Reading the 5th Gospel
A New Commentary on Isaiah (Part One)
…he should be called an evangelist rather than a prophet because he describes all the mysteries of Christ and the Church so clearly you would think he is composing a history of what has already happened rather than prophesying about what is to come.
-Jerome on Isaiah1
The book of Isaiah is the “Mt. Whitney” of my Bible reading. Obadiah? At one chapter with twenty-one verses, it’s a mere walk down the street. The book of Titus? At three chapters and forty-six verses, it’s a longer but still gentle hike. But Isaiah? Standing at sixty-six chapters containing one thousand two hundred and ninety-two verses, Isaiah can feel like a slog to the peak of the highest mountain in the contiguous forty-eight states. Nevertheless, it must be climbed because so much of the language of Christianity is found in this Old Testament book. Some have even called it the fifth gospel.
Some might argue that Proverbs is more challenging, with 800 sayings that teach us to makegoodhappen. Others might point to the book of Psalms, with 150 different Psalms, including Psalm 119 with one hundred and seventy-six verses. 2 But the challenge of Isaiah isn’t simply persevering through sixty-six chapters.
When we start reading Isaiah, it seems easy enough.
The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah. Isaiah 1:1
“Okay,” the reader thinks. “We will be reading a series of visions during the reigns of four kings, in the region of Judah and Jerusalem. Got it.” But then we read the next verse:
Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.” -Isaiah 1:2
God is speaking, not to kings, not to Judah, not to Jerusalem, but to the entire cosmos. With the same embarrassment we feel when we overhear someone complaining about their family in the grocery store, we keep reading, hoping we will get to something more edifying. With relief, we find that the second chapter begins on a more positive note:
This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. -Isaiah 2:1-2
The first verse of this chapter reinforces the theme of the first chapter. But then we find this term “the last days.” We assume this is the “end times” of prophetic pronouncement. But then we read of a vision moving the opposite direction of the book of Acts 1:8. Rather than Jesus’ disciples being empowered to tell others about him “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” the nations are foretold to converge on Jerusalem.
If we persevere in our reading, we find this international focus reoccuring. Though we are told in chapter one that the visions are about Jerusalem and Judah we find ourselves reading prophecies to Moab, to Damascus, to Cush, and to Egypt. It turns out that Isaiah isn’t a story like the gospels, or Ruth, or Jonah but a collection. As we read sections of poetry and of narrative we see that it isn’t a collection of Proverbs or Psalms, but a gathering of many different messages and forms without a table of contents to help us follow along.
Our struggle with Isaiah, however, was not a struggle experienced by Jesus or his followers. Given the number of times they reference it in the New Testament, they clearly read it and found much encouragement in it. Isaiah is quoted directly at least 55 times in the New Testament and referred to in one form or another another 210 times. For example, Isaiah 40:3 is quoted in all four gospels as a meaningful description of John the Baptist: 3 A voice of one calling: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Both Paul and Peter quote part of Isaiah 8:14 in describing the effect of Jesus: 4 …a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And Jesus himself quotes Isaiah 56:7b in Matthew, Mark, and Luke as a justification for overturning the tables in the Temple: …my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.5 Like those in the New Testament, we need to figure out how to read Isaiah in a way that guides our own faith.
If I were to randomly open the book of Matthew, I would have a pretty good chance of finding verses that apply directly to my life:
Matthew 5:14-16: You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
But if I were to turn to the same chapter and verse in Isaiah I find a much greater challenge:
Isaiah 5:14-15: Therefore Death expands its jaws, opening wide its mouth; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers. So people will be brought low and everyone humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled.
Let me suggest a starting point for us in this first of a series of posts on reading Isaiah.
Buy a journal and a pen you enjoy writing with.
Open the journal, pen in hand, and begin writing, on one side only, a chapter every day or two.
On the other page note any questions, confusions, or “ahas” that you have as you read. This isn’t the time to answer all of these but simply to note them.
Join me for my next post with some more thoughts on how to read and apply this most important book.
Enjoy the hike!
Prologue to his translation of Isaiah in Biblica Sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, 2nd edition by R. Weber (Stuttgart 1975) Vol II. p. 1096
Psalm 119.
Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:2, Luke 3:4, John 1:23.
Romans 9:33, 1 Peter 2:8
Mt. 21:13, Mk 11:17, Luke 19:46