King David used the Star of David

I appreciate Lew White of the Messianic Christian website Torah Zone[1] for joining the discussion and warmly welcome him! The discussion brings us to delve into the puzzles of ancient Judaism.My position must be that the Star of David, or hexagram, is a nice design used in some instances in ancient Jewish and Byzantine Christian artifacts. David was a primary Israelite ruler, and we have many beautiful Biblical stories and Psalms about him. However, written associations between David and the design come up so much later that the association between the two was most likely thought up centuries afterwards. As to the second proposition, that it was an important symbol in the religion, I cannot here dispute White's statement that “The seal of king Daud is not in any way a symbol of religion”.When entering this discussion one first comes up against the Second Commandment:"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above" (Ex. 20). I doubt whether the Star of David is a violation of the rule, because one of the passage's chief concerns was to prevent idol worship, and because God did order or allow images like the cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant. Nonetheless, the Second Commandment must have had the effect of discouraging images of things in the heavens, especially stars.White mentions that Ezekiel (Ez. 8) and St. Stephen (Act.7) did object to a constellation mosaic, but that this was not mosaic of the star. However, objecting to constellations suggests that one would also likely object to a star, since they are made of stars. This in turn would apply to the hexagram, if one actually perceives it as a star design.Next, one must consider how much later the first such such star artifacts originated. David, and his son Solomon, ruled in the early-mid 10th century BC. Gershom Sholem, a famous archeologist, announced that he found the oldest one we know. It was on a seal of Joshua ben Assayahu in Sidon, Phoenicia, and dated from 600 B.C., about 350 years after Solomon.[2] Some other hexagrams have been found dating a few centuries later, but they are still unusual.[3] Due to the rarity of the symbol in archeological finds, it is hard to consider it an important symbol in the Israel of David's time.The first known written source from the Rabbinical community clearly referring to a sign of King David's "Star" or "Shield"(another name for the sign) was in the 11th century AD, about 2000 years after David.[4] So although hexagrams were found from ancient times centuries after David, we have difficulty knowing whether those designs were associated with David by their artists. The uncertainty is due to the fact that written associations between the person and the sign date much later than both the person and those artifacts.There are Christian and Jewish writers who say that the association between the two began after David's era. Fr. Afanasiy Gumerov explains: The names "shield of David"(Mmagen David) and "seal of Solomon" are conditional. The connection of the hexagram with these two great kings of Biblical history cannot be traced. Hebrew warriors had two kinds of shield: a large oblong one to protect the entire body (Heb. tsinna) and a small round one (Heb. magen). There is no evidence that David did not have a round shield, but a six-notched one instead.[5] He adds that the ancient Israelites took the Second Commandment rather widely. However, he assures Christians that the hexagram does not have to have some kind of inherent occult meaning, because it is just a natural shape and occultism is a false teaching. I take it White would agree about this. Fr. Gumerov adds that hexagrams in the Orthodox Church are decorative and that it lacks a special symbol for the morning star associated with Christ.One Orthodox Messianic writer cites Professor Gerbern Oegema as saying "Although the legend is well known that in Biblical times king David in his wars had adorned his shield with a six-pointed star, it is without historical proof."[6] They claim that when the famous rabbi Maimonides disagreed with putting magical signs on the Mezuzah he had in mind the star. A Jewish Theological Seminary publication takes the view that it was not an ancient Jewish religious or national symbol.[7] Perhaps this is too strong a statement, but one should still consider such opinions.Lew White points out a neat aspect of the star design: in David's time, Hebrew was written in a different alphabet, Paleo-Hebrew, and the letters D and U, which made up King David's name, can fit into the design. It's true that the Paleo-Hebrew D looked like the Greek letter Delta, a triangle. But why should the first triangle be face up and the last one be face down if we are just spelling a name? Perhaps it is just a way to fit the pieces together.Besides the Delta, White sees the letter U in the middle of the hexagram. The letter U is the second letter of David's name, spelled DUD, because the V at that time in "David" was pronounced like a U. Unfortunately I better point out that White made a mistake, because he said that the Paleo-Hebrew U looked like an English "V". In reality, the U looked like the capitol Greek Ypsilon. In Paleo-Hebrew, this looked like j3; or Y, as you can see in the charts in footnote 8.The result is that it is harder to see a Y in a hexagram, because the Y's "prongs" would have to look small and high up. Besides that, the "Y" would be on either side of the design, meaning that you could see two of them: one on the left and the other on the right. So just as you can see two "Deltas" unfortunately you can also see two "Y"s, making DYYD. Perhaps this aphabetical criticism sounds too complicated. But one may note that the hexagram is a complicated symbol too, with lots of lines. In fact, multiple Paleo-Hebrew letters (like its versions of A, G, I) can be bent into a hexagram without one interpretation being right or wrong. Even if the letters can be fit into the design, David might not have realized it, because it's not the only way triangles and a Y can be fit together. Besides, how do we know that he tried to make any seal out of any combination of his letters in the first place?In conclusion, David most likely did not use the hexagram, because Moses' law served to discourage making star images, the hexagrams we found and their association with David date many centuries later, and he might not have paid much attention to the letters DYD in it.1. www.torahzone.net2. star-of-david.blogspot.com/2006/10/star-of-jerusalem.html3. star-of-david.blogspot.com/2006/10/star-of-jerusalem.html4. www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10257-magen-dawid5. www.pravoslavie.ru/answers/6382.htm6. orthodoxmessianic.blogspot.com/2013/05/is-star-of-david-magical-talisman.html7. www.jtsa.edu/Documents/From%20the%20Maccabees%20to%20Maimonides%2011%2026%2013%20FINAL-1.pdf8. www.ancient-hebrew.org/28_chart.html , http://en.wikipedia.org...