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A New Translation of Isaiah: Based on Ancient Scrolls and Texts
200 pages, Paperback
Published April 27, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 13, 2026
From a Latter-day Saint standpoint, this is an excellent resource for studying the book of Isaiah. The verses are arranged in such a way that makes it very easy to read and understand—in poetic formatting and with section headings throughout each chapter.
The incorporation of JST and Book of Mormon readings is useful, but sometimes it muddles what the original Isaiah reading is. Personally, I think it might have been a little better had the JST reading been reproduced in the margin on the side for easy comparison. Regardless, the way it is in the book is well-set to provide a very Latter-day Saint view of the text. I would only prefer JST in the margins so I can more clearly understand what Joseph Smith and others intend by their differences with the traditional Isaiah text.
There’s also only a minor issue of interpretation I noticed—that being apparently identifying יהוה as “none other than” Jesus Christ in both Latter-day Saint tradition and at least the book of Isaiah. Latter-day Saints identify Jehovah/Yahweh as Jesus Christ’s pre-mortal name. That’s just fine. But I think that absolutizing leaders’ statements to the effect that every inscription of the divine name must be Jesus Christ is difficult, especially considering the fluidity of names for deity in both the Biblical texts as a whole (which regularly conflate El, Elohim, and Yahweh in our current text except for a couple exceptions like Deut 32:8-9) in Latter-day Saint scripture (D&C 109:29-34), and discourses on deity before the Jehovah-Elohim standardization in the 1916 first presidency message, “The Father and the Son.” This is only a minor issue that doesn’t impact reading this book very much, but it does reinforce the misconception that we can differentiate in scripture where the Father is speaking, and where the Son is speaking.
The language of Isaiah is also modernized in this book, which helps significantly for study. This and the parallelism formatting makes comprehension a much easier task. Many of the footnotes detailing particularities about the Hebrew manuscripts and word definitions were also useful. Overall, this is a great help for Latter-day Saints beginning their work to study the seemingly unapproachable text of KJV Isaiah.
The incorporation of JST and Book of Mormon readings is useful, but sometimes it muddles what the original Isaiah reading is. Personally, I think it might have been a little better had the JST reading been reproduced in the margin on the side for easy comparison. Regardless, the way it is in the book is well-set to provide a very Latter-day Saint view of the text. I would only prefer JST in the margins so I can more clearly understand what Joseph Smith and others intend by their differences with the traditional Isaiah text.
There’s also only a minor issue of interpretation I noticed—that being apparently identifying יהוה as “none other than” Jesus Christ in both Latter-day Saint tradition and at least the book of Isaiah. Latter-day Saints identify Jehovah/Yahweh as Jesus Christ’s pre-mortal name. That’s just fine. But I think that absolutizing leaders’ statements to the effect that every inscription of the divine name must be Jesus Christ is difficult, especially considering the fluidity of names for deity in both the Biblical texts as a whole (which regularly conflate El, Elohim, and Yahweh in our current text except for a couple exceptions like Deut 32:8-9) in Latter-day Saint scripture (D&C 109:29-34), and discourses on deity before the Jehovah-Elohim standardization in the 1916 first presidency message, “The Father and the Son.” This is only a minor issue that doesn’t impact reading this book very much, but it does reinforce the misconception that we can differentiate in scripture where the Father is speaking, and where the Son is speaking.
The language of Isaiah is also modernized in this book, which helps significantly for study. This and the parallelism formatting makes comprehension a much easier task. Many of the footnotes detailing particularities about the Hebrew manuscripts and word definitions were also useful. Overall, this is a great help for Latter-day Saints beginning their work to study the seemingly unapproachable text of KJV Isaiah.
June 9, 2026
The writings of the prophet Isaiah have historically served as a central yet difficult pillar within the Latter-day Saint tradition, often obscured by the linguistic limitations of seventeenth-century English of the King James Version. In his latest volume, A New Translation of Isaiah: Based on Ancient Scrolls and Texts, Donald W. Parry, a professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, offers a specialized translation that synthesizes Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship with Joseph Smith’s translation projects. This work represents the culmination of a trilogy, providing a readable, structurally oriented text designed for a modern audience while maintaining a foundation in rigorous manuscript analysis. From an academic perspective, the volume is a significant exercise in translation for a specific faith community, creating a unified toolkit that bridges the gap between ancient Near Eastern texts and nineteenth-century revelation.
