Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction Commentary

Alec Motyer sees the book of Isaiah as a mosaic constructed of a variety of prophecies originating at different points in the prophet's career, with each prophecy shaped by its individual prehistory. These preexilic prophecies were brought into a new literary unity by the prophet himself and made to serve a new purpose. Along the historical time line on which Isaiah's prophecies are strung, Motyer finds three central and recurring themes: the messianic hope, the motif of the city and the theology of the Holy One of Israel. Moreover, he argues, the Isaianic masterpiece is organized into three complementary books portraying the King (Isaiah 1-37), the Servant (Isaiah 38-55) and the Anointed Conqueror (Isaiah 56-66). In a scholarly climate marked by renewed attention to the literary unity of the canonical form of the Old Testament books, Motyer's contribution to a wholistic understanding of Isaiah should be welcomed by a wide range of interpreters and expositors.