Biblical Archaeology From the Ground Down: Evidence for King David Written in Stone

Welcome, everybody. I hope you're having a great day. My name is Dr. George Sparks, and this is Biblical Archaeology from the Ground Down, sponsored by Bible Interact. Today we have a topic that coincides with the last lecture, if you haven't heard it yet, is called Excavating King David's Palace, and it had excellent reviews. You want to see King David's Palace, hopefully, before you get to this one, but either one, it's going to be great. We're going to talk about King David being mentioned outside the Bible. For many years, scholars thought that King David might be a historical, mythical figure like King Arthur, but around 1992, there was an artifact found in northern Israel at a place called Tel Dan, and in the translation of it, which we'll find out more, it actually mentions Beit David, or the House of David. We got a special guest today. He's a Ph.D., been in the field for over 35 years. He's an expert in this area. His name is Dr. David Graves, but let me introduce him to you. His background, Dr. David Graves is a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen, has been involved in teaching the Bible and archaeology for more than 35 years. He has taught at Oxford University, England, Liberty University School Divinity, provided tours in the Ashmolean Museum, as well as the British Museum. He's traveled extensively in the Middle East and has been involved in the Mount Ararat research. He has also been involved in archaeology excavations, such as Qumran. We also have an episode on the Qumran caves, Tel, the Temple Mount, and also Shiloh, all in Israel, as well as Tel el-Hammam, an excavation in Jordan, where Dr. Graves was my square supervisor. And also, to finish this up, he has many books out there, and I'm sure we're going to show it in the intro that we have, and do yourself a favor, get these books, let it be a resource for your household, as well as your church. I find these books indispensable, separated between Old Testament archaeology, New Testament archaeology, going through the Book of Revelations, and they've all been really fantastic, with tons of illustrations. Welcome to our video narrative on the Mesha and Tel Dan Stele, two important artifacts that provide valuable insights into the history of the ancient Near East. These stele, or stone inscriptions, were discovered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and contain inscriptions that mention King David, a figure of great significance in the biblical narrative. In this video, we will explore the contents of these inscriptions, their historical and cultural context, and the significance of their mention of King David. So let's dive in and uncover the fascinating stories behind the Mesha and Tel Dan Stele. With the discovery of the inscription in the Tel Dan excavation in northern Israel by Abraham Abaran in 1993, the extreme minimalist view was challenged who argued that David was a small tribal leader. But now the phrase, House of David, was identified as part of the inscription demonstrating that he was more than an insignificant local leader. While this inscription was widely debated, Grab maintains that, it is now widely regarded as genuine and is referring to the Davidic dynasty and the Aramaic kingdom of Damascus. Anson Rainey has commented that, Philip Davies and his, deconstructionists, like Thomas Thompson can safely be ignored by everyone seriously interested in biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies. The next inscription to grab our attention is the Mesha Stele or sometimes called the Moabite inscription. The inscription, written in a dialect of ancient Canaanite, dates back to the 9th century BC and tells the story of King Mesha of Moab and his victories against the Israelites. Interestingly, the stele also mentions the biblical figure of King David, providing one of the earliest extra-biblical references to him. This makes the Mesha Stele a crucial piece of historical evidence that sheds light on the political and cultural landscape of the ancient Near East during the time of the biblical kings, including King David. Let us delve into the fascinating story of the Mesha Stele and uncover its significance for understanding the reigns of both King Mesha and King David in this video narrative. This inscription was discovered in Dibbon Jordan by the CMS missionary Frederick Klein in 1868. Klein's interest in the stone alerted the local Bedouin to its value, and they significantly increased the price from their original agreement. Later, the local tribes refused to let the stone be transported through their territories. Upon hearing of the find, Charles Claremont sent Caravaca to take paper mache or squeeze impressions of the inscription that preserved it from future damage. However, as the years went by, the Mesha Stele became a coveted prize for other kingdoms. In 1868, the stele was reported to Turkish soldiers who were sent to Transjordan to take it by force. But the local tribes were not willing to give up this symbol of their king's legacy. In a desperate attempt to protect it, they broke the stele into several pieces and distributed them among the tribes as fertility amulets. However, Claremont Gano and Charles Warren were successful in purchasing some 57 pieces from the locals, which comprised about two-thirds of the original inscription. With many of the pieces still missing, Caravaca's squeeze cast is an important artifact in its own right in preserving this significant discovery. It names the Israelite kings of Omri and Ahab, and provides a list of the