Changes

===Historicity of David===

===Historicity of David===

Between 1966-1998, [[Avraham Biran]] lead excavations at a site known as Tel Dan, located in northern Israel. In 1993, an ancient Aramaic inscription dating to the 9th century BC was found containing thirteen lines of text that mention 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, André 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. 840 BC.

Between 1966-1998, [[Avraham Biran]] lead excavations at a site known as Tel Dan, located in northern Israel. In 1993, an ancient Aramaic inscription dating to the 9th century BC was found containing thirteen lines of text that mention 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, André 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. 840 BC. That same year, Emile Puech also independently came to the same conclusion.<ref>La stèle de Dan: Bar Hadad II et la coalition des Omrides et de la maison de David. Revue Biblique 101: 215–41</ref>

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

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