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ISAIAH

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 864 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ISAIAH . I. See also:

Life and See also:Period.—Isaiah is the name of the greatest, and both in life and in See also:death the most influential of the Old Testament prophets. We do not forget See also:Jeremiah, but Jeremiah's See also:literary and religious See also:influence is secondary compared with that of Isaiah. Unfortunately we are reduced to inference and conjecture with regard both to his life and to the extent of his literary activity. In the heading (i. 1) of what we may See also:call the occasional prophecies of Isaiah (i.e. those which were called forth by passing events), the author is called " the son of Amoz" and Rabbinical See also:legend identifies this Amoz with a See also:brother of Amaziah, See also:king of See also:Judah; but this is evidently based on a See also:mere etymological See also:fancy. We know from his See also:works that (unlike Jeremiah) he was married (viii. 3), and that he had at least two i Cf. See also:Maine's See also:Ancient See also:Law, ch. vi., and the Tagore Law Lectures (187o) by See also:Herbert See also:Cowell, lect. ix., " On the Rite of See also:Adoption," pp. 208 f. 2 The date of L and Z is given as the end of the 15th See also:century in the introduction to See also:Wyse's edition.sons, whose names he regarded as, together with his own, symbolic by divine See also:appointment of certain decisive events or religious truths—Isaiah (Yesha'-yahu), meaning " Salvation—Yahweh "; Shear-Yashub, " a remnant shall return "; and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, " See also:swift (swiftly cometh) spoil, speedy (speedily cometh) See also:prey " (vii.

3, viii. 3, 4, 18). He lived at See also:

Jerusalem, perhaps in the " See also:middle " or " See also:lower See also:city " (2 See also:Kings xx. 4), exercised at one See also:time See also:great influence at See also:court (See also:chap. See also:xxxvii.), and could venture to address a king unbidden (vii. 4), and utter the most unpleasant truths, unassailed, in the plainest See also:fashion. Presumably therefore his social See also:rank was far above that of See also:Amos and See also:Micah; certainly the high degree of rhetorical skill displayed in his discourses implies a See also:long course of literary discipline, not improbably in the school of some older See also:prophet (Amos vii. 14 suggests that " See also:schools " or companies " of the prophets " existed in the See also:southern See also:kingdom). We know but little of Isaiah's predecessors and See also:models in the prophetic See also:art (it were fanaticism to exclude the See also:element of human preparation) ; but certainly even the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah (and much more the disputed ones) could no more have come into existence suddenly and without warning than the masterpieces of. See also:Shakespeare. In the more See also:recent commentaries (e.g. See also:Cheyne's Prophecies of Isaiah, ii. 218) lists are generally given of the points of contact both in phraseology and in ideas between Isaiah and the prophets nearly contemporary with him.

For Isaiah cannot be studied by himself. The same heading already referred to gives us our only traditional See also:

information as to the period during which Isaiah prophesied; it refers to See also:Uzziah, Jotham, See also:Ahaz and See also:Hezekiah as the contemporary kings. It is, however, to say the least, doubtful whether any of the extant prophecies are as See also:early as the reign of Uzziah. Exegesis, the only safe basis of See also:criticism for the prophetic literature, is unfavourable to the view that even chap. i. belongs to the reign of this king, and we must therefore regard it as most probable that the heading in i. 1 is (like those of the See also:Psalms) the See also:work of one or more of the Sopherim (or students and editors of Scripture) in See also:post-exilic times, apparently the same writer (or See also:company of writers) who prefixed the headings of See also:Hosea and Micah, and perhaps of some of the other books. See also:Chronological study had already begun in his time. But he would be a bold See also:man who would profess to give trustworthy See also:dates either for the kings of See also:Israel or for the prophetic writers. (See See also:BIBLE, Old Testament, See also:Chronology; the See also:article " Chronology " in the See also:Encyclopaedia Biblica; and cf. H. P. See also:Smith, Old Testament See also:History, Edin., 1903, p. 202, See also:note 2.) II.

