House of David: A Theologian's Analysis: Introduction and Cosmic Geography

Whats Fact, Speculation, Fiction (But still fun!)

I sat down with my family of six over the weekend to watch the new House of David series on Amazon Prime. I'll be honest—I was seriously skeptical at first. I love the Biblical story and I love good art and film. The last major renditions of Biblical stories on the big screen were either so far out there that they made my theological brain hurt, or they were so boring, tired, and typical that they froze my creative brain in a state of hibernation. But some friends said this one would be different. And my kids are savage when it comes to determining the quality of something. So we all sat down—me, my three sons, my five-year-old daughter, and my wife.

Not five minutes into the show, the questions started coming my way. They all began with, "But Dad..."

"Was Goliath really that tall?" "Were there giants actually in the Bible?" "What is going on with David's mother?" "Who is the Gandalf-like guy half-naked on a mountain?"

On and on this went. Then I realized: if my kids had all these questions, maybe others did as well. So I wanted to create a series on the House of David, where there's a conversation with a theologian on all things fact, speculation, and fiction in the series. I've got episodes releasing on my Humble Theology YouTube channel that you can subscribe to and check out. But I also wanted to provide a place to dump my research and more theological thoughts, and Substack seemed like the perfect platform.

I'll cover two episodes at a time and try to highlight the most intriguing elements. For the first two episodes, I want to:

• Explore the concept of Cosmic Geography as the backdrop to the conflict between David, Goliath, and the Philistines

• Determine how tall Goliath actually was

• Work through the mystery that is David's mother

• Bonus: Nerd out on the fact that they showed an ancient "Stele" on the mountaintop that Saul created to commemorate his own glory

Now, this is a lot of content so these will be broken down into individual articles. Let’s start with cosmic geography.

Cosmic Geography: The Backdrop to the David vs. Goliath Conflict

There's an epic opening scene in episode one where David steps onto the battlefield and sees the enormous Goliath before him. David whispers a profound theological prayer, asking that Yahweh would grant him the land they're standing on. Why is this prayer so important? Because David is embarking on a quest to finish what Joshua started in the Old Testament conquest of Canaan. It's about cosmic geography. To make sense of this prayer, we need to examine two passages in the Old Testament (Genesis 11 and Deuteronomy 32:8-9) that put cosmic geography on display.

The tension behind cosmic geography deals with the story of the Tower of Babel and what took place afterward, as noted in Deuteronomy 32:8-9. We remember that at the Tower of Babel, the nations of the world gathered in rebellion to build a temple tower (ziggurat) to reach into the heavens and try to force God to come down. In their hubris, they experienced humiliation as God confused their tongues by removing the one language that unified them. The tribes regathered by nationality and dispersed throughout the world. This is the origin story of the nations. But another event was taking place in the cosmic realm as this earthly consequence unfolded.

Deuteronomy 32:8-9 tells us that God handed over the nations of the world to the "sons of _____" as stewards. Jacob (Israel), however, was kept by the Lord. This raises an important question: Who did Yahweh hand the nations over to? A cursory look at various Bible translations offers two options:

1. The sons of Israel (humans)

2. The sons of God (divine beings)

The Masoretic text (Hebrew Bible) has "sons of Israel." However, curiously, the Septuagint (LXX) has "angels (sons) of God." Scholars have been trying to resolve this discrepancy because of its importance to the interpretation. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, they affirmed the LXX translation of "sons of God."

The highlighted text in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QDeutJ) confirms the LXX reading. The Greek text reads "angels of God."

Modern Bible translations must make a decision based on the evidence. Most updated translations today (ESV, NLT) opt for the Dead Sea Scrolls/LXX reading of "sons of God" (angels of God). Translations that choose "sons of Israel" typically include a footnote acknowledging that the Dead Sea Scrolls and LXX have "sons of God."

So which reading is correct? Based on the coherence of the language, early manuscript evidence, and the flow of the biblical narrative, I believe "sons of God" is clearly the better option. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Hebrew phrase "bene elohim" often refers to angelic beings.¹

The implications of this are massive. Deuteronomy 32:8-9, when read in light of the Tower of Babel incident, becomes the origin story of the gods of the nations. This is the seedbed of national conflict—the chaotic reality behind the constant turmoil between Israel and the nations of the world (and their gods!).

The "sons of God" eventually corrupted their role of stewardship into outright rebellion by enticing the nations to worship them. This is precisely what God warns against in Deuteronomy 4:19. The nations worshipped the sun and stars, which were connected to real spiritual beings who rebelled against God and His people.

When God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, He began the process of reclaiming His land and His people from rebellion. The stories of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and eventually David are conquest narratives rooted in cosmic geography. This explains why the nations of the world (and their gods) were determined to war against Israel and Yahweh.

Now, let's return to that scene between David and Goliath:

• David: An Israelite, a descendant of Jacob (Deut 32:9) who belongs to Yahweh

• Goliath: A Philistine warrior from Gath

• The Philistines: A national group who worshipped the god Dagon (remember the story in 1 Samuel 5:2 about the Ark of the Covenant in Dagon's temple? If not, check out my YouTube video where I unpack it)

The battle takes place in the Valley of Elah, which ran east to west between Israelite and Philistine territory.² God was expanding Israel's territory when David conquered Goliath in this valley. This is cosmic geography. This is war.

One other important detail about Goliath: How can we make sense of his massive size? Was he actually a giant? Yes, he was. We know this because Goliath was from Gath, where the giant clans of the Anakim resided (Joshua 11:21-22). The Anakim were descendants of the Nephilim. The Nephilim were the product of an unholy union between the sons of God and human women described in Genesis 6.

Mind blown yet? Yeah, mine too. And this is why House of David is so epic - David has a showdown with a descendent of the Nephilim; Goliath.

Stay tuned for the next article, where we'll talk about Genesis 6, the Nephilim, the Anakim, and finally determine how tall Goliath actually was!

1. A large portion of this research will come out in a published format in early 2026. As a subscriber to substack you will get an email when the book is available for pre-order.

2. John D. Barry et al., eds., “Elah, Valley of,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).