Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,610
- 910
In 1993, archeologists working at the Tel Dan site in northern Israel unearthed an Aramaic inscription featured on a monumental stone jab. Once deciphered, the artifact offered something absolutely unprecedented: the first archeological reference to biblical King David.
The issue of the historicity of the monarch had been debated by scholars for decades within the context of whether the Bible can be considered a historical source and of what role it can play in archeological studies in the land of Israel. From the first European archeologists making their way to the Middle East to explore the Holy Land in the 19th century to this day, the dispute has not ceased.
One side of the spectrum is represented by hardcore “minimalists,” biblical scholars from several Europeans schools of thought that have emerged since the beginning of the 20th century. The most recent of those groups is known as the Copenhagen School, whose representatives believe that the Bible was written in the Persian or even in the Hellenistic period – between the fifth and the second centuries BCE – therefore too late to offer any relevant information on the events of the previous centuries.
On the other side are those taking the Bible quite literally, often as the result of religious beliefs. Many of those scholars are associated with religious groups from abroad, especially from the Christian Evangelical community in America.
I think that it depends on what you are going in for.
The issue of the historicity of the monarch had been debated by scholars for decades within the context of whether the Bible can be considered a historical source and of what role it can play in archeological studies in the land of Israel. From the first European archeologists making their way to the Middle East to explore the Holy Land in the 19th century to this day, the dispute has not ceased.
One side of the spectrum is represented by hardcore “minimalists,” biblical scholars from several Europeans schools of thought that have emerged since the beginning of the 20th century. The most recent of those groups is known as the Copenhagen School, whose representatives believe that the Bible was written in the Persian or even in the Hellenistic period – between the fifth and the second centuries BCE – therefore too late to offer any relevant information on the events of the previous centuries.
On the other side are those taking the Bible quite literally, often as the result of religious beliefs. Many of those scholars are associated with religious groups from abroad, especially from the Christian Evangelical community in America.
I think that it depends on what you are going in for.