VOLUME XIV, SLICE VIII

ISABNORMAL LINES to ITALIC

ARTICLES IN THIS SLICE:

ISABNORMAL LINES ISMAIL HADJI MAULVI-MOHAMMED ISAEUS ISMAILIA ISAIAH ISMAY, THOMAS HENRY ISAIAH, ASCENSION OF ISMID, or ISNIKMID ISANDHLWANA ISNARD, MAXIMIN ISAR ISOBAR ISATIN ISOCLINIC LINES ISAURIA ISOCRATES ISCHIA ISODYNAMIC LINES ISCHL ISOGONIC LINES ISEO, LAKE OF ISOLA DEL LIRI ISERE (river in France) ISOMERISM ISERE (department of France) ISOTHERM ISERLOHN ISOXAZOLES ISFAHAN ISRAEL ISHIM ISRAELI, ISAAC BEN SOLOMON ISHMAEL ISRAELS, JOSEF ISHPEMING ISSACHAR ISHTAR ISSEDONES ISHTIB ISSERLEIN, ISRAEL ISIDORE OF ALEXANDRIA ISSERLES, MOSES BEN ISRAEL ISIDORE OF SEVILLE ISSOIRE ISINGLASS ISSOUDUN ISIS ISSYK-KUL ISKELIB ISTAHBANAT ISLA, JOSE FRANCISCO DE ISTHMUS ISLAM ISTRIA ISLAMABAD ISYLLUS ISLAND ITACOLUMITE ISLAY ITAGAKI, TAISUKE ISLES OF THE BLEST ITALIAN LANGUAGE ISLINGTON ITALIAN LITERATURE ISLIP ITALIAN WARS ISLY ITALIC ISMAIL

ISABNORMAL (or ISANOMALOUS) LINES, in physical geography, lines upon a map or chart connecting places having an abnormal temperature. Each place has, theoretically, a proper temperature due to its latitude, and modified by its configuration. Its mean temperature for a particular period is decided by observation and called its normal temperature. Isabnormal lines may be used to denote the variations due to warm winds or currents, great altitudes or depressions, or great land masses as compared with sea. Or they may be used to indicate the abnormal result of weather observations made in an area such as the British Isles for a particular period.

ISAEUS (c. 420 B.C.-c. 350 B.C.), Attic orator, the chronological limits of whose extant work fall between the years 390 and 353 B.C., is described in the Plutarchic life as a Chalcidian; by Suidas, whom Dionysius follows, as an Athenian. The accounts have been reconciled by supposing that his family sprang from the settlement ([Greek: klerouchia]) of Athenian citizens among whom the lands of the Chalcidian _hippobotae_ (knights) had been divided about 509 B.C. In 411 B.C. Euboea (except Oreos) revolted from Athens; and it would not have been strange if residents of Athenian origin had then migrated from the hostile island to Attica. Such a connexion with Euboea would explain the non-Athenian name Diagoras which is borne by the father of Isaeus, while the latter is said to have been "an Athenian by descent" ([Greek: Athenaios to genos]). So far as we know, Isaeus took no part in the public affairs of Athens. "I cannot tell," says Dionysius, "what were the politics of Isaeus--or whether he had any politics at all." Those words strikingly attest the profound change which was passing over the life of the Greek cities. It would have been scarcely possible, fifty years earlier, that an eminent Athenian with the powers of Isaeus should have failed to leave on record some proof of his interest in the political concerns of Athens or of Greece. But now, with the decline of personal devotion to the state, the life of an active citizen had ceased to have any necessary contact with political affairs. Already we are at the beginning of that transition which is to lead from the old life of Hellenic citizenship to that Hellenism whose children are citizens of the world.

Isaeus (who was born probably about 420 B.C.) is believed to have been an early pupil of Isocrates, and he certainly was a student of Lysias. A passage of Photius has been understood as meaning that personal relations had existed between Isaeus and Plato, but this view appears erroneous.[1] The profession of Isaeus was that of which Antiphon had been the first representative at Athens--that of a [Greek: logographos], who composed speeches which his clients were to deliver in the law-courts. But, while Antiphon had written such speeches chiefly (as Lysias frequently) for public causes, it was with private causes that Isaeus was almost exclusively concerned. The fact marks the progressive subdivision of labour in his calling, and the extent to which the smaller interests of private life now absorbed the attention of the citizen.

