BasedCrusader wrote on Dec 18^th, 2021 at 12:26am:


The simple answer is, our opinion is not relevant. We will never ask david personally, so why try ?

If someone is carrying a stick and a sling, perhaps balled up in their hand, you will see the stick first. He's a shepherd so had both. Even if there was evidence if staff slings around that time, why would a shepherd have a staff sling? Thye were mostly used in sieges and naval conflicts because they are a pain to reload on your own and not as portable and fast as a hand sling. I wouldn't take a staff sling into battle unless maybe it was also a spear. The staff sling theory doesn't hold much water in my book.

Es ist dennoch interessant. Der Stab gehörte zur Ausrüstung eines Hirten. David wird oft mit einem Stab dargestellt. Ob er damit schleudern konnte? Vielleicht

I will point out that there are medieval artworks of David killing Goliath with a staff sling. This isn’t a new theory. But usually they get other details horrendously wrong as well. Not just anachronistic, just wrong. One of them has David as armored as Goliath is! For the reasons people have listed, it doesn’t make any sense. The staff sling is pretty much a military weapon with spottier historic and geographic use than the sling. The staff and the sling are just tools of the shepherd, and shepherds are pretty symbolically significant.

My guess for why Goliath mentions the stick specifically is because a staff probably is more noticeable upon the approach, and then gets the old switcheroo. Alternatively, Goliath might have felt a sling posed no danger since he was well armored and had a shield.

Etwas ist aber gewiss. Auch in Goliath s Armee  gab es slinger

Again it depends what you read.
The David and Goliath thread went through every single scrap of evidence and various versions of the Bible - exhaustively, over many years.
The smart money had David as a young man and a warrior, who'd been a shepherd in his youth.

Which makes an awful lot more sense than a kid straight from the hills.

Again, depending on which version of ,'the bible'. He could have been carrying a shepherd's staff.

But there is no version where he used a staff sling.