Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2

by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

Throughout the whole second part we perceive the people under the, as yet, unbroken power of idolatry. It appears everywhere as the principal tendency of the sinful apostacy among the people; to counteract it appears to be the chief object of the Prophet. The controversy with idolatry pervades everything. At the very commencement, in chap. xl. 18-26, we are met with a description of the nothingness of idolatry, and an impressive warning against it. In the whole series of passages, commencing with chap. xli.--of which we shall afterwards speak more in detail--the sole Deity of the God of Israel, and the vanity of the idols are proved from prophecy in connection with its fulfilment; and this series has for its supposition the power which, at the time when the prophecy was uttered, idolatry yet possessed over the minds of men. Chap. xlii. 17 announces that the future historical development shall bring confusion upon those "that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images: Ye are our gods." In chap. xliv. 12-20, the absurdity of idolatry is illustrated in a brilliant description. We have here before us the real locus classicus of the whole Scripture in this matter, the main description of the nothingness of idolatry. The emotion and excitement with which the Prophet speaks, shew that he has here to do with the principal enemy to the salvation of his people. According to chap. xlvi. the idols of Babel shall be overturned and carried away. From this, Israel may learn the nothingness of idolatry, and the apostates may return to the Lord. In the hortatory and reproving section, the punishment of idolatry forms the beginning; in chap. lvii. idolatry is described as far-spread, manifold, advancing to the greatest horrors. The offering up of children as sacrifices especially appears as being in vogue; and it can be proved that this penetrated into Israel, from the neighbouring nations, at the time of the Prophet (comp. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; xxxiii. 6), while, at the time of the exile, there was scarcely any cause for warning against it,--at least, existing information does not mention any such sacrifices among the Babylonians (comp. Münter, die Religion der Babylonier, S. 72). The people appear as standing under the dominion of idolatry in chap. lxv. 3: "The people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon the bricks;" comp. ver. 7: "Who have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills;" chap. lxvi. 17: "They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind one in the midst, who eat swine's flesh, and the abominations, and mice, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord." Idolatry is the service of nature, and was, therefore, chiefly practised in places where nature presents herself in all her splendour, as in gardens and on the hills. The gardens are mentioned in a similar way in chap. i. 29: "Ye shall blush on account of the gardens that ye have chosen." (On the words which precede in that verse: "For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired," chap. lvii. 5 offers an exact parallel: "Who inflame themselves among the oaks under every green tree.") In chap. lxv. 11, they are denounced who forsake the Lord, forget His holy mountain (on which, at the time when this was written, the temple must still have stood), who prepare a table to Fortune, and offer drink-offerings to Fate. The second main form of sinful apostacy--hypocrisy and dead ceremonial service--is only rarely mentioned by the Prophet (in chap. lvii., lxvi.), while he always anew reverts to idolatry. Now this absolutely prevailing regard to idolatry can be accounted for, only if Isaiah be the author of the second part. From Solomon, down to the time of the exile, the disposition to idolatry in Israel was never thoroughly broken. During Isaiah's ministry, it came to the fullest display under Ahaz. Under Hezekiah it was kept down, indeed; but with great difficulty only, as appears from the fact that, under the reign of Manasseh, who was a king after the heart of the people, it again broke openly forth; comp. 2 Kings xxi. 1-18; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 1-18; 2 Kings xxi. 6, according to which Manasseh made his own son to pass through the fire. But it is a tact generally admitted, and proved by all the books written during and after the exile, that, with the carrying away into exile, the idolatrous disposition among the people was greatly shaken. This fact has its cause not only in the deep impression which misery made upon their minds, but still more in the circumstance that it was chiefly the godly part of the nation that was carried away into captivity. The disproportionately large number of priests among the exiled and those who returned--they constitute the tenth part of the people--is to be accounted for only on the supposition, that the heathenish conquerors saw that the real essence and basis of the people consisted in the faith in the God of Israel, and were, therefore, above all, anxious to remove the priests as the main representatives of this principle. If, for this reason, they carried away the priests, we cannot think otherwise but that, in the selection of the others also, they looked chiefly to the theocratic disposition on which the nationality of Israel rested. To this we are led by Jer. xxiv. also, where those carried away are designated as the flower of the nation, as the nursery and hope of the Kingdom of God. Incomprehensible, for the time of the exile, is also the strict antithesis between the servants of the Lord, and the servants of the idols--the latter hating, assailing, and persecuting the former--an antithesis which meets us especially in the last two chapters; comp. especially chap. lxv. 5 ff. 13-15; lxvi. 16. That such a state of things existed at the time of the Prophet is, among other passages, shown by 2 Kings xxi. 16, according to which Manasseh shed much innocent blood at Jerusalem, and, according to ver. 10, 11, especially the blood of the prophets, who had borne a powerful testimony against idolatry.

