Queries & Comments

JOTTING DOWN JERUSALEM

Revolt Money

Concerning your editorial (“A Little Jot on a Jerusalem Column,” BAR, January/February 2019), may I call to your attention that Jerusalem is spelled YRWShLYM, i.e., with the second yod, on shekels of the First Revolt in the late 60s C.E.

Dr. Fulco, that is correct! In fact, Jerusalem is spelled both ways on the Great Revolt coinage. Year 1 coinage reads YRWŠLM (יושלים), while Year 2 coins add the second yod and read YRWŠLYM (ירושלים). So we can see that there is evidence that the second yod was still working its way into the spelling in the first century C.E. With the discovery of the Jerusalem column, we see that this change took some time, as we now have evidence that the extra yod appeared outside of manuscripts even earlier, in the first century B.C.E.—B.C.