Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Brian Roberts <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>]

On Thursday, May 27, 2004, at 06:50  AM, George Athas wrote:

(snip)

> To argue that the Tel Dan Inscription identifies a 'king of the House 
> of David' is to go against seemingly unanimous evidence.

(snip)

George,

When you say seemingly unanimous evidence, are you referring to all 
those dozens of Israelite royal inscriptions? Oh, wait. There aren't 
dozens of Israelite royal inscriptions. So then are you referring to 
non-Israelite royal inscriptions for your standard against which to 
measure the Tel Dan inscription? Clearly, there was enough of a cultural 
difference between the Israelites and surrounding examples you might 
cite that accounts for their lack of long royal inscriptions. This 
cultural difference can account for the interpretation of Bayt Dawid as 
a dynastic Davidic House.

Best Salaams,

Brian Roberts