Prophet’s ‘signature’ may have been found
IT’D BE FIRST ‘EXTRA-BIBLICAL’ REFERENCE TO ISAIAH
In what some are calling a finding of “biblical proportions,” archeologists have unearthed a one-centimetre clay nugget that appears to bear the name of the Prophet Isaiah.
A piece of the 2,700-yearold seal impression is missing, and it’s not clear what it actually says. However, “the obvious initial translation, as surprising as it might seem, suggests that this belonged to the prophet Isaiah,” author and archaeologist Eilat Mazar writes in the journal Biblical Archaeology Review.
If the stamped clay seal is, indeed, Isaiah’s — experts said it would be the first “extra-biblical” reference to the 8th century B.C. Jewish prophet, who foretold the birth of Jesus some 700 years in advance, and for whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
The seal impression, or bulla, was discovered in an archeological excavation at the Ophel, at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, in a structure thought last used by the royal bakers.
Among the fragments of pottery vessels, “zoomorphic” four-legged figurines and other artifacts were dozens of seal impressions stamped on soft pieces of clay.
One was impressed with the personal seal of King Hezekiah of Judah (a discovery announced by Mazar’s team three years ago). Several others appear to have belonged “to an important individual named Bes,” and one to Isaiah.
The tantalizing ovalshaped imprint is inscribed in ancient Hebrew script with the name Yesha’yah(u), Isaiah in Hebrew, followed by the letters “nvy” — the first three letters of the Hebrew for prophet. The surviving portions show the lower parts of a grazing doe, a “motif of blessing and protection found in Judah,” Mazar writes in her article, “Is This the Prophet Isaiah’s Signature?”
But like a jigsaw puzzle missing pieces, the upper end of the bulla is gone, and its lower left end with the word “nvy” is damaged slightly. Missing after “nvy” are the final letters, “aleph,” to spell out “prophet.”
However, the fact the bulla was discovered so close to one bearing the name of Hezekiah “leaves open the possibility” that it belonged to the biblical prophet, Mazar said.
Some aren’t convinced. Given the crucially important missing letters, “The assumption that this is a (seal) of Isaiah the prophet is scintillating, but it is certainly not something that we should assume is at all certain,” Christopher Rollston, professor of Semitic languages at George Washington University told Δational Geographic. “It’s not.”
“But as always there is no shortage of those who jump on the find with cries of, ‘Hurray, we have proven the Bible,’ ” Israeli epigrapher Dr. Haggai Misgav wrote on Facebook.
THE ASSUMPTION THAT THIS IS A (SEAL) OF ISAIAH THE
PROPHET IS SCINTILLATING, BUT IT IS CERTAINLY NOT
SOMETHING THAT WE SHOULD ASSUME IS AT ALL CERTAIN. IT’S NOT. — CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON