1 Who Wrote the Book of Isaiah? When we get to heaven, maybe we ll meet someone called Deutero-Isaiah. That s what some scholars call the nameless prophet they say wrote the second section of Isaiah. They joke about this, but they re serious about the question behind it. Who wrote the book of Isaiah? For more than a hundred years, Bible students have hotly debated the issue. Why do they raise the question? If the title reads The Book of Isaiah, doesn t that mean that the book was written by him? Not necessarily. The titles were not part of our inspired biblical texts; they came later. A Few Problems So why do some scholars believe there may be more than one author of the book of Isaiah? There are some obvious differences between the first 39 chapters of Isaiah and the last 27. First, even to the casual reader, we see a shift at chapter 40 from judgment to hope. Along with this is the change from a straightforward, terse writing style to a warmer, more impassioned style. There is also a marked difference between the preferred words and phrases used in each section. In addition, some important themes missing from chapter 40 and following are emphasized in the first 39 chapters. These include references to the messianic king as a branch from the family of David and references to the remnant of Israel. Likewise, key ideas in chapters 40--66 don t show up in chapters 1--39. These include references to the servant of the Lord, God as Creator
2 of the world, and the prophetic mission of Israel. Perhaps the most striking difference, however, is the historical setting for the different sections. In chapters 40--66, the prophet seems to be addressing the people of God during and after the Babylonian exile. This period covers roughly 597 to 539 BC. Jerusalem had been destroyed and deserted, and the people were now in exile in Babylon. Cyrus, the Persian king who ruled about 559--530 BC, is even mentioned by name in 44:28 and 45:1. So what s the problem? Since Isaiah tells us in chapter 1 that he ministered during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, whose reigns cover roughly 783 BC to 687 BC, we typically place Isaiah s death around 680 BC. That means chapters 40--66 took place more than a hundred years after Isaiah died. If we read a book about World War II, a book that names Winston Churchill, we naturally assume the book was written after 1945, not before 1845. There s one other point worth noticing. Isaiah himself is never mentioned after chapter 39. Though his name appears 16 times in the book, we never find it again after 39:8. A Note About Prophetic Material* It helps to understand the nature of prophecy at this point. Most of us learned early on that prophecy is a prediction of future events ( foretelling ); however, this is not the primary meaning of prophecy. Most prophets spoke about events in their own times to the people these events affected. They did so because whatever was going on in the lives of the people of God might be misunderstood. We call this forthtelling vs. foretelling.
3 For instance, when the Assyrians overwhelmed the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC, destroying the nation and scattering the 10 tribes of Israel, never to be reunited again, ancient peoples would have understood this to be a victory by Assyria s gods. They would have seen in this defeat of Israel the defeat of Israel s God. Without the prophets proclaiming what had actually happened--that God was using Assyria to punish Israel for their idolatry and sinful ways--the people of the southern kingdom of Judah (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) might have lost hope in God. The prophets assured them that the covenant still stood, but wickedness on their part would of necessity bring judgment. So, the book of Isaiah in addressing future events with such precision is quite unusual. Compare the detail in Isaiah to the book of Revelation and one can begin to understand why some would propose a second Isaiah who lived around the time of the Babylonian exile. A Pair of Theories There are two main theories for solving the problems we come across as we read through the book. Both approaches maintain the full inspiration of Scripture. Writing in the ancient world was different than it is today. For one thing, there were no copyright laws in the ancient world. Books were the property of everyone, not just one person. People felt comfortable adding to books that were handed down from generation to generation. As a result, many ancient books are the product of several writers. The books of Samuel, the Kings, and Chronicles, for instance, were compiled from the ancient records of the kings and other leaders of ancient Israel/Judah. The books of the Kings cover a
4 period from about 930 BC, when the kingdom was divided into north and south, to the Babylonian exile around 587/6 BC. That s about 350 years. Because of this, scholars often speak of ancient books as growing. Theory 1: Isaiah Mainly. The first approach is often called the traditional view. This is because for most of Christian history, most Bible scholars held this position. This theory says Isaiah and his immediate disciples were responsible for the entire book. The prophetic material in chapters 40--66 is predictive, not just forthtelling. Though it may be unusual for an Israelite prophet to spend so much time talking about life a hundred years or more in the future, it is certainly not impossible. Normally, the prophets of Israel focused on the people of their own time. When prophets predicted, it was either of the immediate future or the distant messianic age. So, if this book was written by one man in the late eighth to early seventh century BC, it is unique among Hebrew prophecies. However, this is certainly not a reason to reject this theory. In addition, the shift in style and mood at chapter 40 is possibly due to the fact that Isaiah wrote it later in his life. In a few cases, differences may be due to a later addition by a disciple, but these would be rare. This theory emphasizes that for the most part, the book as we know it today reflects the prophecies of one man, and was likely completed within a generation of his death, by around the middle of the 7th century BC. It emphasizes the predictive element in prophecy, underscoring God s omniscience and compassion as He offered hope to a desperate people
5 more than a hundred years before disaster struck. Theory 2: Isaiah Partly. This theory was introduced about 1892 by Bernhard Duhm, a German scholar. According to this theory, the bulk of chapters 1--39 came from Isaiah in the 7th and 8th centuries BC. Chapters 40--55, however, came from a prophet of the sixth century BC who lived during the Babylonian exile, whom scholars call Deutero-Isaiah or Second Isaiah. Moreover, chapters 56--66 are considered to be from the hand of still another prophet. Scholars refer to this prophet as Trito-Isaiah, or Third Isaiah. Those who accept this theory believe this prophet lived after 539 BC, when the Jews had returned from exile in Babylon. This theory says the book was completed around the middle of the fifth century BC, perhaps about 465 BC. It emphasizes God s ministry to His people in the midst of disaster. God is shown as the Caretaker of each generation of His people. Yet, the predictive ministry of Isaiah is diminished by this theory. Though the book still contains much material that projects either into the immediate future of its first audience and into the distant age of the Messiah, this theory downplays the possibility of foretelling in prophetic ministry. A Unified Book In spite of the arguments for more than one prophetic author, the singular design of the book is clear to anyone reading it. Major ideas are repeated throughout the book, drawing it all together. For example, in both sections (1--39 and 40--66), God is referred to as The Holy One of Israel. This title is characteristic of the entire book and rarely found outside of it. In addition, the idea of God having a specific plan for Israel recurs throughout the book. These and other
6 concepts are woven together into a main message: The holy, sovereign Creator of the world has a plan of ministry for His people. When the Dead Sea Scrolls came to light in the late 1940s, they further confirmed the unity of the book. This library of scrolls included copies of Isaiah from about 150 BC. The entire book of Isaiah is contained on one complete scroll, with no break between chapters 39 and 40. If the ancient scribes had wanted to show a break, they had the perfect opportunity. The first line of chapter 40 is the last line in a column. It would have been easy to start chapter 40 at the top of the next column. So, who wrote the book of Isaiah? We may never know till we get to heaven if Isaiah completed the whole work two centuries before the exile, or if he had help in this great endeavor. However, we do know the God who superintended it all, and we are sure He said what He wanted to say. *Editor s addition. Note: This article was first published in the Winter 1991-92 issue of Illustrated Bible Life. BY JIM EDLIN professor of biblical literature and languages, MidAmerica Nazarene College, Olathe, Kansas, and author of Daniel and Ezra/Nehemiah in the New Beacon Bible Commentary series