Interpreting Isaiah: Issues and Approaches

Ever since the first century, Christians have regarded Isaiah as a high point in the Old Testament prophetic literature. Its themes of messiah and suffering servant, deliverance from exile and new creation--to name a few--have been viewed as reaching particular fulfillment in the gospel. Then too, the impact of Isaiah on the church's language of worship and hymnology, and on the Western tradition of art and literature, is beyond measure. The book of Isaiah has also received more than its fairshare of scholarly examination, with various theories of its origin and composition proposed.Originating in a 2008 Tyndale Fellowship conference on Isaiah, Interpreting Isaiah presents some of the most significant evangelical scholarship onIsaiah today. Essays on recent scholarship and the theology of Isaiah offer valuable overviews that bring readers abreast of current understanding. And more sharply focused studies in particular Isaianic themes and texts explore issues and exercisemethodologies that will interest and reward diligent teachers and preachers of the Old Testament.

David G. Firth is tutor in Old Testament at Trinity College, Bristol. He is the author of 1 and 2 Samuel (Apollos Old Testament Commentary), The Message of Joshua, and Including the Stranger, and the coeditor of Interpreting the Psalms, Interpreting Isaiah, Words and the Word, and Presence, Power and Promise.

H. G. M. Williamson is Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University, on the faculty of The Oriental Institute and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on the Old Testament, including commentaries on 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as The Book Called Isaiah and Studies in Persian Period History and Historiography.