Biblical Treasures in the Israel Museum

The Israel Museum was founded in 1965 and is one of the world’s premier archaeological museums for European and Middle Eastern artifacts. The museum is packed with invaluable artifacts pertaining to ancient Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Rome, Greece, and other places, and all of these provide background for biblical history.

In this book we focus largely on some of the treasures that cannot be seen in other museums, such as the model of first century Jerusalem, the Aleppo Codex and the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Jeremiah bullae, Hezekiah’s seal, Hezekiah’s tunnel plaque, Uzziah’s inscription, Shema’s seal mentioning Jeroboam, Baal idols, an Ashtoroth tree, the moon god, a crucifixion nail embedded in the heel bone of a victim, depictions of Assyria’s siege of Lachish, a monument by Sennacherib that mentions Hezekiah and the siege of Jerusalem.

We also take a look at a brass looking mirror like those brought out of Egypt by the Israelite women and used in the construction of the laver in the Tabernacle, the Gilgamesh Epic, Philistine pottery, toys, and games, Samaritan ivories, the Dan inscription bearing the name “house of David,” Jezebel’s seal, silver amulets inscribed with the oldest extant Bible text, the ossuary of Caiaphas the high priest, a cylinder by Sargon, a stone marking the Place of Trumpeting on the Second Temple, a plaque marking the wall of separation in the Second Temple, a Persian rhyton like the type used by the king’s cupbearer (Nehemiah) and silver bowls from Persian palaces that would have been familiar to Nehemiah and Esther.

This book features 25 full color photographs.

Way of Life Literature, copyright 2019, booklet, 39 pages.