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Book of Isaiah

More categories in "Isaiah"

The Book of Isaiah (Hebrew: ספר ישעיהו, IPA: [sɛ.fɛr jə.ʃaʕ.ˈjɑː.hu]) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BCE prophet Isaiah ben Amoz, but there is extensive evidence that much of it was composed during the Babylonian captivity and later. Bernhard Duhm originated the view, held as a consensus through most of the 20th century, that the book comprises three separate collections of oracles: Proto-Isaiah (chapters 1 – 39), containing the words of Isaiah; Deutero-Isaiah (chapters 40 – 55), the work of an anonymous 6th-century BCE author writing during the Exile; and Trito-Isaiah (chapters 56 – 66), composed after the return from Exile. While virtually no scholars today attribute the entire book, or even most of it, to one person, the book’s essential unity has become a focus in more recent research. Isaiah 1 – 33 promises judgment and restoration for Judah, Jerusalem and the nations, and chapters 34 – 66 presume that judgment has been pronounced and restoration follows soon. It can thus be read as an extended meditation on the destiny of Jerusalem into and after the Exile. [Wikipedia]