The most interesting recorded event in the career of Isaeus is one which belongs to its middle period--his connexion with Demosthenes. Born in 384 B.C., Demosthenes attained his civic majority in 366. At this time he had already resolved to prosecute the fraudulent guardians who had stripped him of his patrimony. In prospect of such a legal contest, he could have found no better ally than Isaeus. That the young Demosthenes actually resorted to his aid is beyond reasonable doubt. But the pseudo-Plutarch embellishes the story after his fashion. He says that Demosthenes, on coming of age, took Isaeus into his house, and studied with him for four years--paying him the sum of 10,000 drachmas (about L400), on condition that Isaeus should withdraw from a school of rhetoric which he had opened, and devote himself wholly to his new pupil. The real Plutarch gives us a more sober and a more probable version. He simply states that Demosthenes "employed Isaeus as his master in rhetoric, though Isocrates was then teaching, either (as some say) because he could not pay Isocrates the prescribed fee of ten minae, or because he preferred the style of Isaeus for his purpose, as being _vigorous and astute_" ([Greek: drasterion kai panourgon]). It may be observed that, except by the pseudo-Plutarch, a school of Isaeus is not mentioned,--for a notice in Plutarch need mean no more than that he had written a textbook, or that his speeches were read in schools;[2] nor is any other pupil named. As to Demosthenes, his own speeches against Aphobus and Onetor (363-362 B.C.) afford the best possible gauge of the sense and the measure in which he was the disciple of Isaeus; the intercourse between them can scarcely have been either very close or very long. The date at which Isaeus died can only be conjectured from his work; it may be placed about 350 B.C.

Isaeus has a double claim on the student of Greek literature. He is the first Greek writer who comes before us as a consummate master of strict forensic controversy. He also holds a most important place in the general development of practical oratory, and therefore in the history of Attic prose. Antiphon marks the beginning of that development, Demosthenes its consummation. Between them stand Lysias and Isaeus. The open, even ostentatious, art of Antiphon had been austere and rigid. The concealed art of Lysias had charmed and persuaded by a versatile semblance of natural grace and simplicity. Isaeus brings us to a final stage of transition, in which the gifts distinctive of Lysias were to be fused into a perfect harmony with that masterly art which receives its most powerful expression in Demosthenes. Here, then, are the two cardinal points by which the place of Isaeus must be determined. We must consider, first, his relation to Lysias; secondly, his relation to Demosthenes.

A comparison of Isaeus and Lysias must set out from the distinction between choice of words ([Greek: lexis]) and mode of putting words together ([Greek: synthesis]). In choice of words, _diction_, Lysias and Isaeus are closely alike. Both are clear, pure, simple, concise; both have the stamp of persuasive plainness ([Greek: apheleia]), and both combine it with graphic power ([Greek: enargeia]). In mode of putting words together, _composition_, there is, however a striking difference. Lysias threw off the stiff restraints of the earlier periodic style, with its wooden monotony; he is too fond indeed of antithesis always to avoid a rigid effect; but, on the whole, his style is easy, flexible and various; above all, its subtle art usually succeeds in appearing natural. Now this is just what the art of Isaeus does not achieve. With less love of antithesis than Lysias, and with a diction almost equally pure and plain, he yet habitually conveys the impression of conscious and confident art. Hence he is least effective in adapting his style to those characters in which Lysias peculiarly excelled--the ingenuous youth, the homely and peace-loving citizen. On the other hand, his more open and vigorous art does not interfere with his moral persuasiveness where there is scope for reasoned remonstrance, for keen argument or for powerful denunciation. Passing from the formal to the real side of his work, from diction and composition to the treatment of subject-matter, we find the divergence wider still. Lysias usually adheres to a simple four-fold division--proem, narrative, proof, epilogue. Isaeus frequently interweaves the narrative with the proof.[3] He shows the most dexterous ingenuity in adapting his manifold tactics to the case in hand, and often "out-generals" ([Greek: katastrategei]) his adversary by some novel and daring disposition of his forces. Lysias, again, usually contents himself with a merely rhetorical or sketchy proof; Isaeus aims at strict logical demonstration, worked out through all its steps. As Sir William Jones well remarks, Isaeus lays close siege to the understandings of the jury.[4]

