01x15 - King David

[bunniefuu]

[music]

I'm going on an adventure.

There's only one way to figure it all out.

Unzip the archeology. Make it naked.

[music]

[MALE VOICE] David, the simple shepherd boy...

...who became a noble warrior king.

In a time of conflict, he did it all.

Fighter, poet, lover, mighty monarch of a mighty nation.

David, the greatest hero of all time.

[SIMCHA] Almost everything we know of David...

...comes from the greatest source of David memorabilia:

the Bible.

The Bible paints a picture of a glorious and pious king...

...who establishes a mighty empire.

But contemporary scholars are singing a different tune.

They say that over generations of telling and retelling the story,

David's character has evolved into something larger than life.

They say, David was a little guy and there was no big empire.

For them, the biblical David is the stuff of Hollywood movies.

We're in Jerusalem, the city of David.

Why is it called the city of David?

Because according to the Bible,

King David moved his capital here.

He took all the Israelite tribes that are mentioned in the Bible,

and he united them into one nation.

He also established the messianic lineage.

Both Christians and Jews believe that Messiah...

...comes from the line of David.

But who is this man? Is he just a literary figure?

Is he a figment of some ancient Shakespearean imagination?

Or is he a real person?

[animal calls]

[SIMCHA] The Bible introduces David...

...as a young shepherd boy,

chosen by God to lead his people, the Israelites.

David's most famous feat...

...was the slaying of the giant Goliath, a Philistine.

The Philistines were the Israelites' great enemies.

An Israelite boy slaying a Philistine giant...

...is definitely a big deal.

So this is the first story I need to investigate,

and there's nowhere better to start...

...than where it all happened.

Just outside Goliath's hometown, the ancient city of Gat.

It's here that Philistine expert Dr Aren Maier...

...can help us separate the man from the myth.

Wow, a pile of rocks.

This is it, this is what you brought me?

Looks like a pile of rocks.

That's what it is. A big pile of rocks.

It's one of the larger ancient mounds in the land.

[SIMCHA] This ancient mound...

...was once the biblical city of Gath.

Beneath this ground lie clues...

...to the real story of David and Goliath.

King David lives here?

Well, yeah, probably.

Isn't that amazing?

Now David would've come from over there?

Exactly. In that general area.

In the story of David and Goliath,

the location of the battle according to biblical texts...

...is right in the Ava valley to the north of us.

[SIMCHA] David's showdown with the giant Goliath...

...was his debut on the b*ttlefield.

Armed with only a tiny sling and a few rocks,

the young David toppled the tremendous brute...

...with a well-aimed sh*t to the temple.

But could it have happened that way?

The Bible says it did.

Now the battle is right over there.

David would have picked up a stone,

an ordinary stone just like this one,

and he would have put the stone in the slingshot,

and the slingshot would have accommodated stones better.

First time in years. No, .

Some years, in almost years who else came here?

The precise location where David slew Goliath.

[SIMCHA] Are you okay?

So David confronted Goliath right here.

Yeah. Exactly.

So what do you make of that story?

Is it history or mythology?

Well I think it's a combination of a bit of both.

I think the size of this person was exaggerated.

Larger than life.

-I caught a fish this big you know.

But on the other hand, the type of weapons...

...and the armour that he's depicted in...

...I think fits him very nicely.

With what we can think that the sea peoples would have had,

with that early Iron Age panoply.

[SIMCHA] Perhaps the strangest part of David's panoply...

...was the foreskins the Bible says he carried...

...as an engagement gift for King Saul's daughter.

The Bible says:

David upped the ante and brought .

He wore some foreskins?

This is biblical isn't it?

Well, I don't think he wore them.

What's the story there?

He wanted to prove his prowess to Saul.

So he went and k*lled the Philistines...

...and brought back their foreskins.

I guess it was a way of-

He did that in battle.

Yes.

-it wasn't like a ritual circumcising.

No. But that was something quite common...

...in the ancient beliefs and unfortunately even till now-

To wear foreskins?

No! It's that when you k*ll somebody in battle...

...you bring back a trophy.

Whether it's his head or his hand...

...or in some cases his foreskin.

[SIMCHA] I think there may be more to this foreskin story...

...than just a bunch of battle trophies.

And I bet, with a little more work,

archaeology will offer some clues.

Leonard Cohen wrote a beautiful song...

...called Hallelujah.

That's the story of David and Bethsheba.

He saw her bathing on the roof and he fell in love with her.

And that precipitated one of the most...

...problematic episodes in David's career.

[SIMCHA] You see, Bathsheba was a married woman.

Since her husband's away at w*r,

she's easy pickings for the suave David.

