“Ancient Rock adds Evidence of King David’s Existence” is the headline in the Times of Israel. It may not be big news, but it got my attention. I was on the City of David Archaeological Expedition and know that doubt was cast on the Biblical account because archaeological mention of bytdvd – “House of David” is rare.
Steven Fine, a professor of Jewish history and director of the Center for Israel Studies at Yeshiva University, said “It’s astonishing how little the Jewish press has noticed it.” This blog is my modest contribution to getting it noticed.
In my humble opinion, it’s material, at this juncture in history, that we are finding more evidence of King David. I believe we are entering a convergence of Science and Religion, in which the secular West will have ample opportunity to rethink our decision to erect a Science that denies God by excluding Him and to create a Global political landscape that is Antisemitic.
Will this little rock change this? No. But it might encourage a few people to take a fresh look at the historical evidence for bytdvd and it’s implications. After all, even Science accepts what John Adams said about facts, that they are “Stubborn Things”. The facts around that quote are blurry too. A bit of literary archaeology reveals that Tobias Smollett translated the phrase from a book by Frenchman Alain-René Lesage. And there are even earlier usages. In this case, it’s not about who chiseled the term “bytdvd” into the stone, but that it was chiseled at all.
What Virtue did I randomly choose, after writing the above, for my closing comments? Modesty.
I love “coincidences” and was pleased to have used the word modest to describe this blog and the modest lowercase rendering of the Hebrew for House of David in the title.
Digging deeper (Archaeological pun intended) the card states “Modesty is a sense of quiet confidence and self-respect, which allows us to enjoy our accomplishments without inflating our self-importance.” For Jews, modesty is a hard-won-virtue. They have suffered for Millennia for the audacity of having a religion that claims they are “chosen”. At the same time, they know their history, that there was a bytdvd, and that their modern nation rests on a firm foundation of international law.
And while I’m not a Jew, and I know this ancient rock is not the Rock of Salvation, it is nice that although it once was lost, now it is found.