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20-605: The inscription is broken at the point where the tomb's owner would have been named, but biblical scholars have conjectured a connection to Shebna , on the basis of a verse in the Bible mentioning a royal steward who was admonished for building a conspicuous tomb. It was found by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau , about a decade prior to the Siloam inscription , making it the first ancient Hebrew inscription found in modern times. Clermont-Ganneau wrote about three decades later: "I may observe, by

40-484: A publication now in the public domain :  Easton, Matthew George (1897). " Shebna ". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons. Nahman Avigad Nahman Avigad ( Hebrew : נחמן אביגד, September 25, 1905 – January 28, 1992), born in Zawalow , Galicia (then Austria-Hungary , now Zavaliv, Ukraine ), was an Israeli archaeologist . Avigad studied architecture in what

60-476: Is not a literal translation – the three words literally mean simply "whom/which (is) over the house", i.e. the one who oversees the house. Using parallels to biblical passages it has been variously translated "upon the house", "steward of the house" or "governor of the house". The "maidservant" is referred to by the Hebrew ‘amatah , equivalent to the term " handmaiden " used to refer to concubines at various points in

80-588: Is now the town of Brno , Czech Republic . Avigad emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1926. He married Shulamit (née Levin) Avigad in 1928. He worked in the excavations of the Beth Alpha synagogue and the Hamat Gader synagogue. Avigad earned his PhD in 1952, with a dissertation on the tombs of the Kidron Valley , Jerusalem. He taught at Hebrew University from 1949 and until his retirement in 1974. He directed

100-528: Is over the house"; the chief or prime minister of state) in the reign of king Hezekiah of Judah , according to the Hebrew Bible . Because of his pride he was ejected from his office, and replaced by Eliakim the son of Hilkiah as recorded in Book of Isaiah ( Isaiah 22:15–25 ). Shebna also appears to have been the leader of the party who favored an alliance with Egypt against Assyria. Shebna may have been

120-503: The Torah . The royal steward or court chamberlain was a powerful figure in Ancient Judah . According to the Book of Isaiah ( Isaiah 22:15–16 ), the royal steward appointed by King Hezekiah was called Shebna and he was admonished for building himself too grandiose a tomb . Although the name of the royal steward is broken at the point where the official is named, it has been conjectured on

140-649: The basis of the biblical verse that this monumental inscription originates from the tomb of Shebna. Clermont-Ganneau speculated in 1899 that the tomb could be that of the Shebna mentioned in Isaiah, but described the idea as a "sanguine illusion". In the early 1950s, the idea was suggested again by Yigael Yadin , the Israeli Army Chief of the General Staff , who was later to become an archaeologist. Nahman Avigad assessed

160-679: The dig at Beit She'arim beginning in 1953. Avigad also worked on the excavations of Masada , the mountaintop complex built by Herod the Great . He was involved in the exploration of caves in the Judean desert, and published one of the Dead Sea scrolls . In 1969, Avigad was invited to undertake the excavation of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem , devastated by the 1948 war and its aftermath. Among

180-566: The finds were what was believed to be the earliest depiction of the menorah that once burned in the Second Temple, cut into a wall plastered 2,200 years ago, and the Burnt House , the remnant of a building destroyed when Titus , the future Roman Emperor , repressed the Jewish Revolt against Roman rule. This was the first physical or archaeological evidence for the destruction described in

200-582: The inscription to be purchased and removed by the British Museum one year after its discovery. Almost thirty years later, in 1899, he published a detailed description of the discovery. The limestone inscription was so severely damaged that it has not been possible to completely decipher the script. The writing is in Biblical Hebrew in the Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew script – at the time of its discovery

220-439: The proposal, based upon the similarity of the text to that of the Siloam inscription and the fact that biblical story of Shebna took place during the reign of King Hezekiah (715–687 BCE), describing it as a "highly conjectural suggestion". Shebna Shebna ( Hebrew : שֶׁבְנָא , Modern :   Ševnaʾ , Tiberian :   Šeḇnāʾ , "tender youth") was the royal steward ( ʾasher ʿal ha-bayith , "he who

