Bible Clay Bulla and seals from Israel and Judah Homepage
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Encyclopedia of Bullae and Seals: FREE! The Exhibit: On-line Museum of Bulla and seals Security: Creation of ancient legal documents and the how bullae are made to seal papyrus paper. Antitype: Pottery, seals, bulla and anti-typical New Testament imagery. Forgeries: Known fake and misidentified bullae & seals |
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Archaeologists are digging up bible stories!!! |
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Archaeology is an important science that confirms the historical accuracy of the Bible. Since the Bible refers to hundreds of cities, kings, and places, we would expect to find evidence from on-site excavations. And this is exactly what we have found. The Bible is the most historically accurate book of history on earth. Read the Bible daily! |
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The Free On-line Museum of Bullae and Seals of Judea and Israel
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The Main Museum Exhibit of Bible Bulla and Seals |
Exhibition of Seals and Bullae from the Bible:
See also:
· Security: Creation of ancient legal documents and the how bullae are made to seal papyrus paper.
· Seals Antitype Sermon: Pottery, seals, bulla and anti-typical New Testament imagery.
THE EXHIBIT:
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Jezebel, wife of Ahab |
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Shebna servant of king |
Azariah son of Hilkiah |
Hanan son of Hilkiah |
Gemariah Jeremiah's scribe |
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Elishama son of Semachiah |
Jerahmeel the king’s son |
Baruch the son of Neriah |
Seraiah son of Neriah |
Pedaiah son of the king |
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Hananiah son of Azariah |
Gedaliah son of Immer |
Shelemiah son of Shema |
Jucal son of Shelemyahu son of Shovi |
Gedaliah son of Pashhur |
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Malchijah son of king |
Gedaliah over the house |
Jaazaniah servant of the king |
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Ishmael the king's son |
Miamen Son of Ephai |
Baalis King of Bnei-Ammon |
Milkom servant of Baalis |
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Elnathan, 3rd Judean Governor |
Shelomith, wife of Elnathan |
Sanballat, Satrap of Samaria |
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Ring seal of Holy Spirit |
History of discovery of Bulla:
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1909 |
Avroman in remote Kurdistan |
3 sealed documents |
There a stone jar was found containing several documents on parchment, rolled up, tied and sealed with bullae. Three of them have survived |
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1962 |
cave in Wadi Daliyeh north of Jericho |
128 bulla and some sealed documents. |
A
refuge for wealthy persons from Samaria who had fled before the approaching
army of Alexander the Great. They brought with them legal documents written
in Aramaic, dated to the end of the Persian period (second half of the 4th
century BCE). The papyri, mostly in a poor state of preservation, were sealed
with bullae, of which 128 were recovered. Each document was sealed with
several bullae, and one was tied with string to which were still attached
seven bullae in good condition. a deed of sale, was sealed with the seal of
"[Yesha']yahu son of [San]ballat, Governor of Samaria. |
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1960s |
Y. Aharoni, inside pottery juglet at Lachish |
17 bullae, only seven were legible |
administrative archive at that spot, for one of them bore the title of a royal official. These had originally sealed letters and, after the opening of the papyri, the bullae were removed and placed in the juglet for safekeeping. |
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1974 |
Jewish military colony at Elephantine in Upper Egypt
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seventy bullae and two seals |
-Return from Exile (the Persian period) Aramaic script. These bullae bore the name of the province of "Yehud" -administrative and legal documents, including letters, deeds of sale, marriage deeds, documents concerning finances. -The Elephantine papyri were folded several times, tied with string and sealed with a single bulla stamped with a seal without graphic or text |
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1975 |
antiquities dealers in Jerusalem |
255 bulla |
Dating to 587 BC -Yoav Sasson bought about 211. Reuben Hecht of Haifa bought 49. -"a hoard of Hebrew bullae from the end of the First Temple period made its appearance — a group several times larger than the previous one. These bullae are the subject of the present monograph." (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p12, 1986 AD) |
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1982 |
City of David |
51 bulla |
Israel museum |
- Technical notes about Jeremiah's bulla:
