ISAIAH. It is important to realize that practically all we know of the life and career of the Prophet Isaiah of Jerusalem is con tained in the book of Isaiah. But the book itself, as it lies before us in our Bibles contains much more material than that which is directly concerned with the life and work of the prophet. In its present form, as a book, it is a comparatively late production, compiled out of a series of prophetic collections made by a suc cession of redactors and editors. "These collections embody a nucleus of Isaianic material—the actual prophecies of Isaiah him self—which was added to and enlarged as time went on. But even in the earliest form of compilation which critical analysis can detect this Isaianic material has been combined with non-Isaianic matter." As we shall see, at least one, if not two other writers contributed largely to the book as we have it. As the late G. Buchanan Gray well remarks in his commentary on Isaiah (p. xii.), "No full justice can be done to a book which is a great monument to Jewish religion after the exile if all our attention is devoted to determining whether this or that passage is genuine and dismissing it as not 'genuine' if it is not the work of Isaiah. In reference to works such as the Book of Isaiah the term 'genuine' is indeed misleading. None of the nameless writers may have possessed the religious genius of Isaiah, but together they repre sent the play of the earlier prophetic teaching on the Jewish Church. In religion as elsewhere, great personalities count first, and it is the privilege of a student of the Book of Isaiah to come face to face with one, if not two, such personalities; but the re ligious community is the necessary outcome, or field of action, of the great religious personality and his teaching, and the student of the Book of Isaiah has but half entered into his inheritance if he communes with Isaiah and the great exilic prophet, but fails to feel the life of that post-exilic community, which not only pre served for themselves and for us the words of the earlier prophets, but preserved them in books which were also made to breathe the hopes and aspirations that sustained the Jews through centuries of isolation, oppression and temptation." The book falls into two main divisions: (a) Chapters i.—xxxix.; (b) Chapters xl.—lxvi. The whole of the material contained in (b) is post-exilic in date; that contained in (a) is partly post-exilic and partly earlier. The material directly or indirectly connected with the prophet Isaiah of Jerusalem is all contained in (a).
Chapter I forms a general preface to the whole Isaianic col lection. The chapter is itself composite and was probably put together in its present shape by editors. The themes it deals with may be summarized as follows :—(i) An address on Israel's faith lessness c. 705 B.C. (vv. 2-17), (2) the sin of Judah and the choice
given (vv. 18-20) c. 701 B.C., (3) a dirge over Jerusalem's de clension, passing over into a threat (vv. before 701 B.C.; (4) a post-exilic addition dealing with the deliverance of a rem nant and the annihilation of Apostates (vv. 27-28) ; (5) a frag ment against nature-worship (vv. C. 722 B.C. All these pas sages may be regarded as Isaianic except vv. 27-28. Note the heading v.' which was added by an editor to the whole book of collected prophecies. The rest of chapters i.—xxxix. can broadly be divided into four books, viz., Bk. I first collection of Isaiah's prophecies, Chapters ii.—xii. ; Bk. 2 an intermediate collection of oracles mainly concerning foreign nations, Chapters xiii.—xxiii.; Bk. 3 a third collection of Isaianic prophecies dealing mainly with the deliverance of Jerusalem with an eschatological preface and appendix, chapters xxiv.—xxxv. ; Bk. 4 a historical appendix to the collected form of Isaianic prophecies, chapters xxxvi.—xxxix.
I. The first collection of Isaiah's prophecies, Chapters ii.—xii. This is itself composed of minor collections (notice ii.i—iv.6 and vi.i—ix.7). We come to the earliest minor collection contained in chapter ii.i—iv.6. These chapters are carefully arranged being provided with an eschatological preface ii.2-4—, and a Messianic appendix iv. 2-6. Both these apocalyptic passages may be re garded as dependent upon Old Tradition (so Gressmann) and are probably older than Isaiah himself. Thus in the striking section ii. 2-4, which recurs in Micah iv. 1-4 both prophets are probably citing from a common source containing early features, e.g., that Mount Zion is made higher than all the mountains and here assumes the position of the Mountain of the Gods of old myth.
Isaiah takes this old story as a sort of text with its idealistic de scription of the future and sets against it a picture in striking contrast with the evils of the present. The section that follows ii. 6-21 has for its main theme Israel's Sin and the Day of Doom, and gives the prophet's conception of the Day of Yahweh (note especially chapter ii. ii—17 and the passage against idolatry v.18 sqq.). A section follows on Judah's impending ruin, completed by c. 735 B.C., contained in iii. 1-15 and this again by a powerful pas sage directed against the ladies of Jerusalem, iii. i6—iv.i. The whole section is completed by iv. 2-6, apocalyptic in character. Here vv. 5-6 may form a later addition. The general theme of the passage is the felicity of the redeemed community after it has been purged by judgment.
Chapter v. forms a section by itself and may be dated c. 735 B.C. The theme of the chapter is the parable of the vineyard and its application. The parable is contained in vv. 1-7 (cf. Matt. xxi. 32 sqq.) ; vv. 8-24 contain a denunciation in the form of six woes directed against the upper classes (vv. 25-30 should follow chapter x. 4). The whole composition is a very powerful piece of writing.
The second minor collection (Chapters vi.i to ix.8) con tains important material. Chapter vi. gives an account of Isaiah's inaugural vision, date about 738, and may have been composed to form an introduction to the group that follows which consists of (a) chapter vii. (prophecies of the period of the Syro-Ephra imitish war) ; (for the sign of Emmanuel, vii. 14-16, see article