Evidence of Isaiah?

The seal was one of 34 items – each called a bulla – that Mazar’s team unearthed in 2009 near the southern wall of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Mazar believes royal bakers used the site. Archeologists first discovered the location in 19861989 excavations. Babylonians razed it while destroying Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

In 2015, Mazar announced that one of the 34 bullae proved Hezekiah’s existence. The revelation earned international headlines. In the March-June 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, she reported finding Isaiah's bulla just 10 feet from Hezekiah’s.

In her article titled “Is This the Prophet Isaiah’s Signature?” Mazar cautioned that time had damaged the seal. A missing letter inserts some doubt that it belonged to the biblical prophet rather than another person named Isaiah. Yet, the proximity of the Isaiah and Hezekiah fragments led Mazar and her team to conclude it likely belonged to the prophet Isaiah.

Significance of the Find

The bulla lacks an important letter that would give irrefutable proof of the prophet. Still, it could be the first-ever scientific evidence of the prophet’s existence outside of the Bible. The books of Kings and Chronicles mention Isaiah but reference the book of Isaiah itself. No other proof of the prophet Isaiah’s life exists.

Isaiah is the most quoted Hebrew prophet in the New Covenant. Isaiah 7:14 prophesies the virgin birth of the Messiah. Isaiah 52:13-53:12 tells of the servant who suffered and died for our sins.

Mazar described King Hezekiah as “one of the most important kings in the history of Israel,” and Old Covenant accounts confirm that. In fact, 2 Kings 18:5 says, “There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.”

The Old Covenant links King Hezekiah with the prophet Isaiah 14 of the 29 times he is mentioned in 2 Kings 19-20 and Isaiah 37-39.

Given this close relationship and proof that Hezekiah existed, Mazar said, “[The] chances of [the bulla] belonging to any other but the known prophet Isaiah are extremely slim. No other figure was closer to King Hezekiah than the prophet Isaiah.”

Scholars Raise a Question

Scholars inject some caution into Mazar’s conclusion. The biggest obstacle is the word “nvy” on the bulla. It could mean prophet if it also contained the word “the,” which it does not.

Christopher Rollston is a professor of Semitic languages at George Washington University. He explained that most biblical references to a specific prophet say “the prophet.”

“If this were the word ‘prophet,’ I would have liked to have seen the word ‘the,’ as in ‘Isaiah the prophet,’” Rollston said. “There were lots of people walking around with the name Isaiah or names that were based on the same root-word. The assumption that this is a [seal] of Isaiah the prophet is scintillating, but it is certainly not something that we should assume is at all certain.”

Mazar conceded that the Isaiah bulla lacks the important word. She argued it could have been on a missing corner of the bulla and cited similar archaeological and textual examples where the word was excluded.

The Life-Changing Impact of Isaiah

Believers know that hundreds of years before the birth of Yeshua (Jesus), God inspired an amazing prophecy about the Messiah.

At one time, synagogues read Isaiah 53 each year, but rabbis later stopped the practice. Today, showing the chapter to Jewish people causes the blindness to fall from their eyes. It is the clearest prophecy of the atoning death and resurrection of Yeshua in the entire Bible.

How You Can Pray

• Please pray for our efforts at Jewish Voice as we sow seeds of the Gospel into the lives of Jewish people everywhere.
• Pray that this discovery becomes a tool blessed by God to make the Jewish people more aware of the prophecy of Isaiah, that they will learn about the Good News of their Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).

How Your Gift Now Makes a Difference

• Your Gift to Jewish Voice helps spread the news of Yeshua to the global Jewish community. The Good News shows them from their own Scriptures that their Messiah has come, beyond the science of proving it.
• In Israel, Your Gift to Jewish Voice supports more than 30 Messianic Congregations reaching out on a daily basis to share the Gospel and love of Yeshua (Jesus), their Messiah, to Jewish people throughout the Land.

As a token of our appreciation for your gift of $75 or more today, we’ll send you an inspiring piece of art for your home. One of the most powerful Messianic passages in the Holy Scriptures is presented in this beautiful, framed display. It’s an ancient Hebrew manuscript of Isaiah 53:5, in an aged parchment-style presentation, complete with the English text below.

“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” This inspiring piece of art will give testimony of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) to all who enter your home or office. The beautiful presentation includes the classic wooden frame complete with protective glass. It measures 16.5” x 16.5.” A sawtooth hanger ensures that it’s ready to hang in your home as soon as it arrives.

Passover is the second most important holy day of the Jewish year. Jewish families gather for a ritual meal called a Seder (SAY-dur), during which specific elements recount the history of Israel and retell the story of God’s dramatic deliverance of their ancestors.

