|
The House of David
At Tel Dan in upper Galilee in Northern
Israel a fragment of an inscription on basalt stone has been uncovered. It
was part of the paving near the entrance of the outer gate of the ancient
city of Dan. In 1992, in order to tidy up the site for presentation to
visitors, a heap of debris was removed which dated from the time of the
Assyrian destruction of the city by Tiglath-pileser lll - no doubt a legacy
of his campaign against northern Israel. (2 Kings 15:29). Unexpectedly, a
hitherto unknown gateway to the city was uncovered The entrance led to a
courtyard where stood a low stone platform large enough to take a throne.
This possibly marked the place where the king would sit on ceremonial
occasions. The Scriptures allude to such a custom when Ahab king of Israel
and Jehoshaphat king of Judah sat in the gate of Samaria (1 Kings 22:10).
The inscription is a section of a victory stela (commemorative stone) about
the conquests of one of the kings of Aram, recording the defeat of his foes,
sometime in the 9th century BC. The inscription is written in Aramaic (a
language closely related to early Hebrew) and is unique because it is the
first reference found outside the Bible to 'The House of David.'
The conquests recorded on the stone are
related to the events written in the first book of Kings, where Asa, king of
Judah, bribed king Ben- hadad to go to war with Baasha king of Israel (1
Kings 15:16-20) When Israel recaptured the city of Dan, possibly after Ahab
king of Israel's defeat by Ben-Hadad as described in 1 Kings 20, this
Aramean victory stela could well have been destroyed by the Jews and its
fragments used in the construction of the area surrounding the entrance gate
to the city. It had lain there for many centuries until it was uncovered in
1993 by a team of Israeli archaeologists who are now eagerly searching for
the other pieces. Who knows what may yet be found to add to this
confirmation of the Biblical records.
This find
has also prompted the re-examination of other inscriptions and it has now
been suggested that the famous Moabite Stone which describes the rebellion
of Mesha king of Moab, against Israel, also goes on to describe an attack on
the kingdom of Judah. In a poorly preserved portion of this Moabite stone is
probably another reference to`Beth David' or the House of David which was a
way of describing the kings of Judah (1Kings 12:19; Isaiah 7:15; Jeremiah
21:12). |
Contact
Bible Basics: