King David - what has been found mentioning him

The question was which is the earliest proven Biblical person meaning an archaeologist has found a text that shows the Biblical person lived.

The Tel Dan Stele has

"7. riots and thousands of horsemen (or: horses). [I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab]

8. king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin-]
9. g of the House of David. And I set [their towns into ruins and turned]"

So Ahab etc are given existence whereas it is argued that House of David does not mean there was real David. I think House of David is pretty clear evidence that these kings saw themselves descended from King David and we are talking some 150 years so that sounds like they would know what they were talking about.

Click for an excellent article on the Tel Dan, Mesha and Shoshenq inscriptions and the relationship to King David:

Of course without Ahab etc being mentioned then they would still be considered fictional characters.



So I will be following the Eilat Mazar work with interest on what she says is King David's palace http://www.bib-arch.org/Mazar.pdf

As of Oct 2007 no sign of any updates as above is from end 2005

Eilat Mazar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2012 Did I Find King David’s Palace? – Biblical Archaeology Society

see also David Rohl - books and websites on his NEW Chronology

and some stuff on the Temple Mount as of October 2007

'Western Wall was never part of temple' The very extreme Muslim claim by Mufti and also said to have been held by Arafat| Jerusalem Post

And then actual traces of First Temple found

WorldNetDaily: Claim: Israel covering up Temple Mount destruction

Finds on Temple Mount from First Temple - Jewish World - Israel News - Arutz Sheva
including a contrary to the Mufti's claim

Moslem claims to the Temple Mount, on the other hand, have been debunked even by other Moslems. A commentator for the official Egyptian government weekly, of all places, has written that the entire Moslem claim on Jerusalem and the El-Aksa mosque is based on a mistaken reading of one chapter of the Quran. Ahmed Mahmad Oufa wrote that the verse that mentions a night journey by Muhammed to a mosque has nothing to do with Jerusalem, as is generally claimed, but with a mosque near the holy Moslem city of Medina.

November 2007 The Thinkers: The Bible and history of Israel shape a life
They have a Hebrew stone wall back to Solomon time.

October 2008
Find of Ancient City Could Alter Notions of Biblical David - NYTimes.com

KHIRBET QEIYAFA, Israel — Overlooking the verdant Valley of Elah, where the Bible says David toppled Goliath, archaeologists are unearthing a 3,000-year-old fortified city that could reshape views of the period when David ruled over the Israelites. Five lines on pottery uncovered here appear to be the oldest Hebrew text ever found and are likely to have a major impact on knowledge about the history of literacy and alphabet development.
..............But the archaeological record of that kingdom (David and Solomon) is exceedingly sparse — in fact almost nonexistent — and a number of scholars today argue that the kingdom was largely a myth created some centuries later. A great power, they note, would have left traces of cities and activity, and been mentioned by those around it. Yet in this area nothing like that has turned up — at least until now.

A good article on the site Bloomberg.com: Middle East

Did David and Solomon Exist? - very good analysis of current knowledge and comments of recent archaeology

Chronology - sites I am reading

The Age of the Earth

Akhenaten - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Immanuel Velikovsky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ever since I read Immanuel back in 1970s I have been concerned about Egyptian conventional dating

The Revision of Ancient History: Revised Chronologies SIS has a great summary and actually is leading back to Velikovsky's theories

The Immanuel Velikovsky Archive


A CHRONOLOGICAL MODEL FOR THE 1st AND 2nd MILLENNIUM BC Part 1: THE CHRONOLOGY OF EGYPT AND ISRAEL


Old Testament Studies - Reliability and Chronology


NewChronology : David Rohl

Synopsis of David Rohl's book "A Test of Time" by John Fulton

ISIS - Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum


Centuries of Darkness by Peter James, I. J. Thorpe, Nikos Kokkinos, Robert Morkot & John Frankish

