David’s sling? Oh yeah, we hear about that all the time. Goliath’s sword? Not so much. But it didn’t escape Mark’s notice. “I don’t remember Goliath’s sword being in Mark’s Gospel.” Well, it’s there!
I’ve gotten the impression from some that Mark’s Gospel is the Gospel for dummies. Of course, no one says that. But it’s often introduced as written to these blue collar Romans uneducated in the Hebrew Scriptures. It’s action-oriented for the attention challenged. What you’re about to witness, however, is bare-bones statements of fact, in the hands of a literary virtuoso like Mark, lay bare a hidden coral reef swimming in beautiful aquatic life. He takes a quiet remark about Jesus’ death and superimposes upon it a Hallelujah chorus resounding with triumphant strains. (Pssst—Goliath’s sword!) I’m in awe how Mark’s factoids trumpet the mighty victory of Jesus Christ!
“Have you never read?” That’s a probing question. Two blogs ago we examined how Mark linked the miracle of seeing the paralytic walk to a Sabbath miracle: reading the Bible. We need Jesus’ help to read our Bibles. Thankfully Mark shows us how to read. Goliath’s sword illustrates how to read the Bible—not as a rule book, theology reference manual, or storybook of heroes to emulate—but to see Jesus Christ. Mark leverages David’s quest for bread in the house of God to reveal Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath supplying us with true bread. Later on Jesus multiplies loaves of bread, which Mark hyperlinks to the sacred bread placed on the tabernacle table of this 1 Samuel 21 passage. “Have you never read?” Mark’s has his eye trained on the David-in-the-house-of-God story to see Jesus-centered miracles! There’s yet one more Easter egg hidden away here. What a stunning sunset grand finale to close out Mark’s Jesus portrait!
And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus…. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.
Mark 15:42-43, 46 ESV
Joseph “wrapped him in the linen shroud.” Mark handpicked a rare as hen’s teeth word for “wrapped…in”: eneileō (en-i-leh’-o). Eneileō visually connotes rolling in, winding in, or enwrapping (Strong’s). How rare is this word? It’s the only one in the New Testament. There’s more. It’s the only one in the Septuagint, too! Here’s eneileō’s starring Old Testament appearance (drum roll, please):
Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in [eneileō] a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”
1 Samuel 21:8-9 ESV
Mark is superimposing Goliath’s sword onto Jesus’ death. Jesus’ corpse wrapped in a linen shroud, Goliath’s sword wrapped in a cloth. Whatever does this strange linking mean? To understand we must first train our eye on the selective words in our story. Although laborious, patience is our passport into awe and wonder, a wonder enwrapped in the triumphant majesty of Jesus!
The Hebrew word for “wrapped in” is lûṭâ (loo-tah‘) from lûṭ (loot), a rare word meaning to wrap closely or tightly, enwrap, or envelop (Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon). Goliath’s sword was wrapped in a cloth, śimlâ (sim-law’), variously translated as wrapper, mantle, covering garment, garments and clothes. The Septuagint translates śimlâ as himation (him-at’-ee-on), a respectable equivalent in Greek. Himation’s numerous examples include Jesus’ clothes (Mk 15:20, 24) and the purple robe from the mocking soldiers (Jn 19:2, 5).
This śimlâ has a shady past. Its assumed derivation is from semel (seh’-mel) whose root means to resemble or look like. So semel sculpts śimlâ “through the idea of a cover assuming the shape of the object beneath” (Strong’s). We can imagine this covering, probably a shirt or garment, so tightly wrapped around Goliath’s sword that it still looked like a sword. Semel’s negative connotations upon śimlâ, an uncommon word (just 17 usages), perfectly fits this scene. We get the gist of semel by examining some of the five verses where it shows up. “Beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure [semel], the likeness of male or female” (Deut 4:16). Here’s one that comes close to our context: “And the carved image of the idol [semel] that he had made he set in the house of God…” (2Ch 33:7). Then there’s the image [semel] of jealousy, “which provokes to jealousy” (Ezek 8:3, 5). So semel evokes a visceral repulsiveness to idolatry.
Mark’s attention on Goliath’s sword sparked questions for me. What’s the purpose of that cloth? Why not just display the sword openly? How in the world did an uncircumcised Philistine’s sword wrapped in cloth, śimlâ, skunked with a whiff of idols from semel, get showcased in the house of God? Surprisingly, though, there’s no record of Yahweh’s displeasure, rebuke, or judgment for it being there. With all the intricacies of tabernacle construction, never once is a sword mentioned.