Such is the general relation of Isaeus to Lysias. What, we must next ask, is the relation of Isaeus to Demosthenes? The Greek critic who had so carefully studied both authors states his own view in broad terms when he declares that "the power of Demosthenes took its seeds and its beginnings from Isaeus" (Dion. Halic. _Isaeus_, 20). A closer examination will show that within certain limits the statement may be allowed. Attic prose expression had been continuously developed as an art; the true link between Isaeus and Demosthenes is technical, depending on their continuity. Isaeus had made some original contributions to the resources of the art; and Demosthenes had not failed to profit by these. The _composition_ of Demosthenes resembles that of Isaeus in blending terse and vigorous periods with passages of more lax and fluent ease, as well as in that dramatic vivacity which is given by rhetorical question and similar devices. In the versatile disposition of subject-matter, the divisions of "narrative" and "proof" being shifted and interwoven according to circumstances, Demosthenes has clearly been instructed by the example of Isaeus. Still more plainly and strikingly is this so in regard to the elaboration of systematic, proof; here Demosthenes invites direct and close comparison with Isaeus by his method of drawing out a chain of arguments, or enforcing a proposition by strict legal argument. And, more generally, Demosthenes is the pupil of Isaeus, though here the pupil became even greater than the master, in that faculty of grappling with an adversary's case point by point, in that aptitude for close and strenuous conflict which is expressed by the words [Greek: agon, enagonios].[5]

The pseudo-Plutarch, in his life of Isaeus, mentions an _Art of Rhetoric_ and sixty-four speeches, of which fifty were accounted genuine. From a passage of Photius it appears that at least[6] the fifty speeches of recognized authenticity were extant as late as A.D. 850. Only eleven, with a large part of a twelfth, have come down to us; but the titles of forty-two[7] others are known.[8]

The titles of the lost speeches confirm the statement of Dionysius that the speeches of Isaeus were exclusively forensic; and only three titles indicate speeches made in public causes. The remainder, concerned with private causes, may be classed under six heads:--(1) [Greek: klerikoi]--cases of claim to an inheritance; (2) [Greek: epiklerikoi]--cases of claim to the hand of an heiress; (3) [Greek: diadikasiai]--cases of claim of property; (4) [Greek: apostasiou]--cases of claim to the ownership of a slave; (5) [Greek: eggyes]--action brought against a surety whose principal had made default; (6) [Greek: antomosia] (as = [Greek: paragraphe])--a special plea; (7) [Greek: ephesis]--appeal from one jurisdiction to another.

Eleven of the twelve extant speeches belong to class (1), the [Greek: klerikoi], or claims to an inheritance. This was probably the branch of practice in which Isaeus had done his most important and most characteristic work. And, according to the ancient custom, this class of speeches would therefore stand first in the manuscript collections of his writings. The case of Antiphon is parallel: his speeches in cases of homicide ([Greek: phonikoi]) were those on which his reputation mainly depended, and stood first in the manuscripts. Their exclusive preservation, like that of the speeches made by Isaeus in will-cases, is thus primarily an accident of manuscript tradition, but partly also the result of the writer's special prestige.

Six of the twelve extant speeches are directly concerned with claims to an estate; five others are connected with legal proceedings arising out of such a claim. They may be classified thus (the name given in each case being that of the person whose estate is in dispute):

I. _Trials of Claim to an Inheritance_ ([Greek: diadikasiai]). 1. Or. i., Cleonymus. Date between 360 and 353 B.C. 2. Or. iv., Nicostratus. Date uncertain. 3. Or. vii., Apollodorus. 353 B.C. 4. Or. viii., Ciron. 375 B.C. 5. Or. ix., Astyphilus. 369 B.C. (c. 390, Schomann). 6. Or. x., Aristarchus. 377-371 B.C. (386-384, Schomann).

II. _Actions for False Witness_ ([Greek: dikai pseudomartyrion]). 1. Or. ii., Menecles. 354 B.C. 2. Or. iii., Pyrrhus. Date uncertain, but comparatively late. 3. Or. vi., Philoctemon. 364-363 B.C.

