Almost everything we know about David’s life and reign comes from the biblical narrative itself. No surviving inscription from David’s lifetime identifies him as king. No contemporary archive records his administration. No independent account describes his campaigns, his relationships or the circumstances of his death. The biblical texts provide an abundance of information, but the means of verifying much of it are limited. The question of David’s existence might be distinguished from the historical accuracy of his biography. A man named David may have ruled in the southern highlands of the Levant around the beginning of the tenth century BC without having accomplished everything attributed to him. The narratives may preserve authentic memories of his life alongside later interpretation, literary development and theological reflection. The historical question cannot be answered by accepting or rejecting the biblical account as a whole [ … ]