How valid is the statement that CoD makes nonsense of Biblical history by placing King David in the middle of the reign of Ramesses II?
The statement is completely invalid, as CoD does not place David in the middle of Ramesses’ reign. The idea originated with Kitchen (1991c, 238): On their dates, King David would have carved out his empire in Syria from the Euphrates to SW Palestine right in the middle of the reigns of Ramesses II of Egypt and the Hittite King Hattusil III, after their peace-treaty ending two decades of war over who should have how much of Syria. Is it even remotely conceivable that these two formidable rulers should just sit idly by, cowering with armies in mothballs, while some upstart prince from Jerusalem’s hills calmly carved out three-quarters of their hotly-disputed territories (and revenues) for himself? This is sheer fantasy… The chronology here is Kitchen’s assumption, not ours. The dates for King David are dependent on those for his successor King Solomon. Ancient historians agree that the reign of Solomon ended c. 930 BC, but hardly any (except uncritical fundamentalists and Kitchen) acce
