Artifact
Seal of Isaiah
c. 700 BC
If the reading 'prophet' is correct, this is the first and only extra-biblical reference to the prophet Isaiah ever discovered. Either way, its find-spot next to Hezekiah's seal in the exact archaeological layer of the Assyrian crisis provides remarkable material support for the biblical narrative of king and prophet functioning together in Jerusalem.
About this artifact
Discovered in 2018 by archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar during the Ophel excavation in Jerusalem, immediately south of the Temple Mount. The tiny clay bulla — a seal impression roughly the size of a coin — bears a partial paleo-Hebrew inscription that reads 'Belonging to Isaiah nvy' (לישעיהו נבי). The word nvy is widely interpreted as nāvî, meaning 'prophet,' though a break in the clay means it could also be read as a personal name. Extraordinarily, the bulla was found in wet-sifted debris from a refuse dump only about 10 feet (3 meters) from a separately discovered seal impression of King Hezekiah, in the same 8th-century-BC destruction layer. The pairing matches the biblical account in 2 Kings 19 and Isaiah 37, where the prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah are repeatedly described working together during the Assyrian crisis of 701 BC.
