Southern Adventist group digs into King David controversy

A handful of students and faculty at Southern Adventist University recently got the chance to get their hands dirty in an archaeological hot spot.

“It’s like looking for gold,” said Gordon Bietz, president of Southern Adventist University. “It’s really exciting because you’re digging and saying, ‘Wow, what am I going to come across next?’”

The group traveled to the Israeli city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, believed by some to be King David’s Biblical city of Sha’arayim, which translates to “two gates.” In 2008, excavators found two gates in the walls of the city, the only city in Judah or Israel known to have two gates.

It also is the spot where some say David fought his legendary battle with Goliath as written in the Old Testament’s First Book of Samuel.

Scholars recently began to question the existence of the Kingdom of David as cited in the Bible, suggesting that David perhaps was only a minor tribal leader rather than the king of a major dynasty. Skeptical researchers claim the Biblical account of David was exaggerated in myth and legend, much like that of King Arthur, and that David actually lived about 100 years earlier than commonly believed.

The goal of Southern Adventist’s research trip was to discover evidence to refute the claims of skeptics and, hopefully, give more credibility to the Bible’s accounts of events, said Justo Morales, the archaeological museum coordinator at the university.

“Historically, we have generally found that archaeological evidence has backed up the Bible story,” Dr. Bietz said.

Mr. Morales said they found what they were looking for — artifacts, such as pottery, dating to the time of David, which they say help to show that this city was part of King David’s kingdom.

“This discovery in this city will tend to demonstrate that it truly was a kingdom rather like the biblical account indicates,” Dr. Bietz said.

But not everyone is convinced, leading to international controversy within the world of archaeology.

“I don’t believe that any archaeologist can revolutionize our entire understanding of Judah and Jerusalem by a single site. It doesn’t work that way. This is a cumulative discipline,” said Israel Finkelstein, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University, in an October 2008 New York Times story.

Ervan Garrison, professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia, said many scientists would describe the type of research completed by the group from Southern Adventist as “archaeological tourism” and said it is “very separated from the mainstream.” He compared trying to prove the existence of David’s kingdom to the recent phenomena of creation science — both widely questioned by many scientists.

“Science tries to disprove, not prove,” Dr. Garrison said. “Our job is to take something and try to tear it down and disprove it. And if it’s still standing after we’ve thrown everything at it, well, you know, it might have some real credibility. We’re sort of the devil’s advocates to our best ideas.”

Dr. Bietz and Mr. Morales said they are not trying to prove anything, but they would like to see their findings back up what they believe to be true.

“As a person of faith, I would like to see it back it up,” Dr. Bietz said. “But I also am open to finding what we find. The evidence is the evidence.”