Major Biblical discovery: Signature of Prophet Isaiah discovered in Israel

Archaeologists in Israel believe that they have found a clay seal mark that may bear the signature of the Biblical Prophet Isaiah.

The 2,700-year-old stamped clay artifact was discovered during an excavation at the foot of the southern wall of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. In ancient times a seal stamp, or bulla, was used to authenticate documents or items.

“We found the eighth-century B.C.E. seal mark that may have been made by the prophet Isaiah himself only 10 feet away from where we earlier discovered the highly-publicized bulla of King Hezekiah of Judah,” noted Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in a statement.

Dr. Mazar led the team that unearthed the seal mark linked to the Biblical prophet. The artifact was found among undisturbed Iron Age remains outside an ancient royal bakery.

The half-inch wide oval-shaped piece of clay is inscribed with the name Yesha’yah[u] (Isaiah) in ancient Hebrew script. This is followed by the word nvy, the end of which is slightly damaged. As a result, experts do not know whether the word ended with the Hebrew letter aleph. That letter “would have resulted in the Hebrew word for ‘prophet’ and would have definitively identified the seal as the signature of the prophet Isaiah,” clarified Dr. Mazar. “The absence of this final letter, however, requires that we leave open the possibility that it could just be the name Navi.”

“The name of Isaiah, however, is clear,” she concluded.

In October 2017, archaeologists in Jerusalem announced that they have located a new section of the Western Wall that has been hidden for 1,700 years.

Also during 2017 an ancient Greek inscription was found on a 1,500-year-old mosaic floor near the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Some experts also say they have found the lost Roman city of Julias, formerly the village of Bethsaida, which was the home of Jesus’ apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip.