No. 7. >> Now I want to ask one more question. I know this seems painfully obvious, but who was Isaiah? In some books I've glanced through, authors speak of more than one Isaiah. Will you comment for us? >> That's a great question. And certainly Isaiah has been the center of the debate when it comes to biblical books and authorship. So let's look at this in terms of, first of all, what much of scholarship understands in terms of what is the book of Isaiah. And then what the New Testament as well as the book itself says about its unity. So that's the issue involved. Is the book of Isaiah the work of one author? Or is it the work of several authors? Within the historical critical camp, classically there's been an understanding of three different Isaiahs. They would say Isaiah 1 to 39 was composed by, quote: Isaiah of Jerusalem. Isaiah 40 through 55, Isaiah of Babylon. And then Isaiah 56 through 66, a third Isaiah. The Isaiah of the postexilic community called Persian Yahood. Bernard Duhm, D u h m, in 1892 composed a commentary on Isaiah. And he would be the first historical critical scholar to propose this idea of three different Isaiahs. Now, why would Duhm and those who follow him take this interpretive understanding of Isaiah? Well, certainly what they are trying to come to grips with would be the huge chronological sweep that encompasses the book of Isaiah that we've already discussed in our Q and A time. That is to say Isaiah prophesies during the Eighth Century, the Seventh Century, about events in the Sixth and the Fifth Centuries BC. Well, certainly according to historical critics, that has to mean different authors composed the book of Isaiah. Well, how do we respond to that? I'll give you maybe four or five ways of coming to grips with this. First of all, the historical critics would say that Isaiah has completely different themes from 1 to 39 as it relates to 40 to 66. And that's just simply not true. And we will see this in the course of our discussion in this class. First of all, the theme of glory is related in both halves of the book or in all three sections of the book. The theme of the Holy One of Israel is prominent in all 66 chapters of the book. More specifically, the terms high and lifted up are used to define Yahweh, the God of Israel. And we have this term high and lifted up describing the Lord in 6:1 (sic) in Isaiah Chapter 33 Verse 10. So that's in the first part of the book. High and lifted up described the Lord in Chapter 57 Verse 15. And it is also used to describe the servant in Chapter 52 Verse 13. So what we're saying is that glory, the Holy One of Israel, the terms high and lifted up, these terms are in all of Isaiah. They encompass both halves or all three parts, depending on how one would want to understand the book. Perhaps one of the main reasons historical critics do not want to embrace the idea that Isaiah himself, Isaiah of Jerusalem, the Isaiah, composed Chapters 40 to 66 is because of the predictive nature of Chapters 40 through 66. By that I mean what I've already discussed in terms of Cyrus, the Persian king. He's actually mentioned by name, you see, in Chapter 44:28 and Chapter 45 Verse 1. Historical critics choke at that. How could Isaiah living in the Eighth Century predict a Persian king who would live in the Sixth Century BC? Well, that would be because of their lack of belief in predictive prophecy. And if people simply don't believe in predictive prophecy, then much of the Bible will appear to be fabricated and unreliable. However, the Bible is simply filled with the predictive events. Already in Genesis 3 Verse 15. An offspring of the woman will crush the serpent's head. It's a promise. It's fulfilled in Christ. So we would embrace the biblical world view that in this case that there's an infinite personal God who can and does make predictive prophetic promises in Isaiah fulfilled during his lifetime, after his lifetime and finally in Christ. This is not unique to Isaiah. That is to say someone by name is predicted hundreds of years before he's actually born. Another example is in II Kings Chapter 13 Verses 1 and 2. Where we are in the Tenth Century BC. And the Seventh Century king, Josiah, is mentioned by name in II Kings 13 Verse 2. So the Bible embraces the idea of predictive prophecy. But again, we can see why some would stumble at that. Well, another way to come at the unity of the book Isaiah would not just be the themes like glory, Holy One, high and lifted up, would not just be by saying: Yes, we believe in predictive prophecy. But finally, the key text in all of this would be in John Chapter 12. In John Chapter 12 Verses 38 through 40, we have these words: This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet. Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. That is straight from Isaiah 53 Verse 1. So within the New Testament, Isaiah is said to be the author of a section of the second part of the book, specifically 53:1. Verse 39 in John 12. I encourage you to follow along in your Bibles. For this reason they could not believe. Because as Isaiah says elsewhere, Verse 40, John 12: He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts so they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts nor turn and I would heal them. Here we have a quote from Isaiah. The first part. Specifically Chapter 6 Verses 9 and 10. So Jesus himself sees Isaiah as a unified composition. He can quote from the second part and say: Isaiah the prophet. And he can quote from the first part and say: Isaiah the prophet. It is interesting to conclude my answer to this question that within Isaianic scholarship, there is actually a movement now toward understanding Isaiah as a unified composition composed by one author. So the days of Bernard Duhm of the late 19th Century have changed quite a bit. And today many Old Testament scholars believe in the unity of Isaiah for some of the very reasons I've actually already indicated.