The book of Isaiah chronologically arranged : an amended version with historical and critical introductions and explanatory notes

Preface

THE present work is a fragment of a much larger one , planned by the editor several years ago. He was induced to. abridge his scheme by the urgent necessity which appeared to exist for works of moderate size and accurate information on the most: important books of the Old Testament. He trusts, therefore, that teachers of theology may find this attempt a convenient substratum for their own more extended instruction, and at the same time ventures to hope that the independent researches, which have accompanied the writing of every part of it, will recommend it to the attention of professional scholars. The object of this edition is not in the least connected with the recent movement for a revision of the Authorized Version : — it is simply to restore the probable meaning of Isaiah, so far as this can be expressed in appropriate English. The basis of the version is naturally the revised translation of 1611, but no scruple has been felt in introducing alterations, wherever the true sense of the prophecies appeared to require it. These might indeed have been largely increased, but the affectionate reverence with which the Authorized Version is so justly regarded, appeared to demand that changes should not be made for any but comparatively grave reasons.

vi PREFACE.

The obligations of the editor to German critical works of all schools are too numerous to be expressed. His greatest are those to Ewald, whose work on the Prophets is certainly the most important contribution ever made to the study of this subject. But many other writers, whose names are unfamiliar to the English reader, have suggested ideas, or originated trains of thought, which could hardly have been arrived at without their assistance. To mention a few only would be an injustice to the rest, but the editor would be ungrateful were he not to acknowledge the valuable information he has frequently derived from the notes of Delitzsch. English books on Isaiah have not been neglected, but have scarcely influenced this commentary to any appreciable extent

The references made in the following pages to the editor's 'Notes and Criticisms on the Hebrew Text of Isaiah' are given for the benefit of the less advanced student. The editor conceives that much of the information in ithat little work is not accessible to an English reader in any other form, and confidently believes that the method of philological inquiry there adopted is the only one likely to be fruitful of solid results.

Oxford, May 2, 1870.

Section I. The prophetic career of Isaiah

II. The writings of Isaiah.

III. Rise of the controversy respecting authorship.

IV. Arguments in favour of the unity of authorship. V. Arguments against the imity of authorship.

VI. How came Babylonian prophecies to be inserted in Isaiah ? VII. Characteristics of the prophets of the exile. VIII. The Hebrew text of Isaiah.

SECTION I.

The prophetic career of Isaiah.

LITTLE is known of the personal history of Isaiah. A Rabbinical legend identifies his father with a brother of the Jewish king, Amaziah, and this, though probably unhistorical, implies a correct appreciation of his character and capacities. The lofty bearing of the prophet in his intercourse with Ahaz and Hezekiah, and his statesmanlike interest in the fortunes, not only of his own, but of other countries, are a sufficient justification of this instructive story. The scene of his ministry was never shifted from Jerusalem, and his audience was for the most part, confined to the prosperous and educated classes^. It is true that some of the latter appear to have derided his exhortations^, but this must have been owing rather to the monotony of his subject, and his continual appeals to the conscience, than to any deficiency of oratorical power. His discourses, at any rate, in the form in which they are now extant, presuppose in their author a high degree of literary cultivation, received, as we may not unfairly i Cp. Isa. xxix. II, p. d^. ^ Cp. Isa. xxviii. lo, p. 6i.

viii INTRODUCTION.

conjecture, in the * schools of the prophets/ In this respect we may contrast Isaiah with his gifted predecessor, Amos, who distinctly admits^ that he was no educated prophet, and no prophet's scholar. But however acquired, there is a classical sense of proportion in Isaiah, which we fail to trace in the same degree in any other prophet, and which implies a systematic training superadded to an original genius. Of Isaiah's literary characteristics we shall' speak presently ; it will be sufficient to remark here that, like the prophets in general, he devoted a careful study to the ideas and even the phraseology of his predecessors, as a comparison of the following passages, which might easily be added to, will sufficiently prove.

Isa. i. II, 14. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? saith Jehovah ; I am full of the burnt oflferings of rams and the fat of fed calves, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. . . . Your new moons and your holy days my soul hateth, they are a trouble unto me, I am weary of bearing.

Comp. Amos v. 21, 22, and Hos. vi. 6. I hate, I despise your feast days, and will not smell a sweet savour in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them, neither will I regard the thank offerings of your fat beasts.

