The Horn of Salvation.

This image was reconstructed from fragments seen in photographs. Dr Zinner

noticed that parts of what seemed to be a single image appeared on several artefacts.
Most examples were not well preserved, but by collating 14 of them, he was able to
restore the original.

Two artists, Pat Kelvie and Katy Barker, then produced the line drawing from which
we have worked. We may be the first for many centuries to see the complete image.

This is a good example of our method of working: collaboration. We do not have

access to all of the originals, and so have to work from photographs. We draw on
both Jewish and Christian texts.

The photos of the artefacts have come to us from more than one source, showing
items that are now widely dispersed in various locations.

The items have similar images and lettering. This may indicate a common source
from which they have now been dispersed, or it may indicate a widely used style
that was unknown until the lead books were found.

The existence of many copies shows that there was an original design from which
many were made. They may not all have been made at the same time. Copies of an
original are therefore characteristic of the collection. We may eventually be able to
establish the approximate age of our oldest example, but that may not be the age of
the original.

Another characteristic is that the artefacts exhibit a mixture of letters and symbols.
Some of the symbols are known elsewhere, for example on coins, but whether there
was a common source or one copied another cannot be determined at this time. The
fruiting palm tree, the seven branched temple lamp [the menorah] and the horn are
found on coins. This horn, which is sprouting, is similar to images that appear on
coins. We have thus a variation of an image known elsewhere, and this gives the
symbol a very different meaning that is confirmed by the Hebrew and Greek text.

All the symbols seem to be related in some way to the temple in Jerusalem. The
menorah and the leafy branches and citrons used at the feast of Sukkot/Tabernacles
are clear. Another symbol may be a fruiting almond rod, the sign of the true
priesthood.

The text, now that we are beginning to decipher it, is closely related to the symbols.

The image here is a horn sprouting leaves and perhaps roots, although they may
represent a stand to support an actual horn. On the right is a grid of Palaeo-Hebrew
letters, and on the left, the letters are Greek.

Dr Zinner identified the sprouting horn as a possible reference to Psalm 132, and
especially v.17, but the whole Psalm is the context for the image:
[In Zion] I will make a horn to sprout for David;
I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.
The Psalm asks the Lord to restore the Davidic king, so that he can restore the
temple.

Psalm 92 is similar, thanking the Lord for triumph over enemies. The Righteous One
is anointed and restored to the temple, his horn is raised up, he flourishes like a
palm tree, and his people are also planted again in the temple where they grow
green and bear fruit. There are many fruiting palm trees on the lead books, and one
of the earliest known titles for Jesus was the Righteous One (Acts 3.14).

The context for such items as we have been able to view is precisely this: the Hebrew
nationalists who wanted to restore the Davidic kings and the temple, and it seems
that the Christians were amongst them. The Greek letters here form the name
Antiochus. A king of that name persecuted the Jews and plundered the temple in
169 BCE. The name gives a context, but not a date.

The horn itself was a complex symbol. In Psalm 18, King David described the Lord
as ‘the horn of my salvation’, and again, the context is triumph over enemies and the
Lord’s love for his Messiah, his Anointed One. In Psalm 89.24 the Lord promises the
Davidic king that his horn will be exalted ‘in my name’.

The horn itself was a sign of the Messiah. Samuel anointed David with oil from a
horn, and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet took the horn of oil from the
tabernacle to anoint Solomon, 1 Kings 1.39.

The anointing oil, however, was hidden away just before the Babylonians destroyed
the first temple, along with the ark and other items from the temple. Later Jewish
tradition remembered that the items would be restored when the true temple was
rebuilt. BaylonianTalmud Horayoth 12a, Numbers Rabbah XV.10.

The horn was also the shofar, the ram’s horn trumpet that was used at temple
festivals.

 The shofar was heard at Sinai when the Lord gave the Law, Exodus 19.18;
20.18.
 The shofar sounded when the king was anointed, 1 Kings 1.34, 39. It sounded
as the Lord was enthroned over all the earth, Psalm 47.5, and it was the
triumphant sound as the day of judgement began, Psalm 98.6.
 (The shofar sounded when King Asa renewed the covenant, 2 Chronicles
15.14).
 The shofar was also a sign of war: it sounded when the walls of Jericho fell,
Joshua 6.4; it sounded when Gideon summoned the people to fight against
the Midianites and when he attacked and defeated them, Judges 6.34, 7.22.
(So too Amos 2.2 against the Moabites, Amos 3.6, Job 39.25).
 The shofar warned people of war. Jeremiah warned people to take refuge in
their fortified cities when they heard the shofar, Jeremiah 4.5.
 The shofar heralded the day of judgement, the Day of the Lord. The prophet
Joel spoke of the shofar in Zion, Joel 2.1, 15, and the prophet Zephaniah
described the day of judgement as a time of shofar and battle cry, Zephaniah
1.16.
  The shofar sounded in time of plague, famine and the approach of enemies,
Mishnah Ta’anith1.6.

