St. Paul uses the relations of the two brothers to their father and to one another to help him to make good his distinction between ' the children of the promise,' who are 'reckoned for a seed,' and 'the children of the flesh,' who are not 'children of God' (Ro 9^). Grappling with the problem of the incidence in his own day of the promises first given to Abraham, he contends that while mere Jewish birth and upbringing do not constitute a claim of right to sjiiritual jirivileges, no barrier except unbelief can prevent the Gentiles from inheriting them. Com])ressing his teaching into a single suggestive sentence, he says : ' We [the Christian Church], like Isaac {Kara. 'IcadK), are children of promise ' {iirayyeXias reKva, Gal 4"^* ; cf. rd riKva T^s eirayyeXlas, Ro 9**). Born in the fullness of time, made free by the gift of the Spirit, and destined for a great heritage, the Christians of every land are prefigured in Isaac. ' If ye are Christ's, then are
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ye Abraham's seed, lieirs according to promise ' (Gal 3^^). The carnal Lshmael, who in this daring allegory represents orthodox Judaism, may ' per- secute ' the Spirit-born Isaac (according to the Rabbinic interpretation of the originally innocent word ' playing ' in Gn 21^) ; but, wliile the child of the freewoman (the Cliurch) is established for ever in the P'ather's house by a covenant of grace, the eon of the bondwoman (the Jewish people) is cast out. If — as Luther says on Gal 4^^ — ' allegory is not argument,' it may at least be extremely effec- tive illustration. The Apostle's strong imagina- tion makes the simple old folk-tale suddenly flash with new meanings, which serve to illuminate a complex and difficult modern situation.
Two other incidents in Isaac's life are referred to in He 11"^-. (1) He was virtually offered up as a sacrifice to God (cf. Ja 2*') ; in a figure (ev irapa^oXrj) he came back from the dead, passing through the likeness of death and resurrection (see Abraham). (2) By blessing his son, he gave evidence of his faith concerning things to come {irepl fj.i\\6vTuv). His trust in God made future pos.sibiIities as real as present certainties. His faith corresponded to the definition in He IP: it was the substantiating of tilings hoped for [eXiri^ofjAvuiv inrda-raais).
James Strahan.
ISAIAH ('Htratas or 'Hcratas, Vulg. Isaias, in the leathers also Esnias). — Isaiah, the grandest figure among the prophets of Israel, is named 3 times in Acts (8-8- 3" 28-') and 5 times in Romans (O'-"- ^^ 10'6. 20 1512) Nothing is said in the NT of his personal history, excejjt that eTrpla-drjaav in He 11^^ probably alludes to the tradition — found in the Ascension of Isaiah (i. 9, v. 1), and repeated in Justin's Trypho (ch. 120, irpiovi ^uXtry iirpia-are) — that he was sawn asunder, a tradition which, though not incredible, is without historical value. Every NT refei'ence to the prophet's name is ac- companied by a quotation from his writings, which were for the A])ostolic Age the words that 'the Holy Ghost spake by Isaiah ' (Ac 28-''). Yet cer- tain spontaneous notes of appreciation from the lips and pen of St. Paul are precious as indications, slight but real, of the impression made upon one master-spirit by the writings of anotliei". ' Isaiah crieth ' {Kpdi'ei, Ro 9'-'') is an appraisement of the empliasis of his utterance; 'well (or finely) spake the Holy Spirit through Isaiah ' (/caXiDs iXdX-nae, Ac 28-^) expresses hearty sympathy with the pro- phet's teaching and admiration of the language in which it is conveyed ; and ' Isaiah is very bold ' ('Ho-aias 5^ dwoToX/xg:, Ro 10^") is one spiritual pro- tagonist's tribute to another's personal courage. It needed heroism for Isaiah to proclaim, in the face of Israel's haughty exclusiveness, a gracious Divine purpose which embraced all the Gentiles ; and St. Paul, whose life-work it was to fulfil that purpose in spite of fanatical Jewish opposition, was the man to appreciate a splendid boldness inspired by great faith.
The NT, of course, makes no distinction between a First, Second, and Third Isaiah. The prophet's name impartially covers a variety of writings which criticism now pronounces to be productions of widely ditterent periods. He is equally the seer of the Root of Jesse (Is ipo || Ro 15'-) and of the suffering servant of the Lord (Is 53^ || Ac 8^^). It was a passage in ' Isaiah the prophet' (ch. 53) that the Ethiopian was reading in his chariot when he was joined by St. Pliilip, whose interpretation of that mysterious utterance — the profoundest in the OT — in the light of Christ's Passion led the eunuch to faith and baptism
Two NT writers had minds steeped in the pro- phecies of Isaiah — St. Paul and the writer of the Apocalypse. (1) The speeches attributed to St. Paul in Acts furnish evidence of his indebtedness