Was There a Deutero Isaiah?
Was There a Deutero-Isaiah or Second Isaiah? There have been
many critics who challenged the historicity of the
Scriptures, and implied that the Bible is not the word of
God. This is also true with the book of Isaiah, critics have
identified problems in the books unity and authorship. A
large number of critics make a case that Isaiah 1-39 and
Isaiah 40-66 are two separate books written by two entirely
different men. They refer to the second book as "Deutero-
Isaiah" or "Second Isaiah" and they speculate that it was
written during the Babylonian captivity, and the people that
the author is addressing our different than in the first
book. They also maintain that Isaiah is never mentioned as
the author in the second book. but there are too many
reasons for believing that Isaiah was the author of the
whole book from Isaiah 1 through Isaiah 66. Jewish history
and Jewish tradition never recognized anything other than
one book, and one author. The discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls identify Isaiah as one scroll, and thus one book.
Judaism and Christianity also recognize Isaiah as one book
and one author. The writing style of Isaiah is seen
throughout both sections, and the people who are being
addressed would apply more to Judah went to those captive in
Babylon. There is also mention of Temple services in
existence, which were not in existence what they were
captive in Babylon. For these reasons and others, and for
the fact that Jesus never recognized more than one Isaiah we
must conclude that Isaiah was the author of his one book.
It is important to understand this about the book of Isaiah
because critics are always looking for something in which
they might attack the Bible, especially the book of Isaiah
because there are so many prophecies pointing to the life
and ministry and even the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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