Bible Books: He’s No King Arthur

Did the shepherd boy David really slay the Philistine giant Goliath? Did Saul’s son Jonathan, the crown prince, really covenant with David? Did David really commit adultery with the beautiful Bathsheba and then have her soldier-husband Uriah surreptitiously murdered? If not, why were these stories composed and by whom? These are the kinds of questions addressed in the latest book by Baruch Halpern, professor of Jewish studies at Penn State University and codirector of the excavations at Megiddo, Israel.

The book is a product of the current controversy between the so-called minimalists and maximalists over the historicity of the biblical narratives about David and Solomon. This controversy has its roots in the school of biblical interpretation founded by William F. Albright in the mid-20th century. The agenda of the school was to “prove” the historicity of the biblical account through archaeology.