Possible evidence of Isaiah's existence discovered

[Nevo]

I came across this interesting item this morning: https://www.thedailybeast.com/did-archaeologists-just-prove-the-existence-of-prophet-isaiah?ref=home

In the latest issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review, Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar reports finding a clay seal impression (bulla) that may have belonged to the prophet Isaiah. The Isaiah bulla was discovered less than 10 feet away from a bulla of King Hezekiah near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Even though Isaiah's existence has never been seriously questioned by scholars, it's a very interesting find!

[snowflake]

There are tens of thousands of artifacts similar to this that support the narrative of the bible.....amazing find!

[Robert F. Smith]

Yes, but it came from a pile of debris in the Ophel, so that we can only speculate on where it was originally -- probably in a storage area at or near the palace of the king.  The bulla merely shows ownership.  Since Isaiah was a member of the royal court, naturally he would have items belonging to him in royal storage (possibly a seal on a letter he wrote).

[Nevo]

1 hour ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Yes, but it came from a pile of debris in the Ophel, so that we can only speculate on where it was originally -- probably in a storage area at or near the palace of the king.  The bulla merely shows ownership.  Since Isaiah was a member of the royal court, naturally he would have items belonging to him in royal storage (possibly a seal on a letter he wrote).

Correct. Mazar says the bulla was found in a debris pile outside the outer southeastern wall of the "Building of the Royal Bakers" (specifically, at "Locus 09-96 in Area A2009; adjacent to the southern end of Patch A"):

"Also wet-sifted was the material from the lowest half-meter, down to bedrock, of the same Iron Age layers, where a foundation trench was cut for a wall of a Herodian vault. This material, coming from the northwestern end of the foundation trench,  included the bulla of Yesha‘yah(u) Nvy[?]. It was located only 6.5 feet southeast from the wall of the Building of the Royal Bakers, while the bulla of King Hezekiah was found about 13.1 feet southeast from the same wall; thus, less than 10 feet separated the bulla of Yesha‘yah(u) Nvy[?] and the bulla of King Hezekiah." (pp. 69–70)

A photo caption states that "this debris had been thrown from the Building of the Royal Bakers during the Iron Age."

If the reading "[belonging to] Isaiah the Prophet" is correct, then it is interesting to me that Isaiah "signed" his name as "Isaiah the Prophet" rather than "Isaiah ben Amoz" — that "Isaiah the Prophet" was the identity that he used in his day-to-day interactions.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Nevo

[Robert F. Smith]

https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/new-archaeological-evidence-for-book-of-mormon-prophet-isaiah .

[Robert F. Smith]

1 hour ago, Nevo said:

......................................

If the reading "[belonging to] Isaiah the Prophet" is correct, then it is interesting to me that Isaiah "signed" his name as "Isaiah the Prophet" rather than "Isaiah ben Amoz" — that "Isaiah the Prophet" was the identity that he used in his day-to-day interactions.

Or by his assistants.  Isaiah was not only a prophet, but also an important court official with assistants who took care of his day-to-day transactions.  Jeremiah likewise had assistants (Seraiah and Baruch).

[Robert F. Smith]

8 hours ago, snowflake said:

There are tens of thousands of artifacts similar to this that support the narrative of the bible.....amazing find!

I don't know about "tens of thousands," but there certainly are many such artifacts which support the historicity of the Bible, and I am sure that we will find many more.

Edited February 23, 2018 by Robert F. Smith

[rongo]

Which signature? Proto-Isaiah? Deutero-Isaiah? 

I'm kidding. If it's contemporaneous with Hezekiah, he would be the one that scholars deem the original. If it's his seal, of course.

[Robert F. Smith]

8 hours ago, rongo said:

..........................I'm kidding. If it's contemporaneous with Hezekiah, he would be the one that scholars deem the original. If it's his seal, of course.

Eilat Mazar is being very cautious.  Who else would have a seal with the term "prophet" on it?

[Nevo]

23 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Eilat Mazar is being very cautious.  Who else would have a seal with the term "prophet" on it?

Right? But it turns out that some people apparently did have the surname Nvy:

Quote

Without an aleph at the end, the word nvy is most likely just a personal name. Although it does not appear in the Bible, it does appear on seals and a seal impression on a jar handle, all from unprovenanced, private collections. It also appears as bn nvy (“son of nvy”), most likely a name, on two bullae from the end of the First Temple period (early seventh century B.C.E.) stamped with the same seal, both found together in a juglet from Lachish. The standard layout of names on bullae is composed of the owner’s name and his father’s name, with or without the additional word bn (“son of”) before the father’s name. Due to lack of space on the small bullae, the word bn (“son of”) was often omitted. Thus, the absence of the Hebrew word for “son of” before the word nvy, like in our bulla, is not uncommon. . . (Mazar, 70–71)

So, it's possible that the seal belonged to a hitherto unknown royal official named Isaiah Nvy—rather than to Isaiah the Prophet—but it doesn't seem very likely.

[The Nehor]

On 2/23/2018 at 10:46 PM, Robert F. Smith said:

Eilat Mazar is being very cautious.  Who else would have a seal with the term "prophet" on it?

Any Isaiah who called themselves a prophet. Probably barrels of them.

Of course the Hezekiah connection makes it unlikely unless Isaiah had an evil false prophet twin with the same name who competed with the good Isaiah for the king's favor.................Yeah, I will go with that.  

[Robert F. Smith]

21 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

Any Isaiah who called themselves a prophet. Probably barrels of them.

Of course the Hezekiah connection makes it unlikely unless Isaiah had an evil false prophet twin with the same name who competed with the good Isaiah for the king's favor.................Yeah, I will go with that.  

Also, it might be interesting to observe that the office of prophet was not held by the most senior temple high priest.  The same was true of Moses as prophet, and his brother Aaron the High Priest of the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle).  Most Mormons probably think that the different offices are always combined.

[MormonMason]

On 2/23/2018 at 10:33 PM, Nevo said:

Right? But it turns out that some people apparently did have the surname Nvy:

So, it's possible that the seal belonged to a hitherto unknown royal official named Isaiah Nvy—rather than to Isaiah the Prophet—but it doesn't seem very likely.

But if it were Isaiah the Prophet would it not have been written לישעיהו הנביא "(belonging) to Isaiah the Prophet" rather than לישעיה נבי as it appears? I'm not so sure this belonged to the Isaiah of the Bible.

Edited April 13, 2018 by MormonMason