King David Was A Real Person! w/ Dr. John Bergsma

When I was going through seminar in the late 90s, that was a really bad period in terms of biblical archaeology where a school called minimalism was really in control, where people were just freely claiming that David and Solomon were these myths of some ancient fiction writer. I could never bring myself to believe that the accounts of David in 1 and 2 Samuel were mythical. And the reason why, Matt, is because those narratives are told at such a high level of cultural resolution. And so much attention is paid in 1 and 2 Samuel to minor characters like Abner or Joab, these generals that worked for Saul and for David, who really play no theological role thereafter aren't important outside of the lifetime of, say, David and maybe a little ways into Solomon. And so the question with the books of Samuel is, why mention David's wife, Abigail, and her husband Nabal? Why talk about Saul at all? Saul has no theological significance after David comes to the throne. And why talk about a lot of embarrassing episodes in David's life, like the Bathsheba incident and when he acted like a crazy man to get out of the court of one of the Philistine kings? It's not very flattering. So there's a lot of unflattering stuff about David and a lot of cultural, biographical stuff in 1 and 2 Samuel that doesn't go anywhere. But it's great storytelling. And so just reading it, you have a sense that whoever is writing this is writing within the lifetime of these figures, or at least their descendants. And these characters are still fresh, they're still important to the public that's going to read these books, etc. And so even in the 90s when I was in seminary and people were claiming David and Solomon are fictitious, I was like, no. The books of Samuel do not read like a later fiction writer. This is material that's very contemporary at the time of writing. But then, in the late 90s, thanks be to God, they found a stele, a monument inscription, S-T-E-L-E, pronounced different ways. Some people say Stella, some people say stele, anyway. But this monumental inscription up in Dan, which is far northern Israel, it's called the Tel Dan inscription. And it's a description from an Aramaic or Assyrian king, Hazael, and he's bragging about how he conquered a bunch of Israelite and Judean kings, and he refers to the kingdom of Judah as the house of David. All right, I want to say thank you to Emmaus Academy, they've put out this brand new digital platform to help you grow in your love of sacred scripture, and therefore your love of Christ. If you're like me, you know how tempting it is just to waste so much of your day on YouTube, like maybe you're doing now, or listening to political podcasts and other things. The truth is, we do often have the time to grow in our knowledge and love of scripture, we just need a helping hand. 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You don't think it's worth it after that time, cancel it, you won't be charged a cent, but I think you'd be really impressed with what you see. He's bragging about how he conquered a bunch of Israelite and Judean kings, and he refers to the kingdom of Judah as the house of David. And so it was the first time when David's name was recognized on an archaeologically recovered inscription, and it just sent shockwaves through the entire biblical world, you know, the house of David. And of course, the minimalists were backpedaling and trying to reinterpret and say that, well, it doesn't really say that, but they didn't win the day. And most people were like, no, it says house of David, guys, you know, that's what's free. And that was how the kingdom of Judah was being referred because these ancient kingdoms were typically called the house of, and then the founder of the dynasty that was ruling them. So that's very significant. The house of David, about a century to a century and a half after, you know, the time of David. And then a few years later, they found a major tax collections center called Tel Zayit, which was west of Jerusalem, where the government collected wine and oil and other agricultural products from the farmers as taxes to the royal government. And this tax collection center dates to the time of David. So that means we've got like a administrative royal structure going on here and we're collecting taxes. And that suggests something of a considerable like state, you know, bureaucracy and stuff going on in the time period of David. And then they went back and relooked at a famous inscription called the Moabite stone or sometimes called the Mesha stone, which is written about the middle of the eight hundreds by a certain King Mesha of Moab, who's mentioned in First Kings chapter three. And he writes about how he has thrown off the yoke of King Omri of Israel and actually he claims to have destroyed Israel, a little bit hyperbolic there, claims that nobody's left. But anyway, so like I said, fake news and propaganda was very common in the ancient world as it is in modern journalism. And there too on that Mesha still, they found David's name as well. Also the kingdom of Judah being referred to as the house of David. So now two instances of David's name on extra biblical, archaeological, archaeologically recovered instances. And you know, that really, that was pretty significant that, you know, that, that kind of reset the discussion in terms of the central historical narrative of the Old Testament. It's wonderful.