Chronological Arrangement, how far possible.—Let us now briefly See also:

sketch the progress of Isaiah's prophesying on the basis of philological exegesis, and a comparison of the See also:sound results of the study of the See also:inscriptions. If our results are imperfect and liable to correction, that is only to be expected in the See also:present position of the See also:historical study of the Bible. Chap. vi., which describes a See also:vision of Isaiah " in the death-See also:year of King Uzziah (740 or 734 B.C.?) may possibly have arisen out of notes put down in the reign of Jotham; but for several reasons it is not an acceptable view that, in its present See also:form, this striking See also:chapter is earlier than the reign of Ahaz. It seems, in See also:short, to have originally formed the See also:preface to the small See also:group of prophecies which now follows it, viz. vii. i.–ix. 7. The portions which may represent discourses of Jotham's reign are chap. ii. and chap. ix. 8 –x. 4—stern denunciations which remind us somewhat of Amos. But the allusions in the greater See also:part of chaps. ii.-v. correspond to no period so closely as the reign of Ahaz, and the same remark applies still more self-evidently to vii. 1–ix. 7.3 Chap. xvii. 1-1 1 ought undoubtedly to be read in immediate connexion with chap. vii.; it presupposes the See also:alliance of See also:Syria and See also:northern Israel, whose destruction it predicts, though opening a See also:door of See also:hope for a remnant of Israel.

The fatal See also:

siege of See also:Samaria (724–722 B.C.) seems to have given occasion to chap. See also:xxviii.; but the following 3 On the question of the Isaianic origin of the prophecy, ix. 1-6, and the See also:companion passage, xi. 1-8, see Cheyne Introd. to the See also:Book of Isaiah, 1895, pp. 44, 45 and 62-66. Cf., however, J. See also:Skinner " Isaiah i.-xxxix." in See also:Cambridge Bible. prophecies (chaps. See also:xxix.-xxxiii.) point in the See also:main to See also:Sennacherib's invasion, Tor B.C., which evidently stirred Isaiah's deepest feelings and was the occasion of some of his greatest prophecies. It is, however, the vengeance taken by See also:Sargon upon Ashdod (711) which seems to be preserved in chap. xx., and the striking little prophecy in xxi. 1-1o, sometimes referred of See also:late to a supposed invasion of Judah by Sargon, rather belongs to some one of the many prophetic personages who wrote, but did not speak like the greater prophets, during and after the See also:Exile. It is also an See also:opinion largely held that the prophetic See also:epilogue in xvi. 13, 14, was attached by Isaiah to an See also:oracle on archaic See also:style by another prophet (Isaiah's See also:hand has, however, been traced by some in xvi. 4b, 5).

In fact no progress can be expected in the accurate study of the prophets until the editorial activity both of the great prophets themselves and of their more reflective and studious successors is fully recognized. Thus there were two great See also:

political events (the Syro-Israelitish invasion under Ahaz, and the great See also:Assyrian invasion of Sennacherib) which called forth the spiritual and oratorical faculties of our prophet, and quickened his See also:faculty of insight into the future. The Sennacherib prophecies must be taken in connexion with the historical appendix, chaps. See also:xxxvi.-xxxix. The beauty and incisiveness of the poetic prophecy in xxxvii. 21-32 have, by some critics, been regarded as See also:evidence for its authenticity. This, however, is, on See also:critical grounds, most questionable. A See also:special reference seems needed at this point to the oracle on See also:Egypt, chap. xix. The See also:comparative feebleness of the style has led to the conjecture that, even if the basis of the prophecy be Isaianic, yet in its present form it must have undergone the manipulation of a See also:scribe. More probably, however, it belongs to the early See also:Persian period. It should he added that the Isaianic origin of the appendix in xix. 18-24 is, if possible, even more doubtful, because of the precise, circumstantial details of the prophecy which are not like Isaiah's work. It is plausible to regard v.

