Biblical king of Israel and Judah
David
Active
c. 1000 BCE
The Bible credits him with a united realm and Goliath's defeat. The Tel Dan Stele supports a later Davidic dynasty, not every story about the king.
What the sources say
Each block is a sourced statement. Click the number to see the cited page.
4 statements
Contested interpretation
In 1 Samuel 17, David defeats the Philistine Goliath with a sling. But another biblical passage (2 Samuel 21:19) credits Goliath's killing to an obscure warrior, Elhanan of Bethlehem, described in the same terms.
Contested interpretation
The authors find it more likely that Goliath's real slayer was Elhanan, and that the famous version in 1 Samuel 17 is a later development meant to enhance King David's heroic image. The biblical duel, they conclude, probably does not reflect what actually happened.
A Tel Dan inscription shows that Israel and Judah existed as kingdoms by the ninth century BCE: it names Israel's king and another ruler belonging to the House of David. No evidence, however, establishes that David and Solomon once united both kingdoms as the Bible says.
Contested interpretation
The ninth-century Dan inscription and later Mesopotamian records confirm both kingdoms. Whether Israel and Judah ever formed one united kingdom remains unresolved. Some scholars argue they were separate from the outset, with the northern state arising during the ninth century and Judah developing fully only after that state's late eighth-century destruction.