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Home > Magazines > BAR > July/August 1991

Six Biblical Signatures

Seals and seal impressions of six biblical personages recovered

By Tsvi Schneider

Hebrew University professor Nahman Avigad, the world’s leading authority on Hebrew seals, lamented that “among the hundreds of Hebrew seals and seal-impressions dating from biblical times known up to now, not one of their owners can be identified with absolute certainty with a person mentioned in the Bible.”1 That was in 1978. Today, the situation is better than it was then. True, “absolute” certainty cannot yet be claimed. But “very near” certainty can. Five identifications have been made—four of them by Avigad, who summarized all five in a seminal article.2 The fifth was made by Yigal Shiloh, the […]

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Footnotes

1.

B.C.E. (Before the Common Era). used by this author, is the alternate designation corresponding to B.C. often used in scholarly literature.

2.

See Hershel Shanks, “Jeremiah’s Scribe and Confidant Speaks from a Hoard of Clay Bullae,” BAR 13:05.

3.

In ancient Hebrew names, the theophoric suffix –yahu(why) sometimes appears as –yah (hy). Both are hypocristic, or shortened, forms of Yahweh (hwhy). The first eliminates the last letter (in Hebrew), and the second eliminates the last two letters. In English the suffix –yah, or –yahu, is transliterated as –iah.

4.

B.C.E. (before the Common Era), used by this author, is the alternate designation corresponding to B.C. often used in scholarly literature.

5.

See Josette Elayi, “Name of Deuteronomy’s Author Found on Seal Ring,” BAR 13:05.

Endnotes

1.

Nachman Avigad, “Baruch the Scribe and Yerahme’el the King’s Son,” Israel Exploration Journal (IEJ) 28 (1978), p. 52.

2.

Avigad, “On the Identification of Persons Mentioned in Hebrew Epigraphic Sources,” Eretz Israel 19 (1987), pp. 235–237 (in Hebrew).

3.

Avigad, “Baruch the Scribe” p. 53. Also, Avigad, Hebrew Bullae from the Time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a Burnt Archive (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1986), pp. 28–29.

4.

J.M. Ward, “Baruch,” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), vol. 1, p. 361; J. Muilenburg, “Jeremiah the Prophet,” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary, vol. 2, p. 832; Avigad, “Baruch,” in Encyclopedia Biblica (Jerusalem: Bialik, 1954) vol. 2, cols. 337–338 (in Hebrew).

5.

Avigad, Hebrew Bullae, p. 13.

6.

Yigal Shiloh, “A Group of Hebrew Bullae from the City of David,” IEJ 36 (1986), p. 33.

7.

Avigad, “Baruch the Scribe,” p. 56, and “The Seal of Seraiah, Son of Neriah,” Eretz Israel 14 (1978), pp. 86–87 (in Hebrew).

8.

John Bright, Jeremiah, Anchor Bible (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), p. 210.

9.

Avigad, “On the Identification of Persons,” p. 237.

10.

Tsvi Schneider, “Azaryahu Son of Hilkiyahu (Priest?) on a City of David Bulla,” Qadmoniot 81–82 (1988), p. 56 (in Hebrew) and IEJ 38 (1988), pp. 139–141.

11.

Avigad, “On the Identification of Persons,” p. 235.

12.

Twenty years ago, Avigad published a seal of unknown origin, bearing the same two names being discussed. It read “Azariyahu/Hilkiyahu.” His commentary said simply that both these names were common and there was nothing to add. There is no connection between this seal and the City of David bulla except the names. The seal Avigad published lacks the usual “Belonging to” or “son of” See “Six Ancient Hebrew Seals,” in Sefer Shmuel Yeivin (Jerusalem: Qiryat Sefer, 1970), p. 307 and plate 4:1/A (in Hebrew).