18 as a fictitious prophecy in the interests of Onias, the founder of the See also:

rival See also:Egyptian See also:temple to Yahweh at Leontopolis in the name of See also:Heliopolis (See also:Josephus, See also:Ant. xii. q, 7). The See also:fault of the controversialists on both sides has been that each party has only seen " one See also:side of the See also:shield." It will be admitted by philological students that the exegetical data supplied by (at any See also:rate) Isa. xl.-lxvi. are conflicting, and there-fore susceptible of no See also:simple See also:solution. This remark applies, it is true, chiefly to the portion which begins at lii. 13. The earlier part of Isa. xl.-lxvi. admits of a perfectly consistentinterpretation from first to last. There is nothing in it to indicate that the author's See also:standing-point is earlier than the Babylonian captivity. His See also:object is (as most scholars, probably, believe) to warn, stimulate or See also:console the See also:captive See also:Jews, some full believers, some semi-believers, some unbelievers or idolaters. The development of the prophet's See also:message is full of contrasts and surprises: the vanity of the idol-gods and the omnipotence of Israel's helper, the sinfulness and infirmity of Israel and her high spiritual destiny, and the selection (so offensive to patriotic Jews, xlv. g, 1o) of the See also:heathen See also:Cyrus as the See also:instrument of Yahweh's purposes, as in fact his See also:Messiah or Anointed One (x1v. 1), are brought successively before us. Hence the semi-dramatic See also:character of the style. Already in the opening passage mysterious voices are heard crying, " Comfort ye, comfort ye my See also:people "; the plural indicates that there were other prophets among the exiles besides the author of Isa. xl.-xlviii. Then the Jews and the See also:Asiatic nations in See also:general are introduced trembling at the imminent downfall of the Babylonian See also:empire.

The former are reasoned with and exhorted to believe; the latter are contemptuously silenced by an See also:

exhibition of the futility of their See also:religion. Then another mysterious form appears on the See also:scene, bearing the See also:honourable See also:title of " Servant of Yahweh," through whom See also:God's gracious purposes for Israel and the See also:world are to be realized. The See also:cycle of poetic passages on the character and work of this " Servant," or commissioned See also:agent of the Most High, may have formed originally a See also:separate See also:collation which was somewhat later inserted in the Prophecy of Restoration (i.e. chaps. )d.-xlviii., and its appendix chaps. xlix.-Iv.). The new See also:section which begins at chap. xlix. is written in much the same delightfully flowing style. We are still among the exiles at the See also:close of the captivity, or, as others think, amidst a poor community in Jerusalem, whose members have now been dispersed among the Gentiles. The latter view is not so See also:strange as it may at first appear, for the new book has this peculiarity, that See also:Babylon and Cyrus are not mentioned in it at all. [True, there was not so much said about Babylon as we should have expected even in the first book; the paucity of references to the See also:local characteristics of Babylonia is in fact one of the negative arguments urged by older scholars in favour of the Isaianic origin of the prophecy.] Israel himself, with all his inconsistent qualities, becomes the absorbing subject of the prophet's meditations. The section opens with a soliloquy of the " Servant of Yahweh," which leads on to a glorious comforting discourse, " Can a woman forget her sucking See also:child," &c. (xlix. 1, comp. li. 12, 13).

Then his See also:

