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

AuthorVeenker, Ronald
PositionBook review

Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. By LAWRENCE J. MYKYTIUK. SBL Academia Biblica, vol. 12. Atlanta: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE, 2004. Pp. xx + 327. $42.95 (paper).

This book began as a 1998 doctoral dissertation at the University of Wisconsin under the direction of Keith N. Schoville and Michael V. Fox. According to the author, there are more than 1,200 preexilic inscriptional sources (Hebrew seals, bullae, and ostraca) which contain Israelite names (p. 2). It is surprising that there has only been piecemeal work on these names and inscriptions, so there is a real need for scholars to treat the entire corpus. Of the few inscriptions which have been treated in scholarly literature, not all have been dealt with systematically. Mykytiuk treats only first-millennium inscriptions prior to the Persian period (539 B.C.E.) "because of their variety and because of historical interest in the First Temple and exilic periods" (p. 4). He has further limited his analysis to "eleven Hebrew inscriptions, the Mesha Inscription, and the Tel Dan stele. These thirteen artifacts were chosen both because they exemplify the kinds of conditions ... that permit a demonstration of the capabilities and limits of the identification system and because they offer identifications whose historical significance makes them too important to ignore" (p. 4).

Mykytiuk seeks to develop a system for making identifications between biblical personal names and inscriptional names by being sensitive to the ways in which Near Eastern writing identifies individuals, e.g., patronym, title, or special identification found on seals. He suggests, further, that there is much to be learned from modern misidentifications (the seals of "Jotham" and "Eliakim, steward of Jehoichin"). Finally, using the results of the above techniques, Mykytiuk compares the results with criteria adopted by Nachman Avigad in his short article "On the Identification of Persons Mentioned in Hebrew Epigraphic Sources," Eretz-Israel 19 (Michael Avi-Yonah Volume, 1987): 235-37 (in Hebrew, English summary 79*). Avigad requires a precise correspondence between the biblical and inscriptional names, a title or epithet, making the case better, and a chronological match.

After discussing in careful detail the scholarly literature dealing with the above mentioned misidentifications, Mykytiuk sets out his eleven criteria for linking inscriptional names with biblical persons...

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