Isaiah

Isaiah

Old Testament

1. the first of the major Hebrew prophets, who lived in the 8th century bc

2. the book of his and others' prophecies

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Isaiah

foretells fall of Jerusalem; prophet of doom. [O.T.: Isaiah]

See: Prophecy

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Isaiah

 

Lived in the eighth century B.C. in Jerusalem. The first of the so-called major prophets of the Old Testament.

Isaiah’s first sermon dates from before 733 B.C.; his last are dated exactly at 701. Although he belonged to a noble (some think to a royal) family, Isaiah spoke out in sharp condemnation of social inequality and oppression of the poor and advocated the independence and self sufficiency of Judah. His ideal was universal peace and social justice, the realization of which he connected with the future rule of an ideal king.

Isaiah was the author of Chapters 1–33 and 36–39 of the Old Testament book bearing his name. The remaining chapters belong to an anonymous prophet who lived a century and a half after Isaiah and has arbitrarily been called Deutero-Isaiah.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.