Gibeon

Ephrayim Stern published stars of David (surrounding peacocks) engraved on jar handles at Gibeon, Israel, and dated them to the late period of the Israeli Kingdom of the First Temple 6th century B.C.E. He reckoned that they were copies of Greek emblems from Thasos and Carthago that served for the marking of wines.

From: Kadmoniot, 1973, Israel at the end of the period of the kingship, archeological survey, pages 2-17.

I find it very interesting that the same symbol served the beer guilds in the Middle Ages and that it was the symbol for alcohol in alchemy, since it combined the symbols for fire and water; hence, it meant distillation. Until recently, therefore, it appeared on shops selling brandy.

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Photo courtesy of Ephrayim Stern.

Zoroaster

Professor Michael Costa wrote in his book about the golden section,Solomon’s seal and the Star of David [Poalim,1990 page 154] that the origin of the Magen David was in the Persian religion of Zoroaster in which the triangle with the edge turning upwards symbolizes the good God Ahur Mazda whereas the triangle with the edge turning downwards symbolizes the evil God Ahriman. In the Zoroastrian hexagram the first is on top o the second in order to symbolize the victory of the good over the evil.
It is interesting that Zoroaster and King David lived approximately in the same generation and possibly one of them influenced the other.

Dr. Max Bodenheimer

Shulamit Gad recounts in her book (published in 2006) King David and the Power of Psalms in page 709 that Dr. Bodenheimer offered Hertzl in 1898 to put on the national flag twelve stars as symbol of the twelve tribes and Hertzl responded that the twelve tribes are already hinted in the twelve points of the Magen David.