3,000-year-old inscription bearing name of biblical judge found in Israel

The inscription features the name ‘Jerubbaal’ as well as dates from around 1,100 BCE.

“The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben Yoash,” Prof. Yossef Garfinkel and Sa‘ar Ganor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said. “Gideon is first mentioned as combatting idolatry by breaking the altar to Baal and cutting down the Asherah pole. In biblical tradition, he is then remembered as triumphing over the Midianites, who used to cross over the Jordan to plunder agricultural crops. According to the Bible, Gideon organized a small army of 300 soldiers and attacked the Midianites by night near Ma‘ayan Harod.”

Inscriptions from that period are extremely rare. The finding, which was deciphered by the epigraphic expert Christopher Rolston of George Washington University, Washington DC, marks the first time that the name Jerubbaal is mentioned outside the Bible.

Aerial view of the excavation area where the inscription was found. (Credit: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority.)

Garfinkel and Ganor, who co-direct the excavations at the site with Dr. Kyle Keimer and Dr. Gil Davies from the Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia – a partner in the dig together with the Israel Antiquities Authority – stressed that there cannot be any certainty that the inscription refers to the Jerubbaal mentioned in the Bible, but even if this was not the case, the artifact sheds light on the period it describes.

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“In view of the geographical distance between the Shephelah and the Jezreel Valley, this inscription may refer to another Jerubbaal and not the Gideon of biblical tradition, although the possibility cannot be ruled out that the jug belonged to the judge Gideon,” they said. “In any event, the name Jerubbaal was evidently in common usage at the time of the biblical Judges.”

The researchers highlighted that this discovery supports the notion that the biblical text offers important historical insights.

“As we know, there is considerable debate as to whether biblical tradition reflects reality and whether it is faithful to historical memories from the days of the Judges and the days of David,” Garfinkel and Ganor said. “The name Jerubbaal only appears in the Bible in the period of the Judges, yet now it has also been discovered in an archaeological context, in a stratum dating from this period. In a similar manner, the name Ishbaal, which is only mentioned in the Bible during the monarchy of King David, has been found in strata dated to that period at the site of Khirbat Qeiyafa.”

“The fact that identical names are mentioned in the Bible and also found in inscriptions recovered from archaeological excavations shows that memories were preserved and passed down through the generations,” they added.