Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the NT: Isaiah
Subjects in this Topic:
( Çóáôáò or Çóáôáò , Vulgate Isaias, in the Fathers also Esaias)
Isaiah, the grandest figure among the prophets of Israel, is named 3 times in Acts (Act_8:28; Act_8:30; Act_28:25) and 5 times in Romans (Rom_9:27; Rom_9:29; Rom_10:16; Rom_10:20; Rom_15:12). Nothing is said in the NT of his personal history, except that ἐðñßóèçóáí in Heb_11:37 probably alludes to the tradition-found in the Ascension of Isaiah (i. 9, v. 1), and repeated in Justin’s Trypho (ch. 120, ðñßïíé îõëßíῳ ἐðñßóáôå )-that he was sawn asunder, a tradition which, though not incredible, is without historical value. Every NT reference to the prophet’s name is accompanied by a quotation from his writings, which were for the Apostolic Age the words that ‘the Holy Ghost spake by Isaiah’ (Act_28:25). Yet certain spontaneous notes of appreciation from the lips and pen of St. Paul are precious as indications, slight but real, of the impression made upon one master-spirit by the writings of another. ‘Isaiah crieth’ ( êñÜæåé , Rom_9:27) is an appraisement of the emphasis of his utterance; ‘well (or finely) spake the Holy Spirit through Isaiah’ ( êáëῶò ἐëÜëçóå , Act_28:25) expresses hearty sympathy with the prophet’s teaching and admiration of the language in which it is conveyed; and ‘Isaiah is very bold’ ( ἨóáÀáò äὲ ἀðïôïëìᾷ , Rom_10:20) is one spiritual protagonist’s tribute to another’s personal courage. It needed heroism for Isaiah to proclaim, in the face of Israel’s haughty exclusiveness, a gracious Divine purpose which embraced all the Gentiles; and St. Paul, whose life-work it was to fulfil that purpose in spite of fanatical Jewish opposition, was the man to appreciate a splendid boldness inspired by great faith.
The NT, of course, makes no distinction between a First, Second, and Third Isaiah. The prophet’s name impartially covers a variety of writings which criticism now pronounces to be productions of widely different periods. He is equally the seer of the Root of Jesse (Isa_11:10 || Rom_15:12) and of the suffering servant of the Lord (Isa_53:7 || Act_8:32). It was a passage in ‘Isaiah the prophet’ (ch. 53) that the Ethiopian was reading in his chariot when he was joined by St. Philip, whose interpretation of that mysterious utterance-the profoundest in the OT-in the light of Christ’s Passion led the eunuch to faith and baptism.
Two NT writers had minds steeped in the prophecies of Isaiah-St. Paul and the writer of the Apocalypse. (1) The speeches attributed to St. Paul in Acts furnish evidence of his indebtedness to those writings. When he announces to the Jews of Pisidian Antioch his epoch-making decision to ‘turn to the Gentiles,’ it is in an utterance of Isaiah (Isa_49:6) that he seeks the Divine sanction of his action: ‘I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles’ (Act_13:47). When he reasons with the Athenians as to the error of making the Godhead ‘like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man’s device’ (Act_17:29), he seems to echo the words, if not the ironical tones, of the prophet of the Exile (Isa_40:18). His experience among the Jews of Rome reminded him of what befell Isaiah in Jerusalem many centuries earlier. Both the prophet and the apostle seemed to be sent to hearers impervious to Divine truth, who could not be converted and healed. The Epistle to the Romans supplies the strongest proof of St. Paul’s absorption in the prophecies of Isaiah. It is significant that most of his quotations occur in the chapters which contain his philosophy of the fall and rising again of Israel (9-11), and that many of them are taken from Deutero-Isaiah. His doctrine of election inevitably suggests the clay and the potter (Rom_9:21 || Isa_45:9). He is helped to face the Jewish rejection of the Messiah by the conception of the Remnant ( ôὸ êáôÜëåéììá , Rom_9:27 || Isa_10:22)-a conception which seemed to the prophet so important that he gave one of his own children the symbolic name of ‘Remnant-shall-return’ (Isa_7:3). The thought of Christ as a stumbling-stone to the Jews is parallel to that of Jahweh as a stumbling-stone to the houses of Israel (Rom_9:33 || Isa_8:14). While the universal proclamation of the gospel suggests the ‘beautiful feet’ of those who preached deliverance from Babylon (Rom_10:15 || Isa_5:27), the sadness of speaking to deaf ears prompts the question, ‘Who hath believed our report?’ (Rom_10:18 || Isa_53:1). The prevenient grace of God excites the wonder of both the prophet and the apostle (Rom_10:20 || Isa_61:1), and Israel’s present insensibility seems to them both a spirit of stupor (Rom_11:8 || Isa_29:10). The assurance of the ultimate salvation of all Israel is based on the advent of a Deliverer (Rom_11:26 || Isa_59:20); but both writers confess a reverent agnosticism in presence of the mysteries of Divine providence (Rom_11:34 || Isa_40:13). The Epistles to the Corinthians also prove the affinity of these great minds. Both writers know the unprofitableness of mere earthly wisdom (1Co_1:19 || Isa_29:14, 1Co_1:20 || Isa_38:18); both believe in a spiritual creation which will make all things new (2Co_5:17 || Isa_43:18 f.); and both of them, with all their breadth of outlook, recognize the imperativeness of separation from heathendom (2Co_6:17 || Isa_52:11). Isaiah’s hope of immortality, the strongest that is found (apart from Daniel) in the prophetic writings, is used to clinch St. Paul’s great argument for the resurrection of the dead-‘death is swallowed up in victory’ (1Co_15:54 || Isa_25:8; åἰò íῖêïò , which takes the place of the prophet’s ‘for ever,’ is due to the Aram. sense of the Heb. word).
(2) The other NT writer who especially felt Isaiah’s spell was the author of the Apocalypse. His Christ, as the First and the Last, is clothed with the attributes of Isaiah’s God (Rev_1:17 || Isa_41:4; Isa_44:6). The trisagion of his living creatures was uttered by the seraphim in the heavenly Temple (Rev_4:8 || Isa_6:3). His vision of the rolling up of heaven as a scroll was Isaianic (Rev_6:14 || Isa_34:4), and his exquisite description of the final state of the blessed-‘they shall hunger no more … wipe away every tear from their eyes’-is a cento of prophetic phrases, which are now used to picture the consummation of the redemptive work of the Lamb (Rev_7:16 f. || Isa_49:10; Isa_25:8). ‘Fallen is Babylon’-a voice of saeva indignatio reminiscent of Rome’s own ‘Carthago est delenda’-was the doom of the real Babylon before it was pronounced upon the mystical one (Rev_14:8 || Isa_21:9). The description of the militant Messiah as clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood is suggested by the attributes of the Hero who came from the conquest of Edom (Rev_19:13 || Isa_63:1 ff.). The desire for a new heaven and a new earth was not itself new (Rev_21:1 || Isa_65:17), and the ideal city is depicted in Isaianic colours (Rev_21:19; Rev_21:24 f. || Isa_60:19; Isa_60:8; Isa_60:11). The free invitation with which the Revelation properly ends (Rev_22:18-21 being a harsh editorial postscript) only echoes the words of welcome uttered by the evangelical prophet (Rev_22:17 || Isa_55:1).
James Strahan.