Former Madison resident Larry Mykytiuk has written the cover story in the March/April issue of Biblical Archaeology Review: “50 Real People of the Bible Confirmed by Archaeology.” The article is based on Mykytiuk’s PhD research at the University of Wisconsin Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1998.
Mykytiuk is now a professor of Library Science at Purdue University, where he works with the history department. In an interview with The Book & The Spade radio program, he said he began work on his PhD in 1992 when he learned of a seal impression which contained the name of the Hezekiah, the king of Judah. “I couldn’t get it out of my mind,” he said.
The House of David
A few months later came one of the most important discoveries in Biblical Archaeology of the last half century. Archaeologists found an inscription mentioning “the house of David.” The inscription was found just outside the Iron Age gate at Tel Dan in northern Israel (pictured above).
Shortly before the discovery some Bible scholars had begun raising questions about the significance of the biblical kings David and Solomon. The discovery reshaped the debate over David and Solomon. David is the earliest among the 50 Bible Characters on the list.
Mykytiuk has identified three main points that should determine whether an archaeological inscription connects to a biblical character.
- – Do we know the inscription is authentic? An item that surfaces on the antiquities market could be a forgery. If it’s from an archaeological excavation it’s probably authentic.
- – Context, the inscription must be from roughly the same society and time period.
- – Do the identifying marks in the inscription match what’s known about the person from the Bible?
Almost Real
Mykytiuk has a smaller list of Bible characters called the “Almost Real List.” These are characters who may be real, but are connected with archaeological finds that don’t quite fit all three of his criteria.
For instance, an inscription found painted on a plaster wall in the Jordan River Valley mentions Balaam, which could be the same Balaam of Numbers 22-24. But the inscription doesn’t have enough identifying information, and it has also been dated to around 700 BC, which would be hundreds of years after the biblical Exodus. “That’s a lot of time to pass,” Mykytiuk said.
Then there’s Shebna, the overseer of the king’s palace, who is rebuked by the prophet Isaiah for building himself a fancy tomb. An inscription linked to Shebna has been found in a tomb outside of Jerusalem. “However there are only two points of identification,” Mykytiuk said. “That’s a fence sitter.”
The Last Days of the Kingdom
Almost all of the “50 Real People” are kings or royal officials. Some of the most interesting finds have been names on clay seal impressions of five people who are mentioned in Jeremiah: 36-38, from the final days of the Kingdom of Judah. The seal impressions, called bullae, have been found in Jerusalem excavations over the last several decades.
While the article is behind a paywall at the Biblical Archaeology Review website, the footnotes contain all of the names, plus a lot of additional information, freely accessible at: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/50.
The Book & The Spade radio program (now in its 31st year) is planning an archaeologically focused tour to Israel in 2015. Anyone interested in more information on the tour is invited to contact editor Gordon Govier.