The Woman Who Unearthed Jerusalem

While the Muslim Waqf, the religious authority that administers the Temple Mount, has been propagandizing for years that there was never a Beis Hamikdash on the site (and has been systematically destroying First and Second Beis Hamikdash-era artifacts for decades), it’s not only the Waqf that has cast the shadow of doubt over Judaism’s intrinsic connection to Jerusalem.

Even among Jews, a large number of academics and intellectuals have dismissed the Biblical account of Dovid Hamelech’s kingdom and the ensuing Davidic dynasty as a piece of fiction. This school has also found its voice in Israel’s archaeology arena — a discipline that should be purely scientific but is often politicized. Where the historic layers beneath the ground hold so much potential for present-day conflict, even mainstream archaeologists are inclined to downplay finds that might be considered too highly charged with Biblical or historical accuracy and therefore offend politically correct sensibilities.

While the idea of using the Tanach as a source for historical truth has become increasingly controversial in the halls of Israeli academia, Eilat Mazar would have none of that. With a Tanach in one hand and archaeological tools in the other, she would unapologetically change the narrative.

“The Torah is the most important historical source we have for honest archaeological study, since it contains a genuine and extremely detailed historical account of the past, almost as if it were a blueprint for the future,” she told me when I first met her back in 2005. She had just embarked on the most exciting, if not controversial, project of her career — a quest to unearth King David’s palace on the outskirts of Ir David. And the location was clear to her — against all the naysayers — because she followed the text. “Today the scholarly approach to Tanach is that it’s not true unless you can prove it true. Maybe we should start with the assumption that it’s true?”