may be seen as a polemic intertextual engagement of the Iliad.