Isaiah for Everyone

by John E. Goldingay

Westminster John Knox Press is pleased to present the seventeen-volume Old Testament for Everyone series. Internationally respected Old Testament scholar John Goldingay addresses Scripture from Genesis to Malachi in such a way that even the most challenging passages are explained simply and concisely. The series is perfect for daily devotions, group study, or personal visits with the Bible. In this volume on Isaiah, Goldingay explores the first of the great prophetic books. Isaiah is a compilation of the prophetic messages of several prophets. Their messages to the people of Judah and Jerusalem included a call for injustice to be recognized, a message of liberation and hope from the oppressors of the people, and a message of the coming day of judgment. These separate messages are held together by the promise of a new age of redemption and peace that lies beyond the crisis of judgment.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Old Testament, Reference, Ebooks

274 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 2015

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

[Jeanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Isaiah is a difficult book to understand and appreciate. This is a good resource among many and I would recommend this to anyone who desires to get a grasp on the study of Isaiah. The bible study has the book of Isaiah in print for you to read in order. I felt the bible reading should have been done in shorter verses because there is so much there that it can be confusing to see how the commentary and verses relate. With that said, if it was broken down more, the book would have been twice the size. With each verse is a commentary on what God was doing with the people of Israel and how our world today looks in regards to what was happening to the nation of Israel. How Israel rejected the Lord and the Lord's worship. What a hard heart towards God looks like as the people of Israel trusted the strength of nations around them. Isaiah is also a hard book because it deals with the wrath of God but it also gives hope that all things will be made right in the suffering servant of Jesus Christ.

A Special Thank you to Westminster John Knox Press and Netgalley for ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

[Brent · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest I didn't finish this book. Mostly, I didn't care for the author's writing style and found him a bit off putting. However due to other resources and a good group of friends I did rather enjoy my study of Isaiah and came through it with a better understanding than I previously had.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Goldingay is a professor of Old Testament at my alma mater -- Fuller Theological Seminary. He came to Fuller after I had finished my studies, so I didn't have him as a professor. This is another in the series of brief devotional commentaries that join with N.T. Wright's series on the New Testament to provide a successor to the successful Daily Bible Study series that was published several decades back.

In this volume Goldingay takes on the always challenging book of Isaiah. To show how far evangelical Bible scholarship has come, without a wink or a nod, Goldingay accepts the premise that Isaiah has multiple authors, being written over a period of several centuries, beginning in the 8th century and concluding some time after the end of the exile.

Goldingay identifies six separate sections within the book: Chapters 1-12 comprise messages about Judah and Jerusalem during the reign of King Ahaz. Chapters 13-23 focus on the surrounding nations, giving reference again to Ahaz. Cahpters 24-27 give attention to the destiny of the world without referencing a particular monarch. Chapters 28-39 feature messages about Judah and Jerusalem, giving reference to Hezekiah. In the next several chapters we jump well into the future. Chapters 40-55 feature messages about Judah and Jerusalem, while referencing Cyrus, the Persian monarch who conquered the Babylonian empire at the end of the 6th century BC. It was Cyrus who allowed the exiles to return home and eventually rebuild their city. This Cyrus is pictured in near messianic terms. Finally in chapters 56-66 we find discussions of Judah and Jerusalem, but no particular monarch being mentioned.

The commentary features a fresh translation on the part of Goldingay. It is free-flowing and modern. Familiar passages, thus, don't always sound familiar. After the text is given, Goldingay begins his commentary with a brief personal aside that normally fits what is to come. Then comes the text itself. It is not intended to be a scholarly exegetical commentary. It reads devotionally. You get a sense that Goldingay is simply sitting down, reading the text, and offering a near extemporaneous reflection on a text he knows very well.

This is a moderate, thoughtful, and useful commentary that would be very useful for preachers and lay persons, much as Barclay's commentaries on the New Testament were in a previous era.

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is a retired professor of Old Testament from Fuller Theological Seminary in California, and an ordained Anglican priest (Church of England). This book on Isaiah is one of many books he wrote - in this one he gives his own translation, organized passage by passage, with his own commentary on each passage. He explains the historical context and the theological meanings. He understands the book as the product of several prophets - the original Isaiah lived during the reigns of the Judahite kings Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the kingdom of Judah was being threatened by the Assyrians, and this basically accounts for chapters 1-29 of Isaiah. Chapters 40-55 reflect the period after the Babylonian empire, which had conquered and destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 587 BC, was itself conquered by the Persians. Cyrus of Persia allowed the Jews to return to Judea (not that they all did). The remaining chapters, 56-66, the author says, reflect some years later, corresponding roughly to the period described in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Throughout the entire book, God is speaking to and through the prophets to His people of whom so many were unfaithful. He promises their ultimate restoration - the New Testament book of Revelation's final chapters draw on this from Isaiah.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an Old Testament bible study, whether for themselves of for a group they are in.

[Tim Chesterton · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to understanding the book of Isaiah in its original setting(s), I've found this to be by far the most accessible and helpful commentary I've ever read. It's not verse by verse and it's not 1000 pages long, so if you're looking for thorough technical exegesis, this is not the book for you. But if you simply want to do your daily Bible reading with confidence that you're getting the nuances the original readers would have gotten, I highly recommend this book.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great and concise commentary for getting a sense of what the prophecies meant to the original audience, but the author is almost completely uninterested in making connections to the New Testament and how Christians came to see Isaiah's ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. And for me, that's a major fail.

[Iain Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was first introduced to John’s work at the beginning of the year when studying Genesis. When I first began reading his work I was confused that his work wasn’t ‘Christ centred’. Upon reading his book “Reading Jesus’s Bible” and a few email exchanges, he really helped me understand his position of being “God focussed” when reading the Old Testament.

Being brought up in a church which just labelled any nice act or character in the passage as “Jesus”, I have come to appreciate that the God of the Old Testament and indeed Jesus Himself IS God. It was the same God that continually bore the sins of Israel who finally came to bear sin on the cross.

In the past I have always read any nice part of Isaiah as being about Jesus however God was being nice to Israel! We need to remember the immediate context BEFORE using those passages to help us understand the life and work of Jesus.

I have truly benefitted from Goldingay’s work and would recommend it to everyone.

[Bernard Pinner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could not get my head round Isaiah.

A minister friend suggested that i try John as he is easy to understand. Am I pleased that I took his advice. This book took the confusion and allowed me to enjoy Isaiah whilst drawing out a clear outline of the book. It is not a concise commentary but a great starting place to encourage you to further study.

[Rachel Adrianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

e-book via Hoopla

I LOVE using this series of commentaries! Goldingay provides a personal, anecdotal context for the Scripture passages as well as linguistic, historical, and cultural context. I read this commentary alongside Melissa Spoelstra's Isaiah study with my women's Bible study group at church.

[Rebecca Davidson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish this book. I didn't appreciate some of his opinions, which were entirely unnecessary to put into a book for 'everyone' when they weren't even opinions on Isaiah... I wanted to actually read Isaiah and this book was not helping.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
This wasn’t bad, and I wouldn’t not recommend it. I think it just didn’t do much for me. The translation seems strange; not necessarily wrong, but just strange. That was an obstacle for me, getting the oddness.

[Natasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite a hard translation to follow but the little narratives were interesting

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really appreciate The Old Testament for everyone series. Each of these books breaks down the scriptures with commentary that explain concepts and historical significance. Highly recommend this series!