Isaiah ( or ;Rippin, A., "S̲h̲aʿyā", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W. P. Heinrichs. , Yəšaʿyāhū, "Yahweh is salvation";New Bible Dictionary, Second Edition, Tyndale Press, Wheaton, IL, 1987. also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the Israelite prophet, dated to the 8th century BC, after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.The Scofield Study Bible III, NKJV, Oxford University PressDe Jong, Matthijs J., Isaiah Among The Ancient Near Eastern Prophets: A Comparative Study of the Earliest Stages of the Isaiah Tradition and the Neo-Assyrian Prophecies, BRILL, 2007, pp. 13–17
The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet",Hebrew-English Bible, but the exact relationship between the Book of Isaiah and the actual prophet Isaiah is complicated. The traditional view is that all 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written by one man, Isaiah, possibly in two periods between 740 BC and 686 BC, separated by approximately 15 years.
Another widely held view suggests that parts of the first half of the book (chapters 1–39) originated with the historical prophet, interspersed with prose commentaries written in the time of King Josiah 100 years later, and that the remainder of the book dates from immediately before and immediately after the end of the exile in Babylon in the 6th century BC (almost two centuries after the time of the historical prophet), and that perhaps these later chapters represent the work of an ongoing school of prophets who prophesied in accordance with his prophecies.
Biography
The first verse of the Book of Isaiah states that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah.Hebrew-English Bible Uzziah's reign was 52 years in the middle of the 8th century BC, and Isaiah must have begun his ministry a few years before Uzziah's death, probably in the 740s BC. He may have been contemporary with Manasseh for some years. Thus, Isaiah may have prophesied for as long as 64 years.
According to some modern interpretations, Isaiah's wife was called "the prophetess",Hebrew-English Bible, either because she was endowed with the prophetic gift, like DeborahHebrew-English Bible and Huldah,Hebrew-English Bible or simply because she was the "wife of the prophet".Coogan, Michael D. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament, Oxford University Press, 2009, p.273. They had two sons, naming the elder Shear-Jashub, meaning "A remnant shall return",Hebrew-English Bible and the younger Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, meaning, "Quickly to spoils, plunder speedily."Hebrew-English Bible According to the Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 7:14 the two also had a son named Immanuel, a verse interpreted by Christians as prophesizing the virgin birth of Jesus.
Soon after this, Shalmaneser V determined to subdue the northern Kingdom of Israel, taking over and destroying Samaria and beginning the Assyrian captivity. So long as Ahaz reigned, the kingdom of Judah was untouched by the Assyrian power. But when Hezekiah gained the throne, he was encouraged to rebel "against the king of Assyria",Hebrew-English Bible and entered into an alliance with the king of Egypt.Hebrew-English Bible The king of Assyria threatened the king of Judah, and at length invaded the land. Sennacherib's campaign in the Levant brought his powerful army into Judah. Hezekiah was reduced to despair, and submitted to the Assyrians.Hebrew-English Bible But after a brief interval, war broke out again. Again Sennacherib led an army into Judah, one detachment of which threatened Jerusalem.Hebrew-English Bible ; Isaiah on that occasion encouraged Hezekiah to resist the Assyrians,Hebrew-English Bible whereupon Sennacherib sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah, which he "spread before the ".Hebrew-English Bible
According to the account in 2 Kings 19 (and its derivative account in 2 Chronicles 32) an angel of God fell on the Assyrian army and slew 185,000 of its men in one night. "Like Xerxes in Greece, Sennacherib never recovered from the shock of the disaster in Judah. He made no more expeditions against either Judea or Egypt."Sayce, Archibald Henry, The Ancient Empires of the East. Macmillan, 1884, p. 134.
The remaining years of Hezekiah's reign were peaceful. Isaiah probably lived to its close, and possibly into the reign of Manasseh. The time and manner of his death are not specified in either the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) or other primary sources. The Talmud says that he suffered martyrdom by being sawn in two under the orders of Manasseh.
The book of Isaiah, and the book of the prophet Jeremiah, are distinctive in the Hebrew Bible for their direct portrayal of the "wrath of the " as presented, for example, in Isaiah 9:19 stating "Through the wrath of the of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire."Isaiah 9:19.
In Judaism
In addition to Isaiah’s origination in Judaism’s Hebrew Bible Book of Isaiah, references to the Israelite prophet in Jewish rabbinic literature contain various expansions, elaborations, and inferences.