III. _Action to Compel the Discharge of a Suretyship_ ([Greek: eggyes dike]). Or. v., Dicaeogenes. 390 B.C.

IV. _Indictment of a Guardian for Maltreatment of a Ward_ ([Greek: eisaggelia kakoseos orphanou]). Or. xi., Hagnias. 359 B.C.

V. _Appeal from Arbitration to a Dicastery_ ([Greek: ephesis]). Or. xii., For Euphiletus. (Incomplete.) Date uncertain.

The speeches of Isaeus supply valuable illustrations to the early history of testamentary law. They show us the faculty of adoption, still, indeed, associated with the religious motive in which it originated, as a mode of securing that the sacred rites of the family shall continue to be discharged by one who can call himself the son of the deceased. But practically the civil aspect of adoption is, for the Athenian citizen, predominant over the religious; he adopts a son in order to bestow property on a person to whom he wishes to bequeath it. The Athenian system, as interpreted by Isaeus, is thus intermediate, at least in spirit, between the purely religious standpoint of the Hindu and the maturer form which Roman testamentary law had reached before the time of Cicero.[9] As to the form of the speeches, it is remarkable for its variety. There are three which, taken together, may be considered as best representing the diversity and range of their author's power. The fifth, with its simple but lively diction, its graceful and persuasive narrative, recalls the qualities of Lysias. The eleventh, with its sustained and impetuous power, has no slight resemblance to the manner of Demosthenes. The eighth is, of all, the most characteristic, alike in narrative and in argument. Isaeus is here seen at his best. No reader who is interested in the social life of ancient Greece need find Isaeus dull. If the glimpses of Greek society which he gives us are seldom so gay and picturesque as those which enliven the pages of Lysias, they are certainly not less suggestive. Here, where the innermost relations and central interests of the family are in question, we touch the springs of social life; we are not merely presented with scenic details of dress and furniture, but are enabled in no small degree to conceive the feelings of the actors.

The best manuscript of Isaeus is in the British Museum,--Crippsianus A (= Burneianus 95, 13th century), which contains also Antiphon, Andocides, Lycurgus and Dinarchus. The next best is Bekker's Laurentianus B (Florence), of the 15th century. Besides these, he used Marcianus L (Venice), saec. 14, Vratislaviensis Z saec. 14[10] and two very inferior MSS. Ambrosianus A. 99, P (which he dismissed after Or. i.), and Ambrosianus D. 42, Q (which contains only Or. i., ii.). Schomann, in his edition of 1831, generally followed Bekker's text; he had no fresh apparatus beyond a collation of a Paris MS. R in part of Or. i.; but he had sifted the Aldine more carefully. Baiter and Sauppe (1850) had a new collation of A, and also used a collation of Burneianus 96, M, given by Dobson in vol. iv. of his edition (1828). C. Scheibe (Teubner, 1860) made it his especial aim to complete the work of his predecessors by restoring the correct Attic forms of words; thus (e.g.) he gives [Greek: eggya] for [Greek: enegya], [Greek: dedimen] for [Greek: dediamen], and the like,--following the consent of the MSS., however, in such forms as the accusative of proper names in [Greek: -en] rather than [Greek: -e], or (e.g.) the future [Greek: phanesomai] rather than [Greek: phanoumai], &c., and on such doubtful points as [Greek: phrateres] instead of [Greek: phratores], or [Greek: Eilethyias] instead of [Greek: Eileithyias].

EDITIONS.--_Editio princeps_ (Aldus, Venice, 1513); in _Oratores Attici_, by I. Bekker (1823-1828); W. S. Dobson (1828); J. G. Baiter and Hermann Sauppe (1850); separately, by G. F. Schomann, with commentary (1831); C. Scheibe (1860) (Teubner series, new ed. by T. Thalheim, 1903); H. Buermann (1883); W. Wyse (1904). English translation by Sir William Jones, 1779.

On Isaeus generally see Wyse's edition; R. C. Jebb, _Attic Orators_; F. Blass, _Die attische Beredsamkeit_ (2nd ed., 1887-1893); and L. Moy, _Etude sur les plaidoyers d'Isee_ (1876). (R. C. J.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See further Jebb's _Attic Orators from Antiphon to Isaeus_, (ii. 264).

[2] Plut. _De glor. Athen._ p. 350 c, where he mentions [Greek: tous Isokrateis kai Antiphontas kai Isaious] among [Greek: tous en tais scholais ta meirakia prodidaskontas].

