BIBLICAL
NAMES AND SEALS

Parchment Sealed With A Bulla

A number of seals and seal impressions (bullae) have come down to us from antiquity which bear the names of biblical personages. These seals and seal impressions fall into two categories: those that were used by a biblical figure himself, or those that were used by an official of a biblical king. Examples of the first category are the seal impressions of Baruch (Jeremiah’s scribe, Jer. 32, 36) and Jerahmeel (a Judean official, Jer. 36:26), and the seal of Seraiah (another Judean official, Jer. 51:59–64).1 An example of the second category is the famous seal of Shema, servant of Jeroboam.2 Although Shema is not mentioned in the Old Testament, he evidently was an official of Jeroboam, a well-known king of Israel. (Whether it was Jeroboam I or Jeroboam II, however, is a matter of debate.) We now have one additional seal and two additional seal impressions which name biblical personages to add to this list of inscriptions from antiquity.

The Seal of Peqah

Although the seal of Peqah is not a recent discovery, its identification as a seal naming a biblical

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figure was proposed only recently. The seal was purchased from an antiquities dealer in Nablus at the end of the nineteenth century by biblical scholar Charles Clermont-Ganneau. It now rests in the Vorderasiatische Museum of Berlin. On it a human figure wearing an Egyptian wig, a short tunic and a long mantle faces left. He holds a javelin in his upraised right hand, while his left arm has disappeared in a break. In front of the man stands an unidentified two-pronged object. Engraved behind the figure are the three letters PQH, which are vocalized Peqah. The area of origin and the date of the script suggest that the Peqah of the seal is none other than Peqah, son of Remaliah, of the Old Testament.

Peqah was a salis of Peqahyah, king of the Northern Kingdom. This term is understood to mean an officer of the third rank, below that of the king and his principal officers. Peqah organized a conspiracy against Peqahyah and assassinated-him in his palace at Samaria in ca. 740 BC (2 Kings 15:25). He ruled Israel for 20 years, during which time he “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 15:28). Peqah and Resin, king of Syria, joined together to attack Ahaz, king of Judah, with limited success (2 Kings 16:5–6). This resulted in Ahaz sending to Tiglath-Plleser, king of Assyria, for help. The Assyrian king attacked Israel, taking many cities (2 Kings 16:7–8, 15:29). Peqah apparently lost favor with his people after this, because he fell victim to a palace intrique led by one Hoshea (2 Kings 15:30).

The seal was, no doubt, used by Peqah while he was an officer under Peqahyah. If the identification of the seal owner with Peqah of the Old Testament is correct, and the evidence certainly supports such an identification, then this is the second known pictorial representation of a king of Israel or Judah. The other is the well-known Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser found in Numrud, ancient Calah, in Iraq by Henry Layard in 1846. It depicts the Israelite king Jehu prostrate before the Assyrian king presenting tribute. (See Bible and Spade, Winter 1972, p. 5).

The Seal Impression of Gemariah

One of the more significant

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discoveries made at the recent City of David excavations (See Bible and Spade, Summer-Autumn 1980, pp. 119-124) was the discovery of a cache of 51 clay bullae, the clay sealings from papyrus documents (see photo of bulla sealing the strings of a papyrus document), in a house destroyed in the Babylonian invasion of 586 BC. One of the bullae was impressed with the seal of Gemariah, a scribe and officer of the royal court in the closing days of the kingdom of Judah. The inscription on the bulla simply reads “(belonging} to Gemaryahu [so]n of Shaphan.” Not only is the seal owner Gemaryahu known in the Bible, where his name is spelled Gemariah, but his father Shaphan is known as well. Shaphan was a government scribe in the days of Josiah and was involved in a famous biblical incident.

In the eighteenth year of Josiah (ca. 622 BC), the king sent Shaphan to the house of the Lord with instructions to the high priest Hilkiah to begin repairs on the long-neglected temple. While there, Hilkiah gave Shaphan a copy of a book of the law (probably Deuteronomy) which he had just found. Shaphan, in turn, brought the book to Josiah and read it to him. The young king (only 26 years old) was so impressed with the message of the book that he immediately undertook religious reforms to turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord (2 Kings 22:3–23:24). As a result of Shaphan’s reading of the book of the law to him, Josiah became one of the most spiritual kings of Judah:

And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him arose there any like him (2 Kings 23:25).

