Inscription on Bulla

Inscription on Bulla.

Although the owner of the seal stamped on the Bulla under discussion cannot be identified positively on the basis of all the criteria mentioned by Avigad, three auxiliary elements help to identify its owner with a particular biblical personality: the name, the royal genealogy, and chronological probability. Ishmael son of Nethaniah is the only known bearer of the name Ishmael who was a descendant of the royal family. It is highly unlikely that there were two different members of the royal family bearing the same name during that period. Had that been the case, there would have been some indication on the seal, distinguishing our Ishmael from other bearers of the same name. That supports the assumption that Ishmael the king’s son is to be identified with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah.

If the suggested identification is correct, it can also contribute significantly to clarifying the exact meaning of the title “the king’s son.” That title, which is well known from the Bible as well as from the seals and bullae, has been discussed extensively by various scholars. The main views and bibliography on the subject are summarized in the works of Lemaire (1979: 197–99) and Avigad (1986: 27–28). The views can be divided into two schools:

(a) Those who maintain that the title “the king’s son” was given to certain officials in the Israelite and Judaean courts who were in charge of maintaining security. The title did not mean that all of its bearers were related to the royal family. Rather, it reflected the person’s role in the court. Those who support this view base their contentions primarily on the fact that in most cases, individuals who were referred to in the Bible as “the king’s son” (with the exception of Jotham, King Uzziah’s son) are not known to have been members of the royal family.

Barkay, Gabriel. “A Bulla of Ishmael, the King’s Son.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (May–August) 290/291 (1993): 110–111. Print.