0:00:00.536,0:00:02.574
So I wanted to tell a story

0:00:02.574,0:00:05.291
that really obsessed me when I was writing my new book,

0:00:05.291,0:00:08.131
and it's a story of something that happened

0:00:08.131,0:00:10.411
3,000 years ago,

0:00:10.411,0:00:13.067
when the Kingdom of Israel was in its infancy.

0:00:13.067,0:00:15.940
And it takes place in area called the Shefala

0:00:15.940,0:00:18.700
in what is now Israel.

0:00:18.700,0:00:20.948
And the reason the story obsessed me is that

0:00:20.948,0:00:24.989
I thought I understood and then I went back over it

0:00:24.989,0:00:27.156
and I realized that I didn't understand it at all.

0:00:27.156,0:00:32.650
Ancient Palestine had, along its eastern border,

0:00:32.650,0:00:34.612
there's a mountain range.

0:00:34.612,0:00:36.717
Still same is true of Israel today.

0:00:36.717,0:00:38.804
And in the mountain range are all of the ancient cities

0:00:38.804,0:00:42.924
of that region, so Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron.

0:00:42.924,0:00:45.748
And then there's a coastal plain

0:00:45.748,0:00:49.273
along the Mediterranean, where Tel Aviv is now.

0:00:49.273,0:00:52.180
And connecting the mountain range with the coastal plain

0:00:52.180,0:00:54.436
is an area called the Shefala,

0:00:54.436,0:00:58.532
which is a series of valleys and ridges that run east to west,

0:00:58.532,0:01:02.404
and you can follow the Shefala, go through the Shefala

0:01:02.404,0:01:04.787
to get from the coastal plain to the mountains.

0:01:04.787,0:01:06.897
And the Shefala, if you've been to Israel, you'll know

0:01:06.897,0:01:09.049
it's just about the most beautiful part of Israel.

0:01:09.049,0:01:11.761
It's gorgeous, with forests of oak

0:01:11.761,0:01:13.961
and wheat fields and vineyards.

0:01:13.961,0:01:17.401
But more importantly, though, in the history of that region,

0:01:17.401,0:01:21.089
it's served, it's had a real strategic function,

0:01:21.089,0:01:23.849
and that is, it is the means by which hostile armies

0:01:23.849,0:01:26.417
on the coastal plain find their way,

0:01:26.417,0:01:30.254
get up into the mountains and threaten those living in the mountains.

0:01:30.254,0:01:33.025
And 3,000 years ago, that's exactly what happens.

0:01:33.025,0:01:37.465
The Philistines, who are the biggest of enemies

0:01:37.465,0:01:39.737
of the Kingdom of Israel,

0:01:39.737,0:01:42.449
are living in the coastal plain.

0:01:42.449,0:01:44.529
They're originally from Crete. They're a seafaring people.

0:01:44.529,0:01:46.721
And they may start to make their way

0:01:46.721,0:01:48.961
through one of the valleys of the Shefala

0:01:48.961,0:01:50.990
up into the mountains,

0:01:50.990,0:01:52.969
because what they want to do is occupy the highland area

0:01:52.969,0:01:56.385
right by Bethlehem and split the Kingdom of Israel in two.

0:01:56.385,0:01:59.065
And the Kingdom of Israel, which is headed by King Saul,

0:01:59.065,0:02:01.137
obviously catches wind of this,

0:02:01.137,0:02:03.899
and Saul brings his army down from the mountains

0:02:03.899,0:02:07.907
and he confronts the Philistines in the Valley of Elah,

0:02:07.907,0:02:10.166
one of the most beautiful of the valleys of the Shefala.

0:02:10.166,0:02:13.233
And the Israelites dig in along the northern ridge,

0:02:13.233,0:02:17.337
and the Philistines dig in along the southern ridge,

0:02:17.337,0:02:20.225
and the two armies just sit there for weeks

0:02:20.225,0:02:22.624
and stare at each other, because they're deadlocked.

0:02:22.624,0:02:25.082
Neither can attack the other, because to attack the other side

0:02:25.082,0:02:27.984
you've got to come down the mountain into the valley

0:02:27.984,0:02:30.193
and then up to the other side, and you're completely exposed.

