In 1979, during an excavation on a slope south-west of the Old City of Jerusalem, the archaeologist Gabriel Barkay and his team found two tiny objects in a rock-cut tomb: two small silver scrolls, tightly rolled like little cylinders. It took years of work to unroll them without destroying them. When the engraved texts could finally be read, they turned out to contain words very close to one of the best-known passages of the Hebrew Bible: the priestly blessing.
The place of discovery
The site is called Ketef Hinnom, «the shoulder of Hinnom», because it lies above the Hinnom Valley, which bounds Jerusalem to the south and west. Several chamber tombs from the First Temple period open onto the slope, with benches cut into the rock to lay out the dead and a repository where the bones and objects from earlier burials were gathered.
It was in one of these repositories, left intact because its ceiling had collapsed and protected it from looting, that the two scrolls emerged together with pottery, jewellery and other objects.
Two small scrolls
The two objects are conventionally called Ketef Hinnom I and Ketef Hinnom II. They are thin sheets of silver, a few centimetres wide, inscribed with a fine point and then rolled up. They were probably worn around the neck on a cord, as personal amulets.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Material | silver sheet |
| Form | small scroll to be worn at the neck |
| Script | Palaeo-Hebrew alphabet |
| Content | formulas of blessing and protection |
| Context | funerary repository in a chamber tomb |
What they say
The text is very worn and the reading of some lines remains uncertain. But in both scrolls one can recognise a formula very similar to the priestly blessing of the Book of Numbers (chapter 6), which in the Bible God entrusts to Aaron and his sons so that they may bless Israel:
- the Lord bless you and keep you;
- the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
- the Lord lift up his face towards you and give you peace.
The versions on the scrolls are shorter and do not match the biblical text word for word, but the similarity is evident. Alongside the blessing there are expressions speaking of protection from evil: the divine name is invoked as a defence for the one who wears the amulet.
The dating
Most scholars date the scrolls to the end of the First Temple period, between the seventh and early sixth centuries BCE, before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. This dating has been debated, and some have proposed a later period, but new high-resolution photographs and analyses of the script have supported the early dating.
If the dating is correct, these scrolls are among the oldest known witnesses to a text close to the biblical one, centuries earlier than the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Sacred words as an amulet
The most interesting aspect for the history of magic is precisely the use of a sacred formula as an amulet. In ancient Israel, as throughout the Near East, the written word had protective value: carrying the divine name and a blessing on one's person meant placing oneself under its keeping.
The idea runs through the whole religious history of the region:
- the mezuzot fixed to doorposts, containing passages from the Torah;
- the tefillin, small boxes with biblical texts bound to the arm and forehead;
- late antique amulets on metal sheets with divine and angelic names;
- the Aramaic incantation bowls of Mesopotamia.
The Ketef Hinnom scrolls stand at the beginning of this long line: they show that, already in ancient times, words of blessing were not only spoken but also worn.
The funerary context
The fact that the scrolls were found in a tomb adds a further meaning. They accompanied the deceased, perhaps because they had belonged to them in life, perhaps to offer protection in the passage of death as well. The formula «keep you» thus acquires a particular resonance: the keeping it asks for does not stop at earthly life.
A symbolic reading
Two sheets of silver, thin as a leaf, rolled around a blessing: the image is of rare beauty. From the perspective of the Hermetic Workshop it speaks of the word that protects and of the value of simple gestures: carrying with oneself a wish for light and peace, and entrusting it to metal so that it endures.
In short
- The silver scrolls of Ketef Hinnom were discovered in 1979 in a Jerusalem tomb.
- They were personal amulets, probably worn around the neck.
- They contain a formula very close to the priestly blessing of Numbers 6.
- They are mostly dated between the seventh and early sixth centuries BCE, in the First Temple period.
- They bear witness to the ancient use of the written sacred word as personal protection.