When she gets pregnant,

David orders her husband on a su1c1de mission.

And it works.

David then marries Bathsheba who bears him a son, Solomon.

According to the Bible,

David and his son Solomon built a unified Israelite monarchy.

A kind of mini empire,

complete with big gates and great temples.

But some scholars believe there was no empire,

no gates, no archaeology.

The main guy behind this theory is Professor Israel Finkelstein.

We're on our way to Tel Aviv...

...to see Professor Israel Finkelstein.

The superstar of archaeology.

He teaches there at Tel Aviv University and what's his line?

His line is that it's all, or a lot of it,

is a figment of somebody's imagination.

According to Professor Israel Finkelstein,

the Bible is fantasy. It's mythology.

At least most of it is. Certainly David is.

Okay, here's the clap.

Hey you all, wait.

The clapper- [inaudible]

mmm...espresso.

Professor, did David exist?

Yes he did.

Was he a big guy or little guy?

Well, he was a reasonable guy.

Was he as big as the Bible paints him out to be?

Well, I don't think so.

I don't think that he established a great empire...

...stretching to Euphrates and so on.

Did it stretch anywhere? Did he get to Tel Aviv?

[laughs]

Where did it stretch?

Well there's King David street in Tel Aviv...

...if that means anything.

Did he get that far?

No I don't think so.

Why the portrait of King David...

...that we've come to know from the Bible?

The guy who is a warrior, the guy who is a poet.

Why that portrait?

And when you look at it,

you reach a totally different conclusion...

...when you look to the archaeological evidence.

I see him as the founder of a dynasty...

...in the way that dynasties at that time were established.

They have never been established being nice to your neighbor...

...and coming and knocking on the door and asking him,

would you mind going away and I'll take your throne?

You think that happened?

No. -Okay. Fine.

The Bible says that he walked around with foreskins.

Yeah exactly. Gangsters kind of.

Bad people, gangsters going around-

He's a tough guy?

Exactly, tough guys

And then he takes Jerusalem and establishes a seat there.

That's what the Bible tells me...

...and I have no reason to go against it.

Well, there's archaeologist that would say it never happened.

-I don't know. I don't know.

They dug around the city of David.

There's nothing there.

There is something there.

There's no monumental city there in the th century BC,

but there' s definitely a village.

A big village?

A village.

A medium sized village?

It wasn't the smallest, it wasn't the biggest.

No, it wasn't a city.

It wasn't a city, it was not fortified.

There was no monumental architecture there.

This is a far cry from what the portrait the Bible paints.

Yes it is.

[SIMCHA] If David was just a small time thug...

...leading a pack of hooligans,

why is his name mentioned more than any other in the Bible?

Times were certainly tougher...

...and leaders had to rule with the sword,

but there's something about Finkelstein's theory...

...that doesn't sit right with me.

Finky Finky Finky.

Watching music videos in my hotel room,

I fall asleep thinking that if professor Finkelstein...

...hasn't found archeological evidence for the biblical David,

maybe he's simply digging in the wrong place.

[RAPPING] David was no king, just a big chief

No city of mine.

It's all a big lie.

David.

You gotta be humble when you dig with that spade

Last night I read you simply...

...may be digging in the wrong place.

Word.

[SIMCHA] Professor Finkelstein's David...

...may just be a g*ng leader,

but the Bible describes his reign...

...as the golden age of Israel.

A time where wealth and tribute...

...poured in from all of his conquered territories.

And as his empire expanded,

David formed Israel's first centralized government.

Archaeologists like Prof. Finkelstein...

...say there's little evidence of such a large organized state.

But I want a second opinion,

and I know just the man to turn to.

Professor Baruch Halpern.

Who just happens to have written a book about King David.

We have your colleague.

Finky Finkelstein as he is known to those who like him.

Are you agreeing with Finky?

There was no big king named David?

No, we have a disagreement.

I believe he was a big king.

He would stop you short and say...

...you're imagining a David that didn't exist.

Anybody who's as big as you say he is...

...would have much more of an administration.

Where's your David?

My David conquers Israel very late in his reign, in my view.

Probably in the last ten years.

And that doesn't allow much time for monumental construction.

But in the next generation under Solomon,

we do have big cities that are...

...integrated into a central state...

...that is capable of monumental construction,

incredible fortification, has a lot of wealth.

His achievement is the unification of Israel...

...and the creation of a stable form of government,

over territory that previously was totally fragmented.

And ultimately he creates ethnicity.

The ethnicity being?

Israelites, or later, Judahite, Jewish.

That stuff all comes from David ultimately.

You're saying no to Finkelstein.