[3] Here he was probably influenced by the teaching of Isocrates. The forensic speech of Isocrates known as the _Aegineticus_ (Or. xix.), which belongs to the peculiar province of Isaeus, as dealing with a claim to property ([Greek: epidikasia]), affords perhaps the earliest example of narrative and proof thus interwoven. Earlier forensic writers had kept the [Greek: diegesis] and [Greek: pisteis] distinct, as Lysias does.

[4] This is what Dionysius means when he says (_Isaeus_, 61) that Isaeus differs from Lysias--[Greek: to me kat' enthymema ti legein alla kat' epicheirema]. Here the "enthymeme" means a rhetorical syllogism with one premiss suppressed (_curtum_, Juv. vi. 449); "epicheireme," such a syllogism stated in full. Cf. R. Volkmann, _Rhetorik der Griechen und Romer_, 1872, pp. 153 f.

[5] Cleon's speech in Thuc. iii. 37, 38, works out this image with remarkable force; within a short space we have [Greek: xyneseos agon--ton toionde agonon--agonistes--agonizesthai--antagonizesthai-- agonothetein]. See _Attic Orators_, vol. i. 39; ii. 304.

[6] For the words of Photius (cod. 263), [Greek: touton de oi to gnesion martyrethentes n' kataleipontai monon], might be so rendered as to imply that, besides these fifty, others also were extant. See _Att. Orat._ ii. 311, note 2.

[7] Forty-four are given in Thalheim's ed.

[8] The second of our speeches (the Meneclean) was discovered in the Laurentian Library in 1785, and was edited in that year by Tyrwhitt. In editions previous to that date, Oration i. is made to conclude with a few lines which really belong to the end of Orat. ii. (S 47, [Greek: all' epeide to pragma ... psethisasthe]), and this arrangement is followed in the translation of Isaeus by Sir William Jones, to whom our second oration, was, of course, then (1779) unknown. In Oration i. all that follows the words [Greek: me poiesantes] in S 22 was first published in 1815 by Mai, from a MS. in the Ambrosian Library at Milan.

[9] Cf. Maine's _Ancient Law_, ch. vi., and the _Tagore Law Lectures_ (1870) by Herbert Cowell, lect. ix., "On the Rite of Adoption," pp. 208 f.

[10] The date of L and Z is given as the end of the 15th century in the introduction to Wyse's edition.

ISAIAH. I. _Life and Period._--Isaiah is the name of the greatest, and both in life and in death the most influential of the Old Testament prophets. We do not forget Jeremiah, but Jeremiah's literary and religious influence is secondary compared with that of Isaiah. Unfortunately we are reduced to inference and conjecture with regard both to his life and to the extent of his literary activity. In the heading (i. 1) of what we may call the occasional prophecies of Isaiah (i.e. those which were called forth by passing events), the author is called "the son of Amoz" and Rabbinical legend identifies this Amoz with a brother of Amaziah, king of Judah; but this is evidently based on a mere etymological fancy. We know from his works that (unlike Jeremiah) he was married (viii. 3), and that he had at least two sons, whose names he regarded as, together with his own, symbolic by divine appointment of certain decisive events or religious truths--Isaiah (Yesha'-yahu), meaning "Salvation--Yahweh"; Shear-Yashub, "a remnant shall return"; and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, "swift (swiftly cometh) spoil, speedy (speedily cometh) prey" (vii. 3, viii. 3, 4, 18). He lived at Jerusalem, perhaps in the "middle" or "lower city" (2 Kings xx. 4), exercised at one time great influence at court (chap. xxxvii.), and could venture to address a king unbidden (vii. 4), and utter the most unpleasant truths, unassailed, in the plainest fashion. Presumably therefore his social rank was far above that of Amos and Micah; certainly the high degree of rhetorical skill displayed in his discourses implies a long course of literary discipline, not improbably in the school of some older prophet (Amos vii. 14 suggests that "schools" or companies "of the prophets" existed in the southern kingdom). We know but little of Isaiah's predecessors and models in the prophetic art (it were fanaticism to exclude the element of human preparation); but certainly even the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah (and much more the disputed ones) could no more have come into existence suddenly and without warning than the masterpieces of Shakespeare. In the more recent commentaries (e.g. Cheyne's _Prophecies of Isaiah_, ii. 218) lists are generally given of the points of contact both in phraseology and in ideas between Isaiah and the prophets nearly contemporary with him. For Isaiah cannot be studied by himself.

