Leon's Message Board

On the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), which marked the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel and the discharge of the Great Commission, Peter affirmed the resurrection of the crucified Christ, showing the fulfillment of Psalm 16:8-11 (Acts 2:25-28). Peter explained,

Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses (Acts 2:29-32, NASB). (Note: the NASB uses upper-case in NT texts to indicate quotations from the OT).

Here is the proposed site for the tombs of the house of David located at the SE portion of the City of David, excavated by Raymond Weill, 1913-1914.

Royal Tombs of the House of David, proposed site. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

And a close-up shot:

Proposed Tomb of the House of David. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

Dr. Todd Bolen notes,

Most scholars today reject this identification. These structures do not have features typical of Iron Age tombs; there are no burial benches or repositories. Because of later destruction, there is no stratigraphy, pottery, or burial gifts which would make dating the structure possible. Some scholars think that it dates to the Herodian period and may have been used as wine cellars for the structures built above it. There is no other candidate for the tomb of David.

The point to be remembered is that unlike the Subject of David’s psalm, David was buried, and his body saw corruption. The One of Whom he spoke saw no corruption. His body did not decay, and His spirit was not left in the Hadean realm–up from the grave He arose! The resurrection of Jesus is at the very heart of the Gospel message. Apart from the resurrection of Jesus there IS no Gospel!

We recently wrote on David’s Tomb here.

Click images for larger view.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 15th, 2017 at 11:25 AM and is filed under Bible History and Geography, Israel, Jerusalem, New Testament, Old Testament, photography, tombs, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.