King David’s Palace Found? (Again)

I post this because sometimes one should (and needs to respond properly) to what can so easily be construed as misinformation, or at least, information that is taken, altered, and then peddled off to the unsuspecting reader quite out of context.

I have noticed of late that a lot of the blogging / reporting going on in (and about) Biblical archaeology is due to the world of archaeology being rocked by the discovery of King David’s palace. Most of it stems from the article:  The world of archaeology is rocked by evidence of King David’s palace unearthed in Jerusalem. It recently appeared in the Reclaiming Biblical Jerusalem section of Aish.com. In it, Rachel Ginsberg bemoans that,

in the world of academia, revisionist history and even biblical archaeology, scholars have cast the shadow of doubt over Judaism’s intrinsic connection to Jerusalem.

This, I suppose, is nothing new. However after elaborating on the situation, she then throws in the piece that many people simply assume to be breaking news:

But the debunkers of Jewish biblical history got some bad news recently, when a spunky, dedicated archaeologist began her latest dig. Dr. Eilat Mazar, world authority on Jerusalem’s past, has taken King David out of the pages of the Bible and put him back into living history. Mazar’s latest excavation in the City of David, in the southern shadow of the Temple Mount, has shaken up the archaeological world. For lying undisturbed for over 3,000 years is a massive building which Mazar believes is King David’s palace…

You can read the entire article here. It is not bad in the sense that it gives a good account of the work of Dr Eilat Mazar, granddaughter of the pioneering Israeli archaeologist Dr Benjamin Mazar, but not too many people who understand Biblical archaeology have bothered to comment on it.

The problem here really is that her work and this discovery is nothing new!

Blogs (mostly Christian) that were covering this story, some as late as yesterday, include:

• Adrian Warnock.com
• Cranach: The Blog of Veith
• Berean Watchmen
• Boomer in the Pew
• Grafted in at the Branch
• Homileo
• Presentruth
• Stand to Reason
• Theosophical Ruminations
• The Wanderer
• Unexplained Mysteries.com                            (there are more…)

Quite a few of them HT Justin Taylor’s blog Between Two Worlds but evidently they may not have read the comment which I left on that said blog. Well for those who missed it, here it is again…

“Dr Eilat Mazar is a fine Israeli archaeologist who specialises in Phoenician archaeology as well as in Jerusalem itself. She actually made the announcement of discovering what may be the palace of King David palace way back in 2005 (04 August).The discovery has come to be know as the ‘Large Stone Structure’, a wall running east-west along the northern facade which is considered to be a Iron Age fortification system. Most of the objections that Mazar faces in her ongoing research have to do with dating. Sceptical secular archaeologists have however also often accused her of  having a too literal approach in archaeology and this has been compounded somewhat by her sponsorship and financing through a conservative Israeli research institute by an American Jewish investment banker who is determined to prove that Jerusalem was indeed the capital of the Jewish kingdom. This information has now become common knowledge and seems to undermine her work, cast a shadow of doubt on her hypothesis, and cause much scholarly criticism. However most of the opponents are opponents in reality, not because of Dr Mazar’s work (which is excellent), but mostly because they reject any historiographical weight confirming what the Bible says to be true [and moreover reject the idea (which is her methodology) of using the Bible and spade hand-in-hand.]

All that said, her discovery remains impressive and is undoubtedly that of a structure dating to the time of David and Solomon, and goes a long way towards illuminating and affirming the Biblical narratives. At least Dr Mazar is willing to stick her neck out (which so few archaeologist these days are willing to do) and rebuff so-called scholarly suggestions which have that the Biblical records mean nothing, unless they can first be proven true (extra-Biblically).

Dr Mazar interestingly also uncovered what could possibly be Nehemiah’s wall in 2007.”

Dr Mazar has, herself, state quite clearly her position before:

I work with the Bible in one hand and the tools of excavation in the other, and I try to consider everything.

So please good people PLEASE! It is reporting like this that makes life so difficult for someone like me, and makes other far better scholars (see for example here or here) even more critical than they already are…