Teaching Team
New Find from City of David
Tags: archaeology, city of david, eilat, mazar, temech
Archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar's excavations in the City of David have turned up another interesting find. The January 17, 2008 Jerusalem Post reports the discovery of a black stone seal that belonged to one of the Jews who returned from Babylon after the Babylonian exile. The seal depicts two priests at an incense altar and bears the name Temech, the family name of levitical Temple servants which appears in Nehemiah 7:55.
City of David is already famous for producing a cache of First Temple Era seal impressions bearing names of people that also appear in the biblical text. They are real life signatures from the days of Jeremiah. You can read about them, see pictures of them and even decipher the Hebrew on them in messiah magazine issue #91.
Most of those seal impressions are pressed in clay and have survived the years because they were kiln-fired in the conflagration of Jerusalem during the Babylonian seige. This find, however, comes from after the Babylonian seige, and it is not a seal impression. This is the actual seal. The iconography on the seal is not Jewish, but the Hebrew name on it is. The seal was apparently purchased in Babylon by a Jew in the Temech family and carried back to Israel at the time of the return.
You can see a picture of it and read an article about it online in the Jerusalem Post.
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Visitor Feedback:
I read this article earlier today. It has been very interesting to hear about what kinds of things are being found these days.
What do you think about this quote from the article:
"The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added"
Our family has often talked about how "back in the old days" when the prophets would talk of the people following pagan practices, walking contrary to the Father and other accusations that were made, that the people might be quick to dismiss their claims because they didn't see their actions the same way. It makes me think of myself and how, not too long ago, I made a point to do things and believe things that I now see in a very different light, things that I now consider "walking contrary to the Father". We are not so different today than we have ever been.
So I'm curious, what are your thoughts regarding the quote from the article and the suggestion it seems to make?
Lisa W | January 23, 2008 11:26 PM