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August 1, 2005
New Pre-exilic Seal Found in Jerusalem
Jim Davila of PaleoJudaica reports on the discovery of a Royal Seal from excavations in Jerusalem. Both the New York Sun and Maariv (in Hebrew, you can find a translation of a lot of it at Biblical Theology) carry the announcement. There is apparently some confusion between the two accounts about the names on the seal. As Davila says,
Here's the Maariv article (via Yitzhak Sapir on the ANE list), which I [haven't] had time to read. But it gives the text of the "seal" (bulla?) as יהוכל בן שלמיהו בן נובי, "Jehucal son of Shelemiah son of Nubi(?). This person is mentioned in Jeremiah 37:3 and 38:1 and indeed was an official during the reign of Zedekiah. The article in the Sun seems to have gotten the name mixed up. Very curious.
The Sun article which draws on the Maariv article says,
The name of the court official as it appears on the newly discovered seal - Jehudi, son of Shelemiah - is cited in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah.
Jim West of Biblical Theology has a possible explanation of the Jehucal/Jehudi confusion.
Perhaps the confusion between Yehokal and Yehudi is because "Yehudi" is the one mentioned as son of Shelamyahu son of Kushi, and Yehokal son of Shelamyahu (in Jeremiah) is on the bulla mentioned as "son of Shelamyahu son of Nubi." If this would have been the same Shelamyahu then it suggests that Kushi (of the book of Jeremiah) is a "translation" of Nubi, and is not a real name but more of a nickname, "the Ethiopian." Maybe "Yehudi" is also such a name. "Shelamyahu" also sounds to me more likely than "Shelamyah" (ie, a full Yahwistic ending) if the First Temple period is involved.
Such finds, in archaeological context, are very rare and therefore each one has an importance out of proportion to its actual content. If this seal does indeed contain the name of Jehucal son of Shelemiah and this is indeed the official mentioned in Jeremiah, it is one of a very limited number of extant objects that mention the name of a person known from the Hebrew Bible. If the accounts are correct, then the location of the find is in the area of Jerusalem, the "City of David," where one might expect to find Zedekiah's palace.
Unfortunately, the Sun article has a rather large dose of overstatement and, of course, it puts it in the opening paragraph for everyone to see.
"A royal seal dating to biblical times has been unearthed in the City of David by Israeli archaeologists, and the artifact's inscription supports Old Testament depictions of ancient Jerusalem. [emphasis added]"
As Jim West correctly points out,
But the suggestion that a name on a seal "supports the Old Testament depiction of ancient Jerusalem" is ridiculous overkill. A seal does no such thing.
Statements like this one in the Sun should always be discarded out of hand. They may sell papers but they do not further knowledge and may set it back.
Posted by Duane Smith at August 1, 2005 12:13 PM | Read more on Archaeology |
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