Two rolled slips of silver, each smaller than a cigarette butt, lay in a family tomb sealed before Jerusalem fell to Babylon. Unrolled with enormous care and read under magnification, they carry blessing formulas — including lines essentially matching “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you.” They pre-date the Dead Sea Scrolls by about four centuries: the oldest physical objects on earth carrying words that also stand in the Bible.
- What it is
- Two tiny rolled silver amulets incised with palaeo-Hebrew text, worn on the body
- Date of artifact
- late 7th – early 6th century BC
- Discovered
- an intact burial repository at Ketef Hinnom, overlooking the Hinnom Valley, Jerusalem, 1979 (Gabriel Barkay's excavation)
- Where it is now
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Related to
- The priestly blessing — the oldest known citation of words also found in the Bible
- Scripture
- Numbers 6:24–26
What this find showsThe priestly blessing was known, treasured, and worn against the skin in Jerusalem before the exile — biblical wording was already circulating in the First Temple period.
What it does not proveTwo amulet texts show that these words existed early — not that the whole Torah, or even the whole book of Numbers, existed in its present form that early.
Contested: A minority of scholars has argued for a later (post-exilic) date; detailed imaging studies support the pre-exilic dating, which is now the majority position.
Sources & further reading