King David Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

King David - Essay Example David was a youthful military leader prior to his kingship. His leadership would liberate Israel from the cold hearted culture developed by the first king that Israelites had chosen to lead them in rebellion, because they could not hold and wait for God’s purpose and timing. According to the bible, David was a King that at times experienced failure in his humanity, yet as told he still sought God with his whole heart. However, today there are those that would say that David’s Kingdom and David were indeed Israel’s imagination and a legendary military hero that never existed in the actual sense. Liberal critical consensus about David has long been that he was a legendary figure in the history of Israel. There are scholars that often stress that the stories on King David are mere embellishments of a national hero whose existence is not in history is not certain (Huyck, 1). For example, Kyle McCarter states that: â€Å"The Bible is our only source of information ab out David.   No ancient inscription mentions him.   No archaeological discovery can be securely linked to him. . . .We cannot assume, therefore, that a statement about David in a given part of the Bible derives from an early source.   The David of Chronicles, for example, is the idealized David of the second Commonwealth, not the David of history (Huyck, 1).† Contrary to this statement and many others like it, archeological evidence has tallied with most historical mentioning within the bible and other historical literature and findings to prove that indeed the Kingdom of David and David as king existed at some point in history. This has strengthened the biblical view and story that indeed David was not a mere myth, but true King that existed and left a legendary mark in the history if Israel (Huyck, 1). The first recently highlighted and iconic archeological finding that attested to this occurred seven years after the discovery of the Solomonic gate by the Mazars. In th at instance in 1993, an archaeological team digging in the northern part of Israel discovered a large stone tabled with inscriptions that read: â€Å"House of David â€Å"and â€Å"King of Israel.† This stunning uncovered piece of evidence was dated back to the 9th Century B.C. This is indeed one of the many uncovered evidence that proofs that David’s kingdom not only existed, but his reign started a royal dynasty. The twelve acre triangle city developed by David’s reign lay some 350 feet, south of the today’s walled Jerusalem, beyond and on the eastern ridge known as Ophel. Benjamin Mazar is quoted by the Associated Press, as having said that: â€Å"Now we have more or less the feeling that this is really a gate of Jerusalem from the period of the kings of Judah† (April 21, 1986). This leaves most people wondering as to whether archaeology is indeed coming up to fill the bits and prove the biblical history that recounts the life and leadership o f David. Eilat Mazar indeed attests to this statement by saying that she had learned to pore and relate to biblical text to an extent that she had discovered that indeed it makes descriptions of true historical reality. Eilat states that: â€Å"It is not a simple matter to differentiate the layers of textual sources that have been piled†¦over generations; but it is clear that concealed within the Biblical text are grains of detailed historical truth (Coogan 71).†