Prophet Issiah

AUTHORSHIP

The question about the authorship is one of the most controversial introductory issues regarding the book of Isaiah. Scholars differ significantly in their opinion about the number of authors, the date Isaiah was written and the place or places where the author (authors) lived. Indeed, the book of Isaiah ranks with the Pentateuch and the book of Daniel as one of the main battlegrounds between liberal and conservative critics .Critical argument revolve around theological, historical and stylistic factors and in the last category, even computers are being used

Most contemporary scholars believe that the Book of Isaiah was written by two or more authors who are referred to as Isaiah (Chapters 1 to 39: First Isaiah, Proto-Isaiah or Original Isaiah: the work of the original prophet Isaiah, who worked in Jerusalem between 740 and 687 BCE) ,Deutro-Isaiah (Chapters 40 to 55 Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah: by an anonymous author who lived in Babylon near the end of the Babylonian captivity) and Trito-Isaiah or the Isaianic School : (Chapters 56 to 66 (Third Isaiah or Trito-Isaiah: the work of anonymous disciples committed to continuing Isaiah's work in the years immediately after the return from Babylon) .But other scholars argue for the unity of Isaiah , Books such as the Invisible Isaiah ,by Rachel Margalioth, marshal impressive array of stylistic arguments to show the unity of the different parts of Isaiah.

The case for multiple authorship of Isaiah depends heavily on the significance that is attached to the changes that occurs in chapter 40-66.Modern criticism of the book of Isaiah began with the German Johann Doederlein ,who in 1789 argued for the exilic date for chapter 40 through 66.He believed that an eighteenth century writer could not have predicted the fall of Jerusalem in 573 B.C, much less the rise of Cyprus the Great, who restored the exiles in 538 B.C.

From 1892 to 1900, Bernadr Duhm and K Martri presented evidence that chapter 56-66 were written by Trito-Isaiah and should be separated from chapter40-55.They argued that Trito-Isaiah wrote this material from Jerusalem around the time of Ezra (450 B.C).Duhm argued that throughout Isaiah, there are insertions from writers who lived as late as the first century BC.Otto Kaiser is a typical of those who distinguished the several stages in the formation of the first 39 chapters of Isaiah. He attributes a few passages to Isaiah but argues that most of these chapters are the results of interpolations that continued into the third century B.C. For example, he says that 14: 16 is dependent on 49: 13 and that 2:2-5 and 4:2-6 were inserted by a post exilic redactor; furthermore, he denies the Isaianic authorship of many apocalypse passages

In summary, the following arguments stand for the multiple authorship: Prophecies: Passages of Isaiah 40-66 refer to events that did not occur in Isaiah's own