I always say no to Fink.

[SIMCHA] Big David, little David?

The debate hinges on finding evidence...

...of monumental archeology.

Professor Finkelstein says there's none.

Professor Halpern says there's some.

Or maybe it was just different kind of empire

and we're all searching for the wrong clues.

I turn to Prof. Aren Maier for one more opinion.

If you look at the current debate,

you know, the continuation of the debate,

I think the two sides are sort of reaching closer...

...to a meeting point and I think that in the end...

...they're gonna meet somewhere in the middle.

I don't understand the debate.

Once you've found the framework of the history...

...you have no reason to doubt that...

...a story is innocent until proven guilty.

You could say that if in fact...

...David and Solomon had a major kingdom.

Why aren't we finding inscriptions...

...from the time of David and Solomon?

How do we explain that...

...when the context of the story of Solomon...

...having any empire which would be comparable...

...to Constantine the Great?

I mean, it's hard to understand it.

The question is, how much do you read into this?

Do you turn David into a small,

petty ruler of a couple of families?

Or do you turn him into the ruler of a large area?

-But you can see it even in the modern times,

you can rule all of Afghanistan without having-

No, I agree, and I think that's possible.

I think you have to shift what you want to see...

...and how you're looking for David.

And if you're looking for David and Solomon...

...and you expect to find the Arch of Constantine,

you're not going to find it.

And if you ask me, this is my opinion,

they were sort of charismatic Bedouin chiefs.

[SIMCHA] It's an interesting theory,

but the bible portrays David as a much bigger character...

...than that of a simple charismatic chieftain.

We know that other ancient empires...

...celebrated their glory...

...by constructing monumental buildings.

The Romans had the Arch of Constantine and the Coliseum,

the Greeks the Acropolis and the Egyptians had their pyramids.

And it was very common for such powers...

...to record their achievements in writing.

Leaving archeologists with the remains...

...of inscribed stones, tablets and stelae.

Remnants like these surely exist for David,

and I'm gonna find them.

[SIMCHA] The bible describes David...

...as a fearless warrior.

A man of great strength and courage.

But he's also known for his more sensitive side.

When David wasn't out smiting Philistines,

he relaxed by playing some music...

...and writing some of the Bible's most beautiful poetry.

According to tradition,

David wrote a hundred and fifty biblical songs.

The songs were written as psalms or chants,

and are used in both Christian and Jewish liturgy.

"The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want,

he maketh me to lie down in green pastures,

he leadeth me beside still waters."

As I wandered through the streets of Jerusalem,

I stumbled across The Museum of Psalms.

I definitely have to check this place out.

The book of Psalms,

all set to mystical paintings.

Here's a mystic I can see.

Please come in and I will show you..

..what's going on here.

Can you believe it? Are these your paintings?

Yeah. My paintings.

[SIMCHA] Painting as prayer.

Exactly, very good.

[SIMCHA] Moses Berger is an artist and a mystic...

...and he takes his inspiration from the Psalms of David.

This is like a kind of Jewish Sistine Chapel.

David was an artist, wasn't he?

Absolutely.

He was poet and he wrote a hundred and fifty psalms.

And David-

David was singing these psalms. [sings]

I love that you just sent me up there.

We interview a lot of archaeologists...

...and it seems to me often to some of these guys,

the Bible it's something to be dug up, it's dead.

For you, it's not archaeology.

For you it's alive.

Listen, it's very simple.

Is the almighty alive or not? For me, it's alive.

I love this guy!

[SIMCHA] Three thousand years later...

...and people are still inspired by his poetry.

But like everything David, there's always a skeptic.

Was he a good singer?

I have no idea what kind of a singer David was.

But we have this tradition of him as a poet,

all the songs are attributed to him.

Actually it's a debate whether they're attributed to David...

...or whether they're sung for David.

The superscription is 'lidaveed'. To David.

So you don't think he wrote them.

No, I honestly don't think he wrote a single song.

[SIMCHA] Although we'll never know if David...

...actually wrote any of the Psalms,

we can at least turn to archeology...

...to help us gauge the size of his empire.

So my next stop is the Biblical Hazor,

where Professor Amnon Bentor is head of the expedition.

The Bible specifically speaks of David's son,

Solomon, collecting money to build the walls around Hazor,

Megiddo and Gezer.

Archaeologists are finding that these three cities...

...have something in common.

These fortified gates.

Could this be the monumental architecture...

...everyone is looking for?

So this is the gate? This is Solomon's gate?

I would say this is the th century gate...

...attributed to Solomon.

You must understand that you're looking at foundations.

These are the foundations?

