"House of David"
See also: Davidic lineThe Tel Dan stele has found favour among those who wish to defend the biblical version of Israel's ancient past. Its significance for this argument lies particularly in lines 8 and 9, which mention a "king of Israel" and a "house of David". The latter is generally understood by scholars to refer to the ruling dynasty of Judah. However, although the "king of Israel" is generally accepted, the rendering of the phrase bytdwd as "house of David" is disputed by some, in part because it appears without a word-divider between the two parts.
The significance of this fact, if any, is unclear – the majority of scholars argue that the author simply thought of "House of David" as a single word – but some have argued that "dwd" could be a name for a god ("beloved"), or could mean "uncle" (a word with a rather wider meaning in ancient times than it has today), or that the whole phrase might be a name for Jerusalem (so that the author might be claiming to have killed the son of the king of Jerusalem rather than the son of the king from the "house of David".
Other possible meanings have been suggested: it may be a place-name, or the name of a god, or an epithet. Lawrence J. Mykytiuk argues against the possibility that the term bytdwd could refer to the name of a god, cultic object, epithet or a place and concludes that in line with ancient Aramaic and Assyrian patterns for geopolitical terms, the phrase "House of David" refers to a Davidic dynasty or to the land ruled by a Davidic dynasty. But even if (as seems likely) the correct translation is "House of David", Francesca Stavrakopoulou argues that it does not logically support the assumption that the Bible's David was an historical figure.
Read more about this topic: Tel Dan Stele, Interpretation and Disputes
Famous quotes containing the words house of, house and/or david:
““... It’s a day’s work
To empty one house of all household goods
And fill another with ‘em fifteen miles away,
Although you do no more than dump them down.””
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The ceaseless labor of your life is to build the house of death.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“It is worth the while to detect new faculties in man,—he is so much the more divine; and anything that fairly excites our admiration expands us. The Indian, who can find his way so wonderfully in the woods, possesses an intelligence which the white man does not,—and it increases my own capacity, as well as faith, to observe it. I rejoice to find that intelligence flows in other channels than I knew. It redeems for me portions of what seemed brutish before.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)