Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E.

Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. By Lawrence J. Mykytiuk. Academia Biblica Number 12. Atlanta: SBL, 2004, xx + 327 pp., $42.95 paper.

This work is a revision (with some updating) of the author's 1998 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, done under the supervision of Keith N. Schoville. The volume begins with a lengthy and detailed chapter that reviews past work on the subject of the identification of personal names with people and the means by which certain identifications can be made. As illustrations, two well-known incorrect identifications are discussed: the seal of Jotham and its presumed connection with the king and son of the eighth-century BC Judahite king Uzziah; and the three jar handles stamped with "to Eliakim the steward of Yokan," who was identified with Jehoiachin, one of the last kings of Judah before the Babylonian destruction of 587/586 BC. Mykytiuk deals with the major issues of interpretation that led to the incorrect identification. However, the ultimate reason both of these cases absolutely proved to be in error lay outside the immediate field of Northwest Semitic inscriptions, either in terms of paleography or of prosopography. Mykytiuk observes how Albright argued that the lack of a royal title on the Jotham seal was because Jotham was so well known, and how the same scholar argued that the term for "steward" (na'ar) must refer to a steward of a king. In both cases these were secondary arguments used by a scholar to bolster what were essentially archaeological issues. In the first example, the discovery of the Jotham seal at Tell el-Kheleifeh on the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba should at least give one pause that this may not be Judean at all, but may be more reasonably related to a nation such as Edom, whose center and influence were much closer. Even more problematic was the identification of the Eliakim seal impressions, of which one was found in the same stratum as lmlk jar handles at Beth Shemesh. The identification of these lmlk jar handles with the last years of the Judean kingdom was eventually overturned by the indisputable fact of archaeological ceramics and stratigraphy, but the resistance to this was not without what some would describe as vested interests. In the end, however, the problem of the identifications of both of these examples lies more with the material culture and less with the questions surrounding titles or the lack thereof.

Mykytiuk attempts to establish criteria for identifying the degree of certainty that an inscriptional name can carry when associated with a biblical name. He begins with Avigad's old set of three criteria (in addition to matching names): either (Da matching title (or epithet) or (2) a matching genealogy of three generations; and (3) a chronological synchronism. Mykytiuk's own criteria are generally stated on page 38:

1) Are the inscriptional data reliable? 2) Do the settings of the inscriptional person and the biblical person match? (Recall "Jotham's" seal.) And 3) Does the combination of specific identifying marks of the individual eliminate, or at least render negligible, the chance of confusing two different persons? (Recall "Jotham's" seal and "Jehoiachin" in the seal impression.) All three of these questions must be answered satisfactorily before an ID can be considered valid.

Mykytiuk then develops his argument by adding more reflections and qualifications. He creates a system of classifying different name identification proposals according to their degree of certainty. He then examines several seals and bullae (seal impressions preserved on clay) in order to illustrate this classification scheme. While his striving for objectivity is admirable, the great diversity of possible data that must be taken into account remains unwieldy in these examples and others throughout the book. Already in his second example, the bullae of Baruch son of Neriah, Mykytiuk finds his own system of evaluation less than fully adequate: "It would be legitimate to create a grade 4 for IDs such as this, but, working within the grades as set forth above, this is a grade 3 ID which is virtually certain" (p. 72). As one reads through the book, one has the sense that it is difficult to believe such a set of gradings will be found very useful without many more adjustments and qualifications.

Nevertheless, one learns a great deal about the subject of ancient personal names by reading this work. This is true in at least three ways. First, Mykytiuk lists important criteria for the process of identifying persons named on inscriptions with those in the Bible. He covers them and discusses them in practical analyses of many inscriptions. One of the most important principles he introduces is that of singularity. This occurs when the evidence indicates there is only one person who could bear the name mentioned on more than one source, whether on two or more inscriptions or on an inscription and in the Bible. Awareness of this level of relationship provides for the most certain identifications one is likely ever to make with historical figures of biblical times.