1 Samuel 17:4 — how tall was Goliath?
Goliath is given as four cubits and a span in one reading and six cubits and a span in another. The number changes the portrait from an enormous man to a giant out of legend.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
What a blind committee did here.
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.
The blind committee's record supplies no rationale note for this crux, and the pericope audit verdict is "clean." The APB text at 1 Samuel 17:4 prints, "his height was six cubits and a span." The surrounding APB lines continue with Goliath's bronze helmet and scale armor.
The case for each reading.
If four cubits
Reading A, ארבע אמות וזרת, gives Goliath a height of four cubits and a span, approximately 6'9". It is supported by the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscript 4QSamᵃ, dated c. 1st century B.C., which the packet identifies as the oldest Hebrew witness to the verse. It is also supported by LXXᴮ, whose Greek text reads τεσσάρων πήχεων καὶ σπιθαμῆς. Thus the four-cubit reading has both an early Hebrew witness and a major Greek witness in the supplied evidence. On this reading, the difference makes Goliath an enormous man rather than a giant out of legend.
If six cubits
Reading B, שש אמות וזרת, gives Goliath a height of six cubits and a span, approximately 9'9". It is the reading of the Masoretic Text, represented here by the Westminster Leningrad Codex, a codex A.D. 1008 with a tradition described as centuries older. The supplied Hebrew verse text also reads גבהו שש אמות וזרת, and the APB prints, "his height was six cubits and a span." This reading therefore stands in the received Hebrew text presented on the page. Its effect is to portray Goliath as a giant out of legend rather than simply an enormous man.
The supplied witnesses divide over one number: four or six cubits. The packet identifies the resulting difference in portrait as an enormous man or a giant out of legend. It does not supply a resolution of the disagreement. No doctrinal claim is attached to either reading in the packet; the stated issue is Goliath's height in 1 Samuel 17:4.
More places where the manuscripts argue.
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 as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.
Weigh it yourself.
The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.