These were actually another five meters,

another six meters tall, they were gates,

but there were doors which were made out of wood.

Giant wooden doors.

Yes. We know exactly what these gates looked like.

So you have six chambers, you have three on each side,

and a tower here and a tower there.

The idea is to keep the enemy as long as possible...

...within the k*lling zone,

making it difficult for the enemy to-

If they break through?

If they break through you have another.

Is the Bible history or is the Bible myth?

How much of it is history.

Did you say-

I think quite a lot.

Okay, what does the archaeology say?

That's a matter of interpretation.

What does it say at Hazor?

Quite a lot.

When it says that Solomon built Hazor,

Megiddo and Gezer.

And you have three exactly similar gates at Hazor,

Megiddo and Gezer.

In my mind this is one part of the goods.

You know what they say in British common-law?

If it waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck,

it's a duck.

Yeah. That's what I think.

[SIMCHA] The gates at Hazor offer proof...

...of monumental construction.

Look at this place, just look at it.

[SIMCHA] Proof that Solomon had the wealth...

...and power one would expect from a great empire.

And it's safe to say that the affluence began...

...with his father, David.

Time for me to track down some more evidence.

I'm on my way to the Israel museum in Jerusalem...

...to inspect an ancient inscription on a stone tablet.

This stele offers the best evidence yet,

to attest to the size and significance...

...of David and his empire.

Did David exist? Some people said no.

The Bible? Who cares.

Must be mythology.

But you can't argue with archaeology.

Finally, proof positive,

what looks like hard archaeological proof,

not only of David but of a House of David.

A dynasty.

He couldn't have been...

...a quiet little Bedouin shepherd king.

He must have had something.

Professor Brian found it at Tel Dan in northern Israel.

It's an inscription, a Moabite inscription.

A king bragging of defeating one of the descendents of David.

In the course of bragging of defeating a descendent of David,

he says:

I defeated the descendent of the House of David.

This is the only archaeological inscription...

...attesting to the dynasty of David.

I feel pretty good about my investigation.

We found proof of monumental buildings...

...and a bonified inscription attesting to David's dynasty.

There's only one thing I've gotta check up on:

That whole foreskin story.

Aren Maier has found some objects...

...that may shed some light on the mystery.

[SIMCHA] Prof. Aren Maier just called...

...to tell me about his recent discovery...

...that may solve the Philistine foreskin mystery.

Why did David bring those Philistines' foreskins...

...to Saul's daughter as a gift?

It must be some kind of symbolic meaning.

You want to see something nice?

You've been holding out on me the peni.

Wow, actually they're much more impressive than-

Want to hold them?

I'll hold them, but I just want to know this;

you said to me you measured them...

...because that's what archaeologists do...

...and that they were much smaller than usual.

Now I was expecting, you know,

that I might need a magnifying glass.

When I confronted this thing...

..I don't know which part of the town you come from,

but I mean-

I would say nice size.

Why did you say they were so tiny?

This is not Goliath's penis.

What does this tell us?

I really seriously believe that this is probably...

...some object that had some ritual meaning.

Based on your archaeology,

you think that Philistines were kind of-

They had a culture related to-

-Penises.

The phallus, yes, exactly.

And also you're saying...

...when David showed what a warrior he was by cutting off-

It may have been more than just cutting off...

...their verility it may have been also cutting off...

...something which is of ritual significance to them.

Meaning he was making a religious statement.

Or, you know, not religious.

My god is more powerful than your god.

Yeah, maybe.

They got at where it hurts.

[SIMCHA] Well I for one...

...think Professor Maier may be on to something.

If you want to put the fear of God into your enemy's hearts,

castration is certainly a good way to do it.

And if you worship a phallic Diety, even more so!

The only thing I'm still unsure about...

...is the size of David's realm.

Size does not matter.

The fact that there is a dynasty.

That there are kings...

...who call themselves descendents of David...

...shows that he was of significance,

regardless of the size of his kingdom.

That's all that I say.

David did not reign from the Euphrates down to Egypt,

okay, that's the Bible glorification.

Of course there is glorification of the past.

He did not reign from there to there, so what?

He was not important? Is it a matter of size?

Everybody agrees I don't have an argument with this.

Everybody agrees? -Everybody agrees.

I thought everybody doesn't agree about anything.

Well you thought wrong.

Okay.

[SIMCHA] David casts an enormous presence...

...in the Bible and in the world.

So significant is David...

...that Christians believe that Jesus is his direct descendent.

And Jews believe the Messiah will also come from his line.

One thing we know for sure,

David remains one of the greatest heroes of all time.

His legend, his poetry and his lifework endure.