A champion is a man who steps out to fight between two battle lines. He represents one army.1 Instead of lots of men being killed, if a champion was defeated, his army would accept his defeat as the outcome of the battle. This practice, likely inherited from the Greek world,2 was an attempt to limit bloodshed. The outcome, however, was rarely accepted in practice (see 1 Samuel 17:51–52; 2 Samuel 2:12–17).3
4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.