Comments by "Scented-leaf Pelargonium" (@scented-leafpelargonium3366) on "Thoughty2"
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He had a rare disease, so it's not a competition. The medical condition is acromegaly, commonly known as giantism, and I know two people where I live in Northern Ireland who control it by medication. Ireland has a history of folklore stories of giants, which must be this same genetic condition described by previous generations.
As for the dimensions of Goliath from the Bible, it nowhere says he was the "tallest man that ever lived", but the Hebrew word for "giant" is "ANAK" which means huge, large, enormous, and the Anakim were a group of people whom the Israelites had difficulty in battling against due to their Hebrew description of them being a huge people, in stature, not numerically speaking.
The Bible also records the mating between the "sons of God" (usually assumed to be angels) and the "daughters of men" (ordinary human women) which may have resulted in these "giant" genes being so prevalent in the early Biblical era. Whether Goliath was the tallest of them is a matter of conjecture, but his Hebrew name "GOLIAT" is related to the Hebrew word for "skull" (GOLGOLET), from where also the name "Gologotha" comes from where Jesus died.
Goliath died from a wound to the skull by David's sling, and as a giant he would have had a big skull/head compared to normal-sized humans. But it is not always a blessing to be so big, and many people with giantism had severe health problems or died prematurely until the onset of modern medicine. As Goliath found out to his detriment, sometimes the taller you are, the harder you fall. I do think Bible readers do sometimes embellish the written accounts to present the more perfect or outstanding person/story for effect, as if to promote their faith more, so rather than just accept that Goliath was a giant, they have to try to claim that he was the tallest one.
A more honest approach would not to make unproven sweeping statements or try to present "facts" which have no basis in reality, or in the actual text in the Bible, particularly I find in the original Hebrew, which gives more direct descriptions than that of poorer English translations.
Basically Christians will never let anything out-do the Bible, so peddling untruths is preferred to them losing face in any way, and so the likes of Goliath have to be the biggest ever, rather than just go by the Biblical text. This common approach troubles me a lot, more than giantism.
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@fesswah I am very sorry for conflating the two. I am not a medical expert, but only commented on the two cases that I knew personally. My nephew has had gigantism since an infant which is what my aunt always described it as, but my other good friend told me she had acromegaly which affected her pituitary gland for which she takes medication and has had operations on her brain, but she described herself as one of the last giants of Ireland (now that it is more commonly controlled by medical treatments nowadays).
I should not have described the two cases together but should have been more specific in pointing out the differences in my reply. My apologies for my grave error. You are indeed 100% right and I am fully wrong. It did make me wonder though which it was that Goliath might have had?
I perhaps should not have commented at all, as I have my own chronic terminal condition to deal with, and it would be better for me to get some rest rather than reply to these columns, as I know people can get upset easily, and I did not wish to pick any argument or cause offence by my response. I am better at being a patient than having knowledge of medical conditions.
Strangely I end up explaining my disease to doctors who haven't heard of it, and which also means no societies for support or help, the cancer charities not recognising it as their lot, even though I have had double the chemo of most cancer patients and kidney dialysis for 5 years, so some people do exist who are ignorant of certain diseases, just as I have shown myself to be concerning the two separate conditions that you pointed out in your reply. I do feel stupid. 🙃
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