Isaiah in Biblical History

Bible History

Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Definitions in Biblical History
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Who is Isaiah?
ISA'IAH
(Jehovah's salvation). Very little is known of the personal history of this eminent prophet. He was the son of Amoz. Isa 1:1; 2 Kgs 20:1. He began his prophetic career under Uzziah, probably in the last years of his reign, Isa 6:1, and continued it during the succeeding reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Zech 7:1. This would throw his prophetic activity between the years b.c. 760 and 713 or 698, the year of Hezekiah's death. He was married and had two sons. 1 Kgs 7:3; Isa 8:3, etc. His wife is called a prophetess, and his children, like himself, had prophetical names emblematic of Israel's future. He wore a hair-cloth dress. Rev 20:2. He seems to have been held in high esteem, especially by Hezekiah. Isa 37:2; Isa 38:1. In addition to the prophecies which we have by this prophet, he wrote a history of Uzziah's reign, 2 Chron 26:22, which is lost. The Bible does not indicate the mode of his death. A Jewish tradition (in the Talmud), however, states that when nearly 90 years old he was sawn asunder in a hollow carob tree, in Manasseh's reign. Comp. Heb 11:37. The "mulberry tree of Isaiah," in the Kedron valley, near Jerusalem, marks the traditional spot of his martyrdom. "It signifies much that he was not a celibate, but had a family; that he was not a wanderer in the desert or over hill and vale, but had a house and home; that he lived not in a secluded retreat or remote village, but in the great city, at the capital and court of Judah, the seat of all Hebrew blessings and hopes, with all its social, political, and religious influences. He is the first prophet since Elisha of whom we have any details. Of himself, like the apostle John, he says almost nothing." He mentions, however, distinctly his divine call and commission. Heb 6:1-8. Isaiah is the evangelist among the prophets of the O.T. He comes nearest to the N.T., and is more frequently quoted than any other. In him the Messianic prophecies reach their highest perfection. He draws the picture of the suffering and triumphing Saviour of Israel and the world, lineament after lineament, until at last he stands before us in unmistakable clearness and fulness. Isaiah is also one of the greatest of poets. "In him we see prophetic authorship reaching its culminating point. Everything conspired to raise him to an elevation to which no prophet, either before or after, could as writer attain. Among the other prophets each of the more important ones is distinguished by some one particular excellence and some one peculiar talent; in Isaiah all kinds of talent and all beauties of prophetic discourse meet together, so as mutually to temper and qualify each other; it is not so much any single feature that distinguishes him as the symmetry and perfection as a whole. . . . In the sentiment he expresses, in the topics of his discourses and in the manner, Isaiah uniformly reveals himself as the king-prophet." -- Ewald. Propetecy of. Isaiah is divided into two parts. The first, comprising the first thirty-nine chapters, is composed of a variety of individual prophecies against nations and denunciations of sin. Social vices, ch. Isa 3, and idolatry, ch. Isa 8, are rebuked without mercy. Assyria, Babylon, Isa 13:19 sq., Moab, Isa 15, Ethiopia, Isa 18, Egypt, Isa 19, and Tyre, Isa 23, pass successively before the prophet's mind, and their doom is predicted. The prophecies of Babylon's desolation and of Tyre's ruin are among the most poetic and the sublimest passages in all literature. Chs. Isa 36-39 are concerned with Sennacherib's invasion and episodes in the life of Hezekiah. The second part of Isaiah begins abruptly with the fortieth chapter: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." It takes its position at the close of the Babylonian captivity, and prophesies its close and the glories of the Messianic period of Israel's history. Of all the prophetic writings, none are more evidently inspired and truly evangelical than these last twenty-seven chapters. Isaiah prophesies of the Messiah with distinctness and in a way that his predecessors had not done. We find prophecies of his birth, Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6, of his Davidic descent, Isa 11:1-2, etc. But the fullest as well as the most distinct of the predictions is contained in the fifty-third chapter. It may be called the Gospel of the O.T., on account of the graphic and faithful picture it gives of the Messiah, as the "Man of sorrows," suffering in the stead of mankind. This chapter of itself will stand always as an evidence of prime importance for the divine mission of Christ. The authenticity of the second part of Isaiah, from chs. Isa 40-66, has been assailed by modern critics, who regard it as a later production of some "great unknown" prophet at the end of the Babylonian exile. But it is characteristic of prophetic vision to look into the far future as if it were present; and it makes not much difference for the divine character of the prophecy whether it was uttered 500 or 700 years before its fulfilment. The description of the servant of God who suffers and dies for the sins of the people in ch. Isa 53 applies to no other person in history, with any degree of propriety, but to Jesus Christ.

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'isaiah' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Schaff's

Copyright Information
© Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Schaff's Bible Dictionary Home
Bible History Online Home

Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
Online Bible (KJV)
Naves Topical Bible
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Schaff's Bible Dictionary
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
Matthew Henry Bible Commentary
Hitchcock's Bible Dictionary

Schaff's Bible Dictionary

Popular in the New Testament

Popular in the
New Testament