Book of Isaiah

The Book of Isaiah () is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve. (The order is somewhat different in the Christian Old Testament).

The book has 66 chapters: the first 39 chapters prophesy doom for a sinful Judah and for all the nations of the world that oppose God, while the last 27 prophesy the restoration of the nation of Israel and a new creation in God's glorious future kingdom;

Tradition ascribes the book to Isaiah himself, but for over a hundred years scholars have divided it into three parts: Proto-Isaiah (chapters 1-39), containing the words of the 8th century BCE prophet and 7th century BCE expansions; Deutero-Isaiah (chapters 40-55), a 6th century BCE work by an author who wrote under the Babylonian captivity; and Trito-Isaiah (chapters 56-66), composed probably by multiple authors in Jerusalem shortly after the exile.

Texts and manuscripts

The oldest surviving manuscript of Isaiah was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls: dating from about a century before the time of Jesus, it is substantially identical with the Masoretic version which forms the basis of most modern English-language versions of the book. (Isaiah was the most popular prophet among the Dead Sea collection: 21 copies of the scroll were found in Qumran.) The observations which have led to this conclusion are as follows: Prophecies → Passages of Isaiah 40-66 refer to events that did not occur in Isaiah's own lifetime, such as the rise of Babylon as the world power, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the rise of Cyrus the Great. (R. N. Whybray notes that Deutero-Isaiah's prediction that Cyrus would destroy Babylon - in fact he made it more splendid than ever - further pinpoints the time in which the author wrote.)

Anonymity → Isaiah’s name suddenly stops being used after chapter 39.

Style → There is a sudden change in style and theology after chapter 40; numerous key words and phrases found in one section are not found in the other. Historical Situation → The historical situation goes through three stages: in chapters 1-39 the prophet speaks of a judgment which will befall the wicked Israelites; in chapters 40-55 the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (587 BCE) is treated as an accomplished fact and the fall of Babylon as an imminent threat; and in chapters 56-66 the fall of Babylon is already in the past. Chapters 1 to 39 (First Isaiah, Proto-Isaiah or Original Isaiah): the work of the original prophet Isaiah, who worked in Jerusalem between 740 and 687 BCE. Chapters 40 to 55 (Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah): by an anonymous author who lived in Babylon near the end of the Babylonian captivity. There is some uncertainty as to how Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah came to be attached to the original Isaiah: the two competing theories are either that Deutero-Isaiah was written as a continuation of Proto-Isaiah, or that it was written separately and became attached to the famous Isaiah later.

Proto-Isaiah (Isaiah 1-39)

Isaiah 1 at Bible Gateway

Structure

The following is from Margaret Baker's commentary on Isaiah in Eerdman's Commentary on the Bible

Ch.1: various poems, possibly compiled as an introduction to the final form of the book

Ch.2-12: oracles about Judah and Jerusalem reflecting the late 8th century expansion of Assyria into Syria-Palestine

Ch.13-23: oracles against the nations

Ch.24-27: the "Isaiah apocalypse"

Ch.28-31: more oracles about the 8th century crisis

Ch.32-33: oracles about kingship

Ch.34: oracles against Edom (a kingdom bordering Judah to the south)

Ch.35: oracle of salvation for Israel

Ch.36-39: stories about Isaiah during the Assyrian crisis

Authorship and historical background

Isaiah's first significant acts as a prophet occurred when Judah, under king Ahaz, faced invasion from Israel and Aram Damascus (Syria) after refusing to join them in a revolt against Assyria, the dominant imperial power of the age. Ahaz, against Isaiah's advice to seek the protection of God, invited the Assyrians to protect him, turning Judah into an Assyrian vassal. Israel (the northern kingdom) was consequently destroyed by the Assyrians. On the death of Ahaz, c.715 BCE, his son Hezekiah followed a policy which Isaiah saw as dangerous, waging war on the Philistine cities and on Edom even though territory under direct Assyrian control (i.e., the former kingdom of Israel) now came to within a few miles of Jerusalem. Isaiah's warning that Judah would meet the same fate as Israel was ignored. Eventually Hezekiah revolted against Assyria, and as Isaiah had predicted the country was ravaged by Assyrian armies. Hezekiah then took Isaiah's advice and threw himself on the protection of God, and Jerusalem was saved. are usually thought to be the work of an author who lived long after Isaiah.

Content and structure

Deutero-Isaiah prophesies the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Babylonians and their restoration in the land promised to them by God. It affirms that the Jews are indeed the chosen people of God and Yahweh is both their national god and the God of the universe (46:9). Cyrus is named as the messiah who will overthrow Babylon and allow the return of Israel (chapter 45:1). The remaining chapters are a vision of the future glory of Zion. A "suffering servant" is referred to (esp. ch. 53) - probably a metaphor for Israel, Christians have traditionally interpreted it as a prophecy of Jesus as the Christ (i.e., Messiah).