If it be assumed that the second part was composed during the exile, then those passages are incomprehensible, in which the Prophet proves that the God of Israel is the true God, from His predicting the appearance of the conqueror from the east, and the deliverance of the people to be wrought by Him in connection with the fulfilment of these predictions. The supernatural character of this announcement which the Prophet asserts, and which forms the ground of its probative power, took place, only if it proceeded from Isaiah, but not if it was uttered only about the end of the exile, at a time when Cyrus had already entered upon the stage of history. These passages, at all events, admit only the alternative,--either that Isaiah was the real author, or that they were forged at a later period by some deceiver; and this latter alternative is so decidedly opposed to the whole spirit of the second part, that scarcely any one among the opponents will resolve to adopt it. Considering the very great and decisive importance of these passages, we must still allow them to pass in review one by one. In chap. xli. 1-7, the Lord addresses those who are serving idols, summons them triumphantly to defend themselves against the mighty attack which He was just executing against them, and describes the futility of their attempts at so doing. The address to the Gentiles is a mere form; to work upon Israel is the real purpose. To secure them from the allurements of the world's religion, the Prophet points to the great confusion which the Future will bring upon it. This confusion consists in this:--that the prophecy of the conqueror from the East, as the messenger and instrument of the Lord--a prediction which the Prophet had uttered in the power of the Lord--is fulfilled without the idolators being able to prevent it. The answer on the words in ver. 2: "Who hath raised up from the East him whom righteousness calleth whither he goes, giveth the nations before him, and maketh kings subject to him, maketh his sword like dust, and his bow like driven stubble?" is this: According to the agreement of prophecy and fulfilment, it is none other than the Lord, who is, therefore, the only true God, to whose glory and majesty every deed of His servant Koresh bears witness. The argumentation is unintelligible, as soon as, assuming that it was Isaiah who wrote down the prophecy, it is not admitted that he, losing sight of the real Present, takes his stand-point in an ideal Present, viz., the time of the appearance of the conqueror from the East, by which it becomes possible to him to draw his arguments from the prophecy in connection with the fulfilment. It is altogether absurd, when it is asserted that the second part is spurious, and was composed at a time when Cyrus was already standing before Babylon. It would indeed have required an immense amount of impudence on the part of the Prophet to bring forward, as an unassailable proof of the omniscience and omnipotence of God, an event which every one saw with his bodily eyes. By such argumentation, he would have exposed himself to general ridicule.--In chap. xli. 21-29, the discourse is formally addressed to the Gentiles; but in point of fact, the Prophet here, too, has to do with Judah driven into exile, to whom he was called by God to offer the means to remain stedfast under the temptations from the idolators by whom they were surrounded. Before the eyes, and in the hearing of Israel, the Lord convinces the Gentiles of the nothingness of their cause. They are to prove the divinity of their idols by showing forth the announcements of the Future which proceeded from them. But they are not able to comply with this demand. It is only the Lord, the living God, who can do that. Long before the appearance of the conqueror from the North and East, He caused it to be foretold, and comforted His Church with the view of the Future. Hence, He alone is God, and vanity are all those who are put beside Him. It is said in ver. 22: "Let them bring forth and shew to us what shall happen; the former things, what they be, show and we will consider them and know the latter end of them; or the coming (events make us to hear)." The former things are those which are prior on this territory; hence the former prophecies, as the comparison of the parallel passage, chap. xlii 9, clearly shows. The end of prophecy is its fulfilment. הבאות "the coming, or future," are the events of the more distant Future. As the Prophet demands from the idols and their servants that only which the true God has already performed by His servants, we have here, on the one hand, a reference to the whole cycle of prophecies formerly fulfilled, as e.g., that of the overthrow of the kingdoms of Damascus and Ephraim, and the defeat of Asshur,--and, on the other hand, to the prophecy of the conqueror from the East, &c., contained in the second part. The former prophecies, however, are here mentioned altogether incidentally only; the real demand refers, as is shown by the words: "What shall happen," only to the prophecies in reference to the Future, corresponding to those of our Prophet regarding the conqueror from the East, whose appearance is here represented as belonging altogether to the Future, and not to be known by any human ingenuity. In ver. 26: "Who hath declared (such things) from the beginning, that we may know, and long beforehand, that we may say: he is righteous?" the מראש "from the beginning" puts insurmountable obstacles in the way of the opponents of the genuineness. If the second part of Isaiah be spurious, then the idolaters might put the same scornful question to the God of Israel. The מראש denotes just the opposite of a vaticinium post eventum.--In chap. xlii. 9: "The former (things), behold, they are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth, I let you hear," the Prophet proves the true divinity of the Lord, from the circumstance that, having already proved himself by prophecies fulfilled, He declares here, in the second part, the future events before they spring forth, before the facts begin to sprout forth from the soil of the Present, and hence could have been known and predicted by human combination. The words, "before they spring forth," become completely enigmatical, if it be denied that Isaiah wrote the second part; inasmuch as, in that case, it would have in a great part, to do with things which did not belong to the territory of prophetic foresight, but of what was plainly visible.--In chap. xliii. 8-13, the Prophet again proves the nothingness of idolatry, and the sole divinity of the God of Israel, from the great work, declared beforehand by the Lord, of the deliverance of Israel, and of the overthrow of their enemies. He is so deeply convinced of the striking force of this argument, that he ever anew reverts to it. After having called upon the Gentiles to prove the divinity of their idols by true prophecies given by them, he says in ver. 9: "Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified." By the witnesses it is to be proved, by whom, to whom, and at what time the prophecies were given, in order that the Gentiles may not refer to deceitfully forged prophecies, to vaticinia post eventum. According to the hypothesis of the spuriousness of the second part, the author pronounced his own condemnation by thus calling for witnesses. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and witness is my Servant whom I have chosen," is said in ver. 10. While the Gentiles are in vain called upon to bring forward witnesses for the divinity of their idols, the true God has, for His witnesses, just those whose services he claimed. The prophecies which lie at the foundation of their testimony, which are to be borne witness to, are those of the second part. The Prophet may safely appeal to the testimony of the whole nation, that they were uttered at a time, when their contents could not be derived from human combination. "The great unknown" (Ewald), could not by any possibility have spoken thus.