The same heading already referred to gives us our only traditional information as to the period during which Isaiah prophesied; it refers to Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah as the contemporary kings. It is, however, to say the least, doubtful whether any of the extant prophecies are as early as the reign of Uzziah. Exegesis, the only safe basis of criticism for the prophetic literature, is unfavourable to the view that even chap. i. belongs to the reign of this king, and we must therefore regard it as most probable that the heading in i. 1 is (like those of the Psalms) the work of one or more of the Sopherim (or students and editors of Scripture) in post-exilic times, apparently the same writer (or company of writers) who prefixed the headings of Hosea and Micah, and perhaps of some of the other books. Chronological study had already begun in his time. But he would be a bold man who would profess to give trustworthy dates either for the kings of Israel or for the prophetic writers. (See BIBLE, _Old Testament_, Chronology; the article "Chronology" in the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_; and cf. H. P. Smith, _Old Testament History_, Edin., 1903, p. 202, note 2.)

II. _Chronological Arrangement, how far possible._--Let us now briefly sketch the progress of Isaiah's prophesying on the basis of philological exegesis, and a comparison of the sound results of the study of the inscriptions. If our results are imperfect and liable to correction, that is only to be expected in the present position of the historical study of the Bible. Chap. vi., which describes a vision of Isaiah "in the death-year of King Uzziah" (740 or 734 B.C.?) may possibly have arisen out of notes put down in the reign of Jotham; but for several reasons it is not an acceptable view that, in its present form, this striking chapter is earlier than the reign of Ahaz. It seems, in short, to have originally formed the preface to the small group of prophecies which now follows it, viz. vii. i.-ix. 7. The portions which may represent discourses of Jotham's reign are chap. ii. and chap. ix. 8-x. 4--stern denunciations which remind us somewhat of Amos. But the allusions in the greater part of chaps. ii.-v. correspond to no period so closely as the reign of Ahaz, and the same remark applies still more self-evidently to vii. 1-ix. 7.[1] Chap. xvii. 1-11 ought undoubtedly to be read in immediate connexion with chap. vii.; it presupposes the alliance of Syria and northern Israel, whose destruction it predicts, though opening a door of hope for a remnant of Israel. The fatal siege of Samaria (724-722 B.C.) seems to have given occasion to chap. xxviii.; but the following prophecies (chaps. xxix.-xxxiii.) point in the main to Sennacherib's invasion, 701 B.C., which evidently stirred Isaiah's deepest feelings and was the occasion of some of his greatest prophecies. It is, however, the vengeance taken by Sargon upon Ashdod (711) which seems to be preserved in chap. xx., and the striking little prophecy in xxi. 1-10, sometimes referred of late to a supposed invasion of Judah by Sargon, rather belongs to some one of the many prophetic personages who wrote, but did not speak like the greater prophets, during and after the Exile. It is also an opinion largely held that the prophetic epilogue in xvi. 13, 14, was attached by Isaiah to an oracle on archaic style by another prophet (Isaiah's hand has, however, been traced by some in xvi. 4b, 5). In fact no progress can be expected in the accurate study of the prophets until the editorial activity both of the great prophets themselves and of their more reflective and studious successors is fully recognized.

Thus there were two great political events (the Syro-Israelitish invasion under Ahaz, and the great Assyrian invasion of Sennacherib) which called forth the spiritual and oratorical faculties of our prophet, and quickened his faculty of insight into the future. The Sennacherib prophecies must be taken in connexion with the historical appendix, chaps, xxxvi.-xxxix. The beauty and incisiveness of the poetic prophecy in xxxvii. 21-32 have, by some critics, been regarded as evidence for its authenticity. This, however, is, on critical grounds, most questionable.