The shofar sounded during the great holy days observed in the autumn.
 At New Year, whose other name was the Feast of sounding the shofar, ten
texts from the Hebrew Scriptures were read that mentioned the shofar, and the
shofar sounded after each of them.
 During the Feast of Tabernacles, it sounded during the procession to bring the
leafy branches, and during the procession to bring the water.
 And after the Day of Atonement, the shofar announced the Jubilee. The
fiftieth year was a special year Sabbath year, the Jubilee, when freedom, deror,
was proclaimed throughout the land and everyone returned to his own
property and his own family. This was an ancient custom: the prophet Isaiah
spoke of the great call of the shofar that would summon all the scattered
people from Assyria and Egypt, so that they could worship again in
Jerusalem, Isaiah 27.13. The shofar proclaimed the ingathering of Israel.

In the Book of Revelation (1.10, 4.10), St John heard the shofar as the voice of the Lord
summoning him into heaven to watch the day of judgement. He saw a small sealed
book being opened. He heard seven angels with shofarim announcing the plagues
and afflictions that would precede the day of judgement, Revelation 8.6ff, and when
the seventh and last shofar sounded, the kingdom of the Lord and his Messiah was
established on earth, Revelation 11.15.

This image shows all aspects of the horn: the horn is sprouting, and we assume it is
the horn of David, as in Psalm 132; the horn is sounding, which we assume is the
meaning of the lines coming from its mouth; and the horn is announcing the Day of
Judgment, which is the meaning of some of the Palaeo-Hebrew letters on the right.
It was Dr Zinner who made the link between this sprouting horn and the ancient
Jewish prayer the Amidah.1 He began with the work of Prof. Yehuda Liebes,
published in 19842, which suggested that under the influence of the Jewish
Christians, the 15th of the Amidah Benedictions was modified from ‘Blessed are You,
O Lord, who makes the horn of David sprout’ to ‘Blessed are You, O Lord, who
makes the horn of salvation sprout’, the word ‘salvation’ being a subtle allusion to
Jesus, since the two words are almost identical in Hebrew. Rabbinic tradition said
that the change was introduced by Shimon ha-Pekuli,3 whom Liebes and others
identified as Simeon son of Clopas. His mother was one of the women at the cross
when Jesus was crucified, John 19.25. Simeon became the second bishop of the re-
assembled Jerusalem Church after the destruction of the city in 70 CE,4 and he was
able to introduce the change in the Amidah. To this day ’the horn of salvation’ is
still used in the Amidah prayer.

Liebes also discussed the Ahkenazi liturgy for New Year, a day traditionally called
‘the Day of Judgment’. Between the blasts of the shofar the request is made for the
prayer of the people to ascend to God through Yeshua sar-ha-panim, Jesus, the Prince
of the divine Presence. Liebes argued that this was a reference to Jesus of Nazareth,
a relic of influence in the Jewish liturgy from the early days of the Christians, before
the parting of the ways. This image of the horn would then fit with both of Liebes’
proposals: the Amidah’s flourishing horn of salvation/Jesus, and the New Year
liturgy’s references to Jesus Prince of the divine Presence.

The horn of salvation is also found in the New Testament, in the Song of Zechariah,
usually known as the Benedictus, which is still sung today.
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
For he has visited and redeemed his people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us,
In the house of his servant David. Luke 1.68-69.

1
Dr Zinner is preparing a paper on his findings for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.
2
‘Who makes the Horn of Jesus to flourish’, Immanuel, 21 ( 1987), pp. 55-67, a summary of the Hebrew
original in Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought iii (1984), 313-348..
3
Babylonian Talmud Berakhoth 28b; Megillah 17b.
4
Eusebius, Church History 3.11.
The first Christians used the image of the shofar.

Before the day of judgement, the Son of Man would send his angels to sound the
shofar:
They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory; and he will send out his angels with the sound of the shofar, and
they will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven
to the other. Matthew 24.230-31.

The shofar would announce the return of the Lord from heaven and the resurrection
of the dead:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with
the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the shofar of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise... 1 Thessalonians 4.16.
For the shofar will sound and the dead will be raised, 1 Corinthians 15.52.

The shofar announced the Jubilee, the good news of freedom and the ingathering of
those who had been scattered, and Jesus chose Isaiah’s great proclamation of the
Jubilee to announce his own public ministry at Nazareth, Isaiah 61.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good
news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release... Luke 4.18. :
‘Good news’ is the word we usually translate as ‘gospel’, and so the shofar of the
Jubilee announced the Anointed One and his good news.

Psalm 132.7, with the image of the sprouting horn, asked the Lord to restore the
Davidic king, so that he could restore the temple. John said that the notice over
Jesus’ cross read: ‘Jesus the restorer, the King of the Jews’, John 19.19. ‘Restorer’ is
usually translated ‘of Nazareth’ but the word is in fact ‘restorer.

Psalm 89 had the Lord promise the Davidic king that his horn would be exalted ‘in
my name’, and on Palm Sunday, the crowd shouted: ’Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, even the King of Israel’, John 12.13.
There can be no doubt that the first Christians shared the message of this image. This
image of the horn is both Jewish and Christian. It was created before the two ways
separated. The first Christians may have known this actual image. The Jews who
fought to liberate their land from the Romans may have known this image.

Even at this early stage in our research, it is clear that some of the lead books and the
other items found with them reflect the era when the Jews were fighting for their
freedom. What has come as a surprise to us is that the first Christians seem to have
been fighting alongside them.