| It was on the eve of
Passover that I received an email announcement from
my brother. "Flatten the curve" appears in the Holy
Scriptures. In the mouth of none other than
the Prophet Isaiah, the Comforter. (In Hebrew
"flatten the curve" is transliterated as vehayah
he-akov l'mishor.) |
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Courtesy of Bible
History Outline |
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Note the mountains and steep
valleys in the eastern part of Judah |
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| Isaiah lived in
Jerusalem during the eighth century BC, many
centuries before it became the coronavirus capital
of Israel. Some believe that his public
ministry may have extended for as long as 64 years,
from the reign of King Uzziah to that of Manassah,
the son of King Hezekiah. Whoa! What a long
time to prophesy! |
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| In Jesus' day,
Isaiah's book, actually scroll, was the number one
best seller. No less than 19 fragmentary
copies have been found in caves in the Judean
desert. In 1947 one Isaiah scroll, often
called The Great Isaiah Scroll, was found intact,
with all sixty-six chapters, hidden in a clay jar
near Qumran opposite the Dead Sea. |
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Diagram courtesy of
Benny Arubas |
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The Great Isaiah Scroll was found
in Cave number 1 in 1947 |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Cave number 1 near Qumran where
the Greater Isaiah scroll was found is on the left |
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| Qumran is only five miles as the crow flies from the
center of John the Baptist's ministry by the River
Jordan in the land of Judea. As John the Baptist
prepared the way, he quoted from Isaiah chapter 40,
"A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare
the way of the Lord'; make straight in the desert a
highway for our God." (Matthew 3:3) Obviously he,
John the Baptist, is the voice crying out in the
wilderness. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Probable site of John the
Baptist's ministry by the River Jordan |
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| But the Essenes, a sect of Jews opposed to the
Jerusalem Temple leadership and rituals living in
isolation at
Qumran, interpreted this verse from
Isaiah 40 differently. A voice of one calling, "in
the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make
straight in the desert a highway for our God." Thus
the Essenes made their way to the wilderness to
await redemption. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Dining Room at Qumran where the
Essenes shared simple meals |
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| The ancient parchment (sheep or goat leather) scroll
of Isaiah does not have punctuation such as commas
or quotation marks. Thus both interpretations are
valid. This is one of many topics we explore
together when my groups visit Qumran. |
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| Today in Jerusalem we pay homage to Isaiah at the
Shrine of the Book which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls
including the Great Isaiah. In the Jewish
Quarter we see the Broad (outer)
Wall mentioned by Isaiah (22: 9-10) and visit the
ancient City of David with Isaiah's haunts. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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The Shrine of the Book in
Jerusalem houses the Dead Sea Scrolls including
Isaiah |
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| With a new discovery we can add yet another new site
in Jerusalem to our Isaiah story – the Ophel. In
excavations right below the Temple Mount, below the
southern steps, a hardened clay seal or bulla
bearing the name Isaiah was unearthed by
archeologists. The small thumbnail-size bulla
clearly reads on one line "L'Yesha'yah[u]" meaning
"Belonging to Isaiah." Below that line are three
Hebrew letters nun, vav, yud – navi. Remember,
Hebrew reads from right to left. |
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Courtesy of the
Antiquities Department |
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Isaiah seal found in the Ophel
Excavations in Jerusalem |
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| What is missing is an aleph, a fourth letter at the
end of the line. Then nun, vav, yud, aleph would
signify "prophet." But the clay bulla is broken off
at that point. Thus the reading "prophet" is not
certain. Nevertheless, it is exciting to wonder
whether this find is Isaiah's personal seal. |
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| Was there another Isaiah working in the king's
court? Only people of high social rank or royalty
would have their own seals. The average Joe (Yossi
in Hebrew) did not. |
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| Furthermore, on the left edge of the seal there is a
visible fingerprint. Could this be the fingerprint
of "our" Isaiah?? If so, how tantalizing! |
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| When we visit the Ophel together I point out where
the Isaiah bulla was discovered in 2009, one of 34
hardened inscribed clay seals found outside the
royal bakery. It was only after
wet sifting
and study by scholars that the find was announced to
the public just last year. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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The X marks approximately where
the Isaiah seal was found near the Royal Bakery |
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| The Ophel is a good place to talk about Isaiah and
his role as counselor to King Hezekiah. In fact,
