The City of David
It is officially called Jerusalem Walls National Park—City of David.
But the City of David covers more area than the National Park has encompassed. The City of David covers all of Mount Ophel which is speckled today with Israeli and Arab homes. It overlooks the Kidron Valley and part of the City of David faces toward the Arab village of Silwan.
For nine years, Dr. Eilat Mazar presented her case for an excavation on the ridge known as the City of David. Her argument stemmed from the biblical text that said that David went down to the Canaanite fortress as described in 2 Samuel 5:17
But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard [of it], and went down to the hold.
Mount Ophel is a lower elevation than the ancient city of Jerusalem.
Dame Kathleen Kenyon had done extensive excavations in this area in the 1960’s and had verified through pottery dating that the casements walls that were exposed were from the 9th-10th century BCE. However, Kathleen Kenyon did not study the excavation in search of David’s palace as she thought it was within the Old City walls.
Dr. Mazar wanted to excavate to see if the casement walls from the time of the united monarchy could be King David’s palace which has never been found. When King David took the city of Jerusalem, he did not destroy the city, but rather, he established his kingdom at Jerusalem. He lived at Jerusalem and he began to improve the area of Jerusalem.
One day, Dr. Mazar presented her case to the right person, and money was donated to begin the excavations in the area known as the City of David. Almost immediately, Dr. Mazar realized that the previous [three] excavations had struck bedrock and this was their argument for discontinuing excavations. Instead of stopping excavations at the bedrock level, Eilat Mazar expanded the area, and almost immediately, the excavation began to uncover massive walls of a building which she very conservatively calls the “Large-Stone Structure.”
The depth of the wall along with the size of the stones signifies a massive structure
In January 2006, Dr. Mazar published her findings and she identified the location with the introduction of, “Did I Find King David’s Palace?” Then, she presented her case which included the findings of Phoenician columns and capitals and the evidences of the “Large-Stone Structure.” She further argued from the past evidences of casement walls, fortifications, and the biblical text itself.
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This is where the rubber
meets the road.
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Dr. Mazar published her evidences and most archaeology scholars rejected her theory. Professor Israel Finkelstein, Chair of the Archaeology Department of Tel Aviv University is one of Dr. Mazar’s most fierce opponents and he was quick to reply.
He states emphatically, "You cannot study biblical archeology with only a simple reading of the text. The Bible cannot be understood without a knowledge of the millennia of biblical criticism that has gone along with it, not the least of which necessarily includes the dating of different sections of the Bible according to who wrote them and when." (JP: Jan 2006)
And he makes a second emphatic statement. "The Bible is an important source, but we can't take it seriously." (JP: Jan 2006)
Well, personally I emphatically oppose Dr. Finkelstein and his constant work to discredit the biblical text. But, I am neither a biblical scholar nor an accomplished archaeologist. I am a fundamentalist who believes the biblical text to be truth.
Debate abounds on the City of David excavations and the interpretations of the archaeological findings.
David Ilan, Director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem sums up the general opinion of archaeology towards the excavations in the City of David.
"Probably 20 percent of archaeologists would say, yes, it is the palace of David. And 10 percent would say, no, it definitely isn't. And 70 percent of us would say we don't know." (Plotz: Jan 2008)
You be the judge. The article is still online with beautiful pictures of the area.
http://www.bib-arch.org/Mazar.pdf
“The Once and Future City,” Rena Rossner, Jerusalem Post, January 26, 2006
“The Palace of King David (Or Not),” David Plotz, Digging the Bible, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008.
posted by ~serapha~ at 5:25 AM
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