--In chap. xlv. 19-21, it is proved from the prophecy, in connection with the fulfilment, that Jehovah alone is God,--the like of which no Gentile nation can show of their idols. The argumentation is followed by the call to all the Gentiles to be converted to this God, and thus to become partakers of His salvation--a call resting on the striking force of this argumentation--and with this call is, in ver. 23-25, connected the solemn declaration of God, that, at some future time, this shall take place; that, at some future time, there shall be one shepherd and one flock. How would these high, solemn, words have been spoken in vain, if "the great unknown" had spoken them! In ver. 19 it is said: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob: Seek ye me in vain; I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare rectitude." The Lord here says, first, in reference to His prophecies, those namely which He gave through our Prophet, that they were made known publicly, that, hence, there could not be any doubt of their genuineness,--altogether different from what is the case with the prophecies of idolatrous nations which make their appearance post eventum only, no one knowing whence. Every one might convince himself of their truth and divinity. This is expressed by the words: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth." Then he says that the Lord had not deceived His people, like the idols who leave their servants without disclosures regarding: the Future; but that, by the prophecies granted to our Prophet, He had met the longings of his people for revelations of the Future. While the gods of the world leave them in the lurch, just when their help is required, and never answer when they are asked, the Lord, in reference to prophecies, as well as in every other respect, has not spoken: "Seek ye me in vain," but rather: When ye seek, ye shall find me. And, finally, he says that his prophecies are true and right; that the heathenish prophets commit an unrighteousness by performing something else than that which they promised to perform. To declare righteousness is to declare that which is righteous, which does not conceal internal emptiness and rottenness under a fair outside. The words: "I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare rectitude," could not but have died on the lips of the "great unknown."--In chap. xlvi. 8-13 the apostates in Israel are addressed. They are exhorted to return to the true God, and to be mindful, 1. of the nothingness of idols, ver. 8; 2. of the proofs of His sole divinity which the Lord had given throughout the whole of the past history; 3. of the new manifestation of it in announcing and sending Koresh (Cyrus), ver. 10, 11; "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Calling from the East an eagle, from a far country the man of His counsel; I have spoken it, and will also bring it to pass; I have formed it, and will also do it." To the ראשנות, the former events, the fulfilled prophecies from former times (comp. xlii. 9), here the new proof of the sole divinity of the God of Israel is added, in that He sends Koresh: God now declares. The Prophet, by designating the time in which the announcement was issued as ראשית and קדם, as beginning and ancient times, and by founding the proof of the divinity of the Lord just upon the high age of the announcement, again puts an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the opponents of the genuineness. The announcement and declaration prove any thing in connection with the execution only; the bringing to pass, therefore, is connected with the declaring, the doing with the speaking. These words are now spoken, since, from the ideal stand-point, the carrying out is at hand; they form the antecedent to the calling, of which ver. 11 treats. קום properly "to rise," opposed to the laying down, means "to bring to stand," "to bring about," "to be fulfilled." "The counsel," i.e., the contents of the prediction which was spoken of before; it is the divine counsel and decree to which Koresh served as an instrument.--Finally--In chap. xlviii., the same subject is treated of; the divinity of the Lord is proved from His prophecies, in three sections, ver. 1-11, ver. 12-16, ver. 22. Here, at the close of the first book of the second part, the argumentation occurs once more in a very strong accumulation, because the Prophet is now about to leave it, and, in general, the whole territory of the lower salvation. First, in ver. 1-11: Israel should return to the Lord, who formerly had manifested and proved His sole divinity by a series of prophecies and their fulfilments, and now was granting new and remarkable disclosures regarding the Future. Ver. 6: "New things I shew thee from this time, hidden things, and thou didst not know them, ver. 7. Now they have been created and not of old, and before this day thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say: Behold, I knew them." The deliverance of Israel by Cyrus--an announcement uttered in the preceding, and to be repeated immediately afterwards--is called new in contrast to the old prophecies of the Lord already fulfilled; hidden in contrast to the facts which are already subjects of history, or may be known beforehand by natural ingenuity. To be created is equivalent to being made manifest, inasmuch as the hidden Divine counsel enters into life, only by being manifested, and the prophesied events are created for Israel, only by the prophecy. Ver. 8: "Thou didst not hear it, nor didst thou know it, likewise thine ear was not opened beforehand; for I knew that thou art faithless, and wast called a transgressor from the womb." I have, says the Lord, communicated to thee the knowledge of events of the Future which are altogether unheard of, of which, before, thou didst not know the least, nor couldst know. The reason of this communication is stated in the words: "for I knew," &c. It is the same reason which, according to vers. 4, 5, called forth also the former definite prophecies regarding the Future, now already fulfilled, viz., the unbelief of the people, which requires a palpable proof that the Lord alone is God, because it is but too ingenious in finding out seeming reasons for justifying its apostacy. All that is perfectly in keeping with, and suitable to the stand-point of Isaiah, but not to that of "the great unknown," at whose time the conqueror from the East was already beheld with the bodily eye; and Habakkuk had long ago prophesied the destruction of the Babylonish world's power, and Israel's deliverance; and Jeremiah had announced the destruction of Babylon by the Modes much more distinctly and definitely than is done here in the second part of Isaiah. In ver. 16 it is said: "Come ye near unto me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, I was there, and now the Lord God hath sent me and His Spirit." The sense is: Ever since the foundation of the people, I have given them the most distinct prophecies, and made them publicly known (referring to the whole chain of events, from the calling of Abraham and onward, which had been objects of prophecy); by mine omnipotence I have fulfilled them; and now I have sent my servant Isaiah, and filled him with my Spirit, in order that, by a new distinguished prophecy, he may bear witness to my sole divinity. It is only the accompanying mission of the Spirit which gives its importance to that of the Prophet. It is from God's Spirit searching the depths of the Godhead, and knowing His most hidden counsels, that those prophecies of the second part, going beyond the natural consciousness, have proceeded.