For I delight in charity, and not in sacrifice ; and in the knowledge of God more than in burnt offerings.

Isa. iii. 9. The look of their countenance witnessed against them, and their sin they published as Sodom without disguise ; alas for their soul, for they have wrought for themselves evil.

Comp. Hos. V. 5. The pride of Israel doth testify to his face : therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall for their iniquity.

^ Amos vii. 14.

INTRODUCTION. ix

Isa. iv. 2. In that day shall the buds of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land a pride and an ornament for them that are escaped of Israel.

Comp. Joel iii. i8; Amos ix. 13 ; Hos. ii. 21, 22. In that day the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with water, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth ^eed ; and the mountains shall drop new wine, and all the hills shall melt.

In that day I will answer, saith Jehovah, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth; and the earth shall answer the corn, and the wine, and the oil ; and they shall answer Jezreel.

Isa. X. 23 (comp. xxviii. 22). For destruction by a sure, decree wijl Jehovah of Hosts perform in the midst of all the earth.

Comp. Joel iii. 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of the sure decree : for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of the sure decree.

It is altogether uncertain when the prophetic career of Isaiah began. The superscription of chap, i asserts that he ' saw visions' as early as the reign of Uzziah, but this is probably a mere editorial inference from the first verse of chap, vi (p. 22). We are informed in the latter passage that Isaiah passed through a grave moral and religious crisis, which ended in his attaining the conviction of his Divine mission, in the year of Uzziah's death, b. c. 758, that is, shortly before that event. But there is no ground for ascribing any of the extant prophecies to the reign of Uzziah, nor even (with perhaps one exception, see p. 5) to that of Jotham,

X INTRODUCTION.

It was the rapid decline of the nation under the feeble sway of Ahazj and its imminent danger first from Syria and then from Assyria, which aroused the slumbering energies of the impatient prophet. The reign of Ahaz, and the former half of the reign of Hezekiah, may to a great extent be reconstructed from the prophecies of Isaiah,

The latest occasions known to us, on which Isaiah exercised his public functions, are recorded in chaps, xxxvi-xxxix^. One of the uncontested prophecies, however, belongs in all probability to a still more recent period. If we are not mistaken in assigning the oracle on the fortunes of Egypt (chap, xix) to the year 700 B.C., he must have been then almost eighty years of age^ He had probably long retired from active life, and occupied a part of his leisure in developing the Messianic doctrine, i. e. the ultimate triumph of Jehovah's sovereignty, in relation to the races excluded from the covenant with Israel. The great thought of a personal Messiah is now supplemented by that of the spiritual brotherhood of all nations. Egypt and Assyria, as representatives of the Gentile world, are admitted to a share of the privileges hitherto restricted to the Israelites, a bright and cheering picture not imworthy of the close of a prophetic ministry !

The plan of this work does not allow us to attempt a complete sketch of Isaiah's religious position. With all his originality, our prophet was indebted for his most essential doctrine to Joel, Amos, and Hosea, his predecessors. The claims of Jehovah to undivided allegiance were preached by the latter with a fervid enthusiasm, which

^ See remarks on pp. 101-103.

2 It is just possible, however, that the age of Isaiah has been exaggerated. If we accept the latest account of the Assyrian chronology, the length of his prophetic career would be reduced by about twenty years. See ' The Annals of Tiglath-Pileser II,' by George Smith, in Lepsius's ' Zeitschrift fur agyptische Sprache und Alterthumskunde,' Jan. 1869.