tone rises, Jerusalem can and must be redeemed; he even seems to see the great divine See also:act in See also:process of accomplishment. Is it possible, one cannot help asking, that the abrupt description of the strange fortunes of the " Servant " —by this time entirely personalized—was written to follow chap. lii. 1-12? The whole difficulty seems to arise from the long prevalent See also:assumption that chaps. xl.-lxvi. form a whole in themselves. Natural as the feeling against disintegration may be, the difficulties in the way of admitting the unity of chaps. xl.-lxvi. are insurmountable. Even if, by a bold assumption, we See also:grant the unity of authorship, it is See also:plain upon the See also:face of it that the chapters in question cannot have been composed at the same time or under the same circumstances; literary and See also:artistic unity is wholly wanting. But once admit (as it is only reasonable to do) the See also:extension of Jewish editorial activity to the prophetic books and all becomes clear. The See also:record before us gives no information as to its origin. It is without a heading, and by its abrupt transitions, and honestly preserved See also:variations of style, invites us to such a theory as we are now indicating. It is only the inveterate See also:habit of See also:reading Isa. xlix.-lxvi. as a part of a work See also:relating to the close of the Exile that prevents us from seeing how inconsistent are the tone and details with this pre-supposition. The present article in its See also:original form introduced here a survey of the portions of Isa. xl.-lxvi. which were plainly of Palestinian origin. It is needless to reproduce this here, because the information is now readily accessible elsewhere; in 1881 there was an originality in this survey, which gave promise of a still more See also:radical treatment ..ich as that of Bernhard Duhm, a fascinating commentary published in 1892.

Sec also Cheyne, Jewish Quarterly See also:

Review, See also:July and See also:October 1891; Introd. to Book of Isaiah (1895), which also point forward, like See also:Stade's Geschichte in See also:Germany, to a bolder criticism of Isaiah. IV. Non-Isaianic Elements in Chaps. i.-xxxix.—We have said nothing hitherto, except by way of allusion, of the disputed prophecies scattered up and down the first See also:half of the book of Isaiah. There is only one of these prophecies which may, with any degree of apparent plausibility, be referred to the See also:age of Isaiah, and that is chaps. See also:xxiv.-See also:xxvii. The grounds are (1) that according to See also:xxv. 6 the author dwells on See also:Mount See also:Zion; (2) that See also:Moab is referred to as an enemy (xxv. 1o); and (3) that at the close of the prophecy, See also:Assyria and Egypt are apparently mentioned as the See also:principal foes of Israel (xxvii. 12, 13). A careful and thorough exegesis will show the hollowness of this See also:justification. The tone and spirit of the prophecy as a whole point to the same late apocalyptic period to which chap. xxxiv. and the book of See also:Joel; and also the last chapter (especially) of the book of See also:Zechariah, may unhesitatingly be referred. A word or two may perhaps be expected on Isa. xiii., xiv. and xxxiv., See also:xxxv. These two oracles agree in the elaborateness of their description of the fearful See also:fate of the enemies of Yahweh (Babylon and See also:Edom are merely representatives of a class), and also in their view of the deliverance and restoration of Israel as an See also:epoch for the whole human See also:race.

There is also an unrelieved sternness, which pains us by its contrast with Isa. xl.-lxvi. (except those passages of this portion which are probably not homogeneous with the bulk of the prophecy). They have also See also:

affinities with Jer. 1. li., a prophecy (as most now agree) of post-exilic origin. There is only one passage which seems in some degree to make 'up for the aesthetic drawbacks of the greater part of these late compositions. It is the See also:ode on the fall of the king of Babylon in chap. xiv. 4-21, which is as brilliant with the glow of lyric See also:enthusiasm as the stern prophecy which precedes it is, from the same point of view, dull and uninspiring. It is in fact worthy to be put by the side of the finest passages of chaps. xl.-lxvi.--of those passages which irresistibly rise in the memory when we think of " Isaiah." V. Prophetic Contrasts in Isaiah.—From a religious point of view there is a wide difference, not only between the acknowledged and the disputed prophecies of the book of Isaiah, but also between those of the latter which occur in chaps. i.-xxxix., on the one hand, and the greater and more striking part of chaps. xl.-lxvi. on the other. We may say, upon the whole, with Duhm, that Isaiah represents a See also:synthesis of Amos and .Hosea, though not without important additions of his own. And if we cannot without much hesitation admit that Isaiah was really the first preacher of a See also:personal Messiah whose record has come down to us, yet his editors certainly had See also:good See also:reason for thinking him capable of such a lofty height of prophecy. It is not because Isaiah could not have conceived of a personal Messiah, but because the Messiah-passages are not plainly Isaiah's either in style or in thought.

