In March/April 2018, in an archaeological review in the Biblical Archaeology Review journal, a team published the finding of a seal in a archaeological dig in Jerusalem bearing the name of Isaiah from the eighth century BC. It bears the Hebrew text transliterated “leyesha‘yah[u]” which means ‘belonging to Isaiah’. In the book of Isaiah in scripture the prophet foretold (chapter 8) that he and his children were signs of salvation coming in the future from God. The names of the children of Isaiah had prophetic meanings as signs and therefore it implies that Isaiah foretold his own name being a sign too. His name indeed means ‘Yah saves’, yesha‘yah[u], but more that, the one foretold by Isaiah is a Christ and possibly a son of either a maiden or a virgin, but the fact that Jesus bore the name Yesha is significant here. Roll forward a thousand years to a sarcophagus in Cyprus, in Larnaca. The Byzantine emperor Leo VI found this sarcophagus and tomb in 890 AD with the inscription “Lazarus, four days dead, friend of Christ”. It had been lost during the centuries of Arab occupation of Cyprus but Leo had the remains contained in it moved to Constantinople but a church building, the Church of Saint Lazarus was built to house the sarcophagus which can be seen today. Two inscriptions. They intersect on the person Jesus Christ and the raising of Lazarus from the dead and the promise this held, first of Jesus rising from the dead a little time afterwards, and then of a resurrection in the future of all who are worthy of it. Salvation is the meaning of Jesus’ name. Yet another thousand or so years later to the present day and Jesus reveals himself to believers and even to me by spiritually interacting with us in ways that imprint upon us awareness that he is alive still and just the same as the Jesus we read about in gospels such as that of the apostle John. This is like a further inscription but one of faith imprinted in the human heart. It tells of the veracity of accounts such as John’s which carry the records of words and teachings and commands of Jesus by adherence to which we can show love of Jesus and get to meet him ourselves. That is the salvation way foretold by Isaiah that saves the people of God from their sins.