The Megiddo Expedition


Bernard Newgrosh at Troubador Publishing
Bernard is a major contributor at the list at NewChronology : David Rohl
and he has published a book on NC
Chronology at the Crossroads - The Late Bronze Age in Western Asia - Matador Non-Fiction - Bernard Newgrosh

Not saying I agree with them just that I am reading

Some great reference material

The Jewish Theological Seminary - JANES

10/2008 I now am watching DVD by David Rohl on test of Time and Bible is it myth or reality

and have a look at Charles Kimball on Chronology
A Biblical Interpretation of World History, Chapter 1

Mark of the Beast - 666 or is it 616 or 665

Revelation 13:18 (King James Version)
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Some old versions of Rev 13:18 do not show 666 but 616 and 665.
KJV spells out the number but in the Greek it is actually shown as Greek numbers.
I understand Irenaeus knew about these other numbers and rejected them in favour of it being 666.

This is discussed in these links

666 wrong number of prophetic beast?

Number of the Beast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Wiki has a lot more links

The Other Number of the Beast: numerology

The interpretation using numbers corresponding to letters has always come up with strange results. I remember around 1989 it was Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev depending on language and how you used his name such as in Russian it had to be Mikhail S Gorbachev.

In the other articles they talk about Nero and having to call him Neron and that it could have meant Caligula etc etc


And not many people know this verse in the Old Testament
1 Kings 10:14-22 "Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold".

Alternative Gospels

Recently I have read two books on what might be termed Alternative Gospels.

Have just finished
The lost gospel : the quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot by Herbert Krosney.
Click image for some detail and visit the Wiki Article


I thought the book was comments on the content and of the Judas codex but instead it was an adventure story about how it was found and finally got to be published. The book keeps declaring the codex to be a most important document especially as it turns our ideas of Jesus and Judas upside down or something like that.

Following the book along it details some Egyptians involved in its discovery. Except what is said about is vague and it says false names are used. So are these details correct?

Then the main Egyptian dealer puts the codex in a safe deposit box somewhere in a suburb along the Long Island turnpike. He leaves it there for 16 years. Basically the events described become like a farce and the people involved treat the codex quite strangely for something they describe as so earth shattering. The codex falls apart over the time its floating around amongst all these dealers etc. Finally in the last couple of chapters the codex gets put back together - however some of it is still "lost".

The early Christian writer Irenaeus comdemned the Gospel of Judas as a fraud and heresy. He was talking about a book in Greek. This codex is in Coptic - ah they say it is a translation. But even if it is the book Irenaeus meant then it is still a fraud and a heresy. The Bible is clear that Judas died soon after he betrayed Jesus - so how were the details in the book passed on? The Bible is also clear that Jesus knew what Judas was doing but does not indicate that Judas was given the task - it was rather that his own nature took him along that sad path.

This book is not earth shattering - we could do without it.

Further November 2007
Rice University professor debunks National Geographic translation of Gospel of Judas
April DeConick contends that the Gospel of Judas is not about a "good" Judas or even a "poor old" Judas. It is a gospel parody about a "demon" Judas written by a particular group of Gnostic Christians who lived in the second century.

and more on how Judas written in the "gospel" as "daimon" was translated initially as spirit rather than demon see Judas is a 'demon' in new read of gospel

Yes that's right we don't need it


Now previously I read The missing Gospels : unearthing the truth behind alternative Christianities by Darrell Bock.

An excellent detailed overview of the texts found at Nag Hammadi in 1945 . These texts are some of the material used in the Da Vinci Code and some other books as examples of early Christian thought that is different to now and that the Church destroyed these other ideas which were really viable Christian alternatives. Darrell shows that these ideas were not in main stream Christianity at all. They were not there at the beginning and were later concepts from people who were trying to change things.
The Alternative Christianity is not Christianity and
are not worth the re-discovery - so whether it is the Gospel of Judas or Thomas or Philip etc - ignore it - stay with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Please visit Ron's Faith page