INTRODUCTION. xi

even Isaiah could not surpass, though his capacity for influencing the higher classes of society enabled him to preach the same doctrine with more striking results. Yet these results, imperfect and transitory as they proved to be, are not the highest honours of vi^hich Isaiah can boast. His place in the aflfections of all succeeding generations is due to the fact that he was, perhaps, the first to preach in distinct terms the doctrines of a personal Messiah and of the spiritual brotherhood of all nations. He foresaw that in the awful 'day of Jehovah,' which former prophets had announceid, few even of the chosen people should pass the ordeal, and so deep was his conviction of this that he expressed it in the name of one of his sons. Shear Jashub, 'a rerhnant shall return ^' But he was too ' bold,' as -St. Paul says^, to terminate his speculations at so early a point. By combining the doctrine of the few that should be saved with that of the necessary triumph of Jehovah's kingdom, he was prepared to receive a new and grand revelation. He saw, in prophetic vision, an exalted personage ascending the throne of David, who should attract the whole world into voluntary submission to his rule. Not that his intuition of this great truth was at all moments equally clear. We shall find reason to suppose that^the germ im- , planted in his mind in the reign of Ahaz only attained its full proportions in his extreme old age^. But even from the first there are hints, which we can understand better than Isaiah himself, of the glorious future in which all mankind should participate. And thus to the twofold elementary doctrine of the sole divinity of Jehovah and the av^^ul strictness of the impending judgment a fellow-truth was added, viz. that of the personal Messiah, which developed finally into the crowning doctrine of the spiritual equality of all nations.

3 Cp. notes on pp. 31, 87.

xu INTRODUCTION.

SECTION 11.

The writings of Isaiah.

A few hints may be offered as to the origin of the Book of Isaiah in its earliest form, i. e. in that which it presented before the addition of chaps, xl-lxvi, and certain other chapters, which we have reason to assign to a later age. It would be natural to a student unfamiliar with the subject to suppose that Isaiah wrote down his prophecies as soon as they were delivered, and thus gradually formed the collection before us. But this is not confirmed by a closer examination. Jeremiah informs us^ that in the twenty-third year of his ministry he dictated the first summary of his discourses, and though such direct evidence is wanting in the case of Isaiah, there are not many prophecies which can be fairly regarded as representing his original words. The attention, which he evidently bestowed on the form of his prophecies, of itself excludes this idea in the majority of instances, while some, such as those which relate to foreign nations, were of course written down without ever having been delivered at all. With this exception, however, we may reasonably consider the extant prophecies of Isaiah to be reproductions, in a condensed form, of the main outlines of his public teaching. The analyses prefixed to the several groups of prophecies in this edition will further illustrate this, and the case of Jeremiah will prove, if proof be necessary, that the memory of a prophet was strong enough to retain the ideas of a long series of discourses.

In fact, the Book of Isaiah, properly so called, appears to be composed of several smaller books or prophetic collections, the three first of which were published, as internal evidence shews, by ^ Jer. xxxvi. 2, comp. xxv. 3.

INTRODUCTION. xiii

the prophet himself. The chapter which opens the book, in the traditional arrangement, is evidently intended as a general introduction to a large group of prophecies. It is impossible, however, to trace any distinct connection between that chapter and the three following ones, which certainly constitute a single homogeneous prophecy. Equally difficult is it to trace a connection between chap, i and chaps, vi-x. 4 ; the latter chapters, with the exception of ix. 8-x. 4 (see p. 5), are as distinct and homogeneous as the prophecy already mentioned. But there is a striking resemblance between the historical circumstances implied in chap, i and those in the minor prophecies on foreign nations (see pp. 35- 49). All these prophecies appear to have been composed in the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah, when the neighbouring tribes - took advantage of the accession of a new sovereign to harass the Jewish territory, and when the shadow of the Assyrian power fell dangerously near the south of Palestine. On the other hand, the prophecy (x. 5~xii. 6), which now precedes the foreign oracles, evidently" implies a still further progress of the Assyrian aggressions. We are therefore compelled to admit that it interrupts thie original order of the prophecies, and to conjecture that, in a hopeful mood supervening on the accession of Hezekiah, Isaiah published a new and enlarged edition of his works, consisting of, the two prophetic writings already in circulation (ii-v, and vi-ix. 7), supplemented by the minor prophecies on foreign nations. On the death or retirement of Isaiah additions may have been made, and the arrangement of the prophecies modified, by his disciples ^ when collecting the fugitive *relics ^of their departed master. Thus, for instance, they seem to have completed the scanty collection of foreign prophecies by the insertion of others of a more recent date. Thus, too, we ^ Cp. Isa. viii. 16, p. 29.

xiv INTRODUCTION.

may suppose them to have placed x. 5-xii. 6 in its present position as a parallel to the analogous prophecy of Immanuel. (On ix. 8-x. 4, see pp. 5, 6.) The entire book was concluded by the important group of prophecies on the Assyrian invasion (xxviiixxxiii), in order, perhaps, to counterbalance the stern admonitions of the opening chapter with the consolatory promises of chaps, xxxii and xxxiii.

