(B3) The Untold Story of David’s Conquest of Jerusalem

תל אביב 360 – אוניברסיטת תל אביב: ערוץ הפודקסטים

The only memory that exists of the founding event in the history of the Kingdom of Judah, when King David conquered Jerusalem, made it his capital and founded the dynasty and the kingdom, was of the involvement of the “blind and the lame,” and that anyone who struck them had to be purified. In this chapter, I argue that the source of the story’s memory was a tunnel that had water in it, in which a splashing, flowing or dripping sound was heard, and where, according to the memory, David’s warriors were purified after the war.

It was the mysterious “צינור” (="water tunnel"?)at the center of the story. This was the seed of the memory preserved in Jerusalem throughout the centuries, when those who lived in Jerusalem or visited it, and regardless of whether the tunnel continued to be used for this purpose in the future, preserved this memory. The story was written down in a later period, as the core of the story of the conquest of Jerusalem, but also as part of a broad and comprehensive historical story about the ancient days of David. Apart from that, there is very little additional information about Jerusalem in the days of David, and it also appears to be information that derives from buildings, places and objects that were in Jerusalem, and were known to anyone who lived in the city or visited it.