One Isaiah or Three?
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.Isaiah 1:1 · World English Bible
Original Language & Text
Scholars notice big shifts in Hebrew vocabulary, style, and historical setting across three sections of Isaiah: chapters 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66. Chapters 1-39 mostly address 8th-century-BCE Judah facing the threat of Assyria, using the kind of language typical of prophecy from that earlier period, and naming the prophet Isaiah directly. Chapters 40-55 shift sharply to a message of comfort and restoration, speaking to an audience that is already living in exile in Babylon as a present reality, using different recurring words (like 'servant' and 'former things/new things') that barely appear in the first section, and famously naming the Persian king Cyrus as a current or soon-to-arrive figure - more than a hundred years after the historical Isaiah's lifetime. Chapters 56-66 shift again, addressing concerns from after the exile ended, like disputes over temple worship and Sabbath rules in the rebuilt Jerusalem, with yet another writing style - leading many scholars to see this as a third distinct layer, possibly from a different author or group of writers.
Key Terms in the Original Language
the Persian king's name (Isa. 44:28, 45:1)
Isaiah names Cyrus roughly 150 years before he lived and conquered Babylon; critical scholars take this as strong evidence that Isaiah 40–55 was written closer to the events it describes, while traditional readings take it as genuine predictive prophecy — the central fact this whole debate turns on.
History & Authorship
In the 1100s, the Jewish scholar Ibn Ezra quietly hinted at problems with treating the whole book as one person's work, though full skepticism didn't develop until German scholars in later centuries. In 1775, Johann Christoph Doderlein first clearly proposed that chapters 40-66 were written by a different, later author, and in 1892 Bernhard Duhm further split that section into two parts, creating the three-part division still commonly used today. Later scholars built on this, describing Isaiah as a long tradition or 'school' of writers spanning centuries rather than one single author. A copy of Isaiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating to around the 2nd century BCE, shows that by that time the book already circulated as one continuous, unified scroll - showing that its final form was combined centuries before modern scholars studied it, though this tells us about the finished book rather than settling who wrote each part originally.
How This Debate Developed
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1775
Döderlein's proposal
First to argue Isaiah 40–66 was written by someone other than the 8th-century BC prophet.
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1892
Duhm's three-part Isaiah
Bernhard Duhm further divides out chapters 56–66 as “Trito-Isaiah,” establishing the three-author division still commonly discussed.
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20th–21st c.
Ongoing debate
Critical and conservative-evangelical scholars continue to dispute single vs. multiple authorship.
The Popular / Mainstream View
The traditional Jewish and Christian view is that all 66 chapters were written by one prophet, Isaiah, who lived and worked in Jerusalem in the 700s BCE. On this view, the later chapters are real predictions of the future - including naming the Persian king Cyrus over a hundred years before he was born, and, for Christians, a prophecy about a suffering servant later connected to Jesus (Isaiah 53). This remains the standard religious teaching in Orthodox Judaism and most conservative Protestant and Catholic scholarship, which sees the book's own claim about its author, along with fulfilled predictions, as evidence that one inspired writer produced the whole book.
Minority & Alternative Views
Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55)
The majority view among scholars who study the Bible's historical background is that chapters 40-55 were written by an unnamed prophet during the Babylonian exile, in the mid-6th century BCE, speaking to exiles as people living at that same time and describing the Persian king Cyrus's conquest as something happening now or very soon, not as a far-off prediction. This writer is sometimes called 'Second Isaiah,' and their material was later joined to the original Isaiah's scroll.
Third Isaiah (chapters 56-66)
Many of the same scholars go further and identify a third author or group, active after the exiles returned home, in the late 500s-400s BCE. This writing addresses concerns specific to the struggling, rebuilt community in Jerusalem, such as disputes over temple worship and social inequality, and is stylistically distinct from both earlier sections.
Isaiah 'school' or layered composition
Some scholars argue the divisions aren't as neat as three separate authors. Instead, they propose a long process where a 'school' of writers working in Isaiah's name added to and edited the book over several centuries, with it reaching its final form only in the Persian period or slightly later.
What Scholars Say
There is broad agreement in academic Bible scholarship that Isaiah 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66 reflect different historical settings and weren't all written by one person in the 700s BCE, based on the different audiences addressed, specific historical references, and shifts in vocabulary and style. This view of multiple authors has been the mainstream position since the late 1800s and is taught in nearly all critical seminaries and university religion departments. It remains a minority view among everyday believers and is rejected by many conservative and confessional scholars, who argue that the book's overall themes - God's sovereignty, holiness, and hope for a coming messiah - along with its treatment as one book throughout Jewish and Christian history, outweigh the internal differences in style.
Sources & Further Reading
- Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia (1892)
- Joseph Blenkinsopp, Anchor Bible Isaiah commentaries
- Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40-66: A Commentary
- Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Dead Sea Scrolls, c. 2nd century BCE
- Johann Christoph Doderlein (1775)
- Oswald T. Allis, "The Unity of Isaiah" (1950)
- Edward J. Young, "The Book of Isaiah" (New International Commentary on the Old Testament)
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- What textual and thematic evidence led Bernhard Duhm to propose a division between First, Second (Deutero-), and Third (Trito-) Isaiah?
- How do defenders of single Isaianic authorship, like Oswald Allis and E. J. Young, respond to the claim that chapters 40-66 presuppose a Babylonian exile setting centuries after the historical Isaiah?
- What does the Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran show — and not show — about whether the book existed as a unified whole by the 2nd century BCE?
- What theological stakes, if any, hinge on whether Isaiah was written by one prophet or composed in stages over centuries?
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