2 Samuel 21:19, the verse where Elhanan kills Goliath
Samuel says Elhanan killed Goliath; Chronicles says he killed Goliath's brother, so these two verses leave the question about David unresolved. The APB preserves both readings.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads בן־יערי ארגים. The copies also carry בן־יעיר [hebrew manuscript attestation]; the committee kept the base text. Both readers preferred the other wording, but the first reader's confidence was under the committee's floor of 0.8, so the base text stands.”
The committee's recorded decision retained the base wording of Elhanan's patronymic. Its note explains: "but the first reader's confidence was under the committee's floor of 0.8, so the base text stands". GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) was the first translator; Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) was the second translator. Both preferred the alternative patronymic. This decision concerns Elhanan's father's name and gives no rationale for choosing between Goliath and his brother. The committee's printed text names Goliath as Elhanan's victim in Samuel and Lahmi, Goliath's brother, in Chronicles.
The argument for each reading
If Samuel's text is primary
Samuel's wording directly names Goliath as the man Elhanan killed. The Masoretic Text identifies Elhanan as the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite and identifies his victim as Goliath the Gittite. The APB preserves those identifications in its printed text.
The case for retaining this reading rests on the wording of Samuel itself. Reading Samuel this way preserves a difference between the two accounts: Samuel names Goliath, while Chronicles names his brother. If Samuel's text is primary, the relationship between those accounts still needs explanation. Their different names for the victim do not by themselves establish how the difference arose.
If Chronicles preserves the sense
Chronicles explicitly identifies Elhanan's victim as Lahmi, the brother of Goliath. The Masoretic Text therefore gives direct support for this reading in the parallel account. The APB prints that relationship in 1 Chronicles 20:5.
The case for using Chronicles to understand Samuel rests on their shared battle account. Both name Elhanan as the fighter, and both describe the spear's wooden shaft as resembling a weavers’ loom beam. Chronicles offers a specific distinction between Goliath and the man Elhanan killed. If Chronicles preserves the sense, Elhanan killed Goliath's brother. That possibility does not establish how Samuel came to name Goliath himself.
The two accounts leave the origin of their difference uncertain. Samuel names Goliath, and Chronicles names his brother Lahmi. Their wording alone does not establish which account preserves the earlier form or settle the question about David. Elhanan's participation in the battle remains the same in both accounts. The disputed identification changes whom he killed; no doctrinal conclusion follows from that difference alone.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited from the sources linked above.