The Tel Dan Stele
Ninth-century BC neighbours of Israel knew Judah as "the House of David" — a dynasty named after a founder, a century and a half after David's traditional date.
Nommé hors de la BibleInscriptionc. 840 BC
A victory stele set up by an Aramean king — most likely Hazael of Damascus — boasting of killing kings of Israel and of the House of David. Broken up and reused as building stone, which is why it survived. Line 9 carries the phrase bytdwd, "House of David": the earliest known reference to David's dynasty outside the Bible.
…[I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab] king of Israel, and I killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin]g of the House of David.
- Découvert
- Tel Dan, northern Israel, 1993 — Gila Cook, in Avraham Biran's excavation (further fragments 1994)
- Conservé à
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Langue
- Old Aramaic
Jusqu'où cela va
The reading "House of David" is accepted by the large majority of epigraphers. A small minority has proposed alternatives; the objection has not carried the field.
Ce qu'en font les historiens
Widely treated in secular scholarship as decisive against the once-common view that David was purely legendary. It establishes the dynasty, not the biblical portrait of David's reign.
Dans l'Écriture
Se rattache à
Sources
- Biran & Naveh, "The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment", Israel Exploration Journal 45 (1995)
- Biblical Archaeology Society, "The Tel Dan Inscription"
Ces textes sont pour l'instant en anglais. Les traductions suivront.