Goliath’s sword was stationed “behind” the ephod. Behind is ahar (akh-ar’), used 709 times (i.e., a commonplace word) and has a wide semantic range. In our context it means the sword was positioned right behind the ephod. The ephod has a whole lot of symbolic detail up its sleeve (see Exodus 28), but for simplicity’s sake it’s the ornate outer garment that the high priest officiated in. The high priest’s uniform consisted of a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash (Ex 28:3). These garments were “for glory and for beauty” (28:2). When 1 Samuel says ephod, it means the ephod plus its accessories, the breastpiece and the robe. The attached breastpiece boasted twelve gemstones representing Israel’s twelve tribes. The sky blue robe is called “the robe of the ephod” (28:31). The ephod was the high priest’s three-piece suit.
The “coat” of checker work is kutōneṯ (kuh’-to-neth), which Genesius describes as having sleeves and coming down to the knees, rarely the ankles. The Septuagint translates kutōneṯ as chitōn (khee-tone’), a tunic worn close to the skin as an undergarment. Since there’s no other clothing, this kutōneṯ was that undergarment. I’ll refer to it as tunic to avoid confusion with coat, which we think of as an outer garment. Though this tunic doesn’t get the fanfare of the ephod, it shines on the Day of Atonement. On that day only the high priest disrobed his colorful ephod and donned that “holy linen” tunic made from “fine linen” (Lev 16:4, Ex 28:39). After the slaughtered sacrifices atoned for the whole nation’s sins, watch the tunic.
Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them there.
Leviticus 16:23 ESV
So the high priest left behind the linen garments: the tunic, turban and sash (16:4). The Day of Atonement was fulfilled, of course, by Jesus dying as the ultimate sacrifice. The Gospel of John puts the linen garments left behind into the limelight (Jn 20:4-7). Luke says succinctly: “But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves” (Lk 24:12). Highlighting these linen cloths is meant to turn our imaginations back to high priest on the Day of Atonement. Implication: Jesus was functioning as the high priest! Mark and Matthew don’t mention the linen cloths left behind in the tomb. That’s because Mark’s focus is on their association with Goliath’s sword. Since the shirt (śimlâ) wrapped tightly around Goliath’s sword is behind the ephod, it signifies the tunic. Goliath’s sword wrapped in a cloth, Jesus’ corpse wrapped in a linen shroud. That linen shroud symbolized the high priest’s linen tunic on the Day of Atonement!
So what we have is a parable of two garments: the ephod (the outer garment) and the tunic (the undergarment). A sword in a shirt is highly suggestive. Swords don’t wear clothes; people do. Goliath’s sword then intimates a person…the high priest! In light of the Day of Atonement, that sword is a man, Jesus Christ our High Priest! There are a bazillion Old Testament references to sword but only one where God is personified as a sword. “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!” (Deut 33:29). The man Jesus Christ is the sword of our triumph! In light of Goliath’s sword, what a triumph that is! For all the attention garnered upon Goliath’s impressive arsenal, the sword is not even mentioned. Yet when David speaks of it, he gushes, “There’s none like it.” Only by a man of the Spirit and wisdom can its magnificence be brought out into the open. There’s none like Jesus! He is Goliath’s sword!
That’s why there was no divine displeasure for Goliath’s sword in a shirt being in the house of God. Recall that the shirt, śimlâ, is loosely associated with God-provoking idols from semel. Semel is a wordplay on selem (image), which is actually a good thing. One of selem’s 17 appearances is here: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image [selem], after our likeness’” (Gen 1:26). There were no critiques against Goliath’s sword because it was the selem, the image of the invisible God, Jesus!
Initially I thought Mark first saw Jesus as Goliath’s sword. But Mark wasn’t the first. Somebody with enough spiritual insight from the Torah connected the dots between Goliath’s sword and the high priest. Who? The Bible doesn’t say. But here’s my sanctified surmising based on a short list of possible suspects. King Saul is out. David testified against him: “Then let us bring again the ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it in the days of Saul” (1Ch 13:3). Carnal Saul wasn’t interested in the ark or the ephod (except one outlier in 1 Samuel 14).
The high priest, Ahimelech, was from the doomed line of Eli, whom God would replace (1Sa 2:31-36). So Ahimelech and son Abiathar probably weren’t the spiritually perceptive ones either. Our story is set in Israel’s history characterized by a new ascendancy of wisdom. Wisdom is an advance on law, where everything was spelled out to the letter. Ahimelech and son Abiathar epitomized Mosaic law. They were men of the letter. Whoever improvised to stick a sword in God’s holiest place on earth without an explicit command to do so must have been a man of the Spirit and wisdom.
