Tombs of the kings of Judah
The tombs of the kings of Judah , or the Davidic dynasty, were, according to written tradition, in Jerusalem. There is no consensus on the location and archaeological identification of the Iron Age necropolis .
Books of Kings (Bible)
Usually the burial of the king was noted with variants of the following formula: “And x lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David ( בְּעִיר דָוּדִ). “It is generally assumed that the graves are regionally customary burial chambers carved in the rock (cf. 2 Chr 16,14 LUT ).
Other burial places are given for the kings after Ahaz. This could be because the southeast hill under Hezekiah was included in the city of Jerusalem and was now within the city walls. Funerals within the city may have become unusual at this time. ( Ez 43,7–9 LUT criticizes that the “corpses of kings” were near the temple.) Nadav Na'aman takes the view that the royal necropolis was originally located below the palace, as was common in the ancient Orient has been. In the 7th century, stricter rules were enforced with respect to the dead impurity, which is why the royal tombs outside the city walls in the royal garden in the Kidron Valley have misplaced.
The deviating information in the second book of the chronicle does not reveal any more precise knowledge, but rather follows the tendency to deny the honorable burial of the dynasty of David to kings with negative ratings.
Where the royal books state the age when taking office in addition to the period of reign, the following overview gives the age (which is interesting in view of life expectancy at that time).
| Ruler | Age | Cause of death | funeral | Additions / corrections by the chronicler |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| David | 1 Kings 2,10 LUT | |||
| Solomon | 1 Kings 11,43 LUT | |||
| Rehaboam | 58 | 1 Kings 14.31 LUT | ||
| Abija | 1 Kings 15,8 LUT | |||
| Asa | 1 Kings 15,24 NIV | “And they buried him in his grave, which he had hewn in the city of David. And they put him on his bed, which had been filled with good incense and all kinds of artfully prepared spices, and they made a very great fire in his honor. ”(2 Chr 16:14) | ||
| Joschafat | 60 | 1 Kings 22,51 LUT | ||
| Joram | 40 | 2 Kings 8:24 ESV | “And they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of kings”. (2 Chr 21,20) | |
| Ahaziah | 23 | Combat injuries | “And he fled to Megiddo and died there. And his servants brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David ”. (2 Kings 9: 27-28) | |
| Joasch | 47 | murder | 2 Kings 12,22 KJV | “And they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of kings”. (2 Chr 24.25) |
| Amaziah | 54 | murder | "And they brought him (from Lachish ) on horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David". (2 Kings 14:20) | |
| Azariah (Uziya) | 68 | leprosy | 2 Kings 15,7 KJV | “And they buried him with his fathers in the field near the tomb of the kings; for they said, He is a leper "(2 Chr 26:23) |
| Iotam | 41 | 2 Kings 15,38 KJV | ||
| Ahaz | 36 | 2 Kings 16,20 KJV | “And they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem; for they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel ”(2 Chr 28:27) | |
| Hezekiah | 54 | 2 Kings 20,21 LUT | "And they buried him where one goes up to the tombs of the sons of David" (2 Chr 32:33) | |
| Manasseh | 67 | "And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden by his house, in the garden of Usa" (2 Kings 21:18) | "And they buried him in his house". (2 Chr 33.20) | |
| Amon | 24 | murder | "And they buried him in his grave in the garden of Usa". (2 Kings 21:26) | |
| Josiah | 39 | Combat injuries | "And his servants brought the dead man from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his grave". (2 Kings 23:30) | |
| Joiakim | 36 | 2 Kings 24,6 KJV |
Ancient royal tombs and tomb of David traditions
In the Persian period "the tombs of David" (Aramaic קִבְרֵי דָויִד ḳivre daṿid Neh 3,16 LUT ) localized on the southeastern terraces of the city of David. This corresponds to the Vitae Prophetarum (1,6–7), which locate the “tomb of kings” (τάφος τῶν βασιλέων) on the eastern edge of the spur.
In Hellenistic times, the custom arose to honor the grave of city founders "with a splendid grave monument that was also a treasury". Therefore, the interest turned entirely to a royal tomb, that of David.