accomplishments of Mesha, king of Moab. But for our interest here, it states the house of David. One final artifact needs to be mentioned. It is the Shoshekh I inscription that lists the tribe of Judah and the kingdom of David. Thus, we have three inscriptions that list the name of King David outside the biblical text. All our books are listed on our website smirnayin.blogspot.com So, with that being said, Dr. David Graves. Great, George. Great to be with you again, as always. My treat. Should be a lot of fun today. So, I'm kind of partial to David, since I have the blessing of being given the name David. So, it's kind of fun for me to find this material in inscriptions. So, we're going to talk about the Mesha Stele and the Tel Dan Stele. I'm going to throw a little bit of an extra in at the end from the Egyptian inscriptions. We'll talk about that as a surprise. It's based on the material in my two books on the archaeology of the biblical people and archaeology of the Old Testament. So, you'll find material in both of those. They've got the footnotes and all the research if you want to dig a little bit deeper, which I challenge people to do. Don't just take my word for it, but look at the primary sources. Well, the Tel Dan Stele mentions King David. It's a black basalt Aramaic inscription. It was found in 1993 by Abraham Biran from Hebrew University. It's now stored in the Israeli Museum, and there are a number of pieces to it. Three, there may have even been more, but the photograph of it here reconstructed. Israel Museum in Jerusalem is where it's stored today. And the biblical significance of this particular artifact is that it mentions eight biblical kings, Hazael, Benhadadon II, Ahab, Joram, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, and of course King David. So, it's an important find. It's up in the northern part of Israel up in Tel Dan. This is the gate where it was found. It's part of the excavation here in the gateway of Tel Dan up in northern Israel. Discovered, as I said, in 1993 within the remains of the city wall close to the entrance. The basalt stone bears an Aramaic inscription, which is sort of the older version of Hebrew, referring to one of the kings of Damascus. The excavators of the site believe that the king it refers to is Hazael, though some have suggested Benhadon II. And it dates the 9th century BC, so 840 to 800 BC, that time period. It commemorates Hazael's victories over Israel and Judah, as mentioned in 2 Kings chapters 10 and 12 and 13, and affirms David's historical existence, King David. For a lot of time, I think you mentioned earlier, George, the scholars have said that David didn't exist. He may have been mythical, or at the least Israel Finkelstein considers him to be a sort of a small tribal leader in the region, but not a king of an empire or king of a kingdom. But now we find his name on this impressive stelae. In the Aramaic, there are no vowels in this early versions of Aramaic or Hebrew. B-Y-T-D-W-D, so the House of David, Brit David. In Hebrew, the Hebrew script didn't have vowels, but it would make the inscription the first time that a name David had been found in an archaeological site dating before 500 BC. So the first reference to David in a first temple period inscription. That's a significant find. The line above it actually had another inscription, Melech Israel, or the King of Israel. So we have the King of Israel, and we have the House of David all mentioned on the same stelae or inscription. With the discovery of the Telden's stelae in 1993, Abraham Biram challenges the extreme minimalist view of Eugishkin and others that challenged this idea, as I'd mentioned earlier, and Israel Finkelstein saying that, oh, David was just a small tribal leader. But this indicates that he was much more than that. And since the phrase House of David was identified as part of an inscription and dates to the time of King David, it's a big deal and something that we need to pay attention to. Now, Lester Grabb in his work says, it is now widely regarded as genuine and as referring to the Davidic dynasty and the Aramaic kingdom of Damascus. And as I said earlier, House of David's mentioned, and all of these other kings of Israel are mentioned on this particular tablet. Anson Rainey, probably one of the greatest geographers in modern times and taught at Tel Aviv University, he says the deconstructionists have challenged the reading of the Telden stelae, but the accomplished Anson Rainey has commented that Philip Davies and his deconstructionists, Philip Thompson is another example of one, can safely be ignored by everyone seriously interested in biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies, because the tablets speak for themselves. And now we have it in writing, written as we say in stone, David was the king of Israel, significant influencer in the region. Additionally, we have the Mesha stelae, the Moabite stelae, the Moabite stones, some call it, with the name of David on it as well, including the name of Israel. This dates to the time of King Ahab, 853 to 840, roughly. It was discovered in the little village or town of Dabon, some say. It was discovered by a missionary by the name of Frederick Blyne and Clement Ganot sent Kirovaca, which was one of the locals, to take a papier-mâché impression of the inscription when it was discovered. They would squeeze the papier-mâché into the original inscription. It would make a negative copy of it, from which they could make a positive reproduction, which was invaluable in this particular case because it had a difficult life. It's presently housed, the original material is presently