Textual Basis and Translation Philosophy
The primary scholarly contribution of this volume is Parry’s use of the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls, alongside the medieval Masoretic Text (MT). As a member of the International Team of Translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Parry utilizes his access to the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts to correct passages that appear corrupted or unexpected in traditional versions. A couple of examples include changing the word “seer” in Isaiah 21:8—where the MT and KJV read “lion”—and “witnesses” in Isaiah 33:8—where the MT and KJV read “cities.”
Parry’s translation philosophy follows the language of the King James Version to a significant degree, preserving its familiar cadence. Yet, he modernizes and corrects it where the seventeenth-century English has become obsolete or inaccurate. He chooses to modernize archaic pronouns such as thou, ye, and saith, arguing that these forms often hinder the comprehension of many readers. At the same time, he stays true to Hebraic wording, such as the construct form “House of the Lord” and the characteristic, “and it came to pass,” which serve to anchor the text in its original ancient Near Eastern literary context. His commentary in the footnotes isn’t strongly interpretive and focuses primarily on translation notes and variants.
Methodological Integration of Restoration Scripture
What distinguishes this volume from a strictly critical or secular edition is its explicit integration of the Restoration’s textual corpus. Parry incorporates dozens of variants from the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) and the Book of Mormon, demarcating these additions and corrections with brackets. This results in a “composite” translation that treats nineteenth-century revelations as valid textual witnesses alongside 175 BC Qumran scrolls. This approach provides a cohesive narrative for the Latter-day Saint reader. Parry further utilizes his expertise in Hebrew poetics to organize the text into many parallelistic and chiastic structures. By formatting these “rhymes of thought,” he aims to clarify the methodical logic underlying Isaiah’s message in modern formatting that makes the structure of the text clearer.
A particularly innovative methodological choice is the identification of approximately sixty distinct speakers throughout the text. Because Isaiah’s artistic delivery frequently shifts perspectives without explicit markers, discerning between the Lord, Isaiah, or entities like “Lady Zion” can be difficult. Parry provides provisional assignments for these speakers in the left-hand column of the translation, based on textual clues and interpretation.
As might be expected for a translation produced before the change to the handbook allowing for more translations to be used in the Church, Parry is transparent about the volume’s status. He states explicitly that it does not replace the King James Version and is neither “authoritative” nor “official.” It is presented as a study resource, yet its scholarly and professional background ensures that it rises above mere devotional summary.
As a side note, this publication feels like an indication of a good direction in FAIR becoming a publishing house in Mormon Studies. I find it encouraging to have another press, alongside the BYU RSC, Greg Kofford Books, and Oxford University Press, that is positioned to print these types of high-quality scripture editions and translations for Latter-day Saints.
Conclusion
Donald W. Parry’s A New Translation of Isaiah represents a specialized contribution to the expanding corpus of Restoration-centered biblical scholarship. It functions effectively as a structural and textual bridge, offering a readable edition that accounts for both the antiquity of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the theological developments of the Restoration. While the bracketed inclusion of Book of Mormon and JST variants creates a categorical hybrid that diverges from strictly secular critical methodology, Parry is consistent in his approach. For the student of Mormon history and philosophy seeking a resource that synthesizes manuscript evidence with modern revelation, this volume provides a rigorous linguistic framework. It serves as a testament to Parry’s specialized expertise and is a valuable resource for Latter-day Saint readers.
Textual Basis and Translation Philosophy
The primary scholarly contribution of this volume is Parry’s use of the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls, alongside the medieval Masoretic Text (MT). As a member of the International Team of Translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Parry utilizes his access to the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts to correct passages that appear corrupted or unexpected in traditional versions. A couple of examples include changing the word “seer” in Isaiah 21:8—where the MT and KJV read “lion”—and “witnesses” in Isaiah 33:8—where the MT and KJV read “cities.”