Chapters 40-55 fall into two parts, with 40-48 dealing with the rise of Cyrus, while 49-55 are focused on Zion as the wife whom God has renounced and then taken back. The Cyrus chapters are similar in style and theme to the Cyrus cylinder, and it is possible that Deutero-Isaiah was influenced by the propaganda of Cyrus and his supporters, who claimed that the god Marduk had chosen Cyrus to liberate Babylon.

Monotheism

Isaiah 44:6 contains the first clear statement of monotheism in the Hebrew scriptures: "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god". In Isaiah 44:09-20 this is developed into a satire on the making and worship of idols, mocking the foolishness of the carpenter who worships the idol that he himself has carved. While Yahweh had shown his superiority to other gods before, in Second Isaiah he becomes the sole God of the world. This model of monotheism became the defining characteristic of post-Exilic Judaism, and became the basis for Christianity and Islam.

A new Exodus

A central theme in Second Isaiah is that of a new Exodus - the return of the exiled people Israel from Babylon to Jerusalem. The author imagines a ritualistic return to Zion (Judah) led by Yahweh. The importance of this theme is indicated by its placement at the beginning and end of Second Isaiah (40:3-5, 55:12-13). This new Exodus is repeatedly linked with Israel's Exodus from Egypt to Canaan under divine guidance, but with new elements. These links include the following:

The original Exodus participants left "in great haste" (Ex 12:11, Deut 16:3), whereas the participants in this new Exodus will "not go out in great haste" (Isa 52:12).

The land between Egypt and Canaan of the first Exodus was a "great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland" (Deut 8:15), but in this new Exodus, the land between Babylon (Mesopotamia) and the Promised Land will be transformed into an paradise, where the mountains will be lowered and the valleys raised to create level road (Isa 40:4).

In the first Exodus, water was provided by God, but scarcely. In the new Exodus, God will "make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water" (Isa 41:18).

Trito-Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66)

Isaiah 56 at Bible Gateway

Authorship and historical background

Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, conquered Babylon in 539 BCE. One of his first acts was to allow peoples exiled by the Babylonians (the policy had affected more people than just the Jews) to return to their homes. The Jews, or at least some of them, returned to Jerusalem, and by 515 BCE had rebuilt the Temple. The return, however, was not without problems of its own: the returnees found themselves in conflict with those Jews who had remained in the country and who now owned the land, and there was further conflicts over the form of government that should be set up. This was the background to Trito-Isaiah, who was probably not a single author but a group under the influence of Deutero-Isaiah and his followers.

Content and structure

Trito-Isaiah is not a unity: the majority of scholars regard it as an anthology of about twelve passages, differing in date and/or purpose, and it may include material from the First Temple period.

Kingdom of Yahweh

A final thematic goal that Isaiah constantly leans toward throughout the writing is the establishment of Yahweh's kingdom on earth, where those who love Him live to serve His everlasting good will.

Influence on Christianity

, based upon Isaiah 11:6,7]]

Isaiah is the most quoted of all the books of the Hebrew Bible outside of the Torah. Of notable importance is , where the prophet is assuring king Ahaz that God will save Judah from the invading armies of Israel and Syria; the sign that will prove this is the forthcoming birth of a child called Emmanuel, "God With Us". While it is suggested by the grammar of the Hebrew that the "young woman" is already pregnant and hence not a virgin, the Greek-speaking 1st century CE author of Matthew 1:23 interpreted it as a prophecy that the messiah would be born of a virgin.

Another important passage was Isaiah 40:3-5, which imagines the exiled Israel proceeding home to Jerusalem on a newly-constructed road, led by the victorious Yahweh who has conquered the gods of Babylon. The vision was taken up by all four Gospels and applied to John the Baptist and Jesus, leading God's people out of exile.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12, the fourth of the "Suffering Servant" songs, was interpreted by the earliest Christians as a prophecy of the death and exaltation of Jesus, a role which Jesus himself seems to have accepted (Luke 4:17-21).

Jehovah's Witnesses adoption of Isaiah 43:10-12

The Bible-based name Jehovah's Witnesses identifies these Christians as a 'people for God's name.' The name Jehovah's witnesses, based on Isaiah 43:10–12, was adopted in 1931. At Isaiah 43:10, as per New World Translation reads: "'You are my witnesses,' is the utterance of Jehovah, 'even my servant whom I have chosen.'"

References

Bibliography

Commentaries on Isaiah

General works

External links

Translations

Book of Isaiah (Hebrew) side-by-side with English)

Book of Isaiah (English translation [with Rashi's commentary] at Chabad.org)

Bible Gateway

Websites

Introduction to the book of Isaiah from the NIV Study Bible

Was She, or Was She not "A Virgin"?, Messiah Truth

Category:Year of work unknown Category:Nevi'im Category:Isaiah Category:Book of Isaiah