Month: February 2024

Isaiah 56 – Does this chapter mark the beginning of “third” Isaiah?

Problem: Critical scholars charge that this section of Isaiah is actually a third author, who felt the freedom to tack on more chapters to Isaiah’s book. We have already considered the arguments for multiple authors for the book of Isaiah (see “Authorship of Isaiah”). What was Isaiah’s purpose in these final chapters?
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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching

Isaiah 45:7 – Does God create evil?

Problem: Does God create evil? Isaiah 45:7 and Amos 3:6.  No, God does not create ontological evil.  He creates calamity which is sometimes translated as ‘evil.’
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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching

Isaiah 45:7 – Does God create evil?

Problem: Isaiah writes that God is the one who “[causes] well-being and creating calamity” (Isa. 45:7). Older translations render this Hebrew ra’ as “evil” (ASV). Is God the author of evil?
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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching

Isaiah 44:28-45:1 – How could Isaiah predict King Cyrus?

Problem: If Isaiah really wrote from Israel before the Exile (739-681 BC), then he would have predicted King Cyrus by name—over two hundred years in advance. Cyrus didn’t reign until roughly the 500’s BC (Ezra 1:1-5; 6:1-5). Critics claim that this is evidence against the single authorship of Isaiah, because a singular author could not predict such a thing in the 8th century BC. Rather, it makes more sense to conclude that a post-exilic prophet added chapters to Isaiah’s original work. Is this the case?
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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching

Isaiah 38:8 – Did God turn back time?

Problem: Isaiah said, “‘I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.’ So the sun’s shadow went back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down” (Isa. 38:8). Did God turn back time?
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Posted by petra1000 in Bible Difficulty, Bible Study, Bible Teaching