Flavius Josephus writes that the tomb of David (Δαυίδου τάφος) was opened by John Hyrcanus , who took 3,000 talents of silver from it in order to induce Antiochus VII to break off the siege of Jerusalem. Herod had the system expanded "as a monumental heroon ". Cassius Dio writes that this tomb collapsed during the Bar Kochba uprising .
Thereafter the tradition of the royal tombs in Jerusalem is lost; In Byzantine times the tomb of David and Solomon was located in Bethlehem. It was already shown to the pilgrim from Bordeaux : “Not far from there (the Constantinian Church of the Nativity ) is the tomb of Ezekiel, Asaf, Job, Jesse, David and Solomon. The names are written in Hebrew on the wall where you go down into the cave. "
The so-called David's tomb on the southwest hill has no ancient tradition . It goes back to the crusader days.
archeology
In the winter of 1850/51, Félicien de Saulcy exposed a well-known, but partially buried ancient hypogeum north of the old city of Jerusalem , which he identified with the necropolis of the kings of Judah. Today, however, based on the information provided by Flavius Josephus, this complex is generally believed to be the burial place of the rulers of Adiabene . It is owned by the French state under the name Tombeau des Rois .
Raymond Weill carried out excavations in the City of David in 1913/1914 . Baron de Rothschild had acquired a plot of land on the eastern slope of the south-east hill in Jerusalem. Based on the ancient sources, Weill suspected the tombs of the kings of Judah in the south of this area. This area was later used as a quarry. He found two rock tunnels and six rock chambers or grottoes. With that he believed to have found the Iron Age necropolis. Burials have been found in four of the chambers, and in at least one also ceramics from the Iron Age IIB. Further up, Weill discovered two tunnels and a burial chamber, which, due to their size, he believed was a royal grave; but it was completely empty. In another campaign from 1923–1924, Weill found a system made up of two rectangular rock chambers that were connected by a round arch and were only accessible from above through shafts. Weill's interpretation as a royal necropolis was rejected by the majority of archaeologists, who suggested an alternative interpretation of the findings as cisterns. David Ussishkin compared the finely worked graves of the Iron Age Judean upper class in Silwan and judged that kings were probably not buried in the roughly hewn tombs that Weill had excavated. Because of the similarity with graves in Hazor and Byblos, Weill's findings can also be graves from the Middle or Late Bronze Age.
Other locations of the royal necropolis were suggested, but remained individual votes: in the grave field of Silwan (Reifenberg, 1948), north of the old town in the grave field of the Dominican monastery near the Stephanuskirche ( Barkay and Kloner, 1986).
Web links
- Klaus Bieberstein: Jerusalem. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
- Robert Wenning: grave. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
literature
- Raymond Weill: La Cité de David. Campagne de 1913-1914. Geuthner, Paris 1920 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
- Max Küchler : Jerusalem. A handbook and study guide to the Holy City. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-525-50170-2 .
- Matthew J. Suriano: The Politics of Dead Kings: Dynastic Ancestors in the Book of Kings and Ancient Israel. (= Research on the Old Testament, 2nd series, volume 48) Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-16-150473-0 .
- Jeffrey R. Zorn: The Burials of the Judean Kings: Sociohistorical Considerations and Suggestions. In: Aren M. Maeir, Pierre de Miroschedji (Ed.): I Will Speak the Riddles of Ancient Times: Archaeological and Historical Studies in Honor of Amihai Mazar on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday. Volume 2. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2006, ISBN 978-1-57506-103-0 , pp. 801-820.
Individual evidence
- ^ Klaus Bieberstein: Jerusalem. P. 60 , accessed on December 16, 2018 .
- ^ Matthew J. Suriano: The Politics of Dead Kings . S. 109 .
- ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem . S. 81 .
- ^ Klaus Bieberstein: Jerusalem. P. 61 , accessed December 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Jeffrey R. Zorn: The Burials of the Judean Kings . S. 805 .
- ^ Klaus Bieberstein: Jerusalem. P. 62 , accessed on December 16, 2018 .
- ↑ Jeffrey R. Zorn: The Burials of the Judean Kings . S. 812 .
- ↑ Jeffrey R. Zorn: The Burials of the Judean Kings . S. 802 .