Parry’s translation philosophy follows the language of the King James Version to a significant degree, preserving its familiar cadence. Yet, he modernizes and corrects it where the seventeenth-century English has become obsolete or inaccurate. He chooses to modernize archaic pronouns such as thou, ye, and saith, arguing that these forms often hinder the comprehension of many readers. At the same time, he stays true to Hebraic wording, such as the construct form “House of the Lord” and the characteristic, “and it came to pass,” which serve to anchor the text in its original ancient Near Eastern literary context. His commentary in the footnotes isn’t strongly interpretive and focuses primarily on translation notes and variants.
Methodological Integration of Restoration Scripture
What distinguishes this volume from a strictly critical or secular edition is its explicit integration of the Restoration’s textual corpus. Parry incorporates dozens of variants from the Joseph Smith Translation (JST) and the Book of Mormon, demarcating these additions and corrections with brackets. This results in a “composite” translation that treats nineteenth-century revelations as valid textual witnesses alongside 175 BC Qumran scrolls. This approach provides a cohesive narrative for the Latter-day Saint reader. Parry further utilizes his expertise in Hebrew poetics to organize the text into many parallelistic and chiastic structures. By formatting these “rhymes of thought,” he aims to clarify the methodical logic underlying Isaiah’s message in modern formatting that makes the structure of the text clearer.
A particularly innovative methodological choice is the identification of approximately sixty distinct speakers throughout the text. Because Isaiah’s artistic delivery frequently shifts perspectives without explicit markers, discerning between the Lord, Isaiah, or entities like “Lady Zion” can be difficult. Parry provides provisional assignments for these speakers in the left-hand column of the translation, based on textual clues and interpretation.
As might be expected for a translation produced before the change to the handbook allowing for more translations to be used in the Church, Parry is transparent about the volume’s status. He states explicitly that it does not replace the King James Version and is neither “authoritative” nor “official.” It is presented as a study resource, yet its scholarly and professional background ensures that it rises above mere devotional summary.
As a side note, this publication feels like an indication of a good direction in FAIR becoming a publishing house in Mormon Studies. I find it encouraging to have another press, alongside the BYU RSC, Greg Kofford Books, and Oxford University Press, that is positioned to print these types of high-quality scripture editions and translations for Latter-day Saints.
Conclusion
Donald W. Parry’s A New Translation of Isaiah represents a specialized contribution to the expanding corpus of Restoration-centered biblical scholarship. It functions effectively as a structural and textual bridge, offering a readable edition that accounts for both the antiquity of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the theological developments of the Restoration. While the bracketed inclusion of Book of Mormon and JST variants creates a categorical hybrid that diverges from strictly secular critical methodology, Parry is consistent in his approach. For the student of Mormon history and philosophy seeking a resource that synthesizes manuscript evidence with modern revelation, this volume provides a rigorous linguistic framework. It serves as a testament to Parry’s specialized expertise and is a valuable resource for Latter-day Saint readers.
May 4, 2026
BYU Professor Donald Parry brings to bear his masterful handling of Biblical Hebrew translation, poetry, and textual criticism in this volume--"A New Translation of Isaiah: Based on Ancient Scrolls and Texts." Dr. Parry is an expert with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and has been studying and publishing on the book of Isaiah for decades. Multiple features of this volume make it a vital addition to any Latter-day Saint library.
Dr. Parry does not attempt to hide his bias--the first thing discussed in the volume's introduction is making known the Christ-centered approach to the text. Next, he gives general background into various aspects of the text: difficulties, manuscript traditions, editions and lexica consulted, JST and Book of Mormon variants, and more. Notably, he includes several nuggets of wisdom accumulated over his many years of study, such as reasons why we should study Isaiah in the first place. He then provides some brief historical context, and discusses his translation philosophy in detail.
