Did King David exist?

"Some scholars are busily debunking the Bible's account of the great King David, asking: Was he really all that great? Was he largely legendary, Judaism's version of Britain's legendary King Arthur, or totally fictional?

"These matters are crucial not only for Jews but for Christians, since Jesus' biblical identity as the messiah stems from David's family line.

"Skepticism about the Hebrew Bible's history was promoted to popular audiences in 'The Bible Unearthed' (2001) by Tel Aviv University archaeologist Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman. Their most recent book focuses on 'David and Solomon' (Free Press).

"Though some scholars claimed David never existed, in 1993 archaeologists discovered a stone inscription from 835 B.C. that mentions 'the house of David.' The authors say that established the existence of a dynastic founder named David and that shortly after his 10th-century era a line of kings 'traced their legitimacy back to David.'

"However, Finkelstein considers the Bible seriously distorted propaganda. He treats David as a minor bandit chieftain and Jerusalem as a hamlet, not an imperial capital ..."
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