Isaiah
Judgment and hope for Judah and the nations, and the promise of a coming king and servant.
What the sources say, and how sure we are
- The text says
The book opens with Isaiah’s vision in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Chapters 36–39 repeat the account of Sennacherib’s attack and Hezekiah’s illness found in 2 Kings.Isa 1:1; Isa 6:1; Isa 36–39; 2 Kgs 18–20
- Outside evidence
Sennacherib’s Prism describes the 701 BC campaign against Hezekiah. The Siloam Tunnel inscription and the Assyrian reliefs of the siege of Lachish, found at Nineveh, illustrate the same period.Sennacherib Prism; Siloam inscription; Lachish reliefs
- Outside evidence
The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaa, about 125 BC) contains all sixty-six chapters in one scroll, showing the book was read as a single work by the second century BC.1QIsaa
- Debated
Many scholars hold that chapters 1–39 come from the 8th-century prophet, chapters 40–55 from an unnamed prophet in the exile about 540 BC, and chapters 56–66 from later still, because the later chapters address exiles and name Cyrus. Others hold that Isaiah wrote the whole book, with Cyrus named by prophecy (Isa 44:28; 45:1). Both views are held by serious scholars.Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1
- Christian conclusion
The New Testament quotes Isaiah more than any other prophet and applies the Servant passages and the promise of a child born as king to Jesus.Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6–7; Isa 53; Luke 4:17–21; Acts 8:30–35