Champion
(, gibbor’, 1Sa 17:51; elsewhere “mighty man”). The Hebrews phrase , ish hab-bena yim, rendered “champion” in 1Sa 17:4; 1Sa 17:23, literally signifies a man between the two, that is, a go-between, an arbiter, or one who offers a challenge, and appropriately denotes the position of Goliath when he stood up between the Hebrew and Philistine armies. Single combats at the head of armies were not unusual in ancient times, and in many cases it was a condition that the result should determine the national quarrel. An example of this kind is the combat between Paris and Menelaus, described by Homer. A similar practice obtains in the present day among the Bedouin Arabs. SEE SINGLE COMBAT.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Champion
(1 Sam. 17:4, 23), properly “the man between the two,” denoting the position of Goliath between the two camps. Single combats of this kind at the head of armies were common in ancient times. In ver. 51 this word is the rendering of a different Hebrew word, and properly denotes “a mighty man.”
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Champion
champi-un (, ‘sh habenayim): In 1Sa 17:4, 1Sa 17:23 this unusual expression occurs in the description of Goliath. It means literally the man of the two spaces, spaces, or space between, and is perhaps to be explained by the fact that there was a brook flowing through the valley separating the two armies. In 1Sa 17:51 the word champion is the rendering of the Hebrew gibbor, mighty man.