0:02:30.193,0:02:33.216
So finally, to break the deadlock,

0:02:33.216,0:02:35.784
the Philistines send their mightiest warrior

0:02:35.784,0:02:37.816
down into the valley floor, and he calls out

0:02:37.816,0:02:40.024
and he says to the Israelites,

0:02:40.024,0:02:42.056
"Send your mightiest warrior down,

0:02:42.056,0:02:44.567
and we'll have this out, just the two of us."

0:02:44.567,0:02:48.071
This was a tradition in ancient warfare called single combat.

0:02:48.071,0:02:50.197
It was a way of settling disputes

0:02:50.197,0:02:53.768
without incurring the bloodshed of a major battle.

0:02:53.768,0:02:57.267
And the Philistine who is sent down,

0:02:57.267,0:02:59.448
their mighty warrior, is a giant.

0:02:59.448,0:03:01.593
He's 6 foot 9.

0:03:01.593,0:03:05.936
He's outfitted head to toe in this glittering bronze armor,

0:03:05.936,0:03:08.795
and he's got a sword and he's got a javelin

0:03:08.795,0:03:11.539
and he's got his spear. He is absolutely terrifying.

0:03:11.539,0:03:14.784
And he's so terrifying that none of the Israelite soldiers

0:03:14.784,0:03:17.033
want to fight him.

0:03:17.033,0:03:20.556
It's a death wish, right? There's no way they think they could take him.

0:03:20.556,0:03:22.957
And finally the only person who will come forward

0:03:22.957,0:03:25.652
is this young shepherd boy,

0:03:25.652,0:03:28.700
and he goes up to Saul and he says, "I'll fight him."

0:03:28.700,0:03:31.156
And Saul says, "You can't fight him. That's ridiculous.

0:03:31.156,0:03:33.494
You're this kid. This is this mighty warrior."

0:03:33.494,0:03:35.933
But the shepherd is adamant. He says, "No, no, no,

0:03:35.933,0:03:38.740
you don't understand, I have been defending my flock

0:03:38.740,0:03:43.140
against lions and wolves for years. I think I can do it."

0:03:43.140,0:03:46.108
And Saul has no choice. He's got no one else has come forward.

0:03:46.108,0:03:48.172
So he says, "All right."

0:03:48.172,0:03:49.969
And then he turns to the kid, and he says,

0:03:49.969,0:03:52.570
"But you've got to wear this armor. You can't go as you are."

0:03:52.570,0:03:54.343
So he tries to give the shepherd his armor,

0:03:54.343,0:03:56.717
and the shepherd says, "No."

0:03:56.717,0:03:58.883
He says, "I can't wear this stuff."

0:03:58.883,0:04:02.957
The Biblical verse is, "I cannot wear this for I have not proved it,"

0:04:02.957,0:04:05.827
meaning, "I've never worn armor before. You've got to be crazy."

0:04:05.827,0:04:08.740
So he reaches down instead on the ground

0:04:08.740,0:04:10.803
and picks up five stones

0:04:10.803,0:04:13.068
and puts them in his shepherd's bag

0:04:13.068,0:04:17.268
and starts to walk down the mountainside to meet the giant.

0:04:17.268,0:04:19.675
And the giant sees this figure approaching,

0:04:19.675,0:04:22.479
and calls out, "Come to me so I can feed your flesh

0:04:22.479,0:04:26.933
to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field."

0:04:26.933,0:04:29.891
Right? He issues this kind of taunt towards this person

0:04:29.891,0:04:32.018
coming to fight him.

0:04:32.018,0:04:34.834
And the shepherd draws closer and closer,

0:04:34.834,0:04:38.345
and the giants sees that he's carrying a staff.

0:04:38.345,0:04:40.317
That's all he's carrying. Right?

0:04:40.317,0:04:42.185
Instead of a weapon, just this shepherd's staff,

0:04:42.185,0:04:44.203
and he says, he's insulted,

0:04:44.203,0:04:47.545
"Am I a dog that you would come to me with sticks?"

