TheDavidic line refers to the descendants ofDavid, who established theHouse of David (Hebrew:בֵּית דָּוִדBēt Dāwīḏ) in theKingdom of Israel and Judah. InJudaism, it is based on texts from theHebrew Bible, as well as on laterJewish traditions.

House of David בֵּית דָּוִד‎
Country	Kingdom of Israel and Judah (c. 1010 BCE–930 BCE) Kingdom of Judah (c. 930 BCE–587 BCE)
Place of origin	Tribe of Judah
Founder	David (traditional)
Final ruler	Zedekiah
Titles	King of Israel King of Judah
Estate(s)	Land of Israel

According to the biblical narrative, David of theTribe of Judah engaged in a protracted conflict withIsh-bosheth of theTribe of Benjamin after the latter succeeded his fatherSaul to become the second king of an amalgamatedIsrael and Judah. Amidst this struggle,God had sent his prophetSamuel to anoint David as the true king of theIsraelites. Following Ish-bosheth's assassination at the hands of his own army captains, David officially acceded to the throne around 1010 BCE, replacing theHouse of Saul with his own and becoming the country's third king.^[1][2] He was succeeded by his sonSolomon, whose mother wasBathsheba. Solomon's death led to the rejection of the House of David by most of theTwelve Tribes of Israel, with only Judah and Benjamin remaining loyal: the dissenters choseJeroboam as their monarch and formed theKingdom of Israel in the north (Samaria); while the loyalists kept Solomon's sonRehoboam as their monarch and formed theKingdom of Judah in the south (Judea). With the success ofJeroboam's Revolt having severed Israel's connection to the House of David, only the Judahite monarchs, exceptAthaliah, were part of the Davidic line.

In the aftermath of theBabylonian siege of Jerusalem around 587 BCE,Solomon's Temple was destroyed and the Kingdom of Judah fell to theNeo-Babylonian Empire. Nearly 450 years later, theHasmonean dynasty established the first independent Jewish kingdom since the Babylonian conquest, though it was not considered to be connected to the Davidic line nor to the Tribe of Judah.

InJewish eschatology, theMessiah (מָשִׁיחַ) will be a Jewish king whose paternal bloodline traces to David. He is expected to rule over theJewish people during theMessianic Age and in theworld to come.^[3][4][5]

Very little is conclusively known about the House of David. TheTel Dan Stele mentions the death of the reigning king from "BYTDWD",^[6] (interpreted as "House of David") and thus far is the only extrabiblical explicit mention ofDavid himself. The stele is dated to circa 840 BCE; however, the name of the Davidic king is not totally preserved, as much of the stele has not survived since the 9th century BCE. All that remains of the name is the final syllable, the extremely commontheophoric suffix-yahū. Because the stele coincides the death of the Davidic king with the death of[Jeho]ram, the king of theKingdom of Samaria, scholars have reconstructed the second slain king asAhaziah of Judah, the only king contemporary to Jehoram with a name ending in-yahū.^[a]

The earliest unambiguously^[b] attested king from the Davidic line isUzziah, who reigned in the 8th century BCE, about 75 years after Ahaziah, who is named on bullae seals belonging to his servants Abijah and Shubnayahu.^[7] Uzziah may also be mentioned in the annals ofTiglath-Pileser III; however, the texts are largely fragmentary.^[8][c] Additionally, atombstone dated to theSecond Temple Period claiming to mark the grave (or, reburial) site of Uzziah, was discovered in a convent on theMount of Olives in 1931, but there is no way of determining if the remains were genuinely Uzziah's as the stone had to have been carved more than 700 years after Uzziah died and was originally interred, and the tablet's provenance remains a mystery. A controversial artefact called theJehoash Tablet recalls deeds performed byJehoash of Judah, who reigned about 44 years before Uzziah; however, scholars are tensely divided on whether or not the inscription is genuine. After Uzziah, each successive king of Judah is attested to in some form, with the exception ofAmon of Judah:Jotham, Uzziah's successor, is named on the seals of his own son and successor,Ahaz,^[9] who ruled from 732 to 716 BCE.Hezekiah, Ahaz's son, is attested to by numerous royal seals^[10][11] andSennacherib's Annals;^[12]Manasseh is recorded giving tribute toEsarhaddon;^[13]Josiah has no relics explicitly naming him; however, seals belonging to his son Eliashib^[14] and officialsNathan-melech^[15][16] andAsaiah^[17] have been discovered; and the kingsJehoahaz II,Jehoiakim, andZedekiah are never explicitly named in historical records but are instead alluded to; however,Jeconiah is mentioned by name inBabylonian documents detailing the rations he and his sons were given while held prisoner during theBabylonian captivity.^[18]

