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August 3, 2008

A Note on the Name Gedalyahu

In the light of the recently announced bulla from Jerusalem with the inscription, "Belonging to Gedalyahu ben Pashhur," I thought I'd collect all the ancient occurrences of the name Gedalyahu I could find.

As Claude Mariottini noted the other day, there are five different Gedalyahu's mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Some are mentioned by name more than once. Aside from the number (five), what follows are my comments not Claude's.

  1. 2 Kings: 25:22-26: Gedalyahu son of Ahikam, exilic governor of Judah under Nebuchadnezzar. He didn't last long.
  2. I Chronicles 25:3: Gedalyahu, a prophetic musician said to be from the time of David
  3. Ezra 10:18: Gedalyahu, a postexilic priest married to a foreign woman. He had to send her away and provide a guilt offering. Can't have any of that marriage to a foreign woman stuff, at least not at that time.
  4. Jeremiah 38:1-6: Gedalyahu son of Pashhur, an official of King Zedekiah, who along with other officials, thought someone should kill Jeremiah because he was demoralizing the troops. Can't have any of that demoralizing of troops stuff going on. Oh, no, I forgot Jeremiah was a good guy, a prophet of God. A eunuch Cushite finally rescued Jeremiah but not before Jeremiah did some quality time in a royal cistern.
  5. Zephaniah 1:1: Gedalyahu son of Amariah, grandson of King Hezekiah and grandfather of Zephaniah, or so it says Zephaniah. Being in a royal line is always a good thing.

The name Gedalyah(u) occurs on two ostraca from Arad. I decided to use translations rather than transliterations because I am too lazy to mess around with font issues. It turns out that Gedalyah(u) doesn't present a font problem but a few other names associated with that name do.

Arad letter 21:1-2
Your son Yehukal sends greetings to Gedaluahu (gdlyhw), [son of]
Elya'ir and to your household. I bless you to [YHW]H.

Arad letter 110
Shemiyah Meshullam, steward of Elnata[n]
Maki, steward of Gedaylah (gdlyh)

Notice the somewhat differing spellings. The first one clearly isn't Gedalyahu son of Pashhur and the second one likely isn't either.

Chris Heard mentions a Gedalyahu son of Uriyahu in epigraphic material but I can't track down the reference. I guess I should ask Chris.

Then the name occurs on at least seven seals or bullae. While the first one listed, the Gedalyahu son of Pashhur bulla, and one or two others came from controlled excavations, most did not. So, one must be very cautious when working with them. This list may not be complete. Aside from the Gedalyahu son of Pashur bulla, I put this list together from Gogel's A Grammar of Epigraphic Hebrew.

The New Seal from Jerusalem
Belonging to Gedalyahu
son of Pashhur

Avigad, EI, 9, 1969, 1-9, #5
Belonging to Gedalyahu (gdlyhw)
son of Samak

Herr, The Scripts of Ancient Northwest Semitic Seals, #152
Belonging to Elishama son
of Gedalyahu (gdlyhw)

Dinginger, PEQ, 73, 1941, 38-56, #6 (from Lachish, tell ed-Duweir)
Belonging to Gedalyahu (gdlyhw)
overseer of the palace

Avigad, Hebrew Bulla from the Time of Jeremiah, #5
Belonging to Gedalyahu (gdlyhw)
minister of the king

Avgad, Hebrew Bulla from the Time of Jeremiah, #41
Belonging to Gedalyahu (gdlyhw)
(son of?) Ho[sha]yahu

Avigad, IEJ 14, 1964, 190-94, #2
Belonging to Hanayahu son
of Gedalyahu (gdlyhw)

What's the point of all this? Nothing too profound. The name, Gedalyahu, seems rather common but when one considers the addition of the patronym, Pashhur, not an unknown name itself, the field of possible individuals is considerably reduced. The context of discovery and the previous discovery of a bulla with Yehukhal ben Shelemyahu, also mentioned in Jeremiah 37:1, further reduce that field.

I agree with Chris' analysis at Higgaion. The Gedalyahu son of Pashhur of Jeremiah 38:1-6 is likely the same person as Gedalyahu son of Pashhur on the new bulla from Jerusalem. But, "it's not a slam-dunk."

I also want to take this opportunity to thank G. M. Grena for his great drawings of the bulla. You can see G.M.'s wonderful work on Chris' cite.

Posted by Duane Smith at August 3, 2008 7:19 PM | Read more on Archaeology |

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Comments

George is quite nice to share his drawings... however,If you follow what's been going on at biblicalist -- where he also placed the drawings --, you would know that the drawing is inaccurate. BOTH lameds are angle-based. The first lamed in George's drawing is round-based and has a lengthy arm. It is completely wrong.

He also thinks that people would not check the seal because the writing is "microscopic." Pf course people checked seals; you would have to be a moron NOT to check.
to check the seal.

Posted by: rochelle at August 4, 2008 3:56 AM

Rochelle,

You are quite right. I should have been following the biblicalist discussion. I normally do but for various reasons I hadn't looked at it for a couple of days. Why I didn't think of it before I wrote this post is a mystery. Thanks for letting me know.

Duane

Posted by: Duane at August 4, 2008 7:15 AM

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