Isaiah

-Rev. Melissa Fain-

There are two general camps when it comes to Isaiah.

1. One prophet wrote the entirety of the book of Isaiah, who went by the name Isaiah.
2. Three prophets wrote the book of Isaiah during the three periods: pre-exile, during exile, and post-exile.

The reason anyone would follow the first camp would be because they are in another camp: The Bible is the literal Word of God. If you are in this camp, there is no point reading any further. I'd have to have an entire conversation about canonization, the verbal story transitioning into written word, and pushing tradition against Biblical text. All these things are great to do with the Creation Narrative, but can get sidetracked here. 

I'm part of the camp that believes the Bible is the inspired Word of God. It's not literal, because the moment we became part of it's creation (it was human hands that wrote it down, and continued to write it down through the centuries) it necessarily becomes a flawed document. 

That being said, what do we know about Isaiah, and the book attributed to Isaiah?

First of all, some might get antsy hearing the book of Isaiah could have been penned by more than one author. You might be wondering if that makes most of the book a forgery. Don't. Scholars believe the pre-exile voice is the voice of Isaiah. They also believe he had his own disciples. It was not an uncommon occurance during this time period for the followers of a prolific voice to take up his name when continuing their call. This wasn't considered a forgery, but was actually what the average person expected. Let me put it this way, if the whole book was written by one man, that man would be hundreds of years old. Yes, we have people who live hundreds of years, but thats pre-Noah's Ark. No one during this time period is living that long.

Secondly, the book of Isaiah is a great look at the three kinds of prophecy, since the book contains all three types.

• ​Pre-exile: When things are heading in the wrong direction, a real prophet would be saying, "Turn back!" "Change your ways!" Basically, "Danger, Will Robinson!" (Sorry, that reference is a little dated, but kudo points if you get it.)
• During exile: When a people doesn't listen to a pre-exile prophet, they end up with a during exile prophet. There is something comforting about during exile prophets. You've messed up. All the bad things that were promised have come to fruition, because you just didn't listen. A during exile prophet rallies the troops, so to speak. During exile prophets tell the people that not all hope is lost.
• Post-exile: Well, they can turn dark. They are the ones talking about the end times. Therefore, don't trust an "end times" prophet in a pre-exile world.

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