(Rhoda) <i>After having seen the place
where David fought Goliath,</i> <i>we drive down from the Valley of Elah
to the Philistine city of Gath,</i> <i>a hometown of Goliath
and four other giants.</i> So, we are driving
to the ancient city of Gath, which is believed to be a city
where giants once lived. (Rhoda) <i>This excavation site,
Tell es-Safi,</i> <i>which is identified
as the biblical city of Gath,</i> <i>had been under continual excavations
for more than 20 years,</i> <i>but this site did not bring
much public interest</i> <i>until the recent phenomenal discovery.</i> <i>Those are giant rocks.</i> They have not shown this
in the excavation pictures. This is incredible! - (Rhoda) <i>Wow!</i>
- (Sergio) <i>Whoa!</i> <i>And look how huge...
Look how high it is!</i> <i>Archaeologists uncovered remains
of what seems to be </i> <i>monumental structures,
fortification walls,</i> <i>and building blocks that are
twice larger than the regular size.</i> It's just not something you expect to see
from that time of a village. <i>Gath was hometown to Goliath,
a famous giant man</i> <i> who, according to the Bible,
was almost 9' tall,</i> <i>but he wasn't the only giant
who lived here.</i> <i>According to the Bible,</i> <i>there were four other giants
who resided in Gath.</i> (Rhoda) <i>It's like there is a giant one
under the covering.</i> (Sergio) <i>Yeah, look at those.</i> <i>Moreover, this place is also known to be
where David pretended to be a mad man,</i> <i>scratching the entrance gates to the city,</i> <i>when he came to seek refuge
from King Saul.</i> Now, we can mentally picture
David being here, <i>going over to the gate and scratching it</i> <i>so they would not kill him.</i> Unbelievable. <i>So, join us on this adventure
as we explore the city gate,</i> <i>where David could have once stood,</i> <i>and see the large building blocks
that could paint a better picture</i> <i>of the famous giants
who once lived here...</i> <i>at the ancient city of Gath.</i> <i>So, we are in the Shephelah area.</i> This is the entrance
to the lowlands of Judea, <i>the low hills,</i> <i>and it's just a gorgeous area.</i> It gives us a little context
of what they were all fighting about, not just Philistines and Israelites
but this beautiful land. ♪ (music) ♪ (Rhoda) <i>Look how green it is.
It's just so beautiful, isn't it?</i> Especially that it's
in the middle of August and it's so green. ♪ (music) ♪ Okay. So, this is the end
of the forest area, and now I see the hill. <i>This is the Mount of Gath.</i> <i>This is it. Wow!</i> Wow. It's right in front of us. ♪ (music) ♪ <i>We were coming here because last season
they excavated here</i> monumental, large building blocks, very unusual for the time that this Iron Age city was constructed, <i>so we want to see those for ourselves.</i> <i>See how did they contribute
to the story of Goliath.</i> <i>Could this really be the location
where Goliath is from?</i> Could this be the location
where David came to pretend to be a mad man
and scratched the gates of the city? <i>This site is really huge,
which takes up the entire mountain.</i> <i>But we were here to see only two things:</i> <i>One, the gates where potentially
David pretended to be a mad man.</i> <i>And, two, the giant building blocks
that could shed another clue</i> <i>whether this truly is a city
where giants lived.</i> - (Rhoda) <i>That's where we park.</i>
- (Sergio) <i>Awesome. All right.</i> Let's park right here, and we'll take a look
at the city of giants. Wow! Okay. Where do we go? We go right here. <i>They should have the excavations
right down here below somewhere.</i> <i>I see the river.</i> - <i>Do you see the riverbed?</i>
- Yeah, I do. - So, that's the Elah River.
- (Rhoda) <i>Wow!</i> (Sergio) <i>And it would run
right by the city gate...</i> <i>to the city of Gath.</i> - <i>There it is. There are the excavations.</i>
- (Rhoda) <i>Wow! I see it, yeah.</i> (Sergio) <i>All right? Wow.</i> Let's go take a look.
That's where the gate should be. (Rhoda) <i>This excavation site starts
by the riverbank of the Elah Stream,</i> <i>the same stream that runs
through the Elah Valley,</i> <i>the place we visited last time
where David fought Goliath.</i> There it is. Look at that. - <i>Wow.</i>
- (Rhoda) <i>Wow!</i> (Sergio) <i>So, this would be Gath.</i> Can you imagine, these are the gates
to the city of Gath from the water, from the riverside. - Wow!
