“Biblical Minimalism,” popularized in the mid-1980’s by a number of academics at the University of Copenhagen, espoused the view that the Bible was written in the Hellenistic Period, nearly 700 years after David and Solomon and thus the Biblical descriptions of them were purely imagined. Since then, however, a number of archaeological discoveries have been unearthed that prove that David and Solomon were actual historical personalities. In fact, the latest edition of Biblical Archaeology Review (May/June 2011, Volume 37, Number 3) goes so far as to report on “The Birth and Death of Biblical Minimalism.” Reviewing the impact of the Tel Dan Stele discovered in 1993-4 and the subsequent re-examination of the Mesha Stela and the ostraca and bones discovered during the recent excavations of the Israelite town at Qeifiya bordering Philistia, archaeologists are now convinced that the evidence is indisputably in favour of rejecting “Biblical Minimalism.” The implication is that there is more truth to the Biblical narrative than has been previously accepted. And it the stories of David and Solomon are now plausible…
