Since 2009, a team of archaeologists has been excavating an area of Jerusalem to the south of the Temple Mount knows as the Ophel, where they believe they have found a royal palace complex mentioned at various points in the Bible and perhaps first constructed by King Solomon. Sifting through a pile of debris that appears to have been left undisturbed since biblical times, they have discovered clay seals known as bullae, which were used to stamp letters and documents. Eilat Mazar, the excavation’s director, writes:

Each of the Hebrew bullae, measuring about 0.4 inches in diameter, had been stamped with a seal bearing the name of its owner. . . . Among the bullae found in the debris, only five show papyrus negative impressions on their reverse side. One of these is the bulla impressed with the personal seal of King Hezekiah. Seven of the bullae, . . . all with coarsely woven linen negative impressions on the reverse, appear to have belonged to the relatives of an important individual named Bes. . . .

Alongside the bullae of Hezekiah and the Bes family, 22 additional bullae with Hebrew names were found. Among these is the bulla of “Yeshayah[u] n-v-y[?].” The obvious initial translation, as surprising as it might seem, suggests that this belonged to the prophet [navi] Isaiah [in Hebrew, Y’shayahu]. Naturally, this bulla is far more intriguing than all the others found adjacent to Hezekiah’s bulla.

According to the books of Kings, Isaiah, and Chronicles, Isaiah prophesied during the reign of King Hezekiah, in the late-8th and early-7th centuries BCE, and the two figures are closely associated in the biblical narrative. Although Hezekiah’s historicity has been confirmed by previous archaeological discoveries and contemporary Assyrian sources, this bulla would be the first extrabiblical evidence of Isaiah. Yet, although experts seem certain that the inscription refers to someone named Isaiah, the interpretation of the second word is unclear, especially since letters may be missing. Mazar explains the arguments for and against reading it as “prophet,” noting that “finding a seal impression of the prophet Isaiah next to that of King Hezekiah should not be unexpected.”

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.