We believe we have incontrovertibly proved that we are not entitled to draw any arguments against Isaiah's being the author of the second part, from the circumstance "that the exile is not announced, but that the author takes his stand in it, as well as in that of Isaiah's time, inasmuch as this stand-point is an assumed and ideal one. But if the form, can prove nothing, far less can the prophetic contents."

It is true that these contents cannot be explained from the natural consciousness of Isaiah; but it is not to be overlooked, that the assailed prophecies of Isaiah are even as directly as possible opposed to the rationalistic notion of prophetism, which is arbitrary, and goes in the face of all facts, and from which the arguments against their genuineness are drawn. In a whole series of passages of the second part (the same which we have just been discussing), the Prophet intimates that he gives disclosures which lie beyond the horizon of his time; and draws from this circumstance the arguments for his own divine mission, and the divinity of the God of Israel. He considers it as the disgrace of idolatry that it cannot give any definite prophecies, and with a noble scorn, challenges it to vindicate itself by such prophecies. That rationalistic notion of prophetism removes the boundaries which, according to the express statements of our Prophet, separate the Kingdom of God from heathenism. The rationalistic notional God, however, it is true, can as little prophesy as the heathenish gods of stone and wood, of whom the Psalmist says: "They have ears, but they hear not, neither speak they through their throat."

