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Ancient Rock Refers to King David
(JTA) Menachem Wecker - An ancient stone on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of its "Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age" exhibit running through Jan. 4, contains an inscription which is the earliest extra-biblical reference to the House of David. "There is no doubt that the inscription is one of the most important artifacts ever found in relation to the Bible," Eran Arie, curator of Israelite and Persian periods at the Israel Museum, wrote in the exhibit catalog. In the text, the Aram-Damascene king Hazael brags of having killed 70 kings, including of Israel and of the "House of David." The inscription amounts to a "clear indication that the 'House of David' was known throughout the region and that the king's reputation was not a literary invention of a much later period," Arie wrote. This "clearly validates the biblical description of a figure named David becoming the founder of the dynasty of Judahite kings in Jerusalem."