The Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls
Words still read in synagogues and churches today were being written on silver in Jerusalem before the city fell to Babylon.
Named outside the BibleManuscriptlate 7th–early 6th century BC
Two tiny rolled sheets of silver, worn as amulets, unrolled over years in the laboratory. Scratched into them is a version of the priestly blessing of Numbers 6 — the oldest surviving text of any biblical passage, roughly four centuries older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.
May YHWH bless you and keep you; may YHWH make his face shine upon you and grant you peace.
- Found
- Burial caves at Ketef Hinnom, south-west of the Old City, Jerusalem, 1979 — Gabriel Barkay's excavation
- Now held at
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Language
- Hebrew (palaeo-Hebrew script)
- How it reached us
- Dug up, or still standing where it was built.
What it shows
The late First Temple dating, re-examined with advanced imaging in 2004, is the mainstream position; an earlier proposal for a post-exilic date has not prevailed.
How historians use it
Cited in secular palaeography and in the study of Israelite religion as the earliest witness to a biblical text.
In Scripture
Connects to
Sources
- Barkay et al., "The Amulets from Ketef Hinnom: A New Edition and Evaluation", BASOR 334 (2004)
- Ketef Hinnom scrolls — overview
These summaries are written in English for now. Translations follow.