Changes

===Historicity of David===

===Historicity of David===

The historicity of king David was confirmed in 1993 during excavations at Tel Dan in northern Israel lead by [[Avraham Biran]]. In these excavations, an Aramaic inscription was found now known as the [[Tel Dan Inscription]], a 9th century BC inscription containing thirteen lines of text that mentions the 'House of David' (bytdwd).<ref>Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh. "An aramaic stele fragment from Tel Dan." Israel Exploration Journal (1993): 81-98.</ref><ref>Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh. "The Tel Dan inscription: a new fragment." Israel Exploration Journal (1995): 1-18.</ref> Preceding this discovery, the historicity of David was doubted by critics of the historicity of the Bible, however this discovery ended virtually all discussion on the historicity of Israel's second king, David, and is one of the greatest archaeological finds in recent times. One year later, Andre Lemaire published a paper where he found that the name of David also appears in the Mesha Inscription,<ref>Lemaire, André. "House of David; Restored in Moabite inscription." The Biblical archaeology review 20.3 (1994): 30-37.</ref> which dates to about c. 940 BC.

The historicity of King David was confirmed in 1993 during excavations at Tel Dan in northern Israel lead by [[Avraham Biran]]. In these excavations, an Aramaic inscription was found now known as the [[Tel Dan Inscription]], a 9th century BC inscription containing thirteen lines of text that mentions the 'House of David' (bytdwd).<ref>Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh. "An aramaic stele fragment from Tel Dan." Israel Exploration Journal (1993): 81-98.</ref><ref>Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh. "The Tel Dan inscription: a new fragment." Israel Exploration Journal (1995): 1-18.</ref> Preceding this discovery, the historicity of David was doubted by critics of the historicity of the Bible, however this discovery ended virtually all discussion on the historicity of King David, and is one of the greatest archaeological finds in recent times. One year later, Andre Lemaire published a paper where he found that the name of David also appears in the Mesha Inscription,<ref>Lemaire, André. "House of David; Restored in Moabite inscription." The Biblical archaeology review 20.3 (1994): 30-37.</ref> which dates to about c. 940 BC.

The preserved text of the Tel Dan Inscription reads as follows;

The preserved text of the Tel Dan Inscription reads as follows;