Isaiah

Background and History

The chapters above are the King James text. This essay is the setting of Isaiah: who is said to have written it, when and where, what happens in it, and how the text has been copied.

At a Glance

Who Wrote It

The book names its prophet in the first sentence. Isaiah 1:1Isaiah 1:1 · King James VersionThe vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.Isaiah 1:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source (1) calls the work the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. That is the superscription. It covers the reigns those four kings occupy. It does not say “and also a second prophet in the exile.”

The Babylonian Talmud treats “who wrote” as its own question. In Bava Batra 15a the baraita says Hezekiah and his colleagues wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. (3) The English on Sefaria is the William Davidson edition. This page does not reprint it. The same discussion, on the previous page, orders the Prophets so that Isaiah follows Jeremiah and Ezekiel, because the Gemara reads Isaiah as a book of consolation set beside books of destruction. (4) “Wrote,” in that baraita, is the hand that set the book down. The Talmud also asks how Joshua could have written the notice of his own death, and it answers with a later hand finishing the book. Read that way, Hezekiah’s circle can be the recorders of Isaiah’s vision without the superscription becoming a fiction. Read another way, the baraita is an early witness that the book was not set down by the prophet alone. Both readings should stay visible. The Talmud does not say a man named Second Isaiah wrote chapters 40 through 55.

One Book, or More Than One

Many modern scholars divide the book. The usual form of the theory is that chapters 1 through 39 belong largely to Isaiah of Jerusalem in the eighth century before Christ, that chapters 40 through 55 address the exile and name Cyrus, and that chapters 56 through 66 reflect a still later community after the return. The reasons are the ones a reader can see without a commentary: the horizon changes, the style shifts, and Isaiah 44:28Isaiah 44:28 · King James VersionThat saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.Isaiah 44:28 · King James VersionOpen the Source and Isaiah 45:1Isaiah 45:1 · King James VersionThus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;Isaiah 45:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source (1) name Cyrus, the Persian king, as the one who will fulfill God’s pleasure and rebuild Jerusalem. A prophet in Hezekiah’s Jerusalem is, on this theory, too early to name that king as a contemporary task. The theory treats the name as evidence of a later author writing after Cyrus had appeared. The traditional reading treats the name as prediction.

That division is a real scholarly view. It should be stated fairly. It is not a second title in the Hebrew manuscripts. The Israel Museum’s page on the Great Isaiah Scroll says the scroll generally conforms to the Masoretic text, with all sixty-six chapters in the same order. (5) One scroll, one order, from before the turn of the era. A scroll can copy a book that already had more than one author. It can also copy a book that was one prophet’s from the start. The manuscript does not by itself decide. It does decide that the chapters traveled together, in this order, in a copy older than the medieval Masoretic manuscripts by more than a thousand years.

There is no article on this site yet titled as a full authorship study of Isaiah. Who Wrote the Bible? is the wider page. This essay does not invent a second Isaiah as a person the book introduces. “Second Isaiah” and “Third Isaiah” are modern labels for those stretches of text.

Who It Is Not

Isaiah the son of Amoz is not the Isaiah of a later genealogy invented to fill the name. The book identifies him by his father and by the four kings. He is not Hezekiah. Hezekiah is one of the kings in the superscription, and the king in the narrative of Isaiah 36 through Isaiah 39. The Talmud’s “Hezekiah and his colleagues” are the company said to have written the book down, not a claim that the king saw the vision.

When and Where

Isaiah 1:1Isaiah 1:1 · King James VersionThe vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.Isaiah 1:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source sets the vision in Judah and Jerusalem under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Isaiah 6 dates the call to the year King Uzziah died. Britannica’s article on the book dates that call to 742 BC and the latest recorded activity to 701 BC. (9) Those two years are the traditional activity in At a Glance. Isaiah 7 is the crisis under Ahaz. This page does not add accession years for Jotham or Ahaz. Those reigns were not retrieved.

The same Britannica article assigns only chapters 1–39 to the years of the call and the last recorded activity. It dates chapters 40–55, which it calls Deutero-Isaiah, to the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BC, and says the final form of chapters 1–39 may be as late as the 5th century BC. It names chapters 56–66 as a further split, Trito-Isaiah, and does not date that block. (9) Bible Gateway’s survey gives Isaiah as 700–681 BC, with additional content as late as the early 500s BC. (10) The two reference works do not print the same window. Both stay visible. Neither number is a year written in the superscription.

Isaiah 36 through Isaiah 39 are the Assyrian crisis under Hezekiah, the same crisis 2 Kings 18 through 2 Kings 20 (2) tells. The 1911 Britannica says Hezekiah’s chronology has not been unanimously fixed except for the crisis of 701 BC, and that Sennacherib came to the throne in 705. (12) This page does not print a single accession year for Hezekiah.

