With Due Respect: Did King David exist?

 

David, as depicted in the 2025 film David

King David was one of the central figures of the Old Testament in the Bible. He was a king who allegedly united Israel, conquered Jerusalem, and founded a dynasty. 

However, pre-1993 few scholars accepted David as a historical figure because there was no clear extra-biblical evidence for him. The general reception was that he was a legendary founding figure of Israel on the scale that King Arthur was the founder of Britain.

Unlike kings such as Omri (1 Kings 16), Ahab (1 Kings 16), or Hezekiah (2 Kings 16), David was not clearly mentioned in surviving inscriptions from neighboring civilizations. This led to the question:

If David was such a significant king, why has no contemporary source ever mentioned him?

Tel Dan Stele

In 1993, the Tel Dan Stele was excavated in Tel Dan, Northern Israel. Dated about 800s - 700s BC it explicitly stated the "House of David". The stele was mostly likely made by the Aramean king, Hazael, and celebrated his military victories over the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

The crucial point was that it was written by an enemy kingdom, not by Jews.

This meant that a century and a half after David's lifetime, neighboring states recognized a dynasty named after David. Therefore, David was very unlikely to be a completely fictional invention of much later writers.

Conclusion
Today, few scholars doubt the existance of David. The historical questions have shifted to the nature of his kingship (e.g. how big was his kingdom).

The Tel Dan Stele provided the first widely accepted external reference to David's dynasty and significantly changed the debate

Alternative Culture: 2023 Gaza-Israel War and the responses of Christian organisations

Rockets fired from Gaza, photograph taken 7 October

Recently, Israel experienced wide-scale attacks from the neighbouring territory of Gaza. Led by the Islamic Palestinian organisation Hamas, the attackers launched operations over land, sea and air. As of 8 October 2023, about 600 Israelis have been killed and thousands wounded.

In response, Israel described this as a "war", and bombed Gaza after warning of a revenge strike,. This retaliation killed abut 370 people.

In this post, I want to briefly summarised how Christian organisations have responded in this crisis.

Responses from Christians
As with any wars, there is a tendency to be partitioned in the support. Certain Christian organisations, like Christianity Today is explicit in its support for Israel. This is unsurprising as there are calls by Muslim leaders to support Hamas based on religious brotherhood alone.

Nevertheless, majority of the Christians I see are praying for a quick end to the bloodshed, with most condemning the killing of innocents. Both the Pope and the Latin Patriarch of Jersualem (Roman Catholic leader of Jerusalem) called for descalation. The Patriarch's official statement is here.

The Archbishops of York and Canterbury have called for restraint and a quick path to peace. The Lutheran World Federation also called for international efforts for a swift ceasefire.

Despite differing attitudes with regards to the methods of peace, it is obvious that we should desire a peaceful outcome. As Jesus said,

Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.  -- Matthew 5: 7-9