David's Tomb

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King David's Tomb.

King David's Tomb (Hebrew: קבר דוד המלך‎) is a site viewed as the burial place of David, King of Israel, according to a tradition beginning in the 12th century. It is located on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, near the Hagia Maria Sion Abbey. The tomb is situated in a ground floor corner of the remains of the former Hagia Zion, a Byzantine church. Older Byzantine tradition dating to the 4th century identified the location as the Cenacle of Jesus and the original meeting place of the Christian faith. The building is now part of the Diaspora Yeshiva.

History

The tomb is located in a corner of a room situated on the ground floor remains of the former Hagia Zion a ancient house of worship; the upper floor of the same building has traditionally been viewed as the Cenacle of Jesus. In 1335, the ancient church became a Franciscan monastery, but, due to tensions with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, the monastery was closed in 1551 and ownership of the site was transferred to a Muslim family. The site was apparently not viewed as David's Tomb until the 12th century. According to Benjamin of Tudela, writing about 1173, the tomb was discovered during repairs to the church; the motivation for it being declared to be the tomb of David is due to Davids conquest of Mount Zion described in the Book of Samuel.

It is impossible to verify whether the tomb is original to the location, as crusaders[citation needed] removed the tomb from its earlier context, and placed within it a stone sarcophagus, newly built for the purpose; the sarcophagus now rests over a 14th-century floor.

After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, it fell on the Israel side of the Green Line. Between 1948 and 1967 the Old City was occupied by Jordan, which barred entry to Jews even for the purpose of praying at Jewish holy sites. Jewish pilgrims from around the country and the world went to David's Tomb and climbed to the rooftop to pray.[1] Since 1949, a blue cloth, with basic modernist ornamentation, has been placed over the sarcophagus. The images on the cloth include several crown-shaped Rimmon placed over Torah scrolls, and a violin, and the cloth also features several pieces of text written in Hebrew. The building is now part of the Diaspora yeshiva.

In December 2012, unknown persons completely destroyed a large number of 17th century Islamic tiles in the tomb, and the Antiquities Authority decided to not reconstruct them.[2]

Question of authenticity

The contents of the sarcophagus have not yet been subjected to any scientific analysis, to determine their age, former appearance, or even whether there is actually still a corpse there.[citation needed]

The authenticity of the site has been challenged on several grounds. According to the Bible, David was actually buried within the City of David together with his forefathers;[3] by contrast, the 4th century Pilgrim of Bordeaux reports that he discovered David to be buried in Bethlehem, in a vault that also contained the tombs of Ezekiel, Jesse, Solomon, Job, and Asaph, with those names carved into the tomb walls.[4] The genuine David's Tomb is unlikely to contain any furnishings of value; according to the first century writer Josephus, Herod the Great tried to loot the tomb of David, but discovered that someone else had already done so before him.[5] The 4th century accounts of the Bordeaux Pilgrim and Epiphanius both record that seven synagogues had existed on Mount Zion and that by around 330 CE (the end of the Roman Period and beginning of the Byzantine Period) only one of them remained, but no association with David's tomb is mentioned.

According to the Book of Samuel, Mount Zion was the site of the Jebusite fortress called the "stronghold of Zion" that was conquered by King David, becoming his palace and the City of David.[6] It is mentioned in the Book of Isaiah (60:14), the Book of Psalms, and the first book of the Maccabees (c. 2nd century BCE).[6]

After the conquest of the Jebusite city, the hill of the Lower City was divided into several parts. The highest part, in the north, became the site of Solomon's Temple. Based on archaeological excavations revealing sections of the First Temple city wall, this is believed to have been the true Mount Zion.[7]

Towards the end of the First Temple period, the city expanded westward.[8] Just before the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, Josephus described Mount Zion as a hill across the valley to the west.[6] Thus, the western hill extending south of the Old City came to be known as Mount Zion, and this has been the case ever since.[6] At the end of the Roman period, a synagogue called Hagiya Zion was built at the entrance of the structure known as David's Tomb probably based on the belief that David brought the Ark of the Covenant here from Beit Shemesh and Kiryat Ye'arim before the construction of the Temple.[9]

Mount Zion district in 1946.
According to Doron Bar,
Although the sources for the tradition of David’s Tomb on Mount Zion are not clear, it appears that it only began to take root during the subsequent, early Muslim period. Apparently, the Christians inherited this belief from the Muslims, and only at a relatively late juncture in the city’s history were the Jews finally convinced as well.[10]

Epiphanius' 4th century account in his Weights and Measures is one of the first to associate the location with the original meeting place of the Christian faith, writing that there stood "the church of God, which was small, where the disciples, when they had returned after the Savior had ascended from the Mount of Olives, went to the upper room".[11]

Archaeologists, doubting the Mount Zion location and favouring the biblical account, have since the early 20th century sought the actual tomb in the City of David area. However as noted earlier the City of David as it appears today may not be the City of David mentioned in the Biblical account in Shmuel, as Josephus Flavius explained Mount Zion and the City of David could have been the same location, as David conquered the "Zion" Fortress and called it and the surrounding area the City of David. In 1913, Raymond Weill found eight elaborate tombs at the south of the City of David,[12] which archaeologists have subsequently interpreted as strong candidates for the burial locations of the former kings of the city;[13] Hershel Shanks, for example, argues that the most ornate of these (officially labelled T1) is precisely where one would expect to find the burial site mentioned in the Bible.[14] Among those who agree with the academic and archaeological assessment of the Mount Zion site, some believe it actually is the tomb of a later king, possibly Manasseh, who is described in the Hebrew Bible as being buried in the Garden of the King rather than in the City of David like his predecessors.

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to David's Tomb.
  1. ↑ Jerusalem Divided: The Armistice Regime, 1947-1967, Raphael Israeli, Routledge, 2002, p. 6
  2. ↑ Nir Hasson (August 3, 2013). "Who is 'Judaizing' King David's Tomb?". Haaretz. 
  3. ↑ 1 Kings 2:9
  4. ↑ Itinerarium Burdigalense 598:4-6
  5. ↑ Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 16:7:1
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Bargil Pixner (2010). Rainer Riesner, ed. Paths of the Messiah. Ignatius Press. pp. 320–322. ISBN 978-0-89870-865-3.  Unknown parameter |translator= ignored (|others= suggested) (help)
  7. ↑ This is Jerusalem, Menashe Harel, Canaan Publishing, Jerusalem, 1977, p.193, 272
  8. ↑ This is Jerusalem, Menashe Harel, Canaan Publishing, Jerusalem, 1977, p.272
  9. ↑ This is Jerusalem, Menashe Harel, Canaan Publishing, Jerusalem, 1977, p.273
  10. ↑ Doron Bar (2004). "Re-creating Jewish Sanctity in Jerusalem: Mount Zion and David’s Tomb, 1948–67". The Journal of Israeli History 23 (2): 260–278. 
  11. ↑ Epiphanius of Salamis, Weights and Measures (1935) pp.11-83. English translation
  12. ↑ Kathleen Kenyon, Archaeology in the Holy Land (1985), p. 333.
  13. ↑ Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1995, p. 64.
  14. ↑ Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1995, p. 64.
Holy sites in Judaism
Temple remnants
Tombs of biblical figures
Four Holy Cities
Land

Coordinates: 31°46′17.9″N 35°13′44.45″E / 31.771639°N 35.2290139°E / 31.771639; 35.2290139

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