King David- The Top Ten Archaeological Discoveries: Digging for Truth Episode 142

Welcome to Digging for Truth. I'm Scott Lancer, the Director of Associates for Biblical Research. Today I have the great privilege of interviewing ABR staff researcher and writer Brian Wendell concerning the top 10 archaeological discoveries related to Israel's King David. Brian is the pastor of Island Bible Chapel in beautiful Ontario, Canada, and it's a joy to have this conversation with Brian today. Welcome, Brian. Thanks, Scott. It is an honor to be a colleague with you at ABR and certainly a joy to come and speak about archaeology, so thanks for having me. Sure thing. Well, Brian, let's jump right in here because David is obviously a paramount historical figure in the Bible, and most of our viewers probably would have heard over the years of this discovery or that discovery related to David, but we have the privilege today of rolling through the top 10 archaeological discoveries. As you have aligned them or assigned them in that order, these are choices you've made, but Brian, I think everyone's going to really enjoy this time together as we talk about David. So let's begin. Just some opening comments from you about our task today. Yeah, one of the things I love about top 10 lists is that we can all look at it and go, well, I would have put mine here, or I would have moved this one, and that's part of the fun of lists, and plus I think it's a good way to do an overview of the finds that are related to a particular big biblical figure, and David, you've mentioned, is a key figure in scripture, and he's also a very controversial figure in the world of biblical archaeology. There are people who are sometimes called Bible minimalists, who believe that the Bible is of minimal value historically, who have questioned the biblical description of David as a great king over a dynasty. Some would even go so far as to question David's existence altogether. Now, for example, University of Sheffield professor Dr. Philip Davies has said, I'm not the only scholar who suspects the figure of King David is about as historical as King Arthur, and of course, Israel Finkelstein has characterized the kingdom of David as really nothing more than 500 people with sticks shouting and cursing and yelling, and so that just stands in very stark contrast to the description in scripture of David, who had a great kingdom that covered parts of modern day Israel and Syria and Lebanon and Turkey and Jordan. Remember when David took his census to find out the number of fighting men in the kingdom, and that number came to 800,000 and took more than nine months to do, and so I've put together this top 10 list to try and show the historical reliability of the narrative of David in scripture. Yes, very, very good. Well, it is appropriate for us at number 10 to begin with slingshots, because everyone's familiar with David and Goliath and his slingshot and his three smooth stones. Brian, let's get right to this. Why are slingshots important in this top 10 list? Well, you're right. I mean, the story of David and Goliath, we probably, even though David was a great king, the image that probably comes first to mind for many people is the image of David with a sling. Now, we should note that slings were different in antiquity than they are today. I mean, when I was a kid, we used to find a Y-shaped stick, and we would put a piece of rubber band, and we would shoot stones through it. But in antiquity, they were very different. Biblical weapons expert Dr. Boyd Seaver describes them as a simple strap, about three feet in length, one inch thick, often made with, sometimes made with two cords, with a pouch in the middle, and you would hold with a loop on one end that you would put on your finger, and something, a knot on the other end to hold, and you would swing it that way. And there are different techniques that you could use. In fact, several ancient slings have been discovered. Within King Tut's tomb, for example, two of his slings were found, and they're, of course, in the museum today. Slingshots, by the way, were really formidable weapons in the ancient world. Ancient texts suggest that slingers could throw a projectile up to 400 yards accurately with it. And of course, people who read the Bible may remember that the Bible talks about 700 men from the tribe of Benjamin who could sling a stone at a hare and not miss, we're told in Judges 2016. And so when we look at these ancient slingshots that we've found, such as in the tomb of King Tut, that helps us understand the, what slings were, and helps us understand even the advantage David might have had against Goliath. But we do remember that scripture is very clear, the battle belonged to the Lord that day. That's right. Amen. Amen. Well, let's move right along, Brian, to number nine, the Gath ostracon. Yeah, we'll continue with the story of David and Goliath. In 2005, an inscribed ostracon, an ostracon is a piece of pottery with an inscription on it. It was discovered at Telesaphe, which is the site of biblical Gath. It was dated to the time period of David and Goliath, and the inscription was written in what those scholars called proto-Canaanite script, and it contained two names. And both of these names were etymologically very, very similar to the name Goliath. And so sometimes people have called this the Goliath ostracon, but that's not really technically