The origins of the dynasty, on the other hand, are shrouded in mystery. The Tel Dan Stele, as aforementioned, remains the only mention of David himself outside the Bible, and the historical reliability of the United Monarchy of Israel is archaeologically weak. TheStepped Stone Structure andLarge Stone Structure inJerusalem, assumingEilat Mazar's contested stratigraphic dating of the structures to the Iron Age I is accurate, show that Jerusalem was at least somewhat populated in King David's time, and lends some credence to the biblical claim that Jerusalem was originally a Canaanite fortress; however, Jerusalem seems to have been barely developed until long after David's death,^[19] bringing into question the possibility that it could have been the imperial capital described in the Bible. In David's time, the capital probably served as little more than a formidable citadel, and the Davidic "kingdom" was most likely closer to a loosely-confederated regional polity,^[19] albeit a relatively substantial one. On the other hand, excavations atKhirbet Qeiyafa^[20] andEglon,^[21] as well as structures fromHazor,Gezer,Megiddo and other sites conventionally dated to the 10th century BCE, are interpreted by many scholars to show that Judah was capable of accommodating large-scale urban societies centuries before minimalist scholars claim,^[22][23][24] and some have taken the physical archaeology of tenth-centuryCanaan as consistent with the former existence of a unified state on its territory,^[25] as archaeological findings demonstrate substantial development and growth at several sites, plausibly related to the tenth century.^[26] Even so, as for David and his immediate descendants themselves, the position of some scholars, as described byIsrael Finkelstein andNeil Silberman, authors ofThe Bible Unearthed, espouses that David and Solomon may well be based on "certain historical kernels", and probably did exist in their own right, but their historical counterparts simply could not have ruled over a wealthy lavish empire as described in the Bible, and were more likely chieftains of a comparatively modest Israelite society in Judah and not regents over a kingdom proper.^[27]

According to theTanakh, upon being chosen and becoming king, one was customarily anointed withholy oil poured on one's head. In David's case, this was done by theprophetSamuel.

Initially, David was king over theTribe of Judah only and ruled fromHebron, but after seven and a half years, the otherIsraelite tribes, who found themselves leaderless after the death ofIsh-bosheth, chose him to be their king as well.^[28]

All subsequent kings in both the ancient first unitedKingdom of Israel and the laterKingdom of Judah claimed direct descent from King David to validate their claim to the throne in order to rule over the Israelite tribes.

After the death of David's son,King Solomon, the ten northern tribes of theKingdom of Israel rejected the Davidic line, refusing to accept Solomon's son,Rehoboam, and instead chose as kingJeroboam and formed the northernKingdom of Israel. This kingdom was conquered by theNeo-Assyrian Empire in the 8th century BCE which exiled much of the Northern Kingdom population and ended its sovereign status. The bulk population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was forced to relocate to Mesopotamia and mostly disappeared from history asThe Ten Lost Tribes or intermixed with exiled Judean populations two centuries later, while the remaining Israelite peoples in Samaria highlands have become known asSamaritans during the classic era and to modern times.

Later rabbinical authorities granted the office of exilarch to family members that traced its patrilineal^[29] descent fromDavid, King of Israel. The highest official of Babylonian Jewry was theexilarch (Reish Galuta, "Head of the Diaspora"). Those who held the position traced their ancestry to the House of David in the male line.^[29] The position holder was regarded as a king-in-waiting, residing in Babylonia in theAchaemenid Empire as well as during the classic era. TheSeder Olam Zutta attributes the office toZerubbabel, a member of the Davidic line, who is mentioned as one of the leaders of the Jewish community in the 6th century BC, holding the title of Achaemenid Governor ofYehud Medinata.

The Hasmoneans, also known as theMaccabees, established their own monarchy inJudea following theirrevolt against theHellenisticSeleucid dynasty. The Hasmoneans were not considered connected to the Davidic line nor to theTribe of Judah. TheLevites had always been excluded from the Israelite monarchy, so when the Maccabees assumed the throne in order to rededicate the defiledSecond Temple, a cardinal rule was broken. According to scholars withinOrthodox Judaism, this is considered to have contributed to their downfall and the eventual downfall of Judea; internal strife allowing for Roman occupation and the violent installation ofHerod the Great asclient king over theRoman province of Judea; and the subsequentdestruction of theSecond Temple by the futureEmperor Titus.

