The Bible: I. Authenticity II. Credibility III. Morality

by John E. Remsburg

Isaiah.

Isaiah, the chief of the prophetic books, and, next to the Pentateuch and the Four Gospels, the most important book of the Bible, purports to be a series of prophecies uttered during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Uzziah’s reign began B.C. 810, and ended B.C. 758; Hezekiah’s reign began B.C. 726 and ended B.C. 698. Isaiah’s ministry is supposed to have extended from about 760 to 700 B.C., and toward the close of this period, the book of Isaiah, as it now appears, is said to have been written.

In support of Isaiah’s authorship of the entire work the following arguments have been advanced:

• 1. Its various prophecies exhibit a unity of design.
• 2. The style is the same throughout the work.
• 3. Messianic prophecies abound in both its parts.
• 4. No other writer claimed its authorship.
• 5. The ancient Jews all ascribe it to him.

The above arguments for the authenticity of the work are partly true and partly untrue. So far as they conflict with the following arguments against its authenticity as a whole they are untrue:

• 1. The work is fragmentary in character.
• 2. The style of its several parts is quite unlike.
• 3. Many of its events occurred after Isaiah’s death.
• 4. Much of it relates to the Babylonian captivity.
• 5. It records both the name and the deeds of Cyrus.

Isaiah might very properly be divided into two books, the first comprising the first thirty-nine chapters; the second, the concluding twenty-seven chapters. Impartial critics agree that while Isaiah may have written a portion of the first part he could not have written all of it nor any of the second. This is the conclusion of Cheyne, Davidson, De Wette, Eichorn, Ewald, Gesenius, and others.

That he wrote neither the first nor the second part of the book, as it now exists, is proven by the following passages taken from both:

“Babylon is fallen, is fallen” (xxi, 9).

“Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the defensed cities of Judah, and took them” (xxxvi, 1).

“So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned and dwelt in Nineveh.

“And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nishrock his god, that Addrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia; and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead” (xxxvii, 37, 38).

Sennacherib ascended the throne 702 B.C. and died 680 B.C. Isaiah lived in the preceding century.

“That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid” (xliv, 28).

“Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus” (xlv, 1). “He shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives” (xlv, 13).

Cyrus conquered Babylon B.C. 538, and released the Jews from captivity and permitted them to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple B.C. 536, nearly two centuries after the time of Isaiah.

Regarding these passages, Dr. Lyman Abbott, in a sermon on “The Scientific Conception of Revelation,” says: “If you take up a history and it refers to Abraham Lincoln, you are perfectly sure that it was not written in the time of George Washington. Now, if you take up the book of Isaiah and read in it about Cyrus the Great, you are satisfied that the book was not written by Isaiah one hundred years before Cyrus was born.”

Prof. T. K. Cheyne of Oxford University, the leading modern authority on Isaiah, says: “That portion of the Old Testament which is known as the book of Isaiah was, in fact, written by at least three writers—and possibly many more—who lived at different times and in different places.” Nearly all of the ninth chapter, which, on account of its supposed Messianic prophecies, is, with Christians, one of the most valued chapters of the Bible, Professor Cheyne declares to be an interpolation.

That four of the middle chapters, the thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth, and thirty-ninth, originally formed a separate document is evident. Concerning these four chapters, Paine truthfully observes: “This fragment of history begins and ends abruptly; it has not the least connection with the chapter that precedes it, nor with that which follows it, nor with any other in the book” (Age of Reason, p. 129).

If Isaiah wrote this book, and Jeremiah wrote the books of Kings, as claimed; then either Isaiah or Jeremiah was a plagiarist; for the language of the four chapters just mentioned is, with a few slight alterations, identical with that of a portion of the second book of Kings.

The integrity of this book cannot be maintained. It is not the product of one writer, but of many. How many, critics may never be able to determine; certainly not less than five, probably more than ten.