Old Testament · book 23

Isaiah

What tradition claims

Isaiah ben Amoz

740 BC – 680 BC

Critical scholarship

740 BC – 450 BC

The gap

claimed

earliest MS

Claimed start: 740 BCGap: 585 yearsEarliest MS: 125 BCtoday

Earliest manuscript: Great Isaiah Scroll

Notes

Tradition: a single 8th-century prophet. Scholarly consensus: at least three layers — First Isaiah (chs. 1-39, 8th c.), Second Isaiah (chs. 40-55, exilic, ~540 BCE) and Third Isaiah (chs. 56-66, post-exilic). The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, ~125 BCE) is a complete copy already treating the whole book as one — proving the compilation was done by the 2nd century BCE at the latest. The gap from earliest composition to extant complete text is only about 600 years — by far the best of any OT book.

Disputed passages in Isaiah

Passages in this book that aren't in the earliest manuscripts, or read differently in them.

Older variant restoredIsaiah 53:11

The Suffering Servant 'sees light'

An older reading recovered from the Dead Sea Scrolls — restored in modern translations against the medieval Masoretic.

All witnesses on file (1)

Great Isaiah Scroll · 150 BC – 100 BC (~125 BC)