During the Hasmonean period, the Davidic line was largely excluded from the royal house in Judea, but some members had risen to prominence as religious and communal leaders. One of the most notable of those wasHillel the Elder, who moved to Judea from his birthplace in Babylon. His great-grandsonSimeon ben Gamliel became one of the Jewish leaders during theFirst Jewish–Roman War.^[30]

The Exilarchate in theSasanian Empire was briefly abolished as a result of a revolt by theMar-Zutra II in the late 5th century CE, with his sonMar-Zutra III being denied the office and relocating toTiberias, then within theByzantine Empire. Mar Ahunai lived in the period succeeding Mar Zutra II, but for almost fifty years after the failed revolt he did not dare to appear in public, and it is not known whether even then (c. 550) he really acted as Exilarch. The names of Kafnai and his son Haninai, who were Exilarchs in the second half of the 6th century, have been preserved.

The Exilarchate in Mesopotamia was officially restored after theArab conquest in the 7th century and continued to function during the earlyCaliphates. Exilarchs continued to be appointed until the 11th century, with some members of the Davidic line dispersing across the Islamic world. There are conflicting accounts of the fate of the Exilarch family in the 11th century; according to one versionHezekiah ben David, who was the last Exilarch and also the lastGaon, was imprisoned and tortured to death. Two of his sons fled to Al-Andalus, where they found refuge with Joseph, the son and successor ofSamuel ibn Naghrillah. However,The Jewish Quarterly Review mentions that Hezekiah was liberated from prison, and became head of the academy, and is mentioned as such by a contemporary in 1046.^[32] An unsuccessful attempt of David ben Daniel of the Davidic line to establish an Exilarchate in theFatimid Caliphate failed and ended with his downfall in 1094.

In the 11th–15th century, families that descended from the Exilarchs that lived in the South of France (Narbonne andProvence) and in northern Iberian peninsula (Barcelona,Aragon andCastile) received the title "Nasi" in the communities and were called "free men". They had a special economic and social status in the Jewish community, and they were close to their respective governments, some serving as advisers and tax collectors/finance ministers.

These families had special rights in Narbonne, Barcelona, and Castile. They possessed real estate and received the title "Don" and de la Kblriih (De la Cavalleria). Among the families of the "Sons of the Free" are the families ofAbravanel andBenveniste.

In his book,A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, Arthur J. Zuckerman proposes a theory that from 768 to 900 CE a Jewish Princedom ruled by members of the Exilarchs existed in feudal France. However, this theory has been widely contested.^[33] Descendants of the house of exilarchs were living in various places long after the office became extinct. The grandson of Hezekiah ben David through his eldest son David ben Chyzkia,Hiyya al-Daudi, died in 1154 inCastile according toAbraham ibn Daud and is the ancestor of theibn Yahya family. Several families, as late as the 14th century, traced their descent back to Josiah, the brother ofDavid ben Zakkai who had been banished to Chorasan (see the genealogies in [Lazarus 1890] pp. 180 et seq.). The descendants of the Karaite Exilarchs have been referred to above.

A number of Jewish families in theIberian peninsula and withinMesopotamia continued to preserve the tradition of descent from Exilarchs in theLate Middle Ages, including the families ofAbravanel,ibn Yahya and Ben-David. The patriarch of the Coronel Family,Abraham Senior, is referred to in a letter of 1487 from the Jews of Castile to the Jews of Rome and Lombardy as 'the Exilarch who is over us'.^[34] Several Ashkenazi scholars also claimed descent from King David. On his father's side,Rashi has been claimed to be a 33rd-generation descendant ofJohanan HaSandlar, who was a fourth-generation descendant ofGamaliel, who was reputedly descended from the Davidic line.^[35] SimilarlyMaimonides claimed 37 generations between him andSimeon ben Judah ha-Nasi, who was also a fourth-generation descendant of Gamaliel.^[36] Meir Perels traced the ancestry ofJudah Loew ben Bezalel to theHai Gaon through Judah Loew's alleged great-great-grandfatherJudah Leib the Elder and therefore also from the Davidic dynasty; however, this claim is widely disputed, by many scholars such as Otto Muneles.^[37] Hai Gaon was the son ofSherira Gaon, who claimed descent fromRabbah b. Abuha, who belonged to the family of the exilarch, thereby claiming descent from the Davidic line. Sherira's son-in-law wasElijah ben Menahem HaZaken.^[38][39] The patriarch of theMeisels family, Yitskhak Eizik Meisels, was an alleged 10th generation descendant of the Exilarch,Mar Ukba.^[40] TheBerduga family ofMeknes claim paternal descent from the Exilarch,Bostanai.^[41] The Jewish banking familyLouis Cahen d'Anvers claimed descent from the Davidic Line^[42] RabbiYosef Dayan, who is a modern-day claimant to the Davidic throne in Israel and the founder of the Monarchist partyMalchut Israel, descends from theDayan family ofAleppo, who paternally descend from Hasan ben Zakkai, the younger brother of the ExilarchDavid I (d. 940). One of Hasan's descendants Solomon ben Azariah ha-Nasi settled in Aleppo were the family became Dayan's (judges) of the city and thus adopted the surname Dayan.^[43][44]

