Session 3 - Iron Age Part I

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I'd like to welcome you to our next segment on Iron Age. The Iron Age period dates to around 1000 to 586 BC, or some say BCE. But let me, when I say Iron Age, you can have an Iron Age 1, which is 1200 to 1000. But we're going to be in the Iron Age 2 period. So all that aside, because it's really boring, we're going to look at some artifacts. Once again, we got some terracotta. Terracotta is baked clay. We got a few items made out of bronze, at least one item made out of bronze. And also we have a copy of the Tel Dan inscription. Tel Dan inscription is referring to the location in which this inscription was found at Tel Dan. It's north of the Sea of Galilee, up by the Mount Hermon range. Tel Dan, named after the tribe of Dan, which settled there possibly in 11th century BCE. So first of all, let's take a look at the inscription. This is what we call the Tel Dan inscription. The inscription is not Hebrew. This scripture is actually Aramean. It dates to possibly the 9th century BC. What's so important about this particular type of inscription, which is carved on a very hard, dense stone called basalt, is that it actually mentions the king of Israel and a king of Judah. Now, why is that important to mention the king of Judah, if you will? It's not just the mentioning of the king, it's how the king is mentioned. It's the king over the house of David. So when the inscription mentions the house of David, this becomes very important to us in the archaeological field, because we sometimes battle those that question, and I mean very critically question, the scriptural narrative to whether there was a King David or not. So this inscription was found in Tel Dan, the early part of the 1990s, under the excavation of Professor Abraham Baran. Now, when they found this inscription, they translated it, and it actually said the house of David. The academic field went berserk. They thought it was absolutely phenomenal that there's evidence outside the biblical text for the king, or one of the early kings, of the nation of Israel. But at this time, when the text was inscribed on stone, understand that the tribes have divided, so we have kings in Israel and kings of Judah, so they're actually saying the house of Omri, the descendants of Ahab, and the house of David, the descendants of King David. So this text actually mentions David as king. So what does that mean? It simply means that we have evidence outside the biblical narrative from an archaeological artifact that was found in situ, it means the place of its origin, found where it lies, where it was placed in history, and it gives us a record of who was the king of Israel. And you might think that if you question if there was a David, then why would there be an inscription that says the kings of the house, the house of David? So this is very important for us in understanding the biblical narrative and bringing light to those that would question the text, if David was king or not. It's a very important inscription. You can actually Google it. It's called the Tell Dan Steeler. Some call it the King David Steeler. I recommend that you study it, and if you get time, go to Israel, go to the Israel Museum, and look at it. It's in the Iron Age department, the excavation of Tell Dan.