0:04:47.545,0:04:50.001
And the shepherd boy takes one of his stones

0:04:50.001,0:04:53.057
out of his pocket, puts it in his sling

0:04:53.057,0:04:55.865
and rolls it around and lets it fly

0:04:55.865,0:04:58.390
and it hits the giant right between the eyes,

0:04:58.390,0:05:00.657
like, right here, in his most vulnerable spot,

0:05:00.657,0:05:03.470
and he falls down either dead or unconscious,

0:05:03.470,0:05:05.841
and the shepherd boy runs up and takes his sword

0:05:05.841,0:05:08.065
and cuts off his head,

0:05:08.065,0:05:12.463
and the Philistines see this and they turn and they just run.

0:05:12.463,0:05:17.393
And of course, the name of the giant is Goliath

0:05:17.393,0:05:20.306
and the name of the shepherd boy is David,

0:05:20.306,0:05:22.929
and the reason that story has obsessed me

0:05:22.929,0:05:25.089
over the course of writing my book

0:05:25.089,0:05:27.937
is that everything I thought I knew about that story

0:05:27.937,0:05:30.241
turned out to be wrong.

0:05:30.241,0:05:33.937
So David, in that story, is supposed to be the underdog.

0:05:33.937,0:05:36.504
Right? In fact, that term, "David and Goliath,"

0:05:36.504,0:05:38.854
has entered our language a metaphor for

0:05:38.854,0:05:41.161
improbable victories

0:05:41.161,0:05:44.272
by some weak party over someone far stronger.

0:05:44.272,0:05:46.386
Now why do we call David an underdog?

0:05:46.386,0:05:49.538
Well, we call him an underdog because he's a kid,

0:05:49.538,0:05:53.350
a little kid, and Goliath is this big, strong giant.

0:05:53.350,0:05:55.482
We also call him an underdog

0:05:55.482,0:05:58.650
because Goliath is an experienced warrior,

0:05:58.650,0:06:00.986
and David is just a shepherd. Right?

0:06:00.986,0:06:03.106
But most importantly, we call him an underdog

0:06:03.106,0:06:07.762
because all he has is, it's that Goliath is outfitted with

0:06:07.762,0:06:10.490
all of this modern weaponry, right,

0:06:10.490,0:06:12.682
this glittering coat of armor

0:06:12.682,0:06:15.778
and a sword and a javelin and a spear,

0:06:15.778,0:06:19.050
and all David has is this sling.

0:06:19.050,0:06:21.490
Well, let's start there with the phrase

0:06:21.490,0:06:24.015
"All David has is this sling,"

0:06:24.015,0:06:26.586
because that's the first mistake that we make.

0:06:26.586,0:06:30.466
In ancient warfare, there are three kinds of warriors.

0:06:30.466,0:06:33.282
There's cavalry, men on horseback and with chariots.

0:06:33.282,0:06:35.962
There's heavy infantry, which are foot soldiers,

0:06:35.962,0:06:39.652
armed foot soldiers with swords and shields

0:06:39.652,0:06:41.690
and some kind of armor.

0:06:41.690,0:06:44.272
And there's artillery, and artillery are archers,

0:06:44.272,0:06:46.521
but, more importantly, slingers.

0:06:46.521,0:06:49.274
And a slinger is someone who has a leather pouch

0:06:49.274,0:06:52.394
with two long cords attached to it,

0:06:52.394,0:06:55.489
and they put a projectile, either a rock or a lead ball,

0:06:55.489,0:06:58.579
inside the pouch, and they whirl it around like this

0:06:58.579,0:07:01.529
and they let one of the cords go,

0:07:01.529,0:07:04.630
and the effect is to send the projectile forward

0:07:04.630,0:07:08.412
towards its target.

0:07:08.412,0:07:11.178
That's what David has, and it's important to understand

0:07:11.178,0:07:14.041
that that sling is not a slingshot.

0:07:14.041,0:07:17.290
It's not this, right? It's not a child's toy.

0:07:17.290,0:07:20.730
It's in fact an incredibly devastating weapon.

