- Jun 26, 2004
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The Ankh & Hezekiah
King Hezekiah reigned from 727 to 698 BC and is considered to be a good King according to scripture. We read,
“He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.” 2 Kings 18.5
For more on King Hezekiah have a look at 2 Kings 16:20-20:21; 2 Chronicles 28:27-32:33; and Isaiah 36:1-39:8 as well as Proverbs 25:1; Isaiah 1:1; Jeremiah 15:4; 26:18–19; Hosea 1:1; and Micah 1:1.
Hezekiah was a zealous believer in YHWH and tried to cleanse his lands of pagan altars, images, idols and temples. The people had forgotten God’s Law in their rebellion, even turning the bronze serpent held by Moses in Numbers 21 into an idol, so Hezekiah destroyed it. The good King reinstated the Priesthood, reopened the Temple his father had closed and religious fervour returned to Judah. For the most part Hezekiah was a faithful King and committed believer.
In 2015 news outlets reported the finding of a seal or bulla dating from the 8th century BC belonging to Hezekiah. The team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem were excavating a dumpsite when they found the ancient seal. The seal grabbed my attention because of the symbolism used by the faithful King. The seal reads, “Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz king of Judah”and includes a two winged sun disc flanked by two Ankh or Egyptian crosses. The winged sun was a symbol used in ancient Egyptian, Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Hittite, Anatolian, and in Persia by Zoroastrianism, South America and even Australia. The Ankh is a common image found in Egyptian art meaning life and is carried by the gods.
I found it interesting that what is now considered an occult pagan symbol, and was at the time used by pagans, was also chosen by King Hezekiah for his bulla. According to Wiki the two winged sun disc is a symbol of the Egyptian god Ra and latter Horus. It looks like the faithful King Hezekiah redeemed the symbol from its pagan origins and used it for his own.
Yours in the Lord,
jm
