Saint Isaiah

Isaiah lived in the kingdom of Judah between about 765 and 700 BC, and he is one of the four major prophets of the Bible. His calling has a date and a place: 740, the year King Uzziah died, in the Temple of Jerusalem. He had a vision — the Lord on a lofty throne, the seraphim, the smoke, the doorposts trembling — and heard the question “Whom shall I send?”, to which he answered “Here I am, send me.” It’s one of the most quoted pages in all of Scripture. He lived in a terrible time. Assyria was swallowing up the Middle East; the northern kingdom fell before his eyes, and Jerusalem survived by a hair. Isaiah spent his life telling the kings of Judah not to trust in military alliances, which was exactly what no king wanted to hear. In the book that bears his name, scholars have long recognized more than one hand: the first chapters are his, while those from chapter forty on come from at least one other author, during the exile in Babylon. That’s where the songs of the Suffering Servant are found, which Christians have always read with the Passion in mind. As for his end, Jewish tradition says he was sawn in two under King Manasseh. The New Testament quotes him more than any other prophet. If your name is Isaiah, today is your name day.