{"id":13538,"date":"2025-08-13T14:59:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T18:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=13538"},"modified":"2025-08-13T14:59:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T18:59:30","slug":"archaeologists-uncover-ancient-seal-with-ties-to-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/08\/archaeologists-uncover-ancient-seal-with-ties-to-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Seal With Ties to the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13541\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13541\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13541\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/08\/Biblical-Seal_credit-Temple-Mount-Sifting-Project.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13541\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Temple Mount Sifting Project<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An ancient seal discovered near Jerusalem\u2019s Temple Mount may have ties to the Bible. Archaeologists with the Temple Mount Sifting Project uncovered a seal with the name \u201cYed[a\u201b]yah (son of) Asayahu.\u201d Archaeologist Mordechai Ehrlich made the discovery, which was described as a \u201crare and exceptionally well-preserved clay sealing, impressed by a stamp seal inscribed with ancient Hebrew letters.\u201d Even more impressive, the seal bears a fingerprint, most likely of its former owner. Archaeologists dated the seal to around the 7th or early 6th century B.C. Marks on the back of the seal indicate it might have been used to seal a bag or container.<\/p>\n<p>The date means the seal is from the days of King Josiah, whose servant, Asayahu, is mentioned in the Bible in II Kings 22:12. \u201cGiven his prominent role, it is reasonable to assume that his son, Yeda\u201byah, may have also served in a high-ranking capacity, either at the same time or shortly thereafter,\u201d the project wrote. \u201cHistorically, seals like these were reserved for officials of high rank, and many individuals named in similar discoveries from Jerusalem have been directly identified with biblical-era officials,\u201d project officials said, citing it was \u201chighly plausible\u201d the seal could be connected to the Asayahu mentioned in the Bible.<\/p>\n<p>Archaeologist Zachi Dvira, co-director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, said the find is especially unique. \u201cThis is only the second time since the Temple Mount Sifting Project began over 20 years ago that we\u2019ve uncovered a sealing with such a complete inscription \u2014 nearly every letter is clearly legible,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/tiny-2600-year-old-clay-sealing-inscribed-with-biblical-name-found-in-temple-mount-soil\/\">he said<\/a>. The inscription was so legible that the project decided to announce its find earlier than typical. \u201cHowever, in this case, the artifact was very recognizable, and Dr. Anat Mendel-Geberovich, who works in our lab, is one of the leading experts in ancient Hebrew script. So we decided to move forward, also because we felt it was very significant that the sealing was found just before Tisha B\u2019Av.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously, we are not sure that the Asayahu mentioned on the sealing is the same that appears in the Bible. However, several such artifacts found in the area of the Temple Mount carry biblical names, and it does make sense, because these were not objects used by common people,\u201d said Dvira. He is hopeful that new sifting techniques will help the project with many more discoveries. \u201cBecause of their small size, clay sealings are difficult to identify,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the past, most of the bullae came from the antiquity market, but as we developed new techniques to sift through massive amounts of dirt, more excavations have started to either employ our sifting services or carry out their own sifting. Now, there are maybe 10 or 20 times more known bullae found during controlled archaeological work than in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An ancient seal discovered near Jerusalem\u2019s Temple Mount may have ties to the Bible. Archaeologists with the Temple Mount Sifting Project uncovered a seal with the name \u201cYed[a\u201b]yah (son of) Asayahu.\u201d Archaeologist Mordechai Ehrlich made the discovery, which was described as a \u201crare and exceptionally well-preserved clay sealing, impressed by a stamp seal inscribed with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":13541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Seal With Ties to the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Archaeologists uncover a 7th-century B.C. seal near Jerusalem\u2019s Temple Mount 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