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240-585: The reign of King Hezekiah in the late 8th century BCE, there remains an 80-foot (24 m) stretch of wall, 23 feet (7.0 m) thick, rising from bedrock west of the Temple Mount. Nearby, Avigad also unearthed the Israelite Tower , a remnant of Jerusalem's Iron Age fortifications attesting to the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Avigad published on many topics, notably on Hebrew seals . One of

260-604: The same "Shebna the scribe" who was sent by Hezekiah to confer with the Assyrian ambassador recorded in the Books of Kings ( 2 Kings 18:18, 26, 37 ; 2 Kings 19:2 ; parallel accounts in Isaiah 36:3 , 11 , 22 ; 37:2 ), although Easton's Bible Dictionary refers to them as being different people. A royal steward's rock-cut tomb discovered in Silwan is conjectured to be Shebna's, although only

280-451: The script was referred to as "Phoenician letters" – and can be dated to the 7th century BCE. 𐤆𐤀𐤕 . . . . . . . 𐤉𐤄𐤅 𐤀𐤔𐤓 𐤏𐤋𐤄 𐤁𐤉𐤕. 𐤀𐤉[𐤍 𐤐𐤄] 𐤊𐤎𐤐. 𐤅[𐤆]𐤄𐤁 . 𐤀𐤌 . . . . . . . 𐤅𐤏𐤑𐤌𐤅[𐤕] 𐤀𐤌𐤕𐤄 𐤀[𐤕]𐤄. 𐤀𐤓𐤅𐤓 𐤄𐤀[𐤃𐤌] 𐤀𐤔𐤓 𐤉𐤐[𐤕𐤇] 𐤀[𐤕] 𐤆𐤀𐤕 ‎ The three words "אשר על הבית" gave rise to the English translation "royal steward", although this

300-504: The seals found by him in 1964 has been tentatively identified as belonging to Queen Jezebel, mentioned in the Bible: however, this identification is contested by others. According to Bible scholar Frank Moore Cross , Avigad "was Israel's most distinguished epigraphist in his generation, and one of the great figures in the history of Hebrew and Jewish epigraphy." Nahman is the father of Israel Prize recipient Gad Avigad . Nahman and Gad are of

320-460: The term "-yahu" remains legible on the lintel from the tomb that is now kept in the British Museum . The partially preserved inscription was deciphered to read "...yahu who is over the house". The assumption is that Shebna's name may have been pronounced 'Shebna-yahu', the missing name fitting onto the damaged portion of the inscription. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

340-433: The time of the kings of Judah. It belongs authentically, by the very position which it occupies, to the history of Jerusalem. I cannot yet publicly point out its origin, in order not to interfere with the steps taken for its preservation. I will confine myself to saying that it has probably a religious signification, as is proved by the words beit and Baal , which are very distinctly to be read. Clermont-Ganneau arranged for

360-546: The way, that the discovery of these two texts was made long before that of the inscription in the tunnel, and therefore, though people in general do not seem to recognise this fact, it was the first which enabled us to behold an authentic specimen of Hebrew monumental epigraphy of the period of the Kings of Judah." The text is considered to have a "remarkable" similarity to that of the Tabnit sarcophagus from Sidon . The inscribed lintel

380-694: The work of Flavius Josephus . The dig also unearthed lavish villas belonging to the Herodian upper classes, remains of the Byzantine Nea (new) Church and Jerusalem's Cardo , a fifth-century 70-foot (21 m)-wide road connecting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Nea Church. Among the most exciting finds was the remnants of the Broad Wall twice mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah . Built to defend Jerusalem during

400-626: Was found by French archaeologist , Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau in 1870 above the entrance to a home in Silwan , a village south of Jerusalem . Clermont-Ganneau first published the discovery in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestinian Exploration Fund , but with little detail: Hebrew inscription in Phoenician characters. This inscription, discovered by myself several months ago, is the only monumental text which goes back to

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