The Bible identifies Hezekiah as a good king and a cultic reformer. However, archaeological discoveries related to Hezekiah (including his royal seals) muddle the portrait of the king. While the seals attest to the historicity of the king by name, they also include foreign iconography. At first glance, the imagery (scarabs, winged sun disks, and ankhs) appears incongruent with strict obedience to the law and Hezekiah’s role as a cultic reformer. Determining the direct influences of the royal seal designs is an essential step in understanding the meaning behind Hezekiah’s symbols.
Rather than simply identifying general similarities such as materiality, typology, and motif, the researcher created unique evaluative tools to isolate finer design nuances (‘micro-similarities’) to pinpoint direct influences beyond the initial motif and typological influences.
While all researchers agree that Hezekiah utilized Egyptian motifs in his iconography, opinions differ on the direct influences at the ‘micro’ design level. Using new evaluative tools, the researcher compared Hezekiah’s royal seals with a small sample of seals from Egypt, Phoenicia, and the Northern Kingdom in search of micro-level design similarity. The analysis revealed significant affinity between Hezekiah’s two known royal seal types and seals from Phoenicia.
The findings will aid a larger research project related to the purpose and meaning of Hezekiah’s iconography. The more extensive inquiry will compare Hezekiah’s seals to a larger corpus of ANE seals, present theories related to the cultural transfer of ideas, and search for the meaning behind Hezekiah’s iconography. Ultimately, the inquiry will attempt to determine whether Hezekiah’s designs violated the Second Commandment.