Summary: Two artifacts recently discovered in Jerusalem back the Biblical account of the restoration of life upon return of the Israelites from the Babylonian Captivity.
You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision. – Nehemiah 2:17 (ESV)
The Jewish Return from Babylon
The Israel Antiquities Authority announced this summer the discovery of two rare artifacts from the Persian Period in an archaeological excavation near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Persian Period is the time when Israelites were allowed to return home from the Babylonian Captivity and reestablish a Jewish society in Judah, although subservient to Persian rule. Over the next five centuries, the culture which started to be rebuilt during the Persian Period developed into the society into which Jesus was born.
According to the narrative recounted in both the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the return was substantial and vigorous, initially including 42,360 people (Ezra 2:64 and Nehemiah 7:66), with more following later. They tackled the formidable tasks of rebuilding their destroyed city, reconstructing the Temple and restoring worship there, and restoring the city walls.
Several leaders are cited in the Bible as playing an important role in the revival, including Nehemiah himself, who was appointed governor of Judah by the Persian king Artaxerxes and tasked with (successfully) restoring the city walls. This would be important to Persia for defensive purposes to fortify a western outpost of the empire. However, because of the scarcity of artifacts from the Persian Period, there has been debate among scholars about whether there was any significant resettlement of Jerusalem then, and whether Jerusalem held any administrative importance at all in the Persian Empire.
Seal and Seal Impression Found in Jerusalem
Because of all this we make a firm covenant in writing; on the sealed documents are the names of our princes, our Levites and our priests. – Nehemiah 9:38 (ESV)
Two recent discoveries lend evidence supporting the Bible’s account of the return, and particularly support the proposition that Jerusalem was rebuilding as a provincial administrative center within the Persian Empire.
The artifacts that were found are a seal (Figure 1) and a seal impression (Figure 2). In the ancient Middle East, documents and containers were authenticated and preserved as unopened with clay closures imprinted with a design applied by pressing a seal or stamp with a design carved into it onto the clay. This technique was the norm in the ancient Middle East for thousands of years. These tended to be used by government officials in the performance of their jobs.
That the archaeological record of the Persian Period is relatively scanty may in itself testify to the difficulties the returning Hebrews faced in physically restoring their destroyed infrastructure. What these two seals attest to is the results of their efforts. Life in Jerusalem was being restored as described in Ezra and Nehemiah. (See ancient coins discovered from the era of Ezra and Nehemiah)
This is further supported by where these artifacts were found. The excavation site is the Givati Parking Lot Excavation, located in the Jerusalem Walls National Park. It lies just outside of the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, near Temple Mount. The Old City is the ancient walled city that contains within it Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Via Dolorosa and many other sites with Biblical connections. The seal and seal impression were found in what is believed to be the site of an administration building both before and after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the seal impression (Figure 2) which was found “was used to seal a large container – perhaps a jar – and not a document. The imprint bears the image of a person sitting on a large chair with one or two columns in front of him . . . . The character is probably a king . . . .” According to Dr. Ido Koch of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University, only about ten artifacts of this style have been found in Israel, in places such as Ein Gedi and Jerusalem, which appear to have been in use during the Persian period.1
The seal (Figure 1) carries a different image than that stamped on the seal impression. Again according to the IAA, “The seal is made of a large, locally-made pottery shard, with a circular frame engraved on its outer side, and is divided into two sections containing several linear inscriptions. The engravings probably represent two characters, and it may be a pseudo-epigraphic seal (bearing drawings designed to resemble letters). On the other side of the seal is a fragment, which may be indicative of a handle that was attached to it in the past. The size of the seal, about 8 cm in diameter [a little over 3 inches], indicates that it was used to seal large objects.”2
The Context of Ezra and Nehemiah’s Return
The background is a narrative that is central to Jewish history and the Bible. In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon destroyed Solomon’s Temple and the city of Jerusalem. Thousands of Israelites were taken prisoner and deported in the Babylonian Captivity, joining thousands of others who had been forcibly taken to Babylon about a decade earlier. (See an excavation that supports the biblical account of Jerusalem’s destruction.)
Babylon was the superpower of its time in the ancient Middle East, but its dominance was brief. It rose to ascendency beginning in 626 BC with the coronation of Nabopolassar (Nebuchadnezzar’s father) and his destruction of the Assyrian Empire. But less than a century later, under Nabonidus and his son Belshazzar (famous from the account of the “writing on the wall” in chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel), the empire was conquered by Persia in 539 BC. Shortly thereafter, the Persian king Cyrus the Great permitted the Israelites to return home.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord . . . .” – Ezra 1:1-3 (ESV)
The Israelites came back over time to a shattered, impoverished land which they proceeded with great difficulty to restore. In fits and starts, they rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem, reestablished worship there, rebuilt the city walls, and reconstituted an administrative state, all under Persian rule. In addition to the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the Books of Zechariah, Haggai, Esther and Daniel are set in the Persian Period.
The Persian Period lasted about 200 years, until Alexander the Great conquered Persian in 330 BC and took over the rule of Judah.
Final Thoughts
These two artifacts from the Persian Period are evidence that the pace of the rebuilding of Israelite society in Jerusalem was as described in Ezra and Nehemiah. These books describe successful efforts of the returning Israelites to restore some measure of Jewish society and administrative governance in Jerusalem, within the context of a dominating foreign power. The national model which took shape during this period became the framework for the civilization that would develop the Second Temple and into which Jesus was born centuries later. – KEEP THINKING.
1 The Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, press release dated June 30, 2020.
2 Ibid.
TOP PHOTO: Dr. Yiftah Shaley of the Israel Antiquities Authority with recently discovered Persian Period seal and seal impression. (Credit: Shai Halevy, Israel Antiquities Authority)
