Under whose rule did Israel become a powerful nation?
1 Answer
If one believes the bible, Israel became powerful under Solomon.
Explanation:
For centuries it was accepted as a given that Solomon, son of David, expanded Israel into a powerful nation that reached from the Sinai in the south to the Euphrates in the north.
Lately, however, some doubt has been raised as to whether or not this is true. For one thing, no archeological evidence from that time has been found that positively links to David or Solomon except for one reference to "the house of David", which may or may not refer to the David of the bible. If Israel was a "great nation" we would expect to find lots of evidence for it, but we don't.
For another thing, the empires of Egypt and Assyria kept voluminous records of their diplomatic correspondence with other powers, and neither set of records mentions Israel, Solomon, or David from that time period. This could mean we just haven't found those records yet, or it could mean that Israel wasn't as great a nation as described in the bible.
No definitive answer has been found yet to this question, so for now it is still accepted that Israel became a powerful nation under Solomon.
