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Archaeology Verifies the Bible as God's Word
King David Was for Real!
Chapter 5
Every possible effort has been
made by the minimalists to fictionalize King David. Why? Once he
is proven to have been a reality of history, then the history of
the Jewish nation, Israel, ruled by David’s descendants
automatically follows as an historic fact. The archaeological
spade has transformed the claim of Palestinian roots from the
realm of possible history to complete fantasy. King David was
for real!
In 1993 archaeologists discovered
the names of “David” and “Israel” in an inscription carved in
stone only 100 years after David’s death. The Biblical
Archaeology Review, March/April 1994, p. 26, reports:
It’s not often that an
archaeological find makes the front page of the New York
Times (to say nothing of Time magazine). But that is
what happened last summer at Tel Dan, a beautiful mound in
northern Galilee.
There Avraham Biran and his team
of archaeologists found a remarkable inscription from the ninth
century B.C.E. that referred both to the ‘house of David’ and to
the ‘king of Israel.’ This is the first time that the name David
had been found in any ancient inscription outside the Bible.
Later another scholar found the
name “house of David” in the inscriptions of the famous Moabite
Stone, dated about 100 years after David’s reign. It has been
observed that it is hard to understand how David’s name could
appear in ancient historical records if he were nothing but a
legend.
In honor of Jerusalem Day 2007,
archaeologists revealed a number of seals from the time of the
Biblical Kings David and Solomon. The seals, along with other
recently uncovered artifacts, were displayed for the first time
marking forty years since the liberation and unification of
Jerusalem by the modern State of Israel.
These artifacts reveal that the
City of David, ancient Jerusalem, was a commercial and trading
center during King David’s and King Solomon’s reigns—even having
a postal system. Agnostic scholars have claimed that if there
were a City of David in that time frame, it was a “Sleepy
Hollow.” How wrong they are!
King David’s Palace
For decades, and despite much
effort by scholars and archaeologists, the location of King
David’s palace has remained a mystery. But recent discoveries by
the eminent archaeologist, Dr. Eilat Mazar, the granddaughter
of the renowned archaeologist the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar, has
unveiled convincing evidence that pinpoints its exact location.
In 2004 the writer had a meeting
with Dr. Eilat Mazar concerning the extensive destruction of
Jewish antiquities by the Palestinians on the Temple Mount. At
that time she said she “knew the location of King David’s
palace.”
Why was she so certain? Her most
noted saying was, “I excavate with the Bible in one hand.” Then
in 2005 she found King David’s palace exactly where she
Biblically expected. Thrilling! Bible history was again
vindicated!
King Hiram of the Phoenicians
offered to build King David a palace fit for an emperor (2
Samuel 5:11; 1 Chronicles 14:1). Just as Biblically described,
Mazar found the trademark of Phoenician builders—cedars of
Lebanon and their distinct style of stone masonry.
Mazar said, “One of the reasons
researchers were at a loss in finding this important place was
they assumed that King David built his home in the safest, best
protected part of the city, inside the [former] Jebusite city
walls.” However, this was not the case.
“One of the main clues in finding
King David’s palace,” says Mazar, “was surprisingly from the
Bible itself.” [2 Samuel 5:17 states that] “When the Philistines
heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went
up in full force to search for him, but David heard about it and
went down [from his palace] to the citadel.”
The Philistines suffered defeat
by King David’s forces. How? The Bible is careful to indicate
that the palace was located above the citadel or walled city of
ancient Jerusalem. Mazar observed,
The Bible would not have said
‘went down’ unless David indeed did go from his palace,
down the slopes of the Ophel mountain, to the citadel.
Consequently, his palace must have been located north of the
city, not in the center of it.
The Philistine invasion took
place after the completion of David’s new palace, but before the
northern fortifications were sufficiently finished. Therefore,
King David, who was already living in his new residence, which
was not yet strong enough to withstand a major assault from the
north, regrouped south of his palace in the old Jebusite
fortress city, the ancient Jerusalem, that he had previously
captured.
This biblical account of King
David’s war with the Philistines proved to Dr. Mazar that
David’s palace was north of the ancient walled city of
Jerusalem. As Mazar viewed the grandiose complexity of this
early Israelite building that marked it an unprecedented
monumental edifice, Mazar exclaimed, “This can only be King
David’s royal palace.”
She observed, “This area was not
only available, but also desirable. It was protected on the
south by the citadel and the old city, and on the east and west
by the deep slopes of the Kidron and Tyropoeon Valleys.”
Later, 1 Samuel 5:9 tells of the
construction of formidable fortifications which were completed
to the north by David’s heir, King Solomon. |
