The Fundamentals - 1910: Vol.7

One Isaiah 77 tegration of the Book of Isaiah. Only a few examples need be given by way of illustration. (1) To one, “the conversion of the heathen” lay quite beyond the horizon of any eighth-century prophet, and conse- quently Isa. 2:2-4 and all similar passages should be relegated to a subsequent age. (2) To another, “the picture of universal peace” in Isa: 11:1-9 is a symptom of late date, and therefore this section and kindred ones must be deleted. (3) To another, the thought of “universal judgment” upon “the whole earth” in chapter 14:26 quite transcends Isaiah’s range of thought. (4) To still another, the apocalyptic character of chap- ters 24-27 represents a phase of Hebrew thought which pre- vailed in Israel only after Ezekiel. (5) Even to those who are considered moderates the poetic character of a passage like chapter 12 and the references to a return from captivity as in 11:11-16, and the promises and consolations such as are found in chapter 33, are cited as grounds for assigning these and kindred passages to a much later age. Radicals deny in toto the existence of Messianic passages among Isaiah’s own predictions. But, to deny to Isaiah of the eighth century all catholicity of grace, all universalism of salvation or judgment, every highly developed Messianic ideal, every rich note of promise and comfort, all sublime faith in the sacrosanct character of Zion, as some do, is unwarrantably to create a new Isaiah of greatly reduced proportions, a mere preacher of righteousness, a statesman of not very optimistic vein, and the exponent of a cold ethical religion without the warmth and glow of the mes- sages which are actually ascribed to the prophet of the eighth century. THE WRITER S PERSONAL ATTITUDE More and more the writer is persuaded that the funda- mental postulates of much criticism are unsound, and that

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