Readers will benefit most from Dr. Parry's expertise in Hebrew poetry, and especially parallelisms. This edition formats the text to make these clear--a helpful change from the dreary and stiff two-column format in the official editions of the LDS scriptures. Another helpful feature of this volume is the identify of the speaker is given in bold font in the left margin of the page. This is extremely helpful, as it is not always easy to tell who is speaking in English translation. A third wonderful feature of this translation is textual variants from the JST and Book of Mormon are provided in-text in brackets (as well as supplied pronouns). This alerts the reader to manuscript differences, will still maintaining readability. Yet another feature is his further sub-division and labeling of pericopes (smaller units of text) rather than simply modern chapter/verse divisions.
One feature I wish could have been incorporated is more textual notes at the bottom of the page. I would rather have liked to see more variant readings between the Masoretic Text and especially the Septuagint. I also wish some focus could have been on prioritizing the consonantal text over and against the MT. However, that may be outside the scope of this book, which is directed to the average Latter-day Saint.
The book is extremely well-built. The font is large (not too-large) and readable. I handled both a hardcover and softcover copy, and they are both great. Unfortunately, it appears that glue binding was used, so it may not hold up to heavy use. The cover is also prone to getting fingerprints on it--after only one use this was highly noticeable. However, that means the volume is affordable, which to me is an acceptable trade-off. I do love the amount of page space that allows for notes and markings, though I wish that the speaker indicators were allocated to the outside margins (left margin on the left page; right margin on the right page)--rather than being on the left side of the page for both left and right pages--so as to not interrupt the flow of the text. Overall, though, superb formatting.
Whether you're reading the book of Isaiah straight through or using this as a reference work, Dr. Parry's translation is absolutely invaluable and informative. Latter-day Saints who want to grow their understanding of the text and obey the Savior's declaration to "seek diligently" these words should seriously consider picking up a copy.
Dr. Parry does not attempt to hide his bias--the first thing discussed in the volume's introduction is making known the Christ-centered approach to the text. Next, he gives general background into various aspects of the text: difficulties, manuscript traditions, editions and lexica consulted, JST and Book of Mormon variants, and more. Notably, he includes several nuggets of wisdom accumulated over his many years of study, such as reasons why we should study Isaiah in the first place. He then provides some brief historical context, and discusses his translation philosophy in detail.
Readers will benefit most from Dr. Parry's expertise in Hebrew poetry, and especially parallelisms. This edition formats the text to make these clear--a helpful change from the dreary and stiff two-column format in the official editions of the LDS scriptures. Another helpful feature of this volume is the identify of the speaker is given in bold font in the left margin of the page. This is extremely helpful, as it is not always easy to tell who is speaking in English translation. A third wonderful feature of this translation is textual variants from the JST and Book of Mormon are provided in-text in brackets (as well as supplied pronouns). This alerts the reader to manuscript differences, will still maintaining readability. Yet another feature is his further sub-division and labeling of pericopes (smaller units of text) rather than simply modern chapter/verse divisions.
One feature I wish could have been incorporated is more textual notes at the bottom of the page. I would rather have liked to see more variant readings between the Masoretic Text and especially the Septuagint. I also wish some focus could have been on prioritizing the consonantal text over and against the MT. However, that may be outside the scope of this book, which is directed to the average Latter-day Saint.
The book is extremely well-built. The font is large (not too-large) and readable. I handled both a hardcover and softcover copy, and they are both great. Unfortunately, it appears that glue binding was used, so it may not hold up to heavy use. The cover is also prone to getting fingerprints on it--after only one use this was highly noticeable. However, that means the volume is affordable, which to me is an acceptable trade-off. I do love the amount of page space that allows for notes and markings, though I wish that the speaker indicators were allocated to the outside margins (left margin on the left page; right margin on the right page)--rather than being on the left side of the page for both left and right pages--so as to not interrupt the flow of the text. Overall, though, superb formatting.
Whether you're reading the book of Isaiah straight through or using this as a reference work, Dr. Parry's translation is absolutely invaluable and informative. Latter-day Saints who want to grow their understanding of the text and obey the Savior's declaration to "seek diligently" these words should seriously consider picking up a copy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews