Ancient World

Davidic line

The Davidic line or the House of David (Hebrew: בֵּית דָּוִד Bēt Dāwīḏ) was, according to the Bible and Jewish and Christian traditions, the line of kings, descended from David, who ruled over the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah from the 9th to the 6th centuries BCE. According to the biblical narrative, David of the Tribe of Judah engaged in a protracted conflict with Ish-bosheth of the Tribe of Benjamin after the latter succeeded his father Saul to become the second king of an amalgamated Israel and Judah. Amidst this struggle, Yahweh had sent his prophet Samuel to anoint David as the true king of the Israelites. Following Ish-bosheth's assassination at the hands of his own army captains, David is traditionally believed to have acceded to the throne around 1010 BCE, replacing the House of Saul with his own and becoming the Israelite third king. He was succeeded by his son Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba. Solomon's death led to the rejection of the House of David by most of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, with only Judah and Benjamin remaining loyal: the dissenters chose Jeroboam as their monarch and formed the Kingdom of Israel in the north (Samaria); while the loyalists kept Solomon's son Rehoboam as their monarch and formed the Kingdom of Judah in the south (Judea). With the success of Jeroboam's Revolt having severed Israel's connection to the House of David, only the Judahite monarchs, except Athaliah, were part of the Davidic line. In the aftermath of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem around 587 BCE, Solomon's Temple was destroyed and the Kingdom of Judah fell to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Nearly 450 years later, the Hasmonean dynasty established the first independent Jewish kingdom since the Babylonian conquest, though it was not considered to be connected to the Davidic line nor to the Tribe of Judah. In Jewish eschatology, the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ) will be a Jewish king whose paternal bloodline traces to David. He is expected to rule over the Jewish people during the Messianic Age and in the world to come. Christianity believes the Davidic line continued to Jesus, hence the title Son of David, which plays a central role in Jesus’ claim to be the Christ or Messiah in that religion, but this is not accepted by Jews.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸List of ancient watermills
• ▸Ciomadul
• ▸Ancient Society

Uncatalogued shelf

Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.