- The river flows here in the winter. There are footages of actual river here
in the spring and the wintertime. - I bet it's beautiful.
- Yeah. And then, that would be the city gate... <i>to the city of Gath.</i> - (Rhoda) <i>Wow!</i>
- Let's go take a look. ♪ (music) ♪ (Rhoda) <i>Wow.</i> (Sergio) <i>Wow!
This place is so significant.</i> <i>Think about it.
1 Samuel 21 mentions it.</i> When David was seeking refuge,
he was running away from Saul, and he comes to Gath,
and the king of Gath sees David. And the King's servant
looks at David and says: Isn't this the guy of whom it's said that Saul slain his thousands
and David his tens of thousands? And, David gets a bit scared,
and he plays a mad man. He starts drooling, it says.
His saliva goes down. And then he climbs
on the gate of the city, and he scratches the gate. Well, this is the gate of the city. <i>Isn't that mind-blowing?
This could have happened right here.</i> <i>There could have been
more gates to the city.</i> <i>And I know they said there is another one.</i> This might not be the main one. But we know it's in this area. This is Gath, and where they
found one of the gates. <i>That is just absolutely mind-blowing.</i> <i>Now, we can mentally picture
David being here,</i> <i>going over to the gate and scratching it</i> <i>so they would not kill him.</i> Unbelievable. <i>Even though this site is covered
with a white covering</i> <i>to protect it from the weather elements,</i> <i>we could see the rocks
peeking from underneath</i> <i>and even find a clay shard
with a drawing on it</i> <i>that seems very similar to the one
we saw at the Philistine Museum.</i> <i>If so, this find could be
over 3,000 years old.</i> It has a picture on it! (Sergio) <i>Wow! That is Philistine!</i> <i>Unfortunately, we could not keep it</i> <i>and must place it back
exactly where we found it.</i> (Rhoda) <i>Right here.</i> All right. Let's continue on the riverbed
to the next section where we can find Goliaths,
the giant stones, and the city. <i>Just a few feet away,</i> <i>archaeologists excavated
another section of this ancient city.</i> <i>We want to walk there
and see the large boulders</i> <i>that could be a visual clue
to the existence</i> <i>of the tall people that once lived here.</i> (Rhoda) <i>Wow! Look how green it is, babe.</i> - (Sergio) <i>Yeah, it is right?</i>
- It's so green down here. (Sergio) <i>Wow! It's like the water
runs here in the spring</i> - <i>and in the wintertime.</i>
- (Rhoda) <i>Mm-hmm.</i> <i>It's kind of mind-boggling
thinking that David</i> <i>once crossed this area, too,
as he was coming to Gath.</i> Yes, to seek the refuge. <i>Wow, babe. Look!</i> - Whoa!
- Look how big! My goodness! - Wow!
- (Rhoda) <i>Aren't these impressive?</i> (Sergio) <i>Oh, my gosh! I did not
expect to see anything like that!</i> (Rhoda) <i>Those are giant rocks.</i> (Sergio) <i>They have not shown this
in the excavation pictures.</i> <i>This is incredible!</i> Oh, look.
This one even looks chiseled. Look at it. Square. Chiseled, big boulders. That's incredible. (Rhoda) <i>Even though we can see
large stones like these</i> <i>used in the Roman architecture,</i> <i>this place predates the Romans
by a thousand years.</i> <i>It is rare to see this type of brick
be used in pre-Roman times.</i> This is the time of Goliath, David, Saul. It's just not something you expect to see
from that time of a village. (Rhoda) <i>According to the director
of excavations, Professor Aren Maeir,</i> <i>the monumental architecture found here
is of much larger dimensions</i> <i>than almost anything found
in the Levant during this era.</i> Okay. So, this was kind of
the edge of the city by the riverbank. There is more excavation at the top, and I've seen the picture
of archaeologists showing two streets, two different size of rocks, really good comparison pictures
between what a city should look like and then what Gath looked like
with giant boulders. Let's go take a look. ♪ (music) ♪ Ah, be careful. (Rhoda) <i>This way?</i> (Sergio) <i>Wow! There it is.</i> Wow! - <i>Big section that is opened here.</i>
- (Sergio) <i>Very big. That's so cool.</i> Wow. (Rhoda) <i>It's so great how green this is.</i> This is so cool. You can clearly see
the smaller rocks that are usual for this
Iron Age construction during the time of Goliath and David. And then you see those giant boulders,
much, much larger. What are they doing here? And this is a fortification.