So David seems the most likely candidate. He was a forerunner to his son Solomon, the world’s wisest man until Jesus came. David had been anointed by the Spirit. Later on, the Spirit (i.e., the hand of the LORD) revealed the temple construction to him (1Ch 28:19). As king, David improvised with the ark—separated from the tabernacle and all its other furniture—in its own tent in Jerusalem. Finally, who owned Goliath’s sword, a trophy of conquest? David. The sword was his to dispose of as he pleased. David had both sword and Spirit. Though I can’t say with 100% certainty, my sanctified surmising points to David.
To get things straight in your mind about what’s happening when David ventured to obtain bread, the ark wasn’t inside the tabernacle. It was kept elsewhere, in Kiriath-jearim, about 8 or 9 miles west as the crow flies. In Kiriath-jearim there it sat until David fetched it when he became king (1Ch 13:5). So the tabernacle at Nob was operating with everything except the ark. The tabernacle was incomplete. I believe the ark’s absence opened up this improvisation (a wisdom trait) with Goliath’s sword. The sword somehow made up for the ark’s vacancy. When Yahweh on Mount Sinai gave the blueprint to Moses to build the tabernacle, it was a complete tabernacle. Similarly, when Solomon’s temple was constructed according to a predefined blueprint, it was complete as well. Neither blueprint had a sword. So whatever the deficit of the absent ark, Goliath’s sword somehow compensated for it.
The ark, the golden chest with two cherubim perched upon its lid, was where God’s voice was heard. God’s voice was localized between these two cherubim. But how would God’s voice be heard without the ark? Well, there was provision for that. Tucked inside the ephod’s breastpiece was the enigmatic Urim and Thummin (Exod 28:30). They probably worked like lots or dice, sort of like the Magic 8 Ball toy (I’m dating myself). It’s like a coin flip, a simplistic yes/no voice of God (e.g., 1Sa 14:41, 23:9-12). So the ephod, in lieu of the ark, was where God’s voice was heard.
Now for the tunic. The high priest’s tunic, the kutōneṯ, as pointed out, was symbolized by the cloth wrapped tightly around Goliath’s sword. These two cherubim on the ark’s lid were more than a rendezvous point for Yahweh’s voice. We see them as keepers of the flaming sword that turned every which way to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen 3:24). They’re Yahweh’s “golden chariot…that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord” (1Ch 28:18). Again, it’s spiritually astute David who lets us in on that (28:19). The chariot, like the sword, is an offensive weapon. The sword is a symbol of king’s power to enforce the crown, especially against those who transgress the king’s laws. In this regard, chariot and sword are alike. So the ark had Yahweh’s voice, and cherubim, Yahweh’s sword. So with the ark gone, the high priest’s ephod substituted for the Lord’s voice and the high priest’s tunic for the Lord’s sword. Therefore, the high priest’s garments “for glory and beauty” had some correspondence to the ark, though in a reduced capacity. The Lord’s expressive voice from the ark excels His yes/no voice from the ephod. A chariot is superior to a sword. Nevertheless, the unavailability of the two cherubim—the golden chariot, Yahweh’s sword—found an acceptable substitute in Goliath’s sword.
David, I presume, didn’t just see a sword dressed up in a shirt. David envisioned that sword as the man who would be a sword. He intuited that the high priest would be a victorious warrior, a lion like himself who’d deal a death blow to humanity’s greatest foe. David, a product of the Hebrew cultural traditions of his day, expected a man, the seed of the woman, who would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). This promised seed motif, progressing from biblical scene to scene, stoked the fires of national imagination for a coming Messiah.
There’s a number of snaky characteristics of Goliath that tie him to the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve. I credit Brian A. Verrett’s book The Serpent in Samuel (recommended by The Bible Project’s Tim Mackie) for its many insights. Goliath’s armor was described as having scales, qaśqeśeṯ (kas-keh’-seth), like a fish or a snake. The conspicuous four times mention of bronze (נְחשֶׁת nᵊḥšeṯ (nekh-o’-sheth)) with Goliath’s armor and javelin seems a clever wordplay on snake (נָחָשׁ nāḥāš (naw-khawsh’)). Goliath stands tall as a serpent figure, a preview of Eden’s serpent nemesis who’d be defeated by the seed of the woman, Israel’s Messiah.
