Thus we present a theory of the exilic authorship of Isa. xl.-lxvi. within itself complete and consistent, suited to all parts of the evidence, and not opposed by the authority of any part of Scripture. In consequence of its conclusion, our duty, before proceeding to the exposition of the chapters, is twofold: first, to connect the time of Isaiah with the period of the Captivity, and then to sketch the condition of Israel in Exile. This we shall undertake in the next three chapters.
Readers may wish to have a reference to other passages of this volume, in which the questions of the date, authorship and structure of Isaiah xl.-lxvi. are discussed. See pp. 65-68, 112, 146 f., 212, 223; Introduction to Book III.; opening paragraphs of ch. xviii. and of ch. xix., etc.
[1] Chs. i., ii., etc. The only title that could be offered as covering the whole book is that in ch. i., ver. 1: _The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah._ But this manifestly cannot apply to any but the earlier chapters, of which Judah and Jerusalem are indeed the subjects.
[2] There are, it will be remembered, certain narratives in the Book of Isaiah, which are not by the prophet. They speak of him in the third person (chs. vii., xxxvi.-xxxix.), while in other narratives (chs. vi. and viii.) he speaks of himself in the first person. Their presence is sufficient proof that the Book of Isaiah, in its extant shape, did not come from Isaiah's hands, but was compiled by others.
[3] Matt. iii. 3, viii. 17, xii. 17; Luke iii. 4, iv. 17; John i. 23, xii. 38; Acts viii. 28; Rom. x. 16-20.
[6] Driver's _Isaiah: His Life and Times_, p. 191.
[8] So quoted by Driver (_Isaiah_, etc., p. 200), from the _British and Foreign Evangelical Review_, 1879, p. 339.
[10] Professor Briggs' _Messianic Prophecy_, 339 ff.
[12] Including Professor Cheyne, _Encyc. Britann._, article "Isaiah."
[13] According to the arrangement given in the Talmud (Baba bathra, f. 14, col. 2): "Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Twelve." Cf. Bleek, _Introduction to Old Testament_, on Isaiah; Orelli's _Isaiah_, Eng. ed., p. 214.
[14] Robertson Smith, _The Old Testament in Jewish Church_, 109.