Meta-Proto-Isaiah

Isaiah 6-12

     Who truly wrote the book of Isaiah is a puzzle that archaeologists, historians, and other scholars (theists and atheists alike) are still trying to piece together. The oldest copy of this Hebrew Scripture is called the Isaiah Scroll aka the Great Isaiah Scroll. In 1947 this scroll was one of 220 scrolls discovered at the caves of Qumran located in the West Bank near the Dead Sea; part of the contentious Israeli/Palestinian conflict that has been raging for a few generations now.
     These scrolls are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. They are the remnants of a Jewish sect, most likely the Essenes, that got wiped out a few years after the Roman Revolution of 66 B.C.E. when the Jews kicked Rome out of Jerusalem. The nation of Israel would be independent again for the first time since the fall of Judah to the Babylonians. Of course three years later the Romans return and slaughter everyone and burn the Temple of Yahweh to the ground. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the holy scrolls that the Essenes, or other jewish group on the run, hid away in order to protect before either fleeing or falling to the sword.
      What is interesting about the Great Isaiah scroll, though, is the fact that it is the oldest copy of the entire book of Isaiah with a carbon dating placing the scroll between 330-110 B.C.E. The scroll itself is most likely a copy of an even older scroll that has been lost to history and that was probably not the oldest copy of this story, either. There are some slight grammatical and textual differences between this Great Scroll and the modern hebrew versions, but these variances don’t change the meaning of what is being conveyed too drastically. Although, with the extent that mankind likes to twist things to their own advantages that could be debatable.
     Despite the Jewish tradition of the author being the Prophet himself Biblical Studies of the past two centuries have led most scholars to believe that the text was probably written over a large period of time and can be broken into three major sections; Proto-(1st), Duetero-(2nd), and Trito-(3rd)Isaiah. We will get into the 2nd and 3rd Isaiahs later.
     The 1st part (chapters 1-39) is believed to have been either written by the prophet Isaiah or a historian of the time soon after Isaiah in the 8th century B.C.E. Chapters 6-8 give a little biography of the man. He was known to use his own self as well as his wife and children as tools for his prophecy. His wife was even known as the Prophetess. These first 39 chapters are believed to be the actual recorded sayings of the ancient prophet Isaiah. Up till chapter 12 is believed to be the early years of the prophet. These are the warnings to the people of Israel that they are living the wrong way according to words of Moses. This is all told in the book of Kings, too, as this would have been during the reign of first King Uzziah and then King Jotham, roughly 750 B.C.E. Uzziah died near the start of Isaiah’s preaching.
     Chapters 10-11 warn of the impending doom at the hands of Assyrians. Isaiah warns that Yahweh will use the Assyrians as his instrument of punishment against the Israelites just as he used the Israelites against the Canaanites after warning those heathens for hundreds of years, as well. However, just as Yahweh warned the Israelites all those generations ago, so too does Isaiah issue a warning to Assyria. He tells them in chapter 10 that they will be judged for their transgressions, as well. Just because they are the instrument of God’s wrath does not mean they get to escape that wrath.
     In Chapter 11 we get the prophecy concerning the next great leader of Israel. For Isaiah, this prophecy was for a coming king that would lead after Assyria had laid waste to its people. This would be a leader that would call back the people that had been scattered by the conquest of Assyria and restore the kingship of the divided nations back into the one nation of Israel under one King. This king would be a descendent of the last great king, David. Unfortunately, Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom and whoever escaped fled to southern Judah.
     Since this king never came, as all kings up until the fall of Judah fell short of this expectation, the prophecy of Isaiah was still used in the days of Roman occupied Israel. These would have been the prophecies that were talked about in the days of Jesus and John the Baptist. The fact that the Great Scroll of Isaiah was the most complete scroll of 220 shows its significance and respect in the ancient Jewish mind. The people of that time, just as today, could use these passages as prophecy for their political situations in that time period. The Essense especially were huge fans of this scroll and had many parallel prophecies of their own using passages from The Great Isaiah Scroll.