housed in the Louvre Museum, with copies in the British Museum, and there's copies in the Jordanian Museum as well, and probably a number of other museums around the world because it's so important. It's significant because it speaks to the Moabite-Israelite relationship in the 9th century. It mentions Mesha, king of Moab, the Harim, Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, it mentions the god of Israel, Yahweh, the house of David is mentioned, and the son of Omri, Ahab, king of Israel. So all of those names are mentioned according to 2 Kings chapter 3, so this becomes a very important inscription. It's one of the largest monumental stone inscriptions that have survived. You'll notice that it's all kind of broken up into pieces and there's gray or brown areas and there's black areas, and there's a story behind that because clients' interest in the stone alerted the local Bedouins to its value and they significantly increased the price from their original agreement for him to purchase it, and later the locals refused to let the stone be transported through their territories, and so they broke it up into pieces and tried to sell it on the black market piece by piece, calling it sort of an amulet, something that would bring good luck if you had it. So upon hearing of a fine, Clement sends this individual, this local, to make a papier-mâché inscription, a squeeze of it, and soon the Turkish authorities are prepared to send soldiers into the Transjordan, that is modern-day Jordan, the Jordanian side of the Jordan Valley and the Jordan River, because they wanted to take the stone by force. So it led the local tribes to break it up, as I said, into several fragments and to sell it as fertility amulets all around the region, so they had to collect all the pieces. Clement Ganot and Charles Warren were successful in purchasing some of the 57 pieces from the locals, which comprised about two-thirds of the original impression, but it was the squeeze that was originally done that saved the day and allowed the scholars to be able to put the pieces back together again, like a big jigsaw puzzle, and they were able to translate it and preserve the reading of this very important Moabite inscription. Charles Warren was a military individual working in Jerusalem at the time, he was doing some surveying, they were also doing not only British work for the embassy and for the diplomats, they were also doing archaeology on the side. Many of the pieces are still missing, but the whole inscription has been reconstructed and put back together again, and so the squeeze that was done by Kerevakis is very, very important and has preserved the important artifact for posterity. There's a sort of a drawing of it. I've circled all of the references to Yahweh and Israel that are mentioned, the important names mentioned in it. There's a part of it, a piece of it, that is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, so they have a portion of it, and there is a transcription of it, and I've underlined some of the significant words, Mesha, Israel, Moab, Madaba, Yahweh, and the House of David. This is the area where it's found, it was found in modern-day Jordan, Jordanian side of the land of Moab. I think I've discovered a Moabite part of an inscription on our site where we're digging at Tell el-Hamam, but that's for another podcast. Now, for the surprise, Kenneth Kitchen has published in his book on the reliability of the Old Testament the name of David in the Shishank Relief in the Lexor of the Karnak Temple in Egypt, and so we have the name of David here in an Egyptian reference, and he's written an article called The Possible Mention of David in the Late 10th Century B.C. as well. It was published separately. Now, Kitchen is my go-to individual for Egyptology, University of Liverpool, and he's still the Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Archaeology there in Classics and Egyptology, and he has written some really, really good material, and he's sort of considered as the father of Egyptology. He also points out that the possible mention of the highland or the heights of David in the Shishank Relief, and so now we have three different inscriptions, and here they are written out for you, the Mesha Stele with David, Dawud, and then we have the Tel Dan Stele. Dawud is again, and then we have the Shishank, the first list from 945 B.C. from Thebes. So we have three different inscriptions now with the name of David on them, and then, of course, the last podcast, we looked at the Palace of David where David would have been hanging out in Jerusalem, and there's the City of David as it was pictured from the first century period. Okay, George, some questions? Of course, we're going to have a few questions now. What you just heard, folks, is in David's book, The Archaeology of Old Testament. It's got lots of illustrations in there, and I looked this up before the podcast in his book right here. He's got a whole series of books. I do recommend them. I have them. I got them next to my bed stand as references. What else did you mention? You also mentioned, we tried to get Kenneth Kitchen's book so I could show it, but I can't show it because it doesn't appear very well at the back of the screen that we have. Years ago, I was telling Dr. Graves that I went to visit Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and I had a little, I'll just call it a little audience, with Abraham Baran, and they were building or constructing their museum at their university for the site that they were excavating, which was called Tel Dan, and the actual stone with the word Beit David that was found