0:07:20.730,0:07:23.706
When David rolls it around like this,

0:07:23.706,0:07:27.072
he's turning the sling around probably

0:07:27.072,0:07:29.915
at six or seven revolutions per second,

0:07:29.915,0:07:33.129
and that means that when the rock is released,

0:07:33.129,0:07:35.499
it's going forward really fast,

0:07:35.499,0:07:37.425
probably 35 meters per second.

0:07:37.425,0:07:40.729
That's substantially faster than a baseball

0:07:40.729,0:07:44.193
thrown by even the finest of baseball pitchers.

0:07:44.193,0:07:48.137
More than that, the stones in the Valley of Elah

0:07:48.137,0:07:50.793
were not normal rocks. They were barium sulphate,

0:07:50.793,0:07:54.481
which are rocks twice the density of normal stones.

0:07:54.481,0:07:56.918
If you do the calculations on the ballistic,

0:07:56.918,0:08:00.649
on the stopping power of the rock fired from David's sling,

0:08:00.649,0:08:02.985
it's roughly equal to the stopping power

0:08:02.985,0:08:07.357
of a 45 mm handgun. Right.

0:08:07.357,0:08:09.874
This is an incredibly devastating weapon.

0:08:09.874,0:08:13.934
Accuracy, we know from historical records

0:08:13.934,0:08:18.097
that slingers, experienced slingers could hit

0:08:18.097,0:08:24.609
and maim or even kill a target at distances of up to 200 yards.

0:08:24.609,0:08:27.395
From medieval tapestries, we know that slingers

0:08:27.395,0:08:30.321
were capable of hitting birds in flight.

0:08:30.321,0:08:32.448
They were incredibly accurate.

0:08:32.448,0:08:36.312
When David lines up, and he's not 200 yards away from Goliath,

0:08:36.312,0:08:38.321
he's quite close to Goliath,

0:08:38.321,0:08:40.921
when he lines up and fires that thing at Goliath,

0:08:40.921,0:08:44.137
he has every intention and every expectation

0:08:44.137,0:08:46.825
of being able to hit Goliath at his most vulnerable spot

0:08:46.825,0:08:48.953
between his eyes.

0:08:48.953,0:08:50.953
If you go back over the history of ancient warfare,

0:08:50.953,0:08:53.257
you will find time and time again

0:08:53.257,0:08:57.063
that slingers were the decisive factor against infantry

0:08:57.063,0:09:01.087
in one kind of battle or another.

0:09:01.087,0:09:06.052
So what's Goliath? He's heavy infantry,

0:09:06.052,0:09:11.180
and his expectation when he challenges the Israelites to a duel

0:09:11.180,0:09:15.062
is that he's going to be fighting another heavy infantryman.

0:09:15.062,0:09:17.406
Right? When he says, "Come to me that I might

0:09:17.406,0:09:20.143
feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field,"

0:09:20.143,0:09:22.358
the key phrase is "Come to me."

0:09:22.358,0:09:24.358
Come up to me because we're going to fight,

0:09:24.358,0:09:26.438
hand to hand, like this.

0:09:26.438,0:09:28.551
Saul has the same expectation.

0:09:28.551,0:09:30.694
David says, "I want to fight Goliath,"

0:09:30.694,0:09:32.854
and Saul tries to give him his armor,

0:09:32.854,0:09:35.166
because Saul is thinking, "Oh, when you say 'fight Goliath'

0:09:35.166,0:09:38.248
you mean 'fight him in hand-to-hand combat,'

0:09:38.248,0:09:40.482
infantry on infantry."

0:09:40.482,0:09:43.487
But David has absolutely no expectation.

0:09:43.487,0:09:46.222
He's not going to fight him that way. Why would he?

0:09:46.222,0:09:49.230
He's a shepherd. He's spent his entire career

0:09:49.230,0:09:53.430
using a sling to defend his flock against lions and wolves.

0:09:53.430,0:09:55.640
That's where his strength lies.

