Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bibel in Bildern 1860 123

Shaphan (, which means "

hyrax Hyraxes (), also called dassies, are small, stout, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the family Procaviidae within the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails. Modern hyraxes are typically between in length a ...

"), son of Azaliah, is the name of a

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

or court secretary mentioned several times in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' 2 Kings and ; and parallels in

2 Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Tan ...

; see also

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

26:24; ; 39:14; and following; and 43:6).

Biblical accounts

the Chronicler The Chronicler is the author, or group of authors, to whom some biblical scholars have attributed the composition of: the Books of Chronicles, the Book of Ezra, and the Book of Nehemiah in the Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;

's account, Shaphan is one of three leaders sent by King

Josiah Josiah () or Yoshiyahu was the 16th king of Judah (–609 BCE). According to the Hebrew Bible, he instituted major religious reforms by removing official worship of gods other than Yahweh. Until the 1990s, the biblical description of Josiah’s ...

of Judah to repair the

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, using the temple funds to commission the necessary work. When the chief Temple

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

Hilkiah discovers an ancient

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

scroll, he gives it to Shaphan, who in turn brings it to King Josiah. Josiah reads it aloud to a crowd in Jerusalem, resulting in a great religious revival. Many scholars believe this was either a copy of the Book of

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...

or a text that became a part of Deuteronomy as we have it; as a result the event is known as the Deuteronomic reform. According to the Bible, Shaphan had sons named Ahikam, Elasah and Gemariah. The latter appears not to be the same Gemariah named as a son of Hilkiah in . Assuming it is the same Shaphan, he also had a son named Jaazaniah, who is among the idol worshippers depicted in the vision of Ezekiel described in . Shaphan's grandson is

Gedaliah Gedaliah ( or ; ''Gəḏalyyā)'' was a person from the Bible who was a governor of Yehud province. He was also the son of Ahikam, who saved the prophet Jeremiah. Names Gedaliah ( or ; ''Gəḏalyyā'' or ''Gəḏalyyāhū''; also written G ...

, the short-lived governor of Judah appointed by

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

after the destruction of

in 586 BCE. Whether influenced by Shaphan's part in Josiah's reforms or not, both Ahikam and, later, Gedaliah appear to have played significant roles in protecting Jeremiah from persecution.

Bullae of Shaphan

During the excavations at the City of David headed by

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeol ...

Yigal Shiloh, a number of bullae were discovered in

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ...

X, destroyed by the Babylonians in ca. 586 BCE. Bulla 2 reads: ''belonging to Gemaryahu ben Shaphan''. Shiloh posited that the Gemaryahu of this bulla is to be identified with "Gemaryahu son of Shaphan the scribe" who is mentioned in a biblical text, a figure during the reign of

Jehoiakim Jehoiakim, also sometimes spelled Jehoikim was the eighteenth and antepenultimate King of Judah from 609 to 598 BC. He was the second son of King Josiah () and Zebidah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. His birth name was Eliakim. Background Af ...

(r. 609-598 BCE). If this is the case, it could confirm Gemaryahu alongside Ahikam as a son of Shaphan. However, archaeologist Yair Shoham notes: "It should be borne in mind, however, that the names found on the bullae were popular in ancient times and it is equally possible that there is no connection between the names found on the bullae and the person mentioned in the Bible."Yair Shoham, "Hebrew Bullae" in City of David Excavations: Final Report VI, Qedem 41 (Jerusalem:

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, 2000), 33

References

{{reflist 7th-century BCE Jews Jewish scribes (soferim) Books of Kings people Books of Chronicles people

Biblical accounts

Bullae of Shaphan

See also

References