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Seal of King Zedekiah's Minister Found in Jerusalem Archeological Dig

[ Jerusalem Post] Etgar Lefkovits - A seal impression belonging to a minister of the biblical King Zedekiah, which dates back 2,600 years, has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, Israeli archeologist Prof. Eilat Mazar said on Thursday. The 1 cm. in diameter seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE), was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekiah's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago. Both ministers are mentioned in Jeremiah 38:1-4. The letters are in ancient Hebrew and are very clearly preserved. "On the one hand it is so unexpected to find such a fragile bulla in such harsh conditions of excavation, while on the other hand it was logical to find precisely here the bulla of Gedalyahu ben Pashur," Mazar said. "It is not very often that such a discovery happens in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible," she said. The current dig is being conducted under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
2008-08-01 01:00:00
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