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Ketef Hinnom
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Ketef Hinnom ("shoulder of Hinnom") is an archaeological site near Jerusalem. The site consists of a series of rock-hewn burial chambers based on natural caverns. In 1979 two tiny silver scrolls, inscribed with portions of the well-known apotropaic Priestly Blessing of the Book of Numbers and apparently once used as amulets, were found in one of a burial chambers. The delicate process of unrolling the scrolls while developing a method that would prevent them from disintegrating took three years.
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Ketef Hinnom ("shoulder of Hinnom") is an archaeological site near Jerusalem. The site consists of a series of rock-hewn burial chambers based on natural caverns. In 1979 two tiny silver scrolls, inscribed with portions of the well-known apotropaic Priestly Blessing of the Book of Numbers and apparently once used as amulets, were found in one of a burial chambers. The delicate process of unrolling the scrolls while developing a method that would prevent them from disintegrating took three years. Brief as they are, they rank as the oldest surviving texts from the Hebrew Bible.
The scrolls
The scrolls are known as KH1 and KH2. Text below in square brackets represents informed deduction.
KH1 (27 x 97 mm; 1.0 x 3.75 inches)
- ...] YHW ...
- [...]
- the grea[t ... who keeps]
- the covenant and
- [G]raciousness towards those who love [him] and (alt: [hi]m;)
- those who keep [his commandments ...
- ...].
- the Eternal? [...].
- [the?] blessing more than any
- [sna]re and more than Evil.
- For redemption is in him.
- For YHWH
- is our restorer [and]
- rock. May YHWH bles[s]
- you and
- [may he] keep you.
- [May] YHWH make
- [his face] shine ...
Compare lines 3-6 to:
- Exodus 20:6--showing mercy to thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments
- Deuteronomy 5:10--showing mercy to thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments
- Deuteronomy 7:9--keeping covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations
- Daniel 9:4--keeping covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments
- Nehemiah 1:5--keeping covenant and mercy for them that love Him and observe His commandments
(Note that the omission of "thousands" may have originally appeared on line 7 as in Deuteronomy 7:9).
KH2 (11 x 39 mm; 0.5 x 1.5 inches)
- [Top line(s) broken: For PN xxxx]
- -h/hu. May be blessed h/sh-
- -[e] by YHW[H,]
- the warrior/helper and
- the rebuker of
- [E]vil: May bless you,
- YHWH,
- keep you.
- Make shine, YH-
- -[W]H, His face
- [upon] you and g-
- -rant you p-
- -[ea]ce.
Compare lines 7-13 to:
- Numbers 6:24--Yahweh bless you and keep you;
- Numbers 6:25--Yahweh make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
- Numbers 6:26--Yahweh lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
(Note that the two bold italicized phrases above are not present on this scroll; also note that all of Numbers 6:25-26 may have appeared on KH1 after line 18 where the scroll has disintegrated).
Excavation details
The scrolls were found in 1979 in Chamber 25 of Cave 24 at Ketef Hinnom, during excavations conducted by a team under the supervision of Gabriel Barkay, professor of archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. The site appeared to be archaeologically sterile (the tomb had last been used for storing rifles during the Ottoman period), but a chance discovery by a 13-year-old "assistant" revealed that a partial collapse of the ceiling long ago had preserved the contents of Chamber 25.
The chamber contained approximately 60cm. of material with over a thousand objects: many small pottery vessels, artifacts of iron and bronze (including arrowheads), needles and pins, bone and ivory objects, glass bottles, and jewelry including earrings of gold and silver. The tomb had evidently been in use for several generations towards the end of the First Temple period, and continued to be used after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 BCE. KH1 was found in Square D, the middle of the repository, 7 cm above the floor, while KH2 was found while sifting dirt from the lower half of the deposits in Square A, the innermost portion of the repository. Both amulets were separated from Hellenistic artifacts by 3 meters of length and 25 cm of depth, and embedded in pottery and other material from the 7th/6th centuries BCE.
Barkay initially dated the inscriptions to the late-7th/early-6th centuries BC (later revised downward slightly to the early 6th century) on palaeographic grounds (the forms of the delicately-incised paleo-Hebrew lettering) and on the evidence of the pottery found in the immediate vicinity. This dating was subsequently questioned by Johannes Renz and Wolfgang Rollig (Handbuch der Althebraischen Epigraphik, 1995), who argued that the script was in too poor a condition to be dated with certainty and that a 3rd/2nd century BCE provenance could not be excluded, especially as the repository, which had been used as a kind of "rubbish bin" for the burial chamber over many centuries, also contained material from the fourth century BCE.
A major re-examination of the scrolls was therefore undertaken by the University of Southern California's West Semitic Research Project, using advanced photographic and computer enhancement techniques which enabled the script to be read more easily and the paleography to be dated more confidently. The results, published in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) in 2004, confirmed a date immediately prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586/7 BCE. (An innovation in the report was the simultaneous publication of an accompanying "digital article," a CD version of the article and the images). Dr Kyle McCarter of Johns Hopkins University, a specialist in ancient Semitic scripts, has said the study should "settle any controversy over [the date of] these inscriptions".
Significance
The 2004 team described the scrolls as "one of most significant discoveries ever made" for biblical studies. Apart from their significance for our knowledge of the development of the Hebrew alphabet, the scrolls "preserve the earliest known citations of texts also found in the Hebrew Bible and ... the earliest examples of confessional statements concerning Yahweh." The reference to Yahweh as "Rebuker of Evil," found in later incantations and amulets associated with Israel, is evidence that these artifacts were also amulets.
Some scholars - the so-called "biblical minimalists" - have argued that the Bible was a relatively recent invention by Jewish leaders who took control of Judea in the late fourth century BCE. "The new research on the inscriptions suggests that that's not true," according to Dr. Wayne Pitard, professor of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern religions at the University of Illinois. Despite this, Pitard has warned that although evidence for the antiquity of the Priestly Blessing is now compelling, this does not necessarily mean that the Book of Numbers already existed at that time. Dr. James R. Davila, Reader in Early Jewish Studies at the University of St Andrews' St Mary's College, has similarly cautioned that the idea that the scrolls are "proof that the Five Books of Moses were in existence during the First Temple period" (as described in an article in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz) is "an overinterpretation of the evidence".
See also
External links
- Brief overview at Jewish Virtual Library, sourced from the Islraeli Foreign Ministry.
Further reading
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