In the footsteps of David

Generally, the further back in time the harder it is to prove that something has happened. We regularly report in Evangelicals Now on archaeological discoveries that confirm the historical reliability of the Bible. But there is the problem that the further back we go, the less material evidence we have. It’s inevitable. Corrosion, erosion, weathering and vandalism all play a part in eradicating the past.

What evidence is there for the period of ancient Israel’s monarchies: for Saul, David and Solomon? In particular, David became the great warrior, musician, poet and king who unifies the tribes of Israel and establishes Jerusalem as its capital. Can we prove the existence and significance of David in antiquity?

Myth and mystery

King David seems an obvious candidate for the realms of myth and legend. Scholar Thomas L. Thompson wrote: “David is no more a historical figure than King Arthur.” Thompson, in his predictably named The Mythic Past, followed a liberal scholarly consensus that the stories about King David reflect much later storytelling about Israel’s past with fictional tales to explain their origins. Did King Arthur exist? While there may have been a figure of the distant past who inspired the later mediaeval legends, the stories themselves are pure invention. Could the same be said of David?

Before the 1990s such scepticism was commonplace in Western liberal scholarship, but as time has gone by, growing knowledge of the archaeological world of that time has given more and more reason to take the reliability of the accounts of David seriously. Ongoing excavations in Jerusalem and fragments of texts from the region continue to build a picture that places King David clearly in the realm of history.

Written in the stones

Here are five compelling pieces of evidence.

1. The Moabite Stone. This standing stone was discovered in the 1860s. It’s sometimes called the Mesha Stone. Dating to 840 BC it records the King of Moab’s perspective on events recorded in 2 Kings 3v 4-27 – making reference to Israel, the House of Omri and the God Yahweh. However, there was a squabble over ownership when it was discovered which led to some of the local Bedouin breaking it to pieces. Thankfully a papier-mâché impression had already been taken of the text and the pieces were reassembled so that most of the inscription could still be read. However, one badly damaged piece has a text that most scholars agree gives a reference to a town of “David” in the kingdom of Judah.

2. The Tel Dan Stele. Another standing stone bearing an important inscription once stood in the northern Israelite town of Dan. Erected by enemies of Israel it was a boast in Aramaic by the King of Aram-Damascus to have conquered Israel (2 Kings 12v17-18). It was obviously an idle boast as the stone was quickly destroyed and used in Israelite rebuilding work. Discovered by archaeologists in 1993 the two remaining fragments had been used in building work that helped to give them a latest possible date c.800 BC. The triumphant boasts of the King was to have defeated the King of Israel and the “House of David”. This is a reference to the dynasty of King David. As a geographical reference to the southern region it demonstrates that within a generation David was being acknowledged as the founder of a kingdom there.

3. Khirbet Qeiyafa. This uninhabited ruin mound would have guarded the route from the land of the Philistines into the hill country and Jerusalem. It was fortified in the tenth century BC and shows clear evidence of Jewish settlement (such as an absence of the pig bones commonly found elsewhere). The archaeological team have published extensively on what they have found, pinpointing the date of its use as a fortress to 1,000–975 BC. The existence of a fortified city at this location fits well with the Biblical account of King David unifying the kingdom at this time, and some of the architecture reflects a Jerusalem influence.

4. City of David excavations. Called the “Ophel”, this is the original hill on which a city once called Jebus had stood. As a reference to the hill of Jerusalem, “Ophel” is a word used in the Bible (2 Chron. 27v3) and on the Moabite Stone. What has been found dating around 1,000 BC includes a large stone structure which archaeologist Eilat Mazar proposes could have been David’s palace. There is a huge, stepped stone terrace in keeping with what we read in the Bible. The archaeology provides evidence of a transition from a simpler Jebusite town to an important capital around 1,000 BC. Even a secret water course claimed to be the means by which David’s men captured the city has been extensively explored (2 Sam.5v8). The Bible descriptions do fit with what we are now discovering from this period.

5. Heights of David inscription. Scholar Kenneth Kitchen identified a plausible reference to David among the Egyptian inscriptions. Pharaoh Shishak invaded Judah in 925 BC and recorded his campaign at the Temple of Karnak. The inscription refers to the “heights of Davit”, but there was no candidate for a Davit in Judah. However, Kenneth Kitchen noted a much later Ethiopian reference to King David which spells his name Davit. The reference is part of a larger military campaign of Shishak which refers to many places we know in geographical order. The heights of “Davit” occur in the place where we would expect Jerusalem to be.

Archaeology will always be a work in progress. Mistakes are made. Fakes are found. But overall there is progress. As these evidences indicate, there is more and more reason to take King David seriously, and less reason to dismiss him as myth!