Lecture by dr. hab. Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spano, Science Cafe of the Science Festival, October 17, 2016 [0h46min] https://wszechnica.org.pl/wyklad/czy-... The Kingdom of David stretched over vast areas from Egypt to Damascus. This is how the Bible describes it. However, comparing the biblical account with other source texts and the results of archaeological research undermines the image presented in the Old Testament. If David's state actually existed, it occupied a small area and resembled the Cossacks in its character - said dr. hab. Łukasz Niesiołowski-Spano, who was a guest at the Science Cafe of the Science Festival. According to biblical chronology, David was to reign around 1000 BC. The date is not known exactly. As the historian said, extra-biblical lists of rulers ruling in Israel and Judah are available only for the times from the beginning of the 9th century and the turn of the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The biblical account can therefore only be accepted at face value in this case. People trying to prove the existence of David's kingdom on scientific grounds refer to archaeological discoveries. One of them is the Tel Dan stele, created in the 2nd half of the 9th century BC, which was probably erected by Hazael, king of Damascus, during one of the campaigns against Israel. The Aramaic inscription speaks of David, the founder of the dynasty ruling in Israel. As Dr. Hab. Niesiołowski-Spano said, this is the only known extra-biblical source mentioning David's name. However, calling him the founder of the dynasty is not tantamount to confirming that it was a historical figure. Similarly to the legendary Piast, from whom the dynasty ruling in medieval Poland was supposed to have originated. Another archaeological discovery referred to by those trying to prove the existence of David's state is a stepped structure in Jerusalem, which according to the Bible was supposed to be the capital of David's kingdom. It is dated differently - to the 13th-12th or 9th century BC. Therefore, it does not coincide with the period of the king's reign according to the biblical chronology. What is more, even if the discovery came from the 10th century, then Jerusalem at that time - as emphasized by the guest of the Cafe - was a very small center that could not control a large state. An argument used for the historicity of David's kingdom is also used an ostrakon found in Khirbet Keijafa, dated to around 1050-950 BC. It is believed to contain an order. Supporters of the thesis on the existence of David's state claim that he was its author. The order was supposed to have been sent from Jerusalem to one of the border fortresses. The problem is – as the historian said – that not far from the place where the ostracon was found, there was the largest city in the territory of Palestine at that time, the Philistine Tell es-Safi (Gath). It was there, and not in the tiny Jerusalem at that time, that the aforementioned writing could have been created. Archaeological finds can also be used as an argument against the historicity of the Davidic kingdom. Dr. hab. Niesiołowski-Spano pointed out the lack of Philistine pottery finds in the areas north of Jerusalem inhabited by people described as proto-Israelites. According to the historian, this is not due to piety manifested through the rejection of Philistine influences, as some would have it, but to the lack of elites who would be evidence of the existence of a state structure there. To confirm his opinion, the guest of the Cafe referred to the description of the military expedition of the Egyptian pharaoh Sheshonq from 925 BC. He marched through the entire territory of Palestine, but omitted the aforementioned areas. Which proves that they had no strategic significance. The expedition of Sheshonk – as Dr. Hab. Niesiołowski-Spano said – contributed to the later creation of the kingdom of Israel. Pharaoh destroyed the garrisons of the Philistines, who until then were the undisputed masters of Palestine. As the last argument denying the historicity of David's state, the historian cited... the Bible itself. In the Song of Deborah (Judges 5), written around 925-900 BC, the tribe of Judah, from which the king was supposed to have come, is not mentioned among the tribes of Israel. Find us: / Wszechnicafww / Wszechnicafww1 https://anchor.fm/wszechnicaorgpl---h... https://anchor.fm/wszechnica-fww-nauka https://wszechnica.org.pl/ #kawiarnianaukowa #egypt #damaszek #biblia #historia #dawid #pharaoh