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Home > Magazines > BAR > November/December 1994

The “House of David” and the House of the Deconstructionists

Davies is an amateur who “can safely be ignored”

By Anson F. Rainey

In response to Philip R. Davies’s brief article (“‘House of David’ Built on Sand,” BAR 20:04), a few observations are in order. Apart from the details of the Dan (and now the Mesha) inscriptions, there is a wider issue that concerns both Bible students and teachers. Davies represents what he and a circle of colleagues call the “deconstructionist” approach to Biblical traditions. The present instance can serve as a useful example of why Davies and his “deconstructionists” can safely be ignored by everyone seriously interested in Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern studies. Regarding the recently excavated Dan inscription, Davies […]

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Footnotes

1.

Avraham Biran and Joseph Naveh, “An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan,” Israel Exploration Journal 43 (1993), pp. 81–98; see also “‘David’ found at Dan,” BAR 20:02.

2.

André Lemaire, “‘House of David’ Restored in Moabite Inscription,” BAR 20:03.

3.

For specific details, consult my forthcoming review of Davies’s book In Search of ‘Ancient Israel’ to appear soon in The Journal of the American Oriental Society. I am also preparing a review of Thomas Thompson’s Early History of the Israelite People from the Written & Archaeological Sources, which reveals the author’s lack of archaeological, textual and linguistic competence in dealing with original source material.