King David's Tomb: Part 2 - Which Is The Correct Tomb?

So this is Jerusalem's western hill. On top of it is the tomb of King David. This is Jerusalem's eastern hill where in 1914 Raymond Weil discovered the tomb of King David. One King David in history but in Jerusalem two tombs for King David. How is it that Raymond Weil himself who once was a famous archaeologist and this discovery of this tomb, these tombs, which was his most famous discovery, how have these become forgotten? Now the one on the western hill is where the Jews worship today. It's where the tourists visit today. And why does hardly anyone visit the area in the city of David where the Bible says the tombs of the house of David are? Why doesn't anybody visit them? So in part one we looked at the discovery of Raymond Weil. In part two here we want to consider what the New Testament has to say about King David's tomb. And then I really want you to stick around for the end of this video because we're going to look at another really significant discovery that Raymond Weil made while he was doing his excavations in the city of David. In this area is a sign that the park service put up to give information. And so we'll use this information on this sign kind of to guide us. The sign says medieval traditions assigned the site of David's tomb to Mount Zion, meaning the western hill. So it was a medieval tradition that started the understanding that King David's tomb is actually up on the western hill. So what is it talking about specifically? What is this medieval tradition? Well in 1165, AD 1165, there was a Jewish traveler traveling to Jerusalem. His name was Benjamin and he heard this story from a rabbi, this tradition that they're referring to, and he wrote it down. And so in his book he writes this. He's talking about two workers that were doing work in this area up on the western hill, believed to be Mount Zion at that time. He says this, they entered the cave and reached a large chamber resting upon pillars of marble overlaid with silver and gold. In front was a table of gold and a scepter and a crown. This was the sepulcher of King David. On the left thereof, in like fashion, was a sepulcher of King Solomon. Then followed the sepulchers of all the kings of Judah that were buried there. So this story of course has a lot of the markers of being fanciful, being made up. However it's not because of the story itself that I don't believe in the tradition of the western hill tomb being King David's authentic tomb. The reason I don't believe that that is the tomb of King David is because of the Bible. It's not where the Bible says that the kings from the house of David were buried. Okay so what we have here between these two tombs is very simple. We have two traditions. One is biblical and the other one is medieval. If you find two ancient texts that contradict each other then what you're looking for is which one is the older. And the one that is the older is the one that's considered the most reliable. And archaeology works the same way. If you have two tombs of David then you look at which one is older, which one has been believed for a longer period of time to be David's tomb. It's pretty straightforward. It's pretty clear that we should follow the biblical record, the ancient biblical record, rather than this medieval tradition, this medieval story. So the sign also says, whilst theory was accepted for many years, an example of this is Benjamin Mazar, one of the father figures of Israeli archaeology. And he wrote this famous book. He did his excavations around the real Mount Zion, right, the Temple Mount. And so in this famous book of his called The Mountain of the Lord, he shows the real Mount Zion, the Temple Mount on the southern side where he excavated. So that's the cover of his book. On the back of his book are these tombs from the house of David that Weill discovered. And this one, the monumental one, most probable tomb to be King David's. And so we have an example of how this interpretation was accepted for many years in scholarship. But then afterwards, in the 1960s, the city of David was excavated by Kathleen Kenyon. So as so often is the case, we have the earlier interpretations in biblical archaeology being more biblical in their interpretation because the early scholars believed in the Bible and used it as a historical source to interpret their archaeology. But then, as time went on, the field became more and more secular. And so oftentimes, later archaeologists reinterpret and overturn the interpretations of the earlier archaeologists that are based on the Bible. That's exactly what happened in this situation. In the 1960s, Kenyon comes along. She has to give, if these aren't tombs, then she has to give her interpretation of what they are. And so she writes in her book, Digging Up Jerusalem, the following quote. She says, the controversial point is the cuttings that Weill identified as the royal tombs of the house of David. The biblical evidence that David and his heirs were buried in Jerusalem has stimulated many searches and fanciful identifications, including that of the so-called tomb of David shown to tourists today. The particular cuttings revealed by Weill were certainly unusual, consisting of two rock-cut tunnels side by side. They are not like any observed cisterns, though the plaster that covers the rock shows that they were at some stage used as cisterns. You have here bedrock in this area, right? So if you're going to make a cistern, which its purpose is to hold water, then you're going to make your opening of where you carve out the rock from the top. And you're going to make some kind of a vertical-type shaft, its purpose to hold water. Like this, that's got some other purpose. If its purpose is a cistern to hold water, then the last thing you're going to do is put your opening, as it is with these chambers that Weill found, down here at the bottom. How would that hold water? Why would you design a bucket to hold water and design a hole in the bottom of it? All I have to do is take people in. When I have a group there, I take people into tomb one, and we stand in tomb one. I read this interpretation, and the group always laughs. And the reason why is because this interpretation is absurd. They are not like any observed cisterns, though they were used as cisterns. The other thing to notice is that she says that in her day, the tourists are visiting the tomb that Weill discovered as David's tomb. Shown to tourists today. This is where the tourists used to come. They used to come here, where the Bible says that David and his offspring are buried. So the other thing that Raymond Weill found in his excavations in this area was he found pieces of a building, fancy building. It had carved pieces that he found, parts of pillars he also found, and most importantly, he found the dedicatory inscription from this building, which identified it as a synagogue. You can see the original inscription in the Israel Museum today. There's a replica of it in the place where the discovery was made. This is called the Theodotus inscription. It says this, Theodotus, head of a synagogue, son of a head of a synagogue, and grandson of a head of a synagogue, built this synagogue for the reading of the Torah. This dates to the first century B.C., so we know even generationally before the first century B.C., there is a synagogue in this area of the tombs of the house of David. What better place for a synagogue to be than next to the tomb of King David? So think about that. That means that Jews are coming to the synagogue right next to King David's tomb, and they are hearing their scriptures read to them publicly, and so one of the scriptures that they would have been read is the Psalm of David, Psalm 16, and so they would have known that David wasn't talking about himself when he was talking about this one who would come that would not decay in the grave. He couldn't have been talking about himself because he's buried in that tomb right next to the synagogue. That's where he decayed in the grave. That's where his bones are, and this in A.D. 33 is what Peter is using as he's giving his sermon to this crowd of Jews that is gathered at Pentecost, and so he says this in Acts 2 25 through 31, David said about him, and now he's going to quote Psalm 16, Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. You will not let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life. So now Peter's going to use Psalm 16. Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day, and here's the interpretation of what David meant. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. So they knew that David decayed in his grave, but that he also prophesied about a coming, the coming Messiah, the son of David who would come, who would die, who would be placed in the tomb, but would not decay in the tomb, but would know the path of life. And so Peter is saying, you know what happened to Jesus, that he was nailed to the cross, that he was buried in this tomb. You know David's tomb, where his bones are. This other tomb, you know about the rumors that it was, there was a resurrection, and that it's empty. This is the Messiah. This is the one that David was talking about, that wouldn't decay in the grave. We are witnesses. He has risen from the dead, and it says that the crowd was, they were pierced to their hearts, cut to the heart, and they, 3,000 of them came to believe in Jesus as their Messiah, because God made the evidence so strong that this is the one that David spoke about. So if you ever travel to Jerusalem, make sure you go to the right tomb of King David, and not the wrong one. I hope that this video was of some value to you. Make sure that you saw part one of this video. If not, we have many other videos that you can watch that are similar to this one, and I hope that they help you, and we'll see you in the next video.