This is a wall. <i>They are much larger.</i> <i>That's incredible!</i> <i>I have never seen
a fortification wall this big</i> with these giant boulders from that time. That's exceptional. <i>Like at the other section,</i> <i>the stones are covered with a white layer</i> <i>to protect them from the weather elements.</i> <i>However, the archaeological records
reveal even a better picture</i> <i>of how much larger the stones were
at the time Goliath lived here.</i> So, how big was Goliath exactly? That's an interesting question <i>because the Bible says
he was "six cubits and a span,"</i> <i>which is roughly about 9' tall,
slightly under that.</i> However, the Septuagint
and the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscript-- one of them-- says that Goliath
was four cubits tall, which would give him my height
and the same height as Saul. But, there is a problem with that theory. <i>If Goliath was the same height
as most of the people,</i> <i>how could he carry 125-pound armor?</i> <i>And how could he lift a spear
that is the size of a weaver's beam?</i> <i>And why would the Israelites
be so afraid of him?</i> <i>There is a great article written
by Dr. William D. Barrick</i> <i>who explains that the Dead Sea Scroll
document that reads four cubits</i> <i>was actually a deliberate alteration
from the original,</i> <i>most likely because
the scribe of the Qumran cult</i> <i>doubted the validity of this account</i> <i>and, thus, changed the original size
of Goliath to something smaller</i> <i>to make it more believable.</i> <i>But, here's the problem with that.</i> Why would the Israelites
be afraid of Goliath if he was only four cubit tall,
if he was the same height as Saul? If he was like any other regular guy,
that would make no sense of the story. How could he carry this giant
armor coat of mail from bronze, so heavy that it weighs like 125 pounds? How could he do that
if he was just a regular guy? <i>Many have tried to disprove the Bible</i> <i>or say the accounts
are just stories and myths...</i> <i>but nothing could be farther
from the truth</i> <i>as history, science, and archaeology
all confirm the biblical accounts.</i> <i>Even Goliath.</i> <i>There's nothing unbelievable
about Goliath's height.</i> <i>Because, even today, we have
people who are exceptionally tall.</i> If you Google
"the tallest man in the world," you'll find out
that his height is like 8'11". That is a very tall guy. <i>Sultan Kösen of Turkey is almost 8'3".</i> <i>That's practically the same as Goliath,</i> <i>an unbelievable height.</i> <i>And there are many others like him
who are even taller than Goliath.</i> <i>The only difference is that these people
have a disease which makes them tall,</i> <i>but this disease also makes them crippled
and might even causes vision problems.</i> <i>And, because of this, some assume
that Goliath had also the same disease,</i> <i>which gave him very bad vision
and made him practically blind.</i> <i>But, again, nothing could
be farther from the truth.</i> <i>All evidence points to the fact</i> <i>that Goliath was naturally
a very tall person</i> <i>and that he was very fit.</i> <i>In fact, Saul said
that he was a warrior from youth.</i> <i>He was very strong,
and everyone trembled before him.</i> <i>And, so, if there is
a guy like this today,</i> why not at the time of David? One that's actually full-strength, lots of muscle,
could carry a heavy weight, and was a great champion,
was a great warrior. Everything about that account checks out. No doubts. (Rhoda) <i>Wow. I can't imagine
this place being a huge city</i> because you look around,
and you really can't see it. But, now, we are closer
to the excavations, and you see a huge excavation here, some there, some further. But, if you connect it all together, it's over a vast amount of land. This was a big place. And if you say there's another part
on the top of the hill, then they occupied the whole mountain. That's a lot! <i>Today, we have seen
only two parts of Gath.</i> <i>In reality, this place is huge,</i> <i>and the excavations reveal
that it was of a monumental size...</i> <i>over 120 acres.</i> <i>That's larger than Jerusalem at its peak.</i> <i>It is just amazing</i> <i>how all these places we visit,
over and over again,</i> are mentioned in the Bible, they are found, they have confirmations
that these were the places. Yeah. This is very, very cool. (Rhoda) <i>The ancient city of Gath
was an immense stronghold</i> <i>with large walls, big fortifications,</i> <i>and a few giant warriors.</i> <i>This could explain why the Israelites
were so afraid of them.</i> <i>And this also confirms
the accounts written in the Bible.</i> For me, it elevates
the Word of God even higher, and I think that's just amazing. Yeah. <i>All right, guys.
We hope you enjoy this episode,</i> and we hope to see you next time
as we explore Ashkelon, the ancient Philistine city of Ashkelon. - Till next time.
- Bye. (birds squawking)
