King Hezekiah's Seal Impression Found in the Ophel Excavatio

[Garland-Green]

King Hezekiah's Seal Impression Found in the Ophel Excavations, Jerusalem

I did not like the winged sundisk, and the ankh on his seal... Those were bad choices for a seal.

2 Kings 18:4
He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

Why would he have these pagan symbols from Egypt on his seal..?

2 Kings 18

Excavation leader Dr. Eilat Mazar said, “The Egyptian motifs were spread over the second millennium BCE all over the region,” so they had a different meaning than for the Egyptians.

The Times of Israel continued, “Ancient Judeans employed the sun disk to denote the Almighty, and its bowed wings may connote Hezekiah’s expression that ‘my power is thanks to God’s protection.’”  

[Garland-Green]

Possible solutions;

1. It is not Hezekiah's seal, but his father's seal and archeologists are not reading what it is saying correctly. Ahaz, Hezekiah's father was a very idolatrous king.

2. It is Hezekiah's seal, a gift from his father or maybe someone in his court (the seals of some of Hezekiah's advisors was also found with it), but he threw it in the garbage.

3. The most unlikely option considering what the Bible say about Hezekiah, is that he had the seal made, and the seal ended up in the garbage by accident, or was thrown there when Manasseh took over as king. Manasseh was more like his grandfather than his father, and it seems to me that he would have no issue with Egyptian gods.

The seal was found among garbage. Someone threw it there. A king's seal? Why?



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