ABSTRACT
What I want to know is simply this: What does the Bible say about how young David killed Goliath-the giant, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam? Everyone knows from childhood that he did it with a sling and stone. And we only have to look at Michelangelo’s marble David, sling hanging over his left shoulder, or Bernini’s David, about to let the stone fly, to be assured that this is indeed the case. On the other hand, if we’re talking about Florentine art, we can hardly avoid noticing that Donatello’s masterpiece in bronze stands sword in hand, one foot resting upon Goliath’s severed head (though, to be sure, on close inspection we discover a stone tucked in the boy’s left hand). Actually Western art until modern times has had something of a predilection for images of David with the giant’s headcutting it off with a sword, holding it aloft, or otherwise displaying the gruesome trophy. Killed with a stone or a sword? Or did David bring the giant down with the sling and then finish him off with the sword? A question about one of the great religious and cultural icons of the West: exactly how did David kill Goliath?