accurate. Aaron Mayer, who's the director of excavations at Telesaphe, Gath, has summarized the importance of this inscription. He says, first of all, the inscription demonstrates that in the 10th, 9th centuries BC, names similar to Goliath were in use at Philistine Gath. This does provide some cultural background to the David-Goliath story. And number two, obviously, that already in the Iron Age II period, the Philistines had adopted Semitic writing systems. So that was the number nine pick. Yes. Now, Brian, we only have a minute here, and we had talked about Hebron in a previous episode, but Hebron is important in this top 10 list for David. Yeah. David initially reigned as king of Judah from Hebron, while Saul's son reigned in Israel. And so Hebron is identified with Tel el-Remidi, or sometimes called Tel Hebron. And there've been a number of lamellic jar handles. Those are the famous jar handles with an inscription, lamellic means to the king, and the name of Hebron underneath it. And so we're certain that this is the site there. And in fact, excavations have unearthed sections of a middle bronze 2A wall that was used throughout the Iron I and Iron II periods. So likely a wall that David was very familiar with there. And people go, well, where was David's palace? Well, it was likely on the summit of the Tel, which unfortunately is covered by a very large medieval structure. And so there has been, it's off limits to excavations there. But while David's reign is commonly associated with Jerusalem, the first capital of Judah was actually Hebron. And so that was my pick for number eight. Very good, Brian. Excellent, excellent. Well, we've gotten through the 10, 9, and 8 in our list. And I want to thank everyone for joining us today for this exciting excursion into biblical history. And we'll be right back in just a moment to continue. In a culture of intense Bible-denying skepticism, Associates for Biblical Research exists to strengthen followers of Jesus by affirming the authority of the Bible. Our archaeological fieldwork and original research form a strong foundation in upholding the reliability of the scriptures. For students or anyone asking if they can really trust the Bible, please visit our website and partner with us by joining our prayer team or financially supporting this ministry. And thank you for standing with us. Welcome back to Digging for Truth. Today I'm here with Pastor Brian Windle. And Brian, we're so grateful to have you on today to cover a lot of ground related to King David. We're down to our number seven most important archaeological discovery regarding David. And why don't we just jump right in there? Sounds good. Well, number seven is Gesher, which is an ancient kingdom. And the site of Et Tel, which is located on the northeast shore, about a kilometer and a half, a mile and a half, rather, from the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee, is the site that's been excavated there. Now, people who read the Bible carefully will remember that David had a wife who was the daughter of Telmai, the king of Gesher. Her name was Mekah, and she bore a very famous son to David named Absalom. In fact, when Absalom murdered his brother, Absalom fled to Gesher to be with his grandfather, who was the king. And Et Tel is a site that has been excavated for many years there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It satisfies the geographic description because in scripture, Gesher and Abel Beth Mekah are both often mentioned together. And within that region, Et Tel and the site of Abel Beth Mekah are the two largest Iron Age mounds in the area, so that would make sense as well. And you can actually see the Iron Age gate from that city, which we believe is the capital city of the kingdom of Gesher. And there's a very famous monument, carved basalt stone monument, with a bull figure on it. And people believe that was probably one of the gods, maybe a moon god or a storm god, that was worshipped there. And so this is the pick for number seven. Very good. Okay, so let's keep moving on here to number six, King David's palace in Jerusalem and the large stone structure. Let's talk about that structure. This was a very important announcement and a big discovery that was made a number of years ago. David eventually became king over all Israel, of course, and he captured Jerusalem, and he built a palace for himself in Jerusalem, we're told. And from 2005 to 2007, the late Dr. Elad Mazar unearthed what is now known as the large stone structure. It's a monumental building complex that had walls that were six to eight feet wide. It was constructed of these impressive stones and included one of the most beautiful capitals ever found in that particular area, likely came from that. And pottery, of course, dated it to this particular time frame. And it certainly is within the area we would expect it to find. In fact, Elad Mazar describes how she was reading the Bible and following the descriptions of where David went down to the fortress, and that's partially what led her to excavate in the particular area. And this, of course, has not been without controversy, but our own Dr. Scott Stripling has stated that Elad Mazar's excavation of the large stone structure likely revealed David's actual palace just above the well-known step stone structure. Very good, Brian. All right, well, now we're moving into the top five, and these get