Archaeologists excavating Tell es-Safi, the biblical city "Gath of the Philistines," recently uncovered a scrap of broken pottery bearing the oldest Philistine inscription yet discovered. Of itself, that wasn't so surprising. What was surprising is that the potsherd bears two names etymologically remarkably similar to "Goliath," the giant Philistine warrior slain by David as recorded in 1 Samuel 17.

According to the Bible, this same Gath was the hometown of Goliath (verses 4, 23) and was one of the Philistines' major cities. Archaeologists have also dated the sherd to 50 to 100 years after the biblical account of Goliath's slaying at the hand of David.

No one can know for sure whether this inscription includes a reference to the biblical Goliath, since it is apparently a Hebrew transliteration of two Philistine names. This transliteration makes sense, since archaeological evidence indicates the Philistines gradually adopted the Semitic alphabet while retaining their Philistine names and some elements of their Philistine language.

Still, the similarities with the name of Goliath are striking. "It can be suggested that in 10th-9th century Philistine Gath, names quite similar, and possibly identical, to Goliath were in use," says Bar Ilan University's Aren Maeir, director of the excavation.

Bible critics who claim the Old Testament is a fabrication written only a few centuries B.C.—hundreds to a thousand years or more after the events it claims to document—face a challenge in trying to explain how such an invented name could show up on a potsherd dating to the time period the Bible describes and within the ruins of a town in which the Bible says an individual by this name lived. GN