InJewish eschatology, the termmashiach, or "Messiah", came to refer to a future Jewishking from the Davidic line, who is expected to be anointed withholy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during theMessianic Age.^[45][46][47] The Messiah is often referred to as "King Messiah", or, in Hebrew,מלך משיח (melekh mashiach), and, in Aramaic,malka meshiḥa.^[48]

Orthodox views have generally held that the Messiah will be apatrilineal descendant ofKing David,^[49] and will gather the Jews back into theLand of Israel, usher in an era of peace, build theThird Temple, father a male heir, re-institute theSanhedrin, and so on. Jewish tradition alludes to two redeemers, both of whom are calledmashiach and are involved in ushering in theMessianic age:Mashiach ben David; andMashiach ben Yosef. In general, the termMessiah unqualified refers toMashiach ben David (Messiah, son of David).^[45][46]

In 2012,The Jerusalem Post reported that philanthropist Susan Roth created Davidic Dynasty as subsidiary of her Eshet Chayil Foundation, dedicated to finding, databasing, and connecting Davidic descendants and running the King David Legacy Center in Jerusalem.^[50] In 2020, Roth chose Brando Crawford, a descendant from both grandfathers, to represent the organization internationally.^[51][52] The King David Legacy Center has seen support fromHaredi Jews in Jerusalem.^[53]

In theChristian interpretation the "Davidic covenant" of a Davidic line in2 Samuel 7 is understood in various ways, traditionally referring to thegenealogies of Jesus in theNew Testament. One Christian interpretation of the Davidic line counts the line as continuing toJesus son ofJoseph, according to the genealogies which are written inMatthew 1:1-16 descendants of Solomon andLuke 3:23-38 descendants of Nathan son of David through the line of Mary.

Because Jews have historically believed that the Messiah will be a male-line descendant of David, the lineage of Jesus is sometimes cited as a reason why Jews do not believe that he was the Messiah. As the proposed son of God, he could not have been a male descendant of David because according to the genealogy of his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph, he did not have the proper lineage, because he would not have been a male descendant of Mary, and Joseph, who was a descendant ofJeconiah, because Jeconiah's descendants are explicitly barred from ever ruling Israel by God.^[54]

Another Christian interpretation emphasizes the minor, non-royal, line of David throughSolomon's brotherNathan as it is recorded in theGospel of Lukechapter 3 (entirely undocumented in the Hebrew Bible), which is often understood to be the family tree of Mary's father. A widely spread traditional Christian interpretation relates the non-continuation of the main Davidic line from Solomon to the godlessness of the line ofJehoiachin which started in the early 500s BC, whenJeremiah cursed the main branch of the Solomonic line, by saying that no descendant of "[Je]Coniah" would ever reign on the throne of Israel again (Jeremiah 22:30).^[55] Some Christian commentators also believe that this same "curse" is the reason whyZerubbabel, the rightful Solomonic king during the time ofNehemiah, was not given a kingship under thePersian empire.^[56]

TheTree of Jesse (a reference to David's father) is a traditional Christian artistic representation of Jesus' genealogical connection to David.

TheQuran mentions the House of David once: "Work, O family of David, in gratitude. And few of My servants are grateful."^[57] and mentions David himself sixteen times.

According to some Islamic sources, some of theJewish settlers in Arabia were of the Davidic line, Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi recorded: "A Jewish man from the Davidic line enteredMedina and found the people in deep sorrow. He enquired the people, 'What is wrong?' Some of the people replied:Prophet Muhammad passed away".^[58]

• History of ancient Israel and Judah
  • Kings of Israel and Judah
  • Kings of Judah
    • LMLK seal
• Abravanel family, a Sephardic Jewish family claiming descent from David
• Bagrationi dynasty, a Georgian dynasty claiming descent from David
  • Claim of the biblical descent of the Bagrationi dynasty
• Solomonic dynasty, an Ethiopian dynasty claiming descent from David's son Solomon
  • Kebra Nagast
• Tree of Jesse, a Christian artistic depiction of Jesus' family tree beginning with David's father Jesse

Sources

• Pioske, Daniel (2015).David's Jerusalem: Between Memory and History. Routledge Studies in Religion. Vol. 45. Routledge.ISBN 978-1317548911.
• The Holy Bible: 1611 Edition (Thos. Nelson, 1993)

• "King David Dynasty"
• Jewish Encyclopedia.com:"Exilarchs"
• A genealogy of the Exilarchs:"From Judah to Bustanai"
• Davidic Dynasty
• House of David Judaica
• Rabbinic Sources andSeder Olam Zuta:"Seder Olam Zuta" &"Rav-SIG"