Shaphan’s son, Gemariah, the owner of the seal which was used to impress the buIla found in the City of David, was likewise involved in important events in the life of the kingdom of Judah. The next king after Josiah was his son Jehoiakim. In the fourth year of this king, in ca. 605 BC, the Lord commanded the prophet Jeremiah to write on a scroll “all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations” (Jer 36:2}. The message was an unpopular one since it stated that the kingdom of Judah would fall to the Babylonians (Jer. 36:29). Jeremiah dictated the words of the Lord to Baruch his scribe. During the next fast day, when the people of Judah gathered in Jerusalem, Jeremiah instructed Baruch to read the scroll in the temple. At this time there was no reaction to the message – at least Scripture does not record any.

In the ninth month of the following year, however, another fast was proclaimed. This time, Jeremiah’s message made it all the way to the king. Baruch first read it in the temple as he had done the year before. Next he read it in the

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office of our seal owner Gemariah, “in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house, in the ears of all the people” (Jer. 36:10). Although Gemariah was at the scribal offices in the royal palace at the time, his son Michaiah was present for file reading. He recognized the gravity of the message and quickly took action. Michaiah rushed to the royal palace and swiftly made his way to the scribal office. All the important officials were there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, his father Gemariah the son of Shaphan, “and all the princes” (Jer. 36:12). When Michaiah told them the message of Jeremiah’s scroll, they immediately sent for Baruch so that they could hear it first hand. Upon hearing the words of the scroll, the officials were stunned. They told Baruch to go into hiding, along with Jeremiah, and then they approached the king with the bad news.

Jehoiakim was in his winter palace warming himself by a fire at the time. His reaction to the scroll was blasé. As it was read to him, Jehoiakim had the pages burned in the fire. Gemariah, along with Elnathan and Delaiah, urged the king not to bum the scroll. But to no avail; the king’s response to Jeremiah was, “Why have you written that the king of Babylon shall come and destroy this land and exterminate both man and beast?” (Jer. 36:29). The king commanded that Baruch and Jeremiah be captured, “but the Lord hid them” (Jer. 36:26). God commanded Jeremiah to rewrite the message on another scroll, “and there were added besides unto them many like words” (Jer. 36:32). Shortly, Jeremiah’s message from God came to pass in every detail. The Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiakim into captivity and ultimately sacked Jerusalem (See Bible and Spade, Spring-Summer 1975, pp. 57-71).

The Seal Impression of Milkomur Servant of Baalis

A seal impression containing the name of the Ammonite king Baalis was discovered in 1984 by an excavation team from Andrews University working at Tell el-Umeiri in Jordan. It was impressed into the fiat end of a fired ceramic cone, possibly used as a jar stopper. The seal with which the impression was made belonged to an official of the king. The full inscription reads “(belonging} to Miikomur servant of Baalyisau” Baalyisa is known to us from the Bible (Jer. 40:14), where the name is spelled Baalis, probably reflecting the way the Judean author heard the name pronounced in Ammonite. He was king of Ammon in the days following the fall of Jerusalem. It was Baalis who sent Ishmael to Mizpah to murder Gedaliah, the governor set up by the Babylonians. This caused many Judahites, including Jeremiah, to flee to Egypt for safety since they feared reprisals by the Babylonians.

A minor Bible problem has been cleared up by the discovery of this inscription. Scholars previously thought that the biblical spelling of

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Baalis was in error. It was said that the “s” in the name resulted in an impossible formation. The seal impression, however, makes it clear that the “s” in the name is indeed correct. The name is comprised of two elements. The first part, baal, literally means “lord” and was the divine name of one of the major Canaanite deities. The second part, yisa, means “salvation”, or saving action. The name thus has the meaning of “Baal saves” or “Baal is salvation.” (Compare the name Elisha, which uses the divine element El instead of baal, and means “God saves”.)

The owner of the seal, Milkomur, is not mentioned in the Bible. Milkom, the principal element of his name, however, was the national deity of Ammon and is referred to several times in the Bible (1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings 23:13). The full meaning of the name is “Milcom is light” or “Milcom is a flame.”

These three inscriptions add to the growing body of data supporting the historicity of the Bible. Furthermore, the discovery of seals used by biblical figures and seal impressions made by biblical personages bring us in direct contact with the exciting and momentous people and events of Bible times.

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(References: A Note on the Seal of Peqah the Armor-Bearer, Future King of Israel, by Pierre Bordreuil, Biblical Archaeologist, March 1986, pp. 54-55; Bullae from the City of David, by Yigal Shiloh and David Tarler, Biblical Archaeologist, December 1986, pp. 196-209; The Servant of Baalis, by Larry G. Herr, Biblical Archaeologist, September 1985, pp. 169-172.)

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