It is farther to be considered that the predictions of the Future, in those portions of Isaiah which are assailed just on account of them, are not so destitute of a foundation as is commonly assumed. There existed, in the present time and circumstances of the Prophet, important actual points of connection for them. They farther rest on the foundation of ideal views and conceptions of eternal truths, which had been familiar to the Church of the Lord from its very beginnings. They only enlarge what had already been prophesied by former prophets; and well secured and ascertained parallels in the prophetic announcement are not wanting for them.

The carrying away of the covenant-people into exile had been actually prophesied by the fact, that the land had spued out its former inhabitants on account of their sins. The threatening of the exile pervades the whole Pentateuch from beginning to end; compare Genuineness of the Pentateuch, p. 270 ff. It is found in the Decalogue also: "That thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." David shows a clear knowledge of the sufferings impending over his family, and hence also over the people of God; comp. my Commentary on Song of Sol. S. 243. Solomon points to the future carrying away in his prayer at the consecration of the temple. Amos, the predecessor of Isaiah, foresees with absolute clearness, that, before the salvation comes, all that is glorious, not only in Israel, but in Judah also, must be given over to destruction, compare Vol. i. p. 357. In like manner, too, Hosea prophesies not only the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, but also that Judah shall be carried away into exile, comp. Vol. i. p. 176. In Isaiah, the foreknowledge of the entire devastation of the city and land, and the carrying away into captivity of its inhabitants--a foreknowledge which stands in close connection with the energy of the knowledge of sin with the Prophets--meets us from the very beginning of his ministry, and also in those prophecies, the genuineness of which no one ventures to assail, as, e.g., in chap. i.-vi. After the severity of God had been manifested before the bodily eyes of the Prophet in the carrying away of the ten tribes, it could not, even from human considerations, be doubtful to him, what was the fate in store for Judah.

The knowledge, that the impending carrying away of Judah would take place by the Chaldeans, and that Babylon would be the place of their banishment, was not destitute of a certain natural foundation. In the germ, the Chaldean power actually existed even at that time. Decidedly erroneous is the view of Hitzig, that a Chaldean power in Babylon could be spoken of only since the time of Nabopolassar. This power, on the contrary, was very old; compare the proofs in Delitzsch's Commentary on Habakkuk, S. 21. The Assyrian power, although, when outwardly considered, at its height, when more closely examined, began, even at that time, already to sink. A weakening of the Assyrian power is intimated also by the circumstance, that Hezekiah ventured to rebel against the Assyrians, and the embassy of the Chaldean Merodach Baladan to Hezekiah, implies that, even at that time, many things gave a title to expect the speedy downfal of the Assyrian Empire. But the fact that Isaiah possessed the clear knowledge that, in some future period, the dominion of the world would pass over to Babylon and the Chaldeans,--that they would be the executors of the judgment upon Judah, we have already proved, in our remarks on chaps. xiii., xiv., from the prophecies of the first part,--from chap. xxiii. 13, where the Chaldeans are mentioned as the executors of the judgment upon the neighbouring people, the Tyrians, and as the destroyers of the Assyrian dominion,--and from chap. xxxix. The attempt of dispossessing him of this knowledge is so much the more futile, that his contemporary Micah undeniably possesses it; comp. Vol. i. p. 464. So also does Habakkuk, between whose time and that of Isaiah, circumstances had not essentially changed, and who likewise still prophesied before the Chaldean monarchy had been established.

