Editing Goliath (section)

===Goliath's name===
[[Tell es-Safi]], the biblical [[Gath (city)|Gath]] and traditional home of Goliath, has been the subject of extensive excavations by Israel's [[Bar-Ilan University]]. The archaeologists have established that this was one of the largest of the Philistine cities until it was destroyed in the ninth century BC, an event from which it never recovered. The [[Tell es-Safi inscription]], a [[Sherd|potsherd]] discovered at the site, and reliably dated to between the tenth to mid-ninth centuries BC, is inscribed with the two names ''ʾLWT'' and ''WLT''. While the names are not directly connected with the biblical Goliath ({{Script/Hebrew|גלית}}, ''GLYT''), they are etymologically related and demonstrate that the name fits with the context of the late tenth- to early ninth-century BC Philistine culture. The name "Goliath" itself is non-Semitic and has been linked with the [[Lydia]]n king [[Alyattes I|Alyattes]], which also fits the Philistine context of the biblical Goliath story.<ref>[http://gath.wordpress.com/2006/02/16/comment-on-the-news-item-in-bar-on-the-goliath-inscription/ Tell es-Safi/Gath weblog] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20080109230143/http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~maeira/Goliath/Goliath%20Inscription.html Bar-Ilan University]; For the editio princeps and an in-depth discussion of the inscription, see now: Maeir, A.M., Wimmer, S.J., Zukerman, A., and Demsky, A. (2008). "A Late Iron Age I/Early Iron Age II Old Canaanite Inscription from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfī/Gath, Israel: Palaeography, Dating, and Historical-Cultural Significance". ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research''.</ref> A similar name, Uliat, is also attested in [[Carian language|Carian]] inscriptions.<ref>Vernet Pons, M. (2012). "The etymology of Goliath in the light of Carian Wljat/Wliat: a new proposal". ''Kadmos'', 51, 143–164.</ref> [[Aren Maeir]], director of the excavation, comments: "Here we have very nice evidence [that] the name Goliath appearing in the Bible in the context of the story of David and Goliath… is not some later literary creation."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/tall-tale-of-a-philistine-researchers-unearth-a-goliath-cerealbowl/2005/11/14/1131951099130.html?oneclick=true | work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |agency=[[Reuters]] | title=Tall tale of a Philistine: researchers unearth a Goliath cereal bowl | date=November 15, 2005}}</ref>

Based on the southwest [[Anatolian languages|Anatolian]] [[onomastics|onomastic]] considerations, Roger D. Woodard proposed *''Walwatta'' as a reconstruction of the form ancestral to both Hebrew Goliath and Lydian [[Alyattes I|Alyattes]]. In this case, the original meaning of Goliath's name would be "Lion-man," thus placing him within the realm of [[Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] warrior-beast mythology.<ref>{{Citation
| last = Woodard
| first = Roger D.
| contribution = On Goliath, Alyattes, Indo-European Wolves, and Lydian Lions: A Reexamination of 1 Sam 17:1–11, 32–40
| editor-last = Rollston
| editor-first = Christopher
| title = Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr. (Ancient Near East Monographs)
| pages = 239–254
| publisher = SBL Press
| date = 2022
| contribution-url = https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/9780884145165_OA.pdf}}</ref>

The [[Babylonian Talmud]] explains the name "Goliath, son of Gath" through a reference to his mother's promiscuity, based on the Aramaic גַּת (''gat'', [[winepress]]), as everyone threshed his mother as people do to grapes in a winepress (Sotah, 42b).

The name sometimes appears in English as Goliah.<ref>
For example in Shakespeare:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Hassel
 |first1               = R. Chris
 |date                 = 12 May 200
 |title                = Shakespeare's Religious Language: A Dictionary
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=PYxf2vcqPy0C
 |series               = Athlone Shakespeare dictionary series
 |location             = London
 |publisher            = A&C Black
 |page                 = 144
 |isbn                 = 9780826458902
 |access-date          = 24 November 2023
 |quote                = GOLIAH[:] Goliath, the giant whom David slew.
}} 
</ref>