1. God delivered the Jewish people from 400 years of slavery

Four hundred years before the Passover, God saved the Jewish people from a deadly famine by bringing them to Egypt, the only nation prepared with storehouses of food. By God’s sovereignty, Joseph, one of Israel’s 12 sons who was sold as a slave by his brothers, had risen to second in command over Egypt. When the Israelites faced starvation, Pharaoh welcomed them into the land because of Joseph. But after Pharaoh died, his successor put the Jewish people to work as slaves. They lived in bondage until God called Moses as His instrument to deliver them 400 years later – to the day – at Passover. "If God had not delivered us,” the Passover Haggadah (HAH-gah-dah) reads, “we would still be slaves.”

2. God showed His power through the miracles surrounding Passover

Pharaoh recoiled at the idea of letting the Hebrew slaves leave Egypt. If they departed, he would lose a million laborers. He refused to let them go and, in so doing, opened the door for God to reveal His power to all of Egypt. After each of Pharaoh’s obstinate denials, God brought a supernatural plague upon the nation of Egypt. From locusts to frogs to boils to water-turned-to-blood, God displayed His power throughout the whole land.

All who endured the plagues recognized that the God of Israel was mighty and determined to liberate His people. Israel, too, observed the God of their fathers intervene for their rescue. The miracles continued after their departure. When Pharaoh’s armies pursued, the Israelites walked on dry ground right through the middle of the Red Sea as the waters created a high wall on either side of them. Through the Passover and Exodus, the God of Israel was manifested and glorified for all to see.

3. God reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham and further set apart the Jewish people as His Chosen People

For generations, slavery was all the Jewish people knew. They were born into bondage and died in bondage. When God stepped in to extricate them as a people, He conveyed to them that He had not forgotten them. The God of Israel is faithful to keep His covenant with their father, Abraham. He would not forsake His promise. God’s intervention to free the Children of Israel told them that they were still His people, and He was still their God. He raised them up from a subjugated people and reminded them that they were a called and chosen people.

4. God called the Jewish people out to give them a Land of their own

The Israelites didn’t know where they were going, but they knew their God had set them free and had promised to give them “a good and large land” in which to dwell as a nation (Exodus 3:8). No longer would they serve Pharaoh. They would live in the Land given to them directly by God. Israel was on her way to becoming a nation with a homeland of her own. The impact of that land grant reverberates through the centuries, standing strong and true despite various exiles over the years or dissenting opinions today. Passover opened the door to receiving the Promised Land.

5. God established a watershed for the Jewish people and an inheritance of faith to pass on

Passover is known as the watershed event in Jewish history. It was a turning point, a defining moment for the Jewish people. Everything changed for them with Passover. God rescued, preserved, and called them out to be His people in their own land. Immediately upon their departure from Egypt, He instituted the Feast of Passover as an everlasting memorial to the astounding feat of their deliverance. God set an annual appointment for Israel to intentionally remember what He had done for them in the Passover and Exodus. Thousands of years later, Jewish people commemorate this and tell their children, passing on a legacy of faith in the one true God, just as He commanded them.

6. God revealed a prophetic glimpse of the promised Messiah’s sacrificial death

By God’s sovereign design, the Feasts of Israel established in Leviticus 23 contain a prophetic shadow of God’s redemptive plan for mankind. Within Passover is the picture of the Messiah’s death to deliver us from the bondage of sin.

The final plague in Egypt was the death of the firstborn of all households. God revealed to Israel the one way they would be spared: They were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb and brush its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their homes. Only then would the Angel of Death pass over their homes and spare their firstborn.

1 Corinthians 5:7 tells us that “Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.” Yeshua’s (Jesus’) shed blood covers our sin, and His sacrificial death on our behalf – when received in faith – delivers us from the bondage of sin.

As Jewish families come together at Passover, they remember and teach the next generation about the event that delivered them as God’s people. As Messianic Jews celebrate Passover, they also celebrate the eternal deliverance provided by Messiah Yeshua.

Time is running out to use your gifts and talents to help transform the lives of Jewish people in Enfranz, Ethiopia.

Jewish Voice's weeklong Medical Outreaches provide medical aid and spiritual care to thousands of people in poverty-stricken African Jewish communities. The only time many of these people will see a medical professional all year will be during our Outreach Clinics.

You could be a part of bringing critical medical care to these suffering people, as well as the life-changing Good News of Yeshua (Jesus), but only if you act now.

The payment and medical credential deadlines for the May Outreach are approaching fast. We need to hear from you before March 29.

Not sure you want to join? Watch this short video to see how the Outreaches change lives.

For more details about the May Medical Outreach in Enfranz, click the button below.

Jewish people across the globe are calling foul on a new law enacted by Poland in February, which many link to anti-Semitic Holocaust denial.

Passed in January by Poland’s conservative ruling party, the legislation criminalizes the use of such phrases as “Polish death camps,” referring to the brutal facilities in Poland where the Nazis exterminated millions of Jewish people as well as non-Jewish Poles during Germany’s World War II occupation, from 1939 until 1945. The law stipulates stiff fines and prison terms of up to three years for anyone in the world who claims the Polish government or people contributed to those Nazi war crimes.