While this foreknowledge of the future elevation of Babylon had a historical foundation, the foreknowledge of its humiliation and fate, following soon after, rested on a theological foundation. With a heathenish people, elevation is always followed by haughtiness, with all its consequences; and, according to the eternal laws of the divine government of the world, haughtiness is a matter-of-fact prophecy of destruction. Proceeding from this view, the downfal of the Chaldean monarchy was prophesied by Habakkuk also, at a time when it was still developing, and was far from having attained to the zenith of its power. In the same manner, the foreknowledge of the future deliverance of Israel rises on a theological foundation, and is not at all to be considered in the same light as if e.g., the Prophet had foretold to Moab its deliverance. That which the Prophet here predicts is only the individualization of a general truth which meets us at the very beginnings of the covenant-people. The principle which St. Paul advances in Rom. xi. 2: "God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew," and ver. 29: "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," meets us, clearly and distinctly, as early as in the books of Moses. In Levit. xxvi. 42-45, the deliverance from the land of captivity is announced on the ground of the election of Israel, and of the covenant with the fathers, and as a fulfilment of the promise of future election, which was given by the fact of Israel's being delivered from Egypt. And according to Deut. iv. 30, 31, xxx. ff., and the close of chap. xxxii., the end of all the catastrophes which are inflicted upon the covenant-people is always Israel's conversion and reception into favour; behind the judgment, mercy is always concealed. In the prayer of Solomon, the carrying away goes hand in hand with the reception into favour. But it will be altogether fruitless to deny to Isaiah the knowledge of the future deliverance of Israel from Babylon, since his contemporary Micah, in chap. iv. 10, briefly and distinctly expresses the same: "And thou comest to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there shall the Lord redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies."

The only point in the prophetic foreknowledge of the second part which really seems to want, not only a historical or ideal foundation, but also altogether corresponding analogies, is the mention of the name of Koresh. But this difficulty disappears if, in strict opposition to the current notion, it is assumed that Cyrus was induced, by our book only, to appropriate to himself that name. Recent investigation has proved that this name is originally not a proper name, but an honorary title,--that the Greek writers rightly explain it by Sun,--that the name of the sun was, in the East generally, and especially with the Persians, a common honorary title of rulers; comp. Bürnouf and others in Hävernick's Einleitung, ii. 2, S. 165. This honorary title of the Persian kings, Isaiah might very easily learn in a natural way. And the fact that this Nomen dignitatis became, among several others, peculiar to Cyrus (the mention of the name of Koresh by Isaiah does not originally go beyond the announcement of the conqueror from the East) is explained by the circumstance that Cyrus assumed this name in honour of our book, and as an acknowledgment of the mission assigned to him by it, although the Prophet had not used this name in any other manner than Balaam had that of Agag, perhaps with an allusion to its signification; compare the phrases "from the East," "from the rising of the sun," in chap. xli. 2, 25. And it is historically settled and certain, that Cyrus had originally another name, viz., Agradates, and that he assumed this name only at the time of his ascending the throne, which falls into the time when the prophecies of our book could already be known to him (comp. the proofs in Hävernick's Einleit.) And as it is farther certain that the prophecies of our book made a deep impression upon him, and, in important points, exercised an influence upon his actions (this appears not only from the express statement of Josephus, [Arch. xi. c. 1. § 1, 2,] but still more from an authentic document, the Edict of Cyrus, in Ezra i. 1 ff., which so plainly implies the fact reported by Josephus, that Jahn rightly called Josephus' statement a commentary on this Edict, which refers, partly with literal accuracy, to a series of passages from the second part of Isaiah, compare the particulars in Kleinert, über die Echtheit des Jesaias, S. 142);--as the condition of the Persian religion likewise confirms this result gained from the Edict of Cyrus (Stuhr, die Religionssysteme des alten Orients, S. 373 ff., proves that in the time of Cyrus, and by him, an Israelitish element had been introduced into it);--there will certainly not be any reason to consider our supposition to be improbable, or the result of embarrassment.

But to this circumstance we must still direct attention, that those prophetic announcements of the second part which have reference to that which, even at the time of "the great unknown," still belonged to the future, are far more distinct, and can far less be accounted for from natural causes, than those from which rationalistic criticism has drawn inferences as regards the spuriousness of the second part. The personal Messianic prophecies of the second part are much more characteristic than those concerning Cyrus. He who cannot, by the help of history, supplement and illustrate the prophecy, receives only an incomplete and defective image of the latter. And, indeed, a sufficiently long time elapsed before even Exegesis recognised with certainty and unanimity that it was Cyrus who was meant. Doubts and differences of opinion on this point meet us even down to last century. The Medes and Persians are not at all mentioned as the conquerors of Babylon, and all which refers to the person of Cyrus has an altogether ideal character; while the Messiah is, especially in chap. liii., so distinctly drawn, that scarcely any essential feature in His image is omitted. And it is altogether a matter of course that here, in the antitypical deliverance, a much greater clearness and distinctness should prevail; for it stands in a far closer relation to the idea, so that form and substance do far less disagree.