THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The Prophet and his Time?. Reports concerning Isaiah (§ 1). Chronology of the Period (§ 2). External Events (§ 3). Relation of Events to Faith (§ 4). Ideals Underlying Prophecies (§5). Isaiah's Life and Character (§ 6). The Book of Isaiah. Its Place in the Canon. The Text.
ISAIAH.
Its Condition (§1). Causes and Kinds of Errors (§ 2). 3. Authorship.
Prophetic Authorship in General
(§D. Interrelations of i.-xxxv. and
xl.-Ixvi (§2). Authorship substantially Isaianic
(§3). Isaianic Authorship of xxviii.
xxxv (§ 4).
Chapters ii.-xii (§ 5). Chapters xiii.-xxvii (§ 6). Results of the Investigation (§ 7).
III. The Critical View. The Problem (§ 1). Structure of the Book (§2). Results of Criticism (§ 3). Analysis of Isa. i.-xxxix (§ 4). Analysis of Isa. xl.-lxvi (§ 5). Conclusion (§ 6).
I. The Prophet and His Times: The name rendered ' Isaiah " in English has in the Hebrew two forms, Yesha'yah, and Yesha'yahu, the latter in his book, II Kings xviii.-xxi., and I Chron. xxv. 3, 15, xxvi. 25, II Chron. xxvi. 22, xxxii. 32, the former in I Chron. iii. 21; Neh. xi. 7. In the Septuagint it varies greatly, taking the forms Iesias, Iessias, Idseas, Hesaias, Isaias, Osaias. The derivations and meanings given are quite varied.
Outside the book called by his name and II Kings
xviii.-xxi., Isaiah the prophet is mentioned only
twice in the Bible. II Chron. xxvi. 22
1. Reports gtateg that the actg of -rjzziah of Judah
Isaiah were written down by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. The method of citation here deviates from the usual formula, so that either incompleteness or defacement of the text is suspected, while the Septuagint lacks the phrase " son of Amoz " and has further variations. The passage adds nothing to knowledge of the prophet gained elsewhere. It has been taken, in connection with Isa. i. 1, as ground for the conjecture that the prophet lived through the entire reigns of the four kings mentioned, and that Isa. vi. tells of a renewed call of the prophet after a period of quietness. This is favored by the position of chap, vi., and modern students are inclined to attribute chaps, i.-v. wholly or in part to the early years of Uzziah. II Chron. xxxii. 32 speaks of a record in the " Vision of Isaiah " of the deeds of Hezekiah which is in the Book of Kings. The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Targum place an " and " before " in the book," thus mentioning two sources. It is to be noticed that " Vision of Isaiah " was the title of the canonical Book of Isaiah (Isa. i. 1). The passage was early taken as indicating an independent " Vision of Isaiah," and an apocryphal book of that character was cited by Origen, and is perhaps the " Martyrdom (or Ascension) of Isaiah " known in the Ethiopic (see Pseudepigrapha, Old Testament, II. 34), dealing with the martyrdom of Isaiah under Manasseh. This tradition of a martyrdom appears also in the Gemara (Yebamot 49b) as drawn from " an early genealogical record " and due to a condemnation of certain utterances of the prophet. Another tradition connects the death of Isaiah with his condemnation of the act of Manasseh recorded in II Kings xxi. 7, and brings into relation with this event the passage Isa. lxvi. 1 sqq., and a prediction of the coming of Nebuchadrezzar to destroy the temple. This aroused the wrath of Manasseh, who ordered the prophet to be brought and slain. Isaiah fled and
took refuge in the heart of a tree, which closed about him and hid him. But his pursuers sawed through the tree until the blood of the prophet flowed forth as water. The passages II Kings xxi. 16, xxiv. 3-4 are brought into relation with this tradition and the event is said to have occurred on Tammuz 17, corresponding to July 6, given in the Roman Catholic calendar (cf. ASB, July, ii. 250 sqq.; A. Klostermann, Das Datum des Martyrium Jesaias im romischen Kalendar, in TSK, 1880, pp. 536 sqq.). The one tradition of value seems to be that which places his death in the reign of Manasseh.
This tradition may be brought into connection with the title of the book by way of defining the
period of activity of the prophet. To
1 *fth " *^e Pei"i°d °f tne f°ur kings mentioned
Period m *^e **^e may be added an undefined
but short period under Manasseh, and Isa. vi. 1 is often taken as indicating the entry of Isaiah upon prophetic work in the last year of Uzziah. Supposing that he was then twenty years old, his age at the accession of Manasseh would be eighty-one; thus: the destruction of Jerusalem was in 586 b.c, the eleventh year of Zedekiah; then, according to the reckoning of the Book of Kings, Manasseh began to reign in 696 B.C., Hezekiah in 725 B.C., Ahaz in 741 b.c, Jotham in 757 B.C., and the death of Uzziah would fall in 758 b.c [or 757]; the siege of Samaria under Shalmaneser began in the fourth year of Hezekiah, 722 b.c, and its capture by Sargon in Hezekiah's sixth year, 720 b.c If it is assumed, as is most probable, that the sign on the dial of Ahaz is to be connected with the eclipse of Mar. 14, 711 b.c (F. K. Ginzel, Spezieller Kanon der Sonnerv- und Mondfinsternisse, Berlin, 1899), visible in Jerusalem, then the foregoing statements in general and the assignment of the year 711 b.c for the healing of Hezekiah tally with astronomical data. Therefore the embassy from Merodach-baladan (Isa. xxxix. 1) would fall at the earliest in 711 b.c, and Hezekiah's determination to throw off Assyrian overlordship would fall in 710 b.c. The Ptolemaic Canon allows to a Mardokempados twelve years as king of Babylon, and to his conqueror, Sargon, five years; then the last year of Mardokempados is the thirty-eighth of the era of Nabonassar, and the first year of Sargon is 709 b.c Then that the " king of Babylon," Merodach-baladan (Isa. xxxix. 1), is not an indefinite usurper of that name, but that the Mardokempados of the Ptolemaic Canon is the Merodach-baladan of the Assyrian inscriptions does not imply error either in that he is called " son of Yakin " in the