The Law and Its Critics

One key paragraph of the bill is receiving the most media attention. It states, “Whoever claims, publicly and contrary to the facts, that the Polish Nation or the Republic of Poland is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich … or for other felonies that constitute crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whoever otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of said crimes – shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to three years.”

The new law launched criticism from Israeli officials, Jewish groups in the United States, Polish historians, Germany’s foreign minister and the U.S. State Department.

The Controversy

Opponents believe the bill will stifle free speech not only in Poland but worldwide and is an attempt by Poland to rewrite history. Within days of passage, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting that Israel has zero tolerance for “distorting the truth, rewriting history or denying the Holocaust.”

“Israel views with utmost gravity any attempt to challenge historical truth,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said of the bill. “No law will change the facts.”

Holocaust survivors staged a February protest in front of the Polish embassy in Tel Aviv, holding signs and sharing their own stories of being in the camps that the Nazis built in Poland. Several survivors said their Polish neighbors either harmed them or refused to help them, and that Poles worked in the camps that abused them. The law’s critics say that even truthful statements like those from Holocaust survivors are now illegal in Poland.

The Polish government promised not to enforce the law until it is reviewed by Poland's constitutional court. However, the day after the legislation went into effect, the Polish League Against Defamation filed the first lawsuit. The suit alleges that an Argentinian newspaper harmed Poland’s reputation by publishing a photo of a 1941 massacre of Jews by their Polish neighbors. It also alleges that the newspaper manipulated its readers into believing Poland is anti-Semitic.

A Worldwide Backdrop of Anti-Semitism

The controversial law comes amid what several groups dedicated to measuring and fighting anti-Semitism are calling a global rise in hate crimes against Jewish people.

• The U.S. nonprofit Anti-Defamation League documented a 57 percent increase in crimes against Jewish people in the U.S. since 2016 – the largest single-year increase since they began collecting data in 1979.
• In 2017, the British Community Security Trust recorded the highest spike in hate crimes against Jewish people in their nation since they began collecting data in 1984.
• Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs reported in its 2017 annual report a substantial increase in racist incidents against Jewish people in Europe, such as threats, anti-Zionist rhetoric and violence. They credited immigration from the Middle East for much of it.
• In May 2017, the U.S. nonpartisan think-tank PEW Research Center surveyed 2,000 residents in each of the 18 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Of the respondents, 20 percent did not want Jewish people in their country, and 30 percent did not want Jewish people as neighbors. In addition, 22 percent of Romania’s respondents and 18 percent of Polish respondents wanted to deny the right of Jewish people to citizenship in their country. The report also indicated similar statistics in the U.S.

What You Can Do

While it’s hard to argue with quantitative research showing that anti-Semitism is on the rise – and Poland’s new law may be a result that of that increase – there are things you can do now:

• Pray for the protection of Jewish people worldwide and for survivors of the Holocaust in particular.
• Ask God to replace anti-Semitism in the hearts of people everywhere with His heart of love and compassion for His people.
• Learn about anti-Semitism and how it might be manifesting in your community.
• Speak out against anti-Semitism whenever you encounter it.
• Give to organizations such as Jewish Voice that actively fight anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

How Your Gift Now Makes a Difference

• Your Gift to Jewish Voice helps our support of Holocaust survivors in Israel, providing such basic needs as vision and dental care they could not otherwise afford and comforting them in their final years while also sharing with them the Gospel and love of Yeshua (Jesus), their Messiah.
• Our Ministry Partners in Israel work to eliminate anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial worldwide.

As a token of our appreciation for your gift of $15 or more today, we’ll send you a copy of the moving book, Life in the Shadow of the Swastika. This book will bring to life the horrors of the Holocaust and help us understand that it must never happen again. It will also remind you of your faithful support of Jewish Voice, Israel, and Holocaust survivors in particular, and your prayers that God will protect His people, especially those who have suffered greatly and are most vulnerable.

Rejoice!

He is my lovingkindness, my fortress, my strong tower, and my deliverer.
– Psalm 144:2 TLV

In ancient days, God prepared the way to rescue the Jewish people from annihilation when He elevated Esther, a young Jewish maiden living under foreign rule, to royal status “for such a time as this.”

At Purim, we rejoice in the God of deliverance!

Wishing you great joy at Purim

As we celebrate God’s faithfulness to deliver His people at Purim, we also Thank Him for His grace and power to redeem us eternally through Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). We are grateful for the many ways He has met us personally with deliverance, favor and blessing.

Rejoice in the Lord always – again I will say, rejoice!
– Philippians 4:4 TLV

Want to know more about Purim? Read the whole story, learn fun ways to celebrate and download our free Purim infographic at jvmi.org/purim.