If Isaiah had had those See also:

bright visions, they would have affected him more. Perhaps the most characteristic religious peculiarities of the various disputed prophecies are—(r) the emphasis laid on the uniqueness, eternity, creatorship and predictive See also:power of Yahweh (xl. 18, 25, xli. 4, xliv. 6, xlviii. 12, 5, 6, 18, 22, xlvi. 9, xlii. 5, xlv. IS, xli. 26, xliii. 9, xliv. 7, xlv.

21, xlviii. 14); (2) the conception of the " Servant of Yahweh "; (3) the ironical descriptions of See also:

idolatry (Isaiah in the acknowledged prophecies only refers incidentally to idolatry) xl. 19, 20, xli. 7, xliv. 9-17, xlvi. 6; (4) the See also:personality of the Spirit of Yahweh (mentioned no less than seven times, see especially xl. 3, xlviii. 16, lxiii. ro, 14); (5) the influence of the angelic See also:powers (xxiv. 21); (6) the resurrection of the See also:body (See also:xxvi. 19); (7) the See also:everlasting See also:punishment of the wicked (lxvi. 24); (8) vicarious See also:atonement (chap. liii.). We cannot here do more than See also:chronicle the attempts of a Jewish See also:scholar, the late Dr Kohut, in the Z.D.M.G. for 1876 to prove .a Zoroastrian influence on chaps. xl.-lxvi.

The See also:

idea isnot in itself inadmissible, at least for post-exilic portions, for Zoroastrian ideas were in the intellectual See also:atmosphere of Jewish writers in the Persian age. There is an equally striking difference among the disputed prophecies themselves, and one of no small moment as a subsidiary indication of their origin. We have already spoken of the difference of tone between parts of the latter half of the book; and, when we compare the disputed prophecies of the former half with the Prophecy of Israel's Restoration, how inferior (with all reverence be it said) do they appear! Truly " in many parts and many See also:manners did God speak " in this composite book of Isaiah! To the Prophecy of Restoration we may fitly apply the words, too gracious and too subtly chosen to be translated, of See also:Renan, " ce second Isale, dont fame lumineuse semble comme impregnee, six cent ans d'avance, de toutes See also:les rosees, de tous les parfums de 1'avenir " (L'Antechrist, p. 464); though, indeed, the See also:common See also:verdict of sympathetic readers sums up the See also:sentence in a single phrase—" the Evangelical Prophet." The freedom and the inexhaustibleness of the undeserved See also:grace of God is a subject to which this gifted son constantly returns with " a monotony which is never monotonous." The defect of the disputed prophecies in the former part of the book (a defect, as long as we regard them in See also:isolation, and not as supplemented by those which come after) is that they emphasize too much for the See also:Christian sentiment the stern, destructive side of the See also:series of divine interpositions in the latter days. VI. The Cyrus Inscriptions.—Perhaps one of the most important contributions to the study of II. Isaiah has been the See also:discovery of two See also:cuneiform texts relative to the fall of Babylon and the religious policy of Cyrus. The results are not favourable to a See also:mechanical view of prophecy as involving See also:absolute accuracy of statement. Cyrus appears in the unassailably See also:authentic See also:cylinder inscription " as a See also:complete religious indifferentist, willing to go through any amount of ceremonies to soothe the prejudices of a susceptible See also:population." He preserves a strange and significant silence with regard to Ahura-mazda, the supreme God of Zoroastrianism, and in fact can- hardly have been a Zoroastrian believer at all. On the historical and religious See also:bearings of these two inscriptions the reader may be referred to the article " Cyrus " in the Encyclopaedia Biblica and the See also:essay on " II.

Isaiah and the Inscriptions " in Cheyne's Prophecies of Isaiah, vol. ii. It may, with all reverence, be added that out estimate of prophecy must be brought into See also:

harmony with facts, not facts with our preconceived theory of See also:inspiration.

End of Article: ISAIAH

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