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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 - 2 of 2 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.
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.
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