Isaiah

Oversimplified

• The greatest of the writing prophets, whose visions of the Holy One and the Suffering Servant read almost like the Gospel written centuries early.
• The Church calls him "the evangelist among the prophets" for foretelling the virgin birth, the Servant who bears our sins, and the new creation.

His Story

Isaiah (Hebrew Yeshayahu, "the LORD saves"), son of Amoz, prophesies in Jerusalem in the eighth century BC through the reigns of several kings of Judah. His ministry begins with an overwhelming vision in the Temple — the LORD enthroned, the seraphim crying "Holy, holy, holy" (Isaiah 6.3), his lips cleansed by a burning coal — and his answer, "Here am I; send me." For decades he counsels kings, warns against foreign alliances, and calls Judah to trust the LORD amid the Assyrian threat. His book gathers oracles of judgment and of comfort, rising to the Servant Songs and the promise of a redeemed creation. Ancient tradition holds that he was martyred under the wicked king Manasseh, sawn in two — an end the Church remembers (cf. Hebrews 11.37).[^1]

The Evangelist Among the Prophets

Isaiah foretells the virgin who bears "Immanuel, God with us" (Isaiah 7.14), the child on whose shoulder the government rests (Isaiah 9.6), and above all the Suffering Servant "wounded for our transgressions... and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53.5). The New Testament reads these of Christ; the Church chants Isaiah through Advent and Holy Week.[^2] See The Incarnation, Typology in Scripture.

[^1]: Ancient tradition holds Isaiah was martyred under King Manasseh, sawn in two. [^2]: Isaiah is read of Christ throughout the Gospels and chanted in the Advent and Holy Week services — "the evangelist among the prophets."