The literary characteristics of Isaiah cannot be better described than in the words of Ewald. ' He is distinguished from other prophets by the absence of any special peculiarity. His style is not like that of Joel, Hosea, and Micah, in which some particular aspect, the lyrical, the elegiac, or the oratorical, generally predominates, for he is the perfect master of every kind of style, which the nature of his subject may demand. The habitual tone of his discourse is a lofty and majestic tranquillity, which does not indeed prevent him from now and then expressing a natural excitement or indignation, but which soon reasserts its claim to paramount dominion.' (See ii. 9-iii. i, xxviii. 11-23, xxix. 9-14^) His rhythm is full and vigorous, his imagery natural, his plays upon words not merely arbitrary, but connected with a real antithesis of ideas. Sometimes his love of pregnant conciseness leads him into obscurity, but this is the exception and kiot the rule, and is probably owing in part to the errors and corruptions of the received text. Not the least of his excellences is his unenvious recognition of the merits of earlier prophets, which induced him on at least two occasions to insert passages from their works, and so to open a new chapter in the history of Hebrew literature ^-

Besides being a prophet, Isaiah was a historian, possibly also a psalmist. The compiler of the Chronicles informs us^ that

* ' Die Propheten des alten Bundes/ vol. i. p. 280. ^ See Isa. ii. 2-4, xv, xvi. 1-12. 3 See 2 Chron. xxvi. 22, xxxii. 32.

INTRODUCTION. xv

Shere existed in his time an account of ' the acts of Uzziah' by our prophet, and a * vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz/ which was incorporated in ' the book of the kings of Judah and Israel/ The ^igjiification of the latter of these titles is obscure. Was the 'vision of Isaiah' a historical monograph, or a collection of prophecies ? Was it composed by Isaiah, or merely a sketch of the prophet's career by some anonymous author, in which one of Isaiah's * visions' may have been inserted? To neither of these questions can we return a fully satisfactory answer. The idea that Isaiah was a psalmist is due to Hitzig, who thinks that Ps. xlvixlviii were composed by the prophet on the destruction of the Assyrian army. A strong resemblance to Isaiah both in phraseology and^ in ideas cannot fail to strike the reader of these IJsalms. Compare the refrain, ' Jehovah is with us,' in Ps. xlvi, with the similar use of Immanuel, *God is with us/ in Isa. viii. 8, lo, and several verbal parallels in Ps. xlviii, and Isa. xxxiii.

SECTION III. Rise of the controversy respecting authorship

The celebrated Jewish commentator Aben Ezra (twelfth century) was the first to suggest the possibility that Isa. xl-lxvi might not be the work of Isaiah, but of some later prophet. His expressions indeed are obscure, but this may be accounted for by the opposition which he conceived to exist between faith and critical inquiry. An ardent lover of truth, he was at the same time sincerely attached to the religion of his forefathers, which might, he feared, be im-

' perilled by undermining the received opinions as to the authorship of the Scriptures. He allows us indeed to infer that various passages in the Pentateuch were added subsequently to the time of

'.Moses, but, he takes care to add, 'the intelligent man will be xvi INTRODUCTION.

silent/ This may serve to illustrate his singular remarks on the last twenty-seven chapters of the Book of Isaiah. ' There are passages in this book which refer to the Babylonian exile, spoken in memory of the fact that it was Cyrus who sent back the exiles. . . . And know that the copyists of the Law (the Talmudists) say that Samuel wrote the Book of Samuel, and it is true, (but only) as far as the words, And Samuel died. And the Book of Chronicles proves it^, for there a succession of generations is given which preceded Zerubbabel. And this passage attests it. Kings shall see and arise, even princes, and shall worship, though it is possible to reply, As soon as they hear the name of the prophet, even though he were dead, they shall worship. The intelligent man will understand.' In other words, Aben Ezra entertained doubts as to Isaiah's authorship of chaps, xl-lxvi, but, in order to avoid offence, supplied a convenient answer to his own objection. In this point, however, the critic was far in advance of his age, and the vague allusions which he dropped as to the authorship of these prophecies met with no 'intelligent man' to discern their value. It was only at the end of the last century that two German scholars, Koppe and Doderlein, revived the theory that the Book of Isaiah was not entirely homogeneous, though the position occupied by them has been greatly modified by later critics. Before proceeding, however, to estimate the arguments adduced on either side, we must remind the reader that the question at issue is not that of the genuineness of certain prophecies, nor even of their authenticity. None of the disputed chapters but chap, xiii claims to be written by Isaiah, and none is deprived of its prophetic character through being assigned to the Babylonian exile. It is

