Oldest Jewish Star of David

 Star of David at Mt. Karkom, Israel c. 1200 BCE

Photo by Flickr member Uri Zackhem 

(c)

 2010

Star of David at Mt. Karkom, Israel c. 1200 BCE

Photo by Flickr member Uri Zackhem 

(c)

 2010

A few days ago I sent E-mail to Yair Davidiy, the publisher of Brit-Am newsletter and yesterday I got his answer:

Question and Sources about the Shield of David Question:

Dear Yair,

I read on your website that Professor James R. Harris, mentions in his book THE NAME OF GOD p. 205 a Star of David with YAH written in Hebrew in it from the time of the Judges that was found at Gibeon.

I also read on his web page "The Shield of David represents Yah as the protector of the Twelve Tribes (represented by the twelve points of the star). In addition to the "Shield of David" inscription shown above, we have an enlarged photo of a geoglyph Shield of David on top of one of the Har Karkom platforms".

I understand that these Magen Davids are the oldest Jewish Magen Davids known today. I checked the Internet and almost nobody mentions these finding and their importance.

Why?

Do you have any more info about this?

Answer:

Shalom,

Your blog site http://star-of-david.blogspot.com/ contains some interesting information concerning the Magen David.

You quoted from our article concerning the Magen David

James Trimm is quoted in this article as referring to: "THE NAME OF GOD by James R. Harris p. 205. It dates to the time of the Judges and was found at Gibeon. It is a Mogen David with YAH written in Hebrew in it."

We have not seen this work.

Our support for the Magen David as a symbol is based more on other factors, i.e. it could be seen as a valid short-hand Ancient Hebrew ("Canaanite-Phoenician") letter of writing the name David.

It has become associated with the Jews almost against their will.

There also exists a principle that even something whose origins were pagan is acceptable if the pagans no longer attribute it pagan significance, e.g. if a tree which was once part of a pagan grove and the pagans who worshipped it no longer exist or have changed their religion the tree is no longer considered as attached to idol worship and does not have to be cut down.

You quote from a site describing the Names of God as found in ancient inscriptions. I could not find the author of this site nor discern what (if any) group may be behind it. ALL the information looks reliable though the Karkom Shield of David (near the bottom of the page) looks too explicit and a little too good to be true. Nevertheless chances are that it too is genuine.

As for not being able to find it on the web this does not say much. We sometimes find information that seems to be common knowledge and that we consider to be of great importance assumedly for all concerned to be very difficult to track down not only on the web but even in University libraries. I like academics and even fancy myself sometimes as "almost" one of them but sometimes their presentation to the public of very vital sources can be most disappointing.