Archeology Continues to Confirm Biblical Record

<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW5270950 BCX4"> <p><span data-contrast="none">New evidence, reports Nathan Steinmeyer of the</span> <a href= "https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/king-davids-judah-found/"> <span data-contrast="none">Biblical Archaeology Society</span></a><span data-contrast="none">, is confirming the biblical description of the kingdom of Judah as it existed in King David’s time. This is significant,</span> <span data-contrast= "none">according to Steinmeyer, because</span> <span data-contrast= "none">“[d]espite King David’s prominence in the Hebrew Bible, little archaeological evidence has been directly linked to the early years of the Kingdom of Judah.” Because of this apparent discrepancy between the archeological record and the biblical description of the region during the 10</span><span data-contrast= "none">th</span><span data-contrast="none">-century B.C., “some scholars have argued that Judah only became a developed polity in the ninth or even eighth century B.C.E.” </span><span data-ccp-props= "{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335551550":1,"335551620":1,"335559685":0,"335559731":720,"335559737":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":0,"335559740":480}"> </span></p> <p><span data-contrast="none">Recently, however, an article published in the</span> <a href= "https://jjar.huji.ac.il/sites/default/files/jjar/files/garfinkel_2021_jjar_1_126-154.pdf"> <em><span data-contrast="none">Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology</span></em></a> <span data-contrast="none">by renowned Hebrew University archeologist</span> <a href= "https://archaeology.huji.ac.il/people/yosef-garfinkel"><span data-contrast="none"> Yosef Garfinkel,</span></a> <span data-contrast="none">whose team has been digging four major sites in the Judean foothills since 2007, makes claims that “completely transforms the state of research.” Newly exposed settlement layers reveal a number of population centers with writing, housing, and casemate [or double] city walls, which form the kind of fortified cities described in 1 an