Isaiah

New International Biblical Commentary

by John E. Goldingay, Robert Hubbard (Foreword), Robert Johnston (Foreword)

The book of Isaiah depicts for its readers what happens when Isaiah volunteers to become Yahweh's gofer--when he acts and speaks on Yahweh's behalf with Yahweh's authority. In this careful and insightful commentary on Isaiah, Goldingay unfolds the voices and messages of those prophetic actions and experiences. While doing this he points out that three attributes of Yahweh come into distinctive focus in Isaiah: Yahweh's majesty and authority, Yahweh's passion in anger and compassion, and Yahweh's insight and capacity to formulate a plan and put it into effect. Goldingay also examines the way Isaiah thinks about the people of God and the relationship between the vision of who they could be, the reality of who they were, the calamity of that contrast, and ultimately the promise Yahweh offers to them.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Christianity

548 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

John Goldingay is David Allan Hubbard Professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. An internationally respected Old Testament scholar, Goldingay is the author of many commentaries and books.

Reviews

[Stephen Bedard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good solid commentary on Isaiah, a book important not just for the Old Testament but the New as well. This commentary doesn't have as much detail as some other series but will give the reader at least an introduction to the issues. Great for preachers and students of the Bible.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goldingay first outlines the historical setting for the various main divisions of the book and broad themes, and then examines the book pericope by pericope. While some Hebrew word play and meanings come into the discussion (usually to point out to English readers connections that would be missed without this knowledge). For the most part, Goldingay focuses on the broad meaning of the text to the original hearers. He rarely if ever discusses the literary techniques used to convey the message beyond some Hebrew word play. At the end of each section there are notes/comments about various passages, these notes usually focus on discussing passages that have proven hard to translate, and very occasionally talk about the way passages were re-understood in New Testament times.

I decided to study Isaiah for my devotions during the Christmas break, since passages from Isaiah are frequently quoted at this time of year. Ironically enough, this commentary does not focus very much on the Messianic re-understandings of various passages throughout the book, instead focusing on the meaning of the passages for the hearers at the time of original writing. It was an educational look at the messages for the various Jewish communities before, during and after conquering by Assyrians and Babylon. Goldingay does a great job in bringing out patterns of teaching so as to make the points more clear than a drawn out surface reading of the text in English is able to do. I learned quite a bit from this commentary. At the same time, I sometimes found it surprising when a section was covered that was quoted in the New Testament and Goldingay didn't even mention it. I also don't think I've ever read a commentary that comments so very little on the literary techniques of the writing. Goldingay does mention chiasms in the text and some Hebrew words that sound/look alike, but that's pretty much it. Not that either of those emissions are bad things, just to warn you if you are looking on information on Messianic texts, New Testament quotes of Isaiah, or literary technique of the writers of Isaiah, you probably want to look somewhere else.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took more than ten months to finish this, but I genuinely appreciated how the commentary helped me to understand the book of Isaiah better. Sometimes the notes can be super dense, so my actual comprehension was very low sometimes--curse my short attention span! Goldingay manages to incorporate historical context tidbits with some pretty good general insights, so the book overall isn't TOO academic/esoteric. Anyhow, definitely different from just reading Isaiah straight, trying to guess what everything means on my own.