Ancient traditions celebrating David's triumph over Goliath face a striking contradiction: another biblical passage credits this famous victory to an obscure warrior named Elhanan. This textual puzzle, found between 1 Samuel 16-17 and 2 Samuel 21:19, opens a window into deeper questions about biblical historicity, narrative construction, and theological meaning. Through traditional exegesis, literary criticism, source criticism, and textual analysis, multiple layers of complexity emerge in the David-Goliath narrative, including inconsistencies in David's introduction to Saul's court and his prior combat experience. Comparative analysis of Hebrew and Greek textual variants, combined with archaeological evidence of ancient combat practices, reveals that while the described weaponry and individual combat align with known historical contexts, the narrative contains deliberately preserved contradictions. The Septuagint's textual variations suggest originally independent source traditions, pointing toward careful editorial choices rather than scribal errors. These apparent contradictions, rather than undermining religious meaning, illuminate how biblical truth transcends mere historical factuality. The narrative complexities embody faith communities' ongoing struggle to understand divine presence in history while acknowledging the limitations of human knowledge and textual transmission.