even more interesting as we move along here. Number five being the Judahite cities, Kerbet Qeiyafa and Tel Eitan. Brian, what's important about these archaeological sites? Well, these are hugely important, and some people might be surprised that I would rank them above the possible palace of King David, but one of the things that has often been criticized is the fact that critics don't believe David ruled over a large kingdom. And there are a couple of sites now that have been excavated, Kerbet Qeiyafa and Tel Eitan, which seem to indicate that there was a large central authority governing the particular area. Kerbet Qeiyafa was excavated from 2007 to 2013. It's located about 30 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem. It's within the area that would have been the kingdom of David, surrounded by a huge, massive casement fortification wall, and the excavators identified it as a Jewish site, not a Philistine site or any other type of site. There were pig bones, there were no graven images there, and it certainly fits the description that was there. And when they constructed Kerbet Qeiyafa, they had to import 200,000 tons of stone to build this city, including a couple of the walls that had two stones each with about 10 tons each. So that was one, and then excavators from Bar-Ilan University were recently excavating another site called Tel Eitan, and they discovered a massive residence, they call it the governor's residence there, with these massive ashlar stones, which seems to have been built in the late 10th, 11th century, and they too identified this as evidence of a large central administration of the kingdom in that particular area, and that would fit the biblical description of the kingdom David had. Very good, Brian. Well, those are extremely important sites, and I'm sure some of our viewers have never even thought about these or even heard of them necessarily, but they're extremely important as we pull together the tapestry of evidence from biblical history, biblical archaeology. Well, we're down to number four, the Davidic kings, of course, David and then his successors, and so there's important archaeological evidence related to these kings. Yeah, after David reigned, there was a succession of 20 kings that reigned after him that were from the Davidic line, and we have archaeological evidence for a number of those particular kings. I mean, even his son Solomon. We have the very famous gates that are nearly identical at Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer, which we believe are evidence of the building that was described in 1 Kings 9, verse 15. Azariah, the son, is the king of the house of David on the which we'll talk about shortly. Two seals belonging to servants in Uzziah's court have been found. Ahaz's bula has been found. Hezekiah's bula has been found. Manasseh is named in the inscriptions of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. Assyrian king Jeconiah is mentioned in the ration tablets from Babylon, and we have a lot of kings from David who we have evidence for that match up with what scripture says. And so when God promised the house of David, that was a dynasty, that's what we see in the archaeological record. Yeah, and I think some of these discoveries have been made in recent years, but boy are they piling up because it's making it hard for people to deny the kingdom of David and deny the kingships that followed because of all the archaeological evidence. Well, we're grateful that you've joined us today for this important conversation about King David, and we'll be right back in one moment. Bible and Spade is a non-technical quarterly publication published by the Associates for Biblical Research. Written from a scholarly and conservative viewpoint, Bible and Spade supports the inerrancy of the biblical record and is a must read for both the serious Bible student and anyone asking if they can really trust the Bible. Archaeological evidence, properly interpreted, upholding the history of the Bible. Subscribe today at BibleArchaeology.org. Digging for Truth is produced and recorded in the studios of Lighthouse TV, positively different television. Welcome back to Digging for Truth. I'm here today with Brian Wendell, and Brian and I have been talking about the top 10 discoveries related to King David. And King David obviously is a central figure in the Bible. Of course, Jesus is related to David, and so the history of David is so important not only for the kingdom period, but obviously for messianic understanding as we consider our Lord Jesus. Brian, we are down to the top three discoveries related to David. Let's talk about the Heights of David inscription. Yeah, there are numerous inscriptions that actually name David that have been unearthed or rediscovered in recent years. And one of them is found in Egypt. We talked in a previous episode about the Pharaoh Shishak. And Shishak, when he invaded Israel and Judah in 926 BC, when he came back from his campaign, he commissioned this relief to be carved on the walls at the temple in Karnak. And there are more than 150 places in hieroglyphics that he claims to have conquered. But Kenneth Kitchen, an Egyptologist, has noticed that in Name Rings 105 and 106, they together read what he believes are the heights or highlands of David, with a T instead of a D at the end. And he's noticed that foreign names in Egyptian, the D and the T, sometimes