More information on the Star of David:
The Magen David (shield of David, or as it is more commonly known, the
Star
of David) is the symbol most commonly associated with Judaism today.
It is
supposed to represent the shape of King David's shield or possibly the
emblem
on it, but there is really no support for that claim in any early
rabbinic
literature. The Magen David gained popularity as a symbol of Judaism
when it
was adopted as the emblem of the Zionist movement in 1897. It appears
occasionally in early Jewish artwork, but never as an exclusively
Jewish
symbol. It is unknown when it was first used as a Jewish symbol.
See: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Judaism/star.html
The earliest known Jewish use of the hexagram was as a seal in ancient
Palestine (6th century B.C.E.) and then eight centuries later in a
*synagogue
frieze in Capernaum. Although scholars have attempted to trace the
Star of
David back to King David himself; to Rabbi Akiva and the Bar Kokhba
("son of
the star") rebellion (135 C.E.); or to *kabbalists, especially Rabbi
Isaac
Luria (16th century), no Jewish literature or artifacts document this
claim.
See: http://www.menorah.org/starofdavid.html
.
