The Bible and Archaeology

In the 1980s, most scholars believed King David was a myth. He was sort of like Hercules or King Arthur — a mythical figure connected to the origin of a group of people, but not connected to any kind of actual historical truth. Indeed, in 1980, Charles Huttar, a scholar from Hope College, wrote “Even a sporadic churchgoer could hardly have escaped the myth of David. If his eye strayed to the stained-glass windows, he might see David in his role as an ancestor of Christ, in the Jesse Tree. If he looked at the statuary, there was David as a prophet, king, or foretype of Christ. But more dramatic than either of these was the story of David’s sin and repentance.” David was simply another myth; his stories were interesting, but they obviously never actually happened. That is, until 1993....