Sennacherib was king of Assyria from 705/704 to 681 BC and died in January 681 at Nineveh. (11) In 701 he campaigned in Palestine, and Jerusalem was spared when an indemnity was paid. The British Museum’s Taylor Prism is a hexagonal clay record made in 691 BC, said to have been found at Nebi Yunus, and it includes the tribute from Hezekiah king of Judah in 701 BC. (15) Nineveh stood on the east bank of the Tigris and is encircled by the modern city of Mosul, Iraq. (16) Isaiah 37:37Isaiah 37:37 · King James VersionSo Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.Isaiah 37:37 · King James VersionOpen the Source says Sennacherib returned and dwelt at Nineveh.

Isaiah 44:28Isaiah 44:28 · King James VersionThat saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.Isaiah 44:28 · King James VersionOpen the Source and Isaiah 45:1Isaiah 45:1 · King James VersionThus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;Isaiah 45:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source name Cyrus. Livius dates his kingship of Anshan to 559 and the taking of Babylon to October 539, and says news of his death reached Babylon in December 530. (13) The Cyrus Cylinder is a Babylonian account of that conquest in 539 BC and dates Nabonidus, the previous king, to 555–539 BC. (14) Britannica dates the fall of the city to 539 BCE and Nabonidus to 556–539 BCE. (17) The two Nabonidus ranges disagree by a year at the start. Cyrus’s capture is 539 on both pages. The ruins lie on the Euphrates about 55 miles south of Baghdad, near modern Al-Ḥillah, Iraq. (17) Isaiah 20:1Isaiah 20:1 · King James VersionIn the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;Isaiah 20:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source names Sargon. The 1911 article says Sargon had died when Sennacherib acceded in 705. (12) This page does not add Sargon’s accession year.

Rulers at the Time

Places in This Book

What Is Happening

Isaiah 1 through Isaiah 12 charge Judah and hold out a remnant and a child. Isaiah 13 through Isaiah 23 are oracles against the nations. Isaiah 24 through Isaiah 35 widen the judgment and the promise of a highway and a restored land. Isaiah 36 through Isaiah 39 are narrative: Sennacherib’s army, Hezekiah’s prayer, and the Babylonian envoys. Isaiah 40 opens with “Comfort ye,” and the chapters through Isaiah 55 include Cyrus and the servant songs. Isaiah 56 through Isaiah 66 call the people to justice, name a redeemer who comes to Zion, and end with new heavens and a new earth.

A reader can hold the critical division and still use that outline. The outline is the book’s order, which is also the scroll’s order.

Key Themes

Holiness, justice, and comfort are the repeating notes. Isaiah 6:3Isaiah 6:3 · King James VersionAnd one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.Isaiah 6:3 · King James VersionOpen the Source has the seraphim call the Lord of hosts holy. Isaiah 1:17Isaiah 1:17 · King James VersionLearn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.Isaiah 1:17 · King James VersionOpen the Source tells Judah to relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Isaiah 40:1Isaiah 40:1 · King James VersionComfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.Isaiah 40:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source says comfort ye my people. The nations are not a footnote. They are judged, and they are also summoned.

How the Book Points to Christ

Isaiah 7:14Isaiah 7:14 · King James VersionTherefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.Isaiah 7:14 · King James VersionOpen the Source (1) says a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Matthew 1:23Matthew 1:23 · King James VersionBehold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.Matthew 1:23 · King James VersionOpen the Source (7) quotes that line about Jesus’ birth. Isaiah 9:6Isaiah 9:6 · King James VersionFor unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.Isaiah 9:6 · King James VersionOpen the Source names a child whose titles include the mighty God and the everlasting Father. Isaiah 53:5Isaiah 53:5 · King James VersionBut he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.Isaiah 53:5 · King James VersionOpen the Source (1) says he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. Acts 8:32–35Acts 8:32–35 · King James Version^8:32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: ^8:33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. ^8:34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? ^8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.Acts 8:32–35 · King James VersionOpen the Source (8) has Philip begin at that passage and preach Jesus. Christians read the servant as Christ. Jesus is God, and Immanuel means God with us. Who Is the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53? quotes Rashi and Ibn Ezra, then Acts 8. What Does Messiah Mean? is the office. What Is the Deity of Christ? is who the New Testament says he is.

Text and Manuscripts

The Great Isaiah Scroll, 1QIsaa, is the copy people mean when they ask whether Isaiah changed. The Israel Museum’s page says the scroll generally conforms to the Masoretic text, with all sixty-six chapters in the same order, and that the number of textual variants is well over 2,600. (5) Conformity and a large variant count are both on that page. Variants of spelling and wording are what a thousand years of copying produces. They are not a second book. The Israel Antiquities Authority dates Qumran biblical manuscripts from the third century B.C.E. into the first century of the common era. (6) The scroll is a copy. It is not the prophet’s autograph.

Is the Bible True? and Was the Bible corrupted? are the arguments that use this scroll. This page does not add a variant list beyond what the museum page states.

Further Reading

There is no separate authorship article for Isaiah on this site yet. Who Wrote the Bible? is the wider claim. Is the Bible True? quotes the museum page on the Great Isaiah Scroll. What Does Messiah Mean? is the office the New Testament finds in these chapters. Who Is the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53? stays on chapter 53. Was the Bible corrupted? is the claim that the earlier books were altered beyond use.