1 Aben Ezra implies that since many generations intervened between Isaiah and Zerubbabel, passages like the following, which he interprets of tlie reverence paid to the prophetic writer, cannot have been written by Isaiah.

INTRODUCTION. xvii

obvious that the question of authorship must be argued apart from any a priori canons of a theological or philosophical nature. By the test of laftguage and ideas, and not by the mere occurrence of any single proper name, the Babylonian origin of these prophecies must, if at all, be substantiated.

SECTION IV. Arguments in favour of the unity of authorship

We cannot introduce this section better than with the following suggestive remarks of Dr. F. Delitzsch: — 'Had we received, this book of discourses to the exiles in a separate form, and without the opportunity of comparing it with the prophecies of Isaiah, its contents alone would never have given rise to the idea, that it had for its author a prophet of the time of Hezekiah, or indeed of any period previous to the exile. For there is not a single passage in the book which betrays that the times of the exile are only ideally, and not actually, present to the prophetic writer. The assertion of Havernick, Keil, Welte, and others, that historical circumstances are frequently alluded to which correspond only to the age of Isaiah, is founded on self-delusion \' 'And hence/ as he elsewhere remarks, * if, as we believe, Isaiah is the author, he has passed entirely put of the actual present, and leads a Kfe in the spirit among the exiles I' A hypothesis which appeals so strongly to the imagi- ^ Appendix to Drechsler's Isaiah, vol. iii. p. 386, comp. Delitzsch's Isaiah,

2 Delitzsch's Isaiah, p. 390, We have selected Delitzsch as the representative of his school in order not to weaken that side of the question by adducmg arguments of a less satisfactory nature. Some of this class will be noticed in due course in the commentary. The most ingenious (we regret not to be able to use any other word) recent defence of the unity of authorship is * De echtheid van het tweede gedeelte van Jesaja,' by Dr. A. Rutgers, Leyden, j866. The silence, not according to us a complete one, which the author of Isa. xl-lxvi

h xviii INTRODUCTION.

nation, requires surely to be supported by arguments of no ordinary strength. And it is only fair to add that the scholar whose words we have cited, has, up to a certain point, maintained his theory with a candour and ability which leave but little to be desired. His first argument is the correspondence of the traditional view with his own peculiar theory on the arrangement of Isaiah. He points out that a series of prophetic announcements of deliverance from exile is interspersed at regular intervals throughout the first portion of the book, in order to serve as a prelude to the last twenty-seven chapters, which are all composed from the point of view of an exile in Babylon. A brief prophecy of the Babylonian captivity is placed in the very centre of the book as a preparation for the violent transition from the age of Hezekiah to that of Cyrus. But surely such an artificial arrangement is without a parallel in the Old Testament, and presupposes a strange anticipation of modern critical objections. The second argument adduced by Delitzsch is the occurrence of certain favourite expressions of Isaiah in the disputed chapters, e. g. ' the Holy One of Israel,' (a phrase which is only found five times elsewhere,) i. 4, v. 19, 24, &c., comp. xU. 14, 16, 20j xliii. 3, 14, 15, &c.; 'saith Jehovah' (in the imperfect tense), i. 11, 18, comp. xl. i, 25, xli. 21 ; 'the Hero of Israel,' i- 24, comp. xlix. 26, Ix. 16, 'the Hero of Jacob;' and the use of Jacob as synonymous with Israel, xxix. 23, comp. xl. 27. But a correspondence of isolated phrases, which is not even uniformly exact, is of little value as an argument, and may be counterbalanced by many expressions entirely peculiar to the disputed prophecies, e. g. * rule' as applied to the true religion, xlii. i, 3, 4, li. 4 ; ' righteousness ' in the sense of ' grace ' or ' salvation,' xli. 2, i o,

maintains in reference to the local characteristics of Babylon, is here exaggerated into an evidence in favour of the Isaianic theoiy. But the writer forgets that the burden of this prophecy is, ' Depart ye from Babylon.*

