Authorship of Isaiah


By Anton Williams, Founder

Authorship and date of composition for the book of Isaiah

Historical Traditional/Conservative view asserts that the prophet Isaiah wrote the entire book of Isaiah between about 720-670 BCE

Liberal view claims that only part of Isaiah may have been written by the prophet but there are several anonymous editors who wrote centuries later 

Which view does the objective/external evidence corroborate?

Objective/external evidence corroborate the prophet Isaiah wrote his book in the 8th-7th century BCE

When a person lines up the conservative view of 1 Isaiah in comparison of the liberal view of multiple anonymous authors and evaluates on the basis of external/objective evidence, the liberal view loses every time. (20+ to 0) The implication is that the theory of multiple anonymous authors is fantasy and not reality. The reality is that the prophet Isaiah wrote the texts between 720-680 BCE. 

There is not a shred of evidence of that the book of Isaiah was originally comprising multiple anonymous literary works. No evidence which is stated internally, in manuscripts, in apocrypha literature, in sectarian literature, rabbinic Judaism texts nor Josephus the historian. Conversely, all these sources attribute the authorship entire book of Isaiah to the prophet Isaiah 

For the critic to refute this objective/external evidence it is not sufficient to merely claim not to believe it but external/objective (independent) evidence to the contrary must be shown. There would have to be some sources from antiquity which refer or contain internal data on the editors of Isaiah or even separate fragments of the texts. None of this exists but all ancient sources corroborate Isaiah wrote the entire book 

Implications of Isaiah recording future events (even centuries later) accurately

Critics tried (and failed) to refute the authorship of Isaiah and made the assertions because the prophet accurate foretells of future events centuries later.

Two possible response to this phenomenon are possible.