"Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored
men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst." Isaiah 5:13 (NSV)
and/or
"But the people have not returned to rely on him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD of the Heavenly Armies." Isaiah 9:13 (ISV)
The regard in which Isaiah is held is so high that the book is frequently called "the Fifth Gospel", the prophet who spoke more clearly of Christ and the Church than any others. Its influence extends beyond the Church and Christianity to English literature and to Western culture in general, from the libretto of Handel's Messiah to a host of such everyday phrases as "swords into ploughshares" and "voice in the wilderness".
The Gospel of John quotes Isaiah 6:10 and states that "Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him." Isaiah makes up 27 of the 37 quotations from the prophets in the Pauline epistles, and takes pride of place in the Gospels and in Acts of the Apostles. Isaiah 7:14, where the prophet is assuring king Ahaz that God will save Judah from the invading armies of Israel and Syria, forms the basis for Matthew 1:23's doctrine of the virgin birth, while Isaiah 40:3–5's image of the exiled Israel led by God and proceeding home to Jerusalem on a newly constructed road through the wilderness was taken up by all four Gospels and applied to John the Baptist and Jesus.
Isaiah seems always to have had a prominent place in Jewish Bible use, and it is probable that Jesus himself was deeply influenced by Isaiah. Thus many of the Isaiah passages that are familiar to Christians gained their popularity not directly from Isaiah but from the use of them by Jesus and the early Christian authors – this is especially true of the Book of Revelation, which depends heavily on Isaiah for its language and imagery.
The regard in which Isaiah is held is so high that the book is frequently called "the Fifth Gospel", the prophet who spoke more clearly of Christ and the Church than any others. Its influence extends beyond the Church and Christianity to English literature and to Western culture in general, from the libretto of Handel's Messiah to a host of such everyday phrases as "swords into ploughshares" and "voice in the wilderness".
The Gospel of John quotes Isaiah 6:10 and states that "Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him." Isaiah makes up 27 of the 37 quotations from the prophets in the Pauline epistles, and takes pride of place in the Gospels and in Acts of the Apostles. Isaiah 7:14, where the prophet is assuring king Ahaz that God will save Judah from the invading armies of Israel and Syria, forms the basis for Matthew 1:23's doctrine of the virgin birth, while Isaiah 40:3–5's image of the exiled Israel led by God and proceeding home to Jerusalem on a newly constructed road through the wilderness was taken up by all four Gospels and applied to John the Baptist and Jesus.
Isaiah seems always to have had a prominent place in Jewish Bible use, and it is probable that Jesus himself was deeply influenced by Isaiah. Thus many of the Isaiah passages that are familiar to Christians gained their popularity not directly from Isaiah but from the use of them by Jesus and the early Christian authors – this is especially true of the Book of Revelation, which depends heavily on Isaiah for its language and imagery.
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| A baker's clay version of a "I" scroll, symbolic for the prophet Isaiah. Both ends are rolled toward each other with the inside text made invisible to the reader. |
"For unto us a child was born..." Handel's Messiah
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