0:09:55.640,0:09:58.295
So here is, this shepherd, experienced

0:09:58.295,0:10:00.334
in the use of a devastating weapon,

0:10:00.334,0:10:02.358
up against this lumbering giant

0:10:02.358,0:10:05.151
weighed down by a hundred pounds of armor

0:10:05.151,0:10:07.390
and these incredibly heavy weapons

0:10:07.390,0:10:09.903
that are useful only in short range combat.

0:10:09.903,0:10:14.871
Goliath is a sitting duck. He doesn't have a chance. Right?

0:10:14.871,0:10:17.415
So why do we keep calling David an underdog,

0:10:17.415,0:10:23.423
and why do we keep referring to his victory as improbable?

0:10:23.423,0:10:26.340
There's a second piece of this that's important.

0:10:26.340,0:10:29.370
It's not just that we misunderstand David

0:10:29.370,0:10:31.566
and his choice of weaponry.

0:10:31.566,0:10:34.905
It's also that we profoundly misunderstand Goliath.

0:10:34.905,0:10:37.725
Goliath is not what he seems to be.

0:10:37.725,0:10:40.805
There's all kinds of hints of this in the Biblical text,

0:10:40.805,0:10:44.918
things that are in retrospect quite puzzling

0:10:44.918,0:10:48.509
and don't square with his image as this mighty warrior.

0:10:48.509,0:10:51.061
So to begin with, the Bible says that Goliath

0:10:51.061,0:10:55.805
is led onto the valley floor by an attendant.

0:10:55.805,0:10:58.260
Now that is weird, right?

0:10:58.260,0:11:00.283
Here is this mighty warrior

0:11:00.283,0:11:03.197
challenging the Israelites to one-on-one combat.

0:11:03.197,0:11:06.125
Why is he being led by the hand

0:11:06.125,0:11:08.821
by some, you know, young boy, presumably,

0:11:08.821,0:11:11.421
to the point of combat?

0:11:11.421,0:11:15.637
Secondly, the Bible story makes special note

0:11:15.637,0:11:18.864
of how slowly Goliath moves,

0:11:18.864,0:11:21.069
another odd thing to say when you're describing

0:11:21.069,0:11:24.725
the mightiest warrior known to man at that point. Right?

0:11:24.725,0:11:26.887
And then there's this whole weird thing

0:11:26.887,0:11:30.206
about how long it takes Goliath to react

0:11:30.206,0:11:32.725
to the sight of David.

0:11:32.725,0:11:35.119
So David's coming down the mountain,

0:11:35.119,0:11:39.286
and he's clearly not preparing for hand-to-hand combat.

0:11:39.286,0:11:41.439
Right? There is nothing about him that says,

0:11:41.439,0:11:43.581
"I am about to fight you like this."

0:11:43.581,0:11:45.573
He's not even carrying a sword.

0:11:45.573,0:11:47.901
Why does Goliath not react to that?

0:11:47.901,0:11:51.929
It's as if he's oblivious to what's going on that day.

0:11:51.929,0:11:55.646
And then there's that strange comment he makes to David:

0:11:55.646,0:11:59.925
"Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?"

0:11:59.925,0:12:03.061
Right? Sticks? David only has one stick.

0:12:03.061,0:12:06.253
Well, it turns out that there's been a great deal

0:12:06.253,0:12:09.051
of speculation within the medical community over the years

0:12:09.051,0:12:12.093
about whether there is something wrong,

0:12:12.093,0:12:14.709
fundamentally wrong with Goliath,

0:12:14.709,0:12:17.949
an attempt to make sense of all of those apparent anomalies.

0:12:17.949,0:12:19.973
There have been many articles written.

0:12:19.973,0:12:23.069
The first one was in 1960 in the Indiana Medical Journal,

0:12:23.069,0:12:25.229
and it started a chain of speculation

0:12:25.229,0:12:28.999
that starts with an explanation for Goliath's height.

0:12:28.999,0:12:31.429
So Goliath is head and shoulders above

0:12:31.429,0:12:34.005
all of his peers in that era,

0:12:34.005,0:12:37.589
and usually when someone is that far out of the norm,

0:12:37.589,0:12:39.878
there's an explanation for it.