- "The entire assemblage of bullae numbers 255 items, most of them complete though some are broken; the majority are unique and others are duplicate, identical copies. The majority were impressed with seals belonging to persons who possessed only one seal, and in most cases only a single impression of each such seal was found. However, other seal-owners used their single seal more than once, and thus there are several cases of two, four and, in one instance, fourteen bullae bearing identical duplicate impressions, all sealed by a single seal. Moreover, there were other individuals who possessed two, three or as many as six different seals; all were used, and sometimes more than once. Thus, the assemblage includes duplicate bullae of multiple seals." (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p15, 1986 AD)
- "The onomasticon of our assemblage of bullae contains 132 different (as opposed to repeated and duplicate) names. The variety of the names was originally even greater, but many have been lost or partly lost through damage to the bullae. Naturally, these names more or less reflect those appearing on Hebrew seals in general. About two-thirds of the names find mention in the Hebrew Bible, while the remaining third are mostly known from seals and sealings, or from other epigraphic sources." (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p116, 1986 AD)
- "We should note that of all 255 bullae there is not even one belonging to a woman. … Each inscription contains a standardized formula giving the name of the seal owner and his patronymic. The word ben , "son (of)", is often omitted — not always through lack of space. On five bullae (Nos. 21, 23, 63 [incomplete], 79 and 113), the name of the grandfather is also given. (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p116, 1986 AD)
- "We may also note an entire lack of "foreign" names, with the exception of the name Pashhur, which, though of Egyptian origin, was early adopted into the Hebrew onomasticon. (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p117, 1986 AD)
- "As noted above, we know nothing of the circumstances of the discovery of the bullae, but there is no doubt that they comprise a homogeneous, uniform assemblage, found together at a single site which, apparently, had contained an archive of documents. This conclusion derives from the data discussed above, which indicate that the bullae had served to seal papyrus documents. These documents themselves appear to have been consumed in a fire, while the bullae survived. Statistics show that in total there were 255 bullae, impressed with at least 211 different seals. Of these, 168 of the seal-owners are known to us by name, and it can be assumed that the original total of persons involved in sealing the bullae was closer to 200. The number of documents in the archive cannot accurately be estimated, for we cannot know how many bullae there were on each document; nor is it known whether all the original bullae were recovered from the site. In any event, this was certainly a rich archive, containing a large number of documents." (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p120, 1986 AD)
- "Another very interesting example of the use of bullae came to light in 1909, at Avroman in remote Kurdistan.' There a stone jar was found containing several documents on parchment, rolled up, tied and sealed with bullae. Three of them have survived. Dated to the 3rd century BCE, two documents are in Greek and one in Aramaic script. They were written and sealed in the following manner: the text was written twice, once, an "original" in the upper part of the page, and the second time in a "copy" in the lower part of the page, with a space in between; the upper part was then rolled up and bound with a string which was passed through small holes punched through the blank strip between the two texts. Lumps of clay were pressed over the strings and then impressed with the seals of all the parties to the contract. The lower text, which remained open for inspection at any time, was not sealed (see Fig. 3). These Avroman documents are a rare example of the survival of a "double document", half of which is sealed with bullae and the other half of which remains unsealed. In Latin, the closed, rolled-up portion was known as scriptura interior, while the open portion was known as scriptura exterior. If the open version was contested, the sealed version could be opened for verification in the presence of the authorities. This practice of "double documents" (or "tied deeds" in the terminology of the Talmud) was well known in antiquity and was very common in Hellenistic times throughout the Seleucid and Ptolemaic domains." (Hebrew Bullae from the time of Jeremiah: Remnants of a burnt archive, Nahman Avigad, p124, 1986 AD)
- Jewish zealots burnt the archive in the first century:
- "the king’s soldiers were overpowered by their multitude and boldness; and so they gave way, and were driven out of the upper city by force. The others then set fire to the house of Ananias the high priest, and to the palaces of Agrippa and Bernice; after which they carried the fire to the place where the archives were reposited, and made haste to burn the contracts belonging to their creditors, and thereby dissolve their obligations for paying their debts; and this was done, in order to gain the multitude of those who had been debtors, and that they might persuade the poorer sort to join in their insurrection with safety against the more wealthy; so the keepers of the records fled away, and the rest set fire to them." (Josephus, Wars of the Jews 2.426)
See also: Ring
Seal of the Holy Spirit
By Steve Rudd: Contact the author for comments, input or corrections.
