In recent years some liberal scholars have sought to remove
the idea that one man named Isaiah wrote the Old Testament book that bears his
name. Some have suggested there were two authors, while some have gone so far
as to suggest there were three. Their reasoning for suggesting multiple Isaiahs
is the degree of accuracy in the book: Isaiah prophesied about things hundreds
of years in advance, and his imagery was spot on. These critics have suggested
a later Isaiah wrote after the fact, writing history and calling it prophecy.
For example, Isaiah prophesied (ch.13) that the Medes would
defeat Babylon, and that Babylon would remain uninhabited forever. At the time
of his writing Babylon was the world’s superpower, and the Medes were but a
blip on the radar. However, just as was predicted, Darius the Mede supplanted
the Babylonian Empire, and it has remained uninhabited ever since (an area
about 50 miles from Baghdad).
This is what scoffers like to do. Whenever something in
Scripture can only be explained by the miraculous, they cry foul. Instead of
accepting that “all Scripture is God-breathed,” they invent Second and Third
Isaiah. This exposes the real motivation. If they can establish that Isaiah was
altered centuries after the real prophet spoke, then they can discredit parts
with which they disagree. The ultimate goal is to remove Isaiah 53, a chapter
that so clearly presents Jesus as the Messiah that “even the inclusion of His
name could add but little more to the extent of its disclosure of Him[1],”
but more on that next time.
Is there a way to prove that Isaiah has not been tampered
with? Aside from the fact that there is no evidence to suggest that there were
multiple Isaiahs, we have New Testament attestation to a single author. In
Matthew’s Gospel he quotes Isaiah 6, 9, 29, 40, 42, and 53; in each occurrence
Matthew and Jesus attribute the quotes to Isaiah. Similarly, John quotes from
chapters 6 and 53, saying “the prophet Isaiah” spoke both passages. This
destroys any notion that later authors went back and added to the original
book.
Isaiah’s amazing fulfilled prophecies add to the Bible’s
reliability. We can trust that the prophecies yet unfulfilled will come to
pass—such as the return of Christ, the judgments, and the events recorded in
Revelation. Don’t pay any attention to scoffers who try to dismiss the
miraculous; instead, embrace God’s Word as the inerrant, infallible instruction
book for life.
[1]
Grogan, Geoffrey W., “Isaiah,” in The
Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., Zondervan, 1986,
6:305
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