Origin and calling According to the ancient rabbis, Isaiah was a descendant of Judah and Tamar,Sotah 10b and his father Amoz was the brother of King Amaziah.Talmud tractate Megillah 15a
While Isaiah, says the Midrash, was walking up and down in his study he heard God saying "Whom shall I send?" Then Isaiah said "Here am I; send me!" Thereupon God said to him, "My children are troublesome and sensitive; if you are ready to be insulted and even beaten by them, you may accept My message; if not, you would better renounce it".Leviticus Rabbah 10 Isaiah accepted the mission, and was the most forbearing, as well as the most patriotic, among the prophets, always defending Israel and imploring forgiveness for its sins. When Isaiah said "I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips",Hebrew-English Bible he was rebuked by God for speaking in such terms of His people.Shir haShirim Rabbah 1:6
Further accounts state that Isaiah was actually the maternal grandfather of King Manasseh, which would make Queen Consort Hephzibah from 2 Kings 21:1 his daughter and King Hezekiah his son-in-law. Hephzibah's name (lit. 'my delight (is) in her') was used as a symbolic name for Zion following its restoration to the favor of Yahweh in Isaiah 62.BibleGateway.com, All the Women of the Bible, Hephzibah. Accessed 2014-04-01.
His death
It is related in the Talmud that Rabbi Simeon ben Azzai found in Jerusalem an account wherein it was written that King Manasseh killed Isaiah. King Manasseh said to Isaiah "Moses, your master, said 'No man may see God and live';Hebrew-English Bible but you have said 'I saw the Lord seated upon his throne'";Hebrew-English Bible and went on to point out other contradictions—as between DeuteronomyHebrew-English Bible and Isaiah 40;Hebrew-English Bible between Exodus 33Hebrew-English Bible and 2 KingsHebrew-English Bible Isaiah thought: "I know that he will not accept my explanations; why should I increase his guilt?" He then uttered the tetragrammaton, a cedar-tree opened, and Isaiah disappeared within it. King Manasseh ordered the cedar to be sawn asunder, and when the saw reached his mouth Isaiah died; thus was he punished for having said "I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips".Yevamot 49b
A somewhat different version of this legend is given in the Jerusalem Talmud.Yerushalmi, Sanhedrin 10 According to that version Isaiah, fearing King Manasseh, hid himself in a cedar-tree, but his presence was betrayed by the fringes of his garment, and King Manasseh caused the tree to be sawn in half. A passage of the Targum to Isaiah quoted by Jolowicz"Die Himmelfahrt und Vision des Prophets Jesajas," p. 8 states that when Isaiah fled from his pursuers and took refuge in the tree, and the tree was sawn in half, the prophet's blood spurted forth. The legend of Isaiah's martyrdom spread to the Arabs"Ta'rikh," ed. De Goeje, i. 644 and to the Christians as, for example, Athanasius the bishop of Alexandria ( 318) wrote, "Isaiah was sawn asunder".
In Christianity
The Ascension of Isaiah, a pseudepigraphical Christian text dated to sometime between the end of the 1st century and the beginning of the 3rd, gives a detailed story of Isaiah confronting an evil false prophet and ending with Isaiah being martyred – none of which is attested in the original Biblical account.
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–395) believed that the Prophet Isaiah "knew more perfectly than all others the mystery of the religion of the Gospel". Jerome (c. 342–420) also lauds the Prophet Isaiah, saying "He was more of an Evangelist than a Prophet, because he described all of the Mysteries of the Church of Christ so vividly that you would assume he was not prophesying about the future, but rather was composing a history of past events."The Lives of the Holy Prophets, Holy Apostles Convent, , page 101. Of specific note are the songs of the Suffering Servant, which Christians say are a direct prophetic revelation of the nature, purpose, and detail of the death of Jesus Christ.
The Book of Isaiah is quoted many times by New Testament writers. The Gospel of John says that Isaiah "saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him."Bible,
The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Saint Isaiah the Prophet with Saint Christopher on May 9. Isaiah is also listed on the page of saints for May 9 in the Roman martyrology of the Roman Catholic Church.
In the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon quotes Jesus Christ as stating that "great are the words of Isaiah", and that all things prophesied by Isaiah have been and will be fulfilled. The Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants also quote Isaiah more than any other prophet from the Hebrew Bible. Additionally, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider the founding of the church by Joseph Smith in the 19th century to be a fulfillment of Isaiah 11, the translation of the Book of Mormon to be a fulfillment of Isaiah 29, and the building of Latter-day Saint temples as a fulfillment of Isaiah 2:2.
In Islam
Isaiah () is not mentioned by name in the Quran or the Hadith, but appears frequently as a prophet in Muslim sources such as the qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ and various tafsirs.Encyclopedia of Islam Al-Tabari (310/923) provides the typical accounts for Islamic traditions regarding Isaiah.Jane Dammen McAuliffe Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān Volume 2 Georgetown University, Washington DC p. 562-563 He is listed among the prophets in the book of salawat Dalail al-Khayrat. He is further mentioned and accepted as a prophet by other Islamic scholars such as ibn Kathir, Abu Ishaq al-Tha'labi and al-Kisa'i and also modern scholars such as Muhammad Asad and Abdullah Yusuf Ali.The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary, Note. 2173 to 17:4: "The Book is the revelation given to the Children of Israel. Here it seems to refer to the burning words of Prophets like Isaiah. For example, see Isaiah, chap, 24. or Isaiah 5:20–30, or Isaiah 3:16–26."