In the Quran and hadith, David is described as an Israelite king as well as a prophet of Allah. Early Christians interpreted the life of Jesus of Nazareth in light of references to the Hebrew Messiah and to David Jesus is described as being directly descended from David in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. David is honored as an ideal king and the forefather of the future Hebrew Messiah in Jewish prophetic literature and many psalms are attributed to him.ĭavid is also richly represented in post-biblical Jewish written and oral tradition and referenced in the New Testament. He dies at age 70 and chooses Solomon, his son with Bathsheba, as his successor instead of his eldest son Adonijah. David desires to build a temple to Yahweh but is denied because of the bloodshed in his reign. David's son Absalom later tries to overthrow him, but David returns to Jerusalem after Absalom's death to continue his reign. He commits adultery with Bathsheba and arranges the death of her husband, Uriah the Hittite. He conquers Jerusalem, makes it the capital of a united Israel and brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city.

After Saul and his son Jonathan are killed in battle, David is anointed king by the tribe of Judah and eventually all the tribes of Israel. He becomes a favorite of Saul, the first king of Israel, but is forced to go into hiding when Saul becomes paranoid that David is trying to take his throne. In the biblical narrative of the Books of Samuel, David is described as a young shepherd and harpist who gains fame by killing Goliath. Apart from this, all that is known of David comes from biblical literature, the historicity of which has been extensively challenged, and there is little detail about David that is concrete and undisputed. The Mesha stele, erected by king Mesha of Moab in the 9th century BCE, may also refer to the 'House of David', although this is disputed. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone that was erected by a king of Aram-Damascus in the late-9th/early-8th centuries BCE to commemorate a victory over two enemy kings, contains the phrase bytdwd ( 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃), which is translated to ' House of David' by most scholars.

Historians of the Ancient Near East agree that David probably lived around 1000 BCE, but little more is known about him as a historical figure.Īccording to Jewish works such as the Seder Olam Rabbah, Seder Olam Zutta, and Sefer ha-Qabbalah, David ascended the throne as the king of Judah in 885 BCE. David ( / ˈ d eɪ v ɪ d/ Biblical Hebrew: דָּוִד‎, romanized: Dāwīḏ, 'beloved one') was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the third king of the United Kingdom of Israel.

Life of david in the bible timeline