Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SEAL, SIGNET

[SEAL, SIGNET::096] Jaazaniah seal from Tell en-Naṣbeh and impression (Badè Institute of Biblical Archaeology, Pacific School of Religion)

A device engraved with a reverse design for making an impression. Seal use in the ancient Near East preceded the development of writing, probably appearing during the second half of the 4th millennium. Early seal impressions likely denoted the ownership of goods and materials or acted as a magical safeguard over the item. Stamp seals, often a conical stone with a carved base, are the earliest known forms of seals and were popular in Egypt and Palestine. While most seals were cut upon stone, other media included wood, bone, and ivory. Greek and Roman period seals were often delicately carved on semi-precious stones.

Seals authenticated copies of laws, treaties, public contractual agreements, the sale and purchase of government holdings, and certified the quality or quantity of a container’s contents. Seals commemorated important political events such as marriage, treaties, and public celebrations. Private seal impressions witnessed sales, purchases, contractual agreements, letters, wills, and adoptions. Believed by their owners to possess magical properties, seals also were utilized in religious ceremonies. Personal seals often were worn as amulets or left as votive gifts in the temples of various deities. Seals accompanying burials may have been given by relatives as gifts for use by the deceased in the afterlife, or as prayers to help speed the deceased on his passage through the underworld.

The Bible describes the use of seals in both bureaucratic and nonbureaucratic terms. A seal might be given as a pledge (Gen. 38:18) or worn as a ring to symbolize political authority (41:42). Letters bearing the seal of a king were considered as binding as his verbal command (1 Kgs. 21:8). Love is metaphorically compared to the inviolable nature of a seal (Cant. 8:6). Isaiah prayed to Yahweh, calling upon God to “seal the law” among the faithful disciples, closing it from the sight of the unworthy (Isa. 8:16; 29:11). Jeremiah placed his seal upon a deed as evidence of his purchase of a field in Anathoth (Jer. 32:10-14, 44). A seal impressed upon a container verified that the vessel contained an appropriately full measure (Ezek. 28:12). After Daniel was cast into the lions’ den, the entrance was sealed with the signet of the king and his advisors to evidence the royal decree of death (Dan. 6:17). A seal impressed to prevent the reading of a document also is attested to during the Exile (Dan. 12:4, 9). A public proclamation of fealty to Yahweh and the cultic law was sealed by Nehemiah the governor, various political representatives, and the leaders of the levitical priesthood on behalf of the people (Neh. 9:38–10:27[MT 10:1-28]). The Revelation of John mentions several scrolls that were sealed both to attest to their authority and to hide their contents from outsiders.

Bibliography. The Iron Age Stamp Seals (c. 1200-350 b.c.) (Oxford, 1988), xii; D. Collon, First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (Chicago, 1988), 6-13; L. Gorelick, “Ancient Seals and the Bible: An Overview,” in Ancient Seals and the Bible, ed. Gorelick and E. Williams-Forte. Occasional Papers on the Ancient Near East 2/1 (Malibu, 1983).

David C. Maltsberger

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SEAL, SIGNET

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)