VIDEO: New Archaeological Evidence for Sariah as a Hebrew Woman’s Name

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Scripture Central

New evidence for the Book of Mormon name Sariah (1 Nephi 2:5) was published today in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. In the paper “Revisiting ‘Sariah’ at Elephantine,” Neal Rappleye, a research project manager here at Book of Mormon Central, explains that scholars have identified a Jewish woman named ŚRYH, which can be translated as Seraiah or Sariah, written on a pottery shard from Elephantine island in Egypt, dated to the fifth century BC.

Previous to this discovery, Latter-day Saint archaeologist Jeffery R. Chadwick had identified a Jewish woman with the name ŚRYH in a papyrus at Elephantine, but the document was damaged, and full-name had to be reconstructed. The newly identified example has the full name clearly written, thus providing certainty that it is a woman named ŚRYH.

The big takeaway here is that this pottery shard provides definitive evidence that Sariah was a Hebrew woman’s name in antiquity, just like we find in the Book of Mormon.

Watch the video and read the paper over at the Interpreter Foundation website for more information.

Read the full paper online