right below in the Kidron Valley, Assyrian
emissaries appeared in 701 BC and tried to terrorize
and bully Isaiah's fellow Jerusalemites by
shouting that their god was mightier than the God of
Israel and that Hezekiah would allow them to die by
famine and by thirst. |
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| Isaiah counseled King Hezekiah to take heart, not to
surrender. He urged the people to stand fast and
assured them that Jerusalem would be saved. And it
was. |
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Photo: Gila
Yudkin |
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Ophel Excavations below the Temple
Mount with Mount of Olives on upper right |
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| As Elie Wiesel, writer-philosopher (and
witness-chronicler of the Holocaust) writes "No one
is as harrowing as Isaiah when he rebukes, nor as
comforting when he consoles." He eloquently
announces the end of suffering and the dawn of
happier days. |
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| On Isaiah's lips Jerusalem evokes a kind of Sodom
and Gomorrah, yet he promises in the name of the
Lord, "I have set watchmen on your walls, O
Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace, day or
night." (Isaiah 62:6) |
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| In the Gospels Isaiah is quoted no less than twenty-five times. From the prophecy of the virgin bearing
a son who should be called Immanuel (Matthew 1:23)
to the cleansing of the Temple, "My house shall be
called a house of prayer for all nations? But you
have made it a den of thieves," (Mark 11:17) to the
suffering servant (Matthew 8:17). |
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| At the end of a 2019 pilgrimage, a very vigorous and
engaging 85-year-old woman confided to me that she
loved the book of Isaiah and had committed chapter
53 to memory. At the airport, while standing in line
for security, she proceeded to recite the beginning
verses until she reached "He was led as a lamb to
the slaughter." Then she stopped and thanked me for
so often referring to Isaiah during our tour. Those
around us in the security line began to recollect
all the places we had visited where Isaiah's
prophecies had come to life for them. |
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Meeting the challenges of our day, let's not be
faint-hearted and take comfort in the words of
Isaiah in the very same chapter which refers to
flattening the curve, |
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"But those who hope in the LORD will renew
their strength. They will soar on wings like
eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they
will walk and not be faint." Isaiah
40:31
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Sending prayers from Jerusalem on Easter Sunday for
the health and safety of you and your family.... |
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Copyright 2020 Gila Yudkin.
Permission needed for any reuse. |
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Comments from friends: |
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| "As long
as we are connecting COVID19 to the Bible, let's
remember Leviticus 13:4-5 and a 14 day quarantine
for leprosy. |
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4 But if
it is a white bahereth [bright spot] on the
skin of his flesh, and its appearance is not deeper
than the skin, and its hair has not turned white,
the kohen [priest] shall quarantine the
[person with the] lesion for seven days.
5 And on the seventh day, the kohen shall see
him. And, behold! the lesion has remained the
same in its appearance; the lesion has not spread on
the skin. So the kohen shall quarantine
him for seven days a second time." |
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Dave Wheels, Pennsylvania |
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| "Isaiah
40:31 is one of my favorite verses … because it
seems to me to describe the transitions of life in
our earthly bodies. First we soar, then we
run, then we walk, as the years advance. |
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Kathy M, Ohio |
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Gila Yudkin,
a
Connecticut-born Yankee living in King David's court,
has been guiding with Isaiah in hand for not nearly
as long as Isaiah's public ministry. (Gila's guiding
ministry is only forty years! So far, that is…) Gila
loves working with groups thirsty for biblical
insight, archeological anecdotes and old-fashioned
fun. |
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COMING TO
JERUSALEM?
BOOK GILA for a customized private tour |
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| A
complete copy of the Great Isaiah Scroll can be
viewed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. When
you come with Gila to the Shrine of the Book, she
will show you where an original section of the 2,000
year old scroll is displayed. She will also
reveal the secret about the mechanism to lower the
Isaiah scroll into a bomb-proof vault in the event
of an attack. In the meantime you can read "Let's
inspect the ancient scroll of Isaiah." |
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| Gila's favorite Isaiah passage is his glorious
vision of a world at peace where the wolf shall
dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down
with the young goat. .. (Isaiah 11:6) A
safari enthusiast, Gila has never seen a leopard,
much less a leopard lie down with a young goat, even
though leopards once prowled the oasis of En Gedi.
But she has seen lots of ibex scampering off the
cliffs towering over the oasis. See the photos
at "Let's
shoot ibex at En Gedi." |
