New Exhibit Brings King David to Life in Jerusalem

The Fellowship  |  March 23, 2018

King David is one of the better known and beloved figures in both Christian and Jewish history. He is the boy who bravely killed Goliath with a slingshot and stone, the writer who speaks to our souls from the pages of the Psalms, the man who sinned with Bathsheba but sought God’s redemption, the king of Israel who first made Jerusalem its capital.

And on April 1, King David will assume his larger-than-life persona quite literally in a new nighttime exhibit at Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum. With impressive laser and sound technology, the show is projected onto the ancient stone walls of the citadel next to the Old City’s Jaffa Gate.  

Although the warrior-poet lived a thousand years before any part of the citadel was constructed, his name has been associated with it since the Herodian period, based on the writings of Jewish historian Josephus Flavius. Archeological evidence indicates that David actually established is the City of David in the Kidron Valley, an area outside the Old City walls and south of the Temple Mount in what is today the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

At the new Tower of David spectacle, a 45-minute narrative of the king’s mythical life begins with the arrival of his great-grandmother Ruth the Moabite to Bethlehem. It continues through to the height of his reign, making stops along the way at key scenes familiar to Bible readers.