Or rather, which of
the writings attributed to him are really his?
Scholars have
recognized for centuries that the single work as we have it is the composition
of several writers over two or three centuries, maybe more.
First Isaiah, found
in Chapters 1-39, contains what most scholar believe to be the true writings of
the eighth century prophet himself.
However, even there
not everything is the work of Isaiah; to him belong chapters 1-12, 15-23, and
28-33.
Among that first
set is an interpolation found in Isaiah 2:2-5, copied from Micah
4:1-5.
The oracles against
Babylon in Isaiah 13-14, the “Apocalypse of Isaiah” in Isaiah
24-27.
The poems in Isaiah
34-35 were written by disciples of his or close associates.
The passages in Isaiah
36-39 were adapted entirely from 2 Kings 18-20.
Second Isaiah, Chapters
40-55, was written by an anonymous poet-prophet in the early post-Exilic period. It includes the verse (Isaiah 45:7) that
is the basis for the Yotzer ohr prayer benediction before the Shema of shacharit
(Jewish morning prayer), the Servant Songs, and several “prophecies” classified
as vaticinium ex eventu. That
many of these “prophecies” are of Koroush Kabir of Iranshar (Cyrus the Great of
Iran) allowing the exiles to begin returning bears witness to their actual date
of composition.
Third Isaiah was
the work of several different writers over a broad period extending well into
the Hellenistic era.
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