Gearing Up For Isaiah

Yes, everyone’s favorite book is upon us. I’m not sure there’s any sarcasm there; I know lots of Latter-day Saints who love Isaiah. One of my uncles has actually memorized the entire book, in the KJV version. The next several weeks cover Isaiah, so I wanted to plug a few things.

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My picture, from the Kidron Valley.

Of all the books, Isaiah benefits most from both deep connections to the spirit and being able to read in context; Isaiah has a ton of implicit context. I don’t talk much about the former; the spirit is not really quantifiable, not a method or resource  to be taken down off the shelf, and I’m instinctively distrustful of people who claim personal revelation for their idiosyncratic understandings of Isaiah. That seems to be wielding personal revelation like some kind of manipulative “trust me and buy what I’m selling” tool. So, a focus on the latter, i.e. context.

If you haven’t yet, my Sperry paper on reading the OT in context might be helpful, get yourself a second Bible translation, and then get informed about why it’s different from your KJV. I think Robert Alter’s translation/notes would be particularly useful, because his comments focus on literary aspects, and so much of Isaiah is literary. These, of course, are my constant refrains and not specific to Isaiah. So.

The Maxwell Institute has a book entirely free called Visualizing Isaiah, which illustrates the material culture, geography, history, and so on.

I think Joseph Spencer at BYU is doing good work on bringing Isaiah to a lay level right now. Check out his book, his LDS Living piece, and his podcast with LDS Perspectives on Isaiah.

Note that his book is focused on Isaiah as seen through Nephi’s eyes, which is not quite the same as reading Isaiah through Isaiah’s eyes. Nephi bluntly tells us in the former Scripture Mastery passage of 1 Nephi 19:23 that he’s not providing a literal, contextual reading of Isaiah as much as adapting it, under inspiration, to the spiritual needs of his own people.

That Nephi is not telling us what Isaiah originally meant shouldn’t be a surprise.

Nephi “gave, not a literal, but an inspired and interpreting translation. And in many instances his words give either a new or greatly expanded meaning to the original prophetic word.”

—“Keys to Understanding the Bible” in Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, ed. Mark L. McConkie, 290-291.

Nephi is doing what all practical interpreters and preachers must do, namely

make the past relevant to the present —to find some practical lesson in ancient history, or to reinterpret an ancient law in such a way as to have it apply to present-day situations, sometimes at the price of completely distorting the text’s original meaning.”

–Eerdman’s Dictionary of Early Judaism, “Biblical Interpretation.”

I don’t think Nephi “distorts it completely” but it’s a twist, certainly. See this paper and this summary for the nature of that twist in what he and Jacob are preaching through Isaiah.

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Amazon updated 06-16-2022