0:12:39.878,0:12:42.203
So the most common form of giantism

0:12:42.203,0:12:45.154
is a condition called acromegaly,

0:12:45.154,0:12:48.165
and acromegaly is caused by a benign tumor

0:12:48.165,0:12:50.421
on your pituitary gland

0:12:50.421,0:12:53.276
that causes an overproduction of human growth hormone.

0:12:53.276,0:12:56.573
And throughout history, many of the most famous giants

0:12:56.573,0:12:58.834
have all had acromegaly.

0:12:58.834,0:13:01.016
So the tallest person of all time

0:13:01.016,0:13:02.989
was a guy named Robert Wadlow

0:13:02.989,0:13:05.101
who was still growing when he died at the age of 24

0:13:05.101,0:13:08.405
and he was 8 foot 11.

0:13:08.405,0:13:10.389
He had acromegaly.

0:13:10.389,0:13:12.478
Do you remember the wrestler Andre the Giant?

0:13:12.478,0:13:14.453
Famous. He had acromegaly.

0:13:14.453,0:13:18.684
There's even speculation that Abraham Lincoln had acromegaly.

0:13:18.684,0:13:20.901
Right? Anyone who's unusually tall,

0:13:20.901,0:13:23.005
that's the first explanation we come up with.

0:13:23.005,0:13:25.956
And acromegaly has a very distinct set of side effects

0:13:25.956,0:13:28.029
associated with it,

0:13:28.029,0:13:31.189
principally having to do with vision.

0:13:31.189,0:13:34.485
The pituitary tumor, as it grows,

0:13:34.485,0:13:38.533
often starts to compress the visual nerves in your brain,

0:13:38.533,0:13:41.053
with the result that people with acromegaly

0:13:41.053,0:13:45.878
have either double vision or they are profoundly nearsighted.

0:13:45.878,0:13:49.101
So when people have started to speculate

0:13:49.101,0:13:52.117
about what might have been wrong with Goliath,

0:13:52.117,0:13:54.069
they've said, "Wait a minute,

0:13:54.069,0:13:56.433
he looks and sounds an awful lot like someone

0:13:56.433,0:13:58.545
who has acromegaly."

0:13:58.545,0:14:00.929
And that would also explain so much of what was strange

0:14:00.929,0:14:03.117
about his behavior that day.

0:14:03.117,0:14:05.231
Right? What does he move so slowly

0:14:05.231,0:14:08.466
and have to be escorted down into the valley floor

0:14:08.466,0:14:10.456
by an attendant?

0:14:10.456,0:14:12.767
Because he can't make his way on his own. Right?

0:14:12.767,0:14:15.027
Why is he strangely oblivious to David

0:14:15.027,0:14:18.289
that he doesn't understand that David's not going to fight him

0:14:18.289,0:14:20.866
until the very last moment?

0:14:20.866,0:14:23.375
Because he can't see him. Right?

0:14:23.375,0:14:26.339
When he says, "Come to me that I might feed your flesh

0:14:26.339,0:14:28.912
to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field,"

0:14:28.912,0:14:33.832
the phrase "Come to me" is a hint also of his vulnerability.

0:14:33.832,0:14:36.279
Come to me because I can't see you. Right?

0:14:36.279,0:14:41.154
And then there's, "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?"

0:14:41.154,0:14:46.437
He sees two sticks when David has only one.

0:14:46.437,0:14:49.541
So the Israelites up on the mountain ridge

0:14:49.541,0:14:52.214
looking down on him thought he was

0:14:52.214,0:14:55.571
this extraordinarily powerful foe.

0:14:55.571,0:14:57.685
What they didn't understand was that

0:14:57.685,0:15:00.613
the very thing that was the source of his apparent strength

0:15:00.613,0:15:04.169
was also the sources of his greatest weakness.

0:15:04.169,0:15:06.617
And there is, I think, in that,

0:15:06.617,0:15:09.469
a very important lesson for all of us.

0:15:09.469,0:15:13.469
Giants are not as strong as powerful as they seem.

0:15:13.469,0:15:16.973
And sometimes the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket.

0:15:16.973,0:15:19.345
Thank you.

0:15:19.345,0:15:23.345
(Applause)