At this time, David had limited intel on the Messiah’s identity. It had been narrowed down to his own tribe, Judah, from whom the scepter would not depart (Gen 49:10). The converging prophecies of Judah’s scepter and David being Judah’s king perhaps awakened hope that he might be that Messiah. But David had no certainty that the Anointed One would be him or come from him. That revelation was yet future, many years after evading King Saul and finally becoming king (2 Samuel 7). David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, authored the psalm most quoted in the New Testament. Sometime during his life the Spirit revealed to him the union of king and high priest in one person, as Psalm 110 celebrates. The forever priest after the order of Melchizedek would one day wield a king’s “sword” against the nations (Ps 110:5-6). So David’s vision of Goliath’s sword as warrior priest-king in the house of God is a prototype of Psalm 110!
I suppose any old sword could have served the purpose of representing this warrior priest-king. But this is Goliath’s sword. It has a history. It’s the sword David used to slay Goliath. It’s easy to think the stone from David’s sling killed Goliath. It stunned but didn’t slay. “Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it” (1Sa 17:51). David used the enemy’s own weapon to kill him.
Mark says simply, Joseph of Aramathea “wrapped [Jesus] in the linen shroud.” It’s a plain vanilla statement of fact. It’s actual history. But from that wrapped (eneileō) hyperlink to Goliath’s wrapped sword opens up to us a ginormous aquarium swarming swimmingly alive with rainbow colors! David slew Goliath with Goliath’s own sword. Jesus, the son of David, slew the greater Goliath—Satan—using Satan’s own weapon—death. The writer of Hebrews asserts this. “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb 2:14). Jesus’ death was the sword that lopped off the head of that ancient serpent! This is the jubilant victory that “wrapped him in the linen shroud” is heralding.
Mark had a huge advantage over David. Mark got to see what many prophets and kings desired to see but didn’t (Lk 10:24). He lived at a time when the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, had come. David saw in the giant’s sword a mighty conquering lionlike Messiah. Based upon his thrill of victory over Goliath, how could he not? Although Mark also saw Christ as a conquering lion, his surpassing insight also saw the serpent’s overthrow through suffering. Lionlike conquest was achieved through lamblike suffering. The apostle John agrees. The Lion of the tribe of Judah who conquers is the Lamb slain!
The shirt wrapped around Goliath’s sword represents not only death but life, too. The shirt, the linen tunic, kutōneṯ, symbolized Jesus’ death. His dead body was wrapped in the linen shroud. That’s death. The sword first slew the giant on the field of battle, but then made its way to the house of God. There it got dressed up as the high priest, abiding in the tabernacle of the Most High. That’s life! After Jesus slew the Goliath of Satan through His own death, He made His way to the house of God. We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God (Heb 4:14). Jesus ever lives in the true tabernacle as our high priest to make intercession for us!
Speaking of kutōneṯ, I held off on disclosing its first appearance. You ready? It’s the word used of the animal skins God clothed Adam and Eve with! The kutōneṯ, the “holy” tunic made from “fine linen,” was “for glory and for beauty.” Revelation speaks of fine linen as “the righteous deeds of the saints” (19:8). In connection with the Day of Atonement, the kutōneṯ is the Righteous Deed of the Saint. All of humanity, not just Adam and Eve, can be dressed up in it! Jesus’ righteous deed, the death-dealing blow to sin and Satan, is the fine linen we’re robed in today. We, His bride, stand arrayed in His awesome deed. We’re dressed in His kutōneṯ! The apostle Paul theologizes it this way: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Co 5:21). It’s so cool how all these threads come together (pun intended).
Mark has so much more to say about Goliath’s sword. We just explored one hyperlink. So, you see, Mark didn’t pull this hyperlink out of thin air to be cute or clever. He drew water from the deep well of Hebrew literary tradition that profiled the Messiah in a multi-textured way! Mark the Gospel for dummies or ADHD Romans? No way! Mark has several other similar hyperlinks clustered between cross and tomb that masterfully crafts plain factoids into a stunningly beautiful portrayal of Jesus’ glorious triumph! The Spirit delights to transfigure facts of the intellect into transforming truths from glory to glory as He sketches Christ onto the canvas of our hearts and minds.
Lord Jesus, we praise You this resurrection Sunday! You crushed the head of the Serpent. You defeated the enemy with his own weapon—death. Now You have the keys of death and hell! Thank You for suffering what You did on our behalf. We praise You as the sword—there’s none like You! We’re no longer slaves to fear or servants of the devil. Teach us what it means to us for You to be Goliath’s sword. “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!” Grant us grace to live all of our days in Your mighty triumph. Amen.
Glory Unveiled: Discovering Jesus 