at Tel Dan, the original one is displayed in the Israel Museum, but of course, a copy is also displayed at the museum, the Hebrew Union Museum. So there was a small time where they needed some finances, and when I was in Israel, I made some phone calls, and people were very generous. So they received, I could say, some money to help with their museum. Now, I was on my way back home with a group, and the guide got a phone call, and he says, hey, the phone call's for you, and I go, who in the world's calling me here? I'm almost getting ready to get on a plane, and he goes, it's Professor Baran. Abraham Baran? He goes, yeah. That's why I talked to you. He says, could you come back to the university? I'd like to talk to you. Well, get on the plane, or go talk to, I had a little bit of time to spare, because we were early. I told everybody, you know, you got to stay here just in case something happens. I asked the guide if he'd drive me back, and he goes, if I was you, I would do it, you know. So went all the way back to Jerusalem, Hebrew Union College, went in, said hi, and then they gave me a little presentation with the little stone right there. Now, the stone that they gave me is about like this thick and kind of heavy, but by the time the guide drove me from Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem back to the airport, I had four phone calls from people that found out that he gave me the stela, right? And they wanted to know if they could have copies. So when I got home, I had a professional make a mold and make copies of the stela, but instead of it being out of plaster, I made them out of a different type of a resin, and here's a copy right here that you can see. Now, this is able to be hung on a wall. However, if you go to Israel Museum, that looks pretty heavy. It's pretty thick. So that's my little input for the Tel de Enstone. You got a copy right here as you're talking about it, and I thought I'd share that, everybody. I try not to brag, but if it seems like I'm bragging, it's one of those small moments in my life where you think, like, that was a wow moment, right? That's worth bragging about. Okay, but so Tel de En, the Mishah stela, and then also the Shishank encryption dates to around 922. Shishank was a pharaoh. What dynasty was he? Do you remember? I don't want to hit you, so I was like, what dynasty was he? Yeah, I'm not an Egyptologist, and as I said, this goes back to my Einstein motives. I look it up in my books, so I memorize all of the different dynasties. I've got a chart in the back of my book with all the different chronologies, and I use, I compare the ones that Kenneth Kitchen uses, and then there's also the ones that are used by David Roll and some others that have been trying to reshape it, you know, and change. So all that material is in the books, and all the references, as I say, I bring the receipts. They're all there, but, you know, the Einstein moment was when students asked him how many feet there were in a mile, and he says, I learned a long time ago not to clog my mind with things I can look up in a book in five minutes. That's true, but it dates to, you already had it up in your slides. Yeah, it's probably the late 10th century, so it appears to be close to Solomon's time. David, but not, couldn't be David, probably Solomon's time or directly after that. Let's say you got Rehoboam. Yeah, yeah. So that's the time period in the biblical narrative that we're looking at if you want to kind of like a biblical time reference, and that's for the Shishak, the hieroglyph inscription. Yeah. And Kenneth Pitchen's Reliability Old Testament, you know, that's a nice one to have in your collection as well. Yeah, and interesting that the Shishak relief is a, it lists all of the different empires or kingdoms that were conquered by the Egyptians, and so each of the cartouches on that relief indicate the different nations that had been conquered, and so one of them is called the Kingdom of Israel, which is really interesting. Part of it's broken away, but they've reconstructed it, and that's a whole other podcast probably dealing with that piece of Egyptian relief, but the name King David Pitchen believes is on it, and I just wanted to throw that in at the end to kind of put the bow on the package. So you got the Egyptian hieroglyphs, you got the Moabite inscription, and then also you got the Absolutely phenomenal. We're surrounded by the house of David, south, north, east. If you go west, you're going to be in the Mediterranean. And they're interacting with him, so he's a known individual and character that rises to prominence in the political realm of the region. Absolutely. And for you viewers that didn't know this, and it comes as a surprise, I think not all 100% of archaeology validates the scriptural narrative, but there are occasions where things that were disputed for decades within the last 40 years, maybe the mesh is still, of course, older, have been revealed, and who knows in the future what else we're going to find out there in the land of Israel and Jordan and Egypt, even in Mesopotamia someday when they can go back excavating there. Dr. Graves, thank you for your time. This is once again fantastic. Let me tell the people quick about the excavating King David's palace. That episode just absolutely took off, had great reviews, so I do recommend that you go watch that one, and as this one is complementary to the King David's palace, and I'm sure you'll be blessed by both of them. All right. Great, George. Great to be with you again. Always fun. Thanks so much. This has been fantastic. I appreciate it. Everybody, have a great day.