get changed, such as in the Egyptian way they spell Megiddo is with a T, not with Ds. And then he points further to a later inscription that cites Psalm 65 verse 19 and describes it as a Psalm of David with a T instead of a D. But that does come from a later period, but it seems to indicate that the Egyptian people might have used the D and the T interchangeably. This, he writes, would give us a place name that commemorates David in the Negev barely 50 years after his death and within living memory of the man. Now, it's not without critics. There are some people who say no, in fact, that second part of the Name Ring probably doesn't even say David, let alone David. But Kenneth Kitchen is a fairly respected Egyptologist and a careful scholar, and he's pointed out this. So that was my number three discovery related to David. Very good, Brian. All right, well, let's move on to the Mesha Stele or the Moabite Stone. This has gotten a little bit more fame, if you will. So let's talk about the Moabite Stone. Why is this important? Yeah, the Moabite Stone is a hugely important inscription. It's a Moabite inscription in which Mesha, the king of Moab, records his victories against the kingdom of Israel. And this, of course, records the same events, by the way, as are recorded in Scripture, 2 Kings chapter 3, just from the Moabite perspective. But in it, Mesha claims to have killed the king of the House of David. And so when it was published in 1994, epigrapher Andre Le Maire announced that he had been able to determine that House of David was in that particular inscription. Now, the Moabite Stone was in the news recently. In 2019, Israel Finkelstein and some colleagues published an article in which they looked at this inscription again and said, it doesn't say David, it's referring to Balak, is what they believe. But at the same time, another scholar was working on it as well. His name was Michael Langoine. He had an article published in the journal Semitica where he used high-resolution images and polynomial texture mapping to create a 3D of the stela. And what he discovered was a previously overlooked dot, which is the way the ancient people at this time broke up words. And the long and the short of it is he has concluded that it does indeed say the House of David, which confirms Le Maire's original readings. So a House of David inscription on the Moabite Stone was number two. Yeah, well, that is an extremely important discovery. And the technology that's gone into to nail that down is really, really important. Okay, well, we're down to number one. And this is a discovery that has gotten some fame, which is good. The Tel Dan Stele. Brian, go ahead. We've got a couple of minutes here so you can really unwrap this one and explain why this is so important. Yeah, I don't think anyone who's followed archaeology of the Iron Age will be surprised to see the Tel Dan Stele at number one. This was the first major discovery that people suggested mentioned the House of David. And indeed it does. It's part of a victory monument, a stela that was set up by a king of Aram, likely Haziel, but he's not mentioned in it. And in this particular stela, it mentions that he killed the king of the House of David. The House of David is mentioned in it. And this is just really important. It was found in secondary use at Tel Dan in 1993, and then some more fragments in 1994. And it dates to the 9th century BC. So this would be within 200 years of when David lived. And Dr. Bryant Wood, one of our archaeologists at ABR, has written about the context of it. He said it was most likely erected following Haziel's defeat of Joram and Ahaziah at Rameth Gilead in about 841 BC. The occasion for the breaking of the stela was probably when Jehoash, king of Israel, from 798 to 782, recaptured the Israelite territory previously taken by Haziel. And it had probably stood, this monument, at the gate of Tel Dan for four decades to remind people that they were subject to the Arameans. And then of course, when Israelite got it back, they shattered it and reused the pieces in secondary use. This establishes clearly David's historicity. Moreover, the house of David means dynasty of David. And so this testifies again to the dynasty of David, the house of David, that God promised David when he made his covenant with him. Very good. Well, Brian, we only have a few seconds here. Can you summarize the importance of these discoveries for us? Well, obviously, first of all, it affirms the historicity of King David, which is something that Bible minimalists had downplayed. And it affirms the biblical description of the kingdom that David ruled over. But more than that, and you alluded to it earlier, Scott, Jesus, King Jesus, is a king who reigns on the throne of David forever. There are huge messianic things tied up with David. David wrote a number of psalms that were messianic psalms that pointed to the one who would come. And so when we read in the New Testament, we read about Jesus, the King, the Messiah, the one that King David promised. And if we can trust the details of history about David, and I believe we can, then I think we can trust the words of David, including the ones about Jesus. Amen, Brian. Well, that's a great summary for our time together today. I want to thank all of you for joining us on this excursion and seeking to understand quite a bit more about King David. Thanks for watching today.