INTRODUCTION. xix

xlv. 8, li. 5, &c.; * righteous' in that of ' truthful/ xli. 26, comp. lix. 4; the curious word seghamm, ' governors/ xli. 25, commonly supposed to be of Persian origin; and many other phrases. In fact, the argument from phraseology in Hebrew is merely a subsidiary one. The literature at our command is so narrow in compass, and has, in our opinion, been so often tampered with by unscrupulous editors, that any detailed description of the phases of the language must be attempted with the utmost caution.

The third argument, that from the occurrence of parallel pas^, . sages, has been applied with great effect to prove that the Book of Job was written before that of Jeremiah. But though it cannot be denied that several passages in Isa. xl-lxvi, parallels to which exist in other prophecies, are marked by great vigour and richness of style, it should be remembered too that so original a genius as our unknown prophet would naturally imitate in a very different manner from the feeble though not ungraceful Jeremiah. Hence the primary character of the passages in Isa. xl-lxvi referred to is much more difficult to substantiate than it would be in a less elevated composition. An unenvious recognition" of the beauties of earlier prophecies is a characteristic of the great prophet Isaiah, and why should we be surprised at tracing the same high quality in the work of his noblest successor? It is undeniable that the prophet in Babylon devoted a reverent study to the writings of Isaiah. Not to dwell on the isolated phrases mentioned above, we may refer to Ixv. 25, where portions of three successive verses are quoted from Isa. xi, though not without the addition of one striking and original expression. And if our prophet quoted from Isaiah, why should he not also quote the other inspired prophets in the same royal and independent manner ?

It is true that this is not the only tenable hypothesis. The passages adduced by Delitzsch from the prophets before the exile may

b2

XX

INTRODUCTION.

have been interpolated, or, what is still more probable, may have been composed in imitation of some older prophecy, the common source of both the prophecies in question. Considering the large number of prophets who flourished in the regal period, and the probability, not to say the certainty, that Isaiah and other prophets quoted several passages from earlier writings with but little if any alteration, we are of opinion that the latter hypothesis has scarcely received its full share of attention. We subjoin a list of the principal parallel passages in Isa. xl-lxvi and earlier prophecies. Some may also be found, in the other disputed chapters, but these will naturally be explained on the analogy of those in the more important prophecy.

Zeph. ii. 15 compared with Isa. xlvii. 8, la

„ xlviii. 18 „

Ixvi. 20-

Ixvi. 16.

xli. 14, xliii. 5, xliv. 2.

xlvii. I.

xlvi. I.

Ixvi. 6.

Ivii. 9.

To the fourth argument, that from tradition, Delitzsch does not appear to attach, or at least to expect his opponents to attach, any great degree of importance. The most ancient testimony adduced for the Isaianic authorship of chaps, xl-lxvi is that of the edict of Cyrus (Ezra i. 2), 'Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, Jehovah the God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.' But the utmost which this reference to prophecy can be admitted to prove, is a familiarity with Isa. xl-lxvi on the part of the writer of the edict, not that these chapters are by Isaiah.

INTRODUCTION. xxi

Besides, the great historical work in which it occurs, and of which the Books of Chronicles and of Nehemiah also form parts, cannot have been compiled earlier than about 330 B.C., i. e. four centuries later than Isaiah, an interval fraught with vicissitudes, during which a critical estimate of the sacred literature is altogether inconceivable. Next in order of time is the Septuagint version of Isaiah, in which the disputed prophecies are found, and which may have been produced at some unknown date between 260 and 130 B.C. This is followed by the Greek translation of the book commonly called Ecclesiasticus, which contains a distinct assertion^ of the unity of authorship. The passage runs as follows : — ' He (Esaias) saw by an excellent spirit what should come to pass at the last, and he comforted them that mourned in Zion ; he shewed what should come to pass for ever, and secret things or ever they came.' But the generally accepted date of the composition of Ecclesiasticus is not earlier than 180 B.C., — and the Greek translation was probably made fifty years later. The statement of these facts is the best answer to assertions of the existence of an unbroken tradition in the Jewish and the Christian church.