The Myth of Two Isaiahs
Posted: Sunday, July 19, 2009
by Joel Kontinen
http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/
How many Old Testament writing prophets are called Isaiah? For centuries, the traditional view was that there was only one. The Bible introduces him as Isaiah, son of Amoz, and states that he prophesied during the reigns of four kings of Judah (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah) approximately 2700 years ago.
However, with the rise of liberal theology with its higher criticism in central Europe, mostly Germany, Bible scholars began to think that there might be more than one author behind one of the longest prophetic books in the Bible.
Their problem with the book of Isaiah was that while the earlier part (chapters 1-39) deals with events that were contemporary with the prophet's time, the latter part (chapters 40-66) predicts the rise of Persia at a time when Assyria was the leading superpower in the Near East, the Jews' return from exile before they had even been exiled, and many other future events, such as the ministry of the Servant of the Lord who is no other than the Messiah.
Isaiah explicitly mentioned the name of the king of Persia who would allow them to return (45:1). From history we know that he was Cyrus, just like Isaiah said.
Liberal scholars interpreted this prediction as being written after the event had happened so there had to be another writer (Deutero-Isaiah) who used the same name. Some even claim that there was a third Isaiah.
There are serious problems with this view, however. The Red Sea scrolls include a complete book of Isaiah on the same scroll. Moreover, both parts of Isaiah are terminologically uniform. Both parts use terms and phrases typical of Isaiah, such as the Holy One of Israel. It occurs 12 times in chapters 1-39 and 13 times in chapters 40-66, but it only occurs six times elsewhere in the Bible, and one of them is an allusion to Isaiah.
What is more, Jesus and the New Testament authors only mentioned one Isaiah. It thus seems very likely that multiple Isaiahs are a figment of liberal imagination. God is perfectly able to reveal future history to His prophets and do so accurately.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Very wonderfully written article. yes I do agree with you that with the comencing of enlightenment and modernization, people have become sceptical about miracles. It can be called lack of faith and more place for reasoning? But I do know that miracles does take place even today. God has HIS own ways and methods in revealing Himself and manifest His power to people.Thank you for this article.Thank you, Swapna. I'd say amen to your comment. ‘Enlightenment’ is an interesting word. It suggests light shining afer a period of darkness. The whole idea of a myth. Historians will now also admit that the ‘dark ages’ in Europe were not at all as dark as previously supposed. The first chapter of the Gospel of John describes the real darkness and the real source of enlightenment.
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