Elhanan in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

el-ha'-nan ('elchanan, "whom God gave"): (1) A great warrior in the army of David who slew a Philistine giant. There is a discrepancy between 2 Sam 21:19 and 1 Ch 20:5. In the former passage we read, "And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan, the son of Jaare-oregim the Beth-lehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam"; while in the latter we are told, "And there was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam." Most modern critics prefer as the original text of the latter part of the two discrepant statements the following: "and Elhanan the son of Jair the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam." It is contended that the Chronicler slightly modified the text before him, in order to bring it into harmony with 1 Sam 17, where David is said to have slain a Philistine giant Goliath. There is almost unanimous agreement that "Jaare-oregim" is a corrupt reading, and the "Jair" in 1 Ch is to be preferred. From Jerome to the present some scholars identify Elhanan with David, and thus remove the discrepancy. Ewald ( Hist, III, 70) argued that the name "Goliath" was inserted in 1 Sam 17 and 21 by the narrators whose compositions are embodied in Samuel, Elhanan being the real victor over Goliath, while David's antagonist was simply called "the Philistine." (2) The son of Dodo of Bethlehem, one of David's mighty men (2 Sam 23:24; 1 Ch 11:26). Some moderns think that there was only one Elhanan, and that he was the son of Dodo of the clan of Jair.