A special reference seems needed at this point to the oracle on Egypt, chap. xix. The comparative feebleness of the style has led to the conjecture that, even if the basis of the prophecy be Isaianic, yet in its present form it must have undergone the manipulation of a scribe. More probably, however, it belongs to the early Persian period. It should be added that the Isaianic origin of the appendix in xix. 18-24 is, if possible, even more doubtful, because of the precise, circumstantial details of the prophecy which are not like Isaiah's work. It is plausible to regard v. 18 as a fictitious prophecy in the interests of Onias, the founder of the rival Egyptian temple to Yahweh at Leontopolis in the name of Heliopolis (Josephus, _Ant._ xii. 9, 7).

III. _Disintegration Theories._--We must now enter more fully into the question whether the whole of the so-called Book of Isaiah was really written by that prophet. The question relates, at any rate, to xiii.-xiv. 23, xxi. 1-10, xxiv.-xxvii., xxxiv., xxxv. and xl.-lxvi. The father of the controversy may be said to be the Jewish rabbi, Aben Ezra, who died A.D. 1167. We need not, however, spend much time on the well-worn but inconclusive arguments of the older critics. The existence of a tradition in the last three centuries before Christ as to the authorship of any book is (to those acquainted with the habits of thought of that age) of but little critical moment; the _Sopherim_, i.e. students of Scripture, in those times were simply anxious for the authority of the Scriptures, not for the ascertainment of their precise historical origin. It was of the utmost importance to declare that (especially) Isaiah xl.-lxvi. was a prophetic work of the highest order; this was reason sufficient (apart from any presumed phraseological affinities in xl.-lxvi.) for ascribing them to the royal prophet Isaiah. When the view had once obtained currency, it would naturally become a tradition. The question of the Isaianic or non-Isaianic origin of the disputed prophecies (especially xl.-lxvi.) must be decided on grounds of exegesis alone. It matters little, therefore, when the older critics appeal to Ezra i. 2 (interpreted by Josephus, _Ant._ xi. 1, 1-2), to the Septuagint version of the book (produced between 260 and 130 B.C.), in which the disputed prophecies are already found, and to the Greek translation of the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach, which distinctly refers to Isaiah as the comforter of those that mourned in Zion (Eccles. xlviii. 24, 25).

The fault of the controversialists on both sides has been that each party has only seen "one side of the shield." It will be admitted by philological students that the exegetical data supplied by (at any rate) Isa. xl.-lxvi. are conflicting, and therefore susceptible of no simple solution. This remark applies, it is true, chiefly to the portion which begins at lii. 13. The earlier part of Isa. xl.-lxvi. admits of a perfectly consistent interpretation from first to last. There is nothing in it to indicate that the author's standing-point is earlier than the Babylonian captivity. His object is (as most scholars, probably, believe) to warn, stimulate or console the captive Jews, some full believers, some semi-believers, some unbelievers or idolaters. The development of the prophet's message is full of contrasts and surprises: the vanity of the idol-gods and the omnipotence of Israel's helper, the sinfulness and infirmity of Israel and her high spiritual destiny, and the selection (so offensive to patriotic Jews, xlv. 9, 10) of the heathen Cyrus as the instrument of Yahweh's purposes, as in fact his Messiah or Anointed One (xlv. 1), are brought successively before us. Hence the semi-dramatic character of the style. Already in the opening passage mysterious voices are heard crying, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people"; the plural indicates that there were other prophets among the exiles besides the author of Isa. xl.-xlviii. Then the Jews and the Asiatic nations in general are introduced trembling at the imminent downfall of the Babylonian empire. The former are reasoned with and exhorted to believe; the latter are contemptuously silenced by an exhibition of the futility of their religion. Then another mysterious form appears on the scene, bearing the honourable title of "Servant of Yahweh," through whom God's gracious purposes for Israel and the world are to be realized. The cycle of poetic passages on the character and work of this "Servant," or commissioned agent of the Most High, may have formed originally a separate collation which was somewhat later inserted in the Prophecy of Restoration (i.e. chaps. xl.-xlviii., and its appendix chaps. xlix.-lv.).

The new section which begins at chap. xlix. is written in much the same delightfully flowing style. We are still among the exiles at the close of the captivity, or, as others think, amidst a poor community in Jerusalem, whose members have now been dispersed among the Gentiles. The latter view is not so strange as it may at first appear, for the new book has this peculiarity, that Babylon and Cyrus are not mentioned in it at all. [True, there was not so much said about Babylon as we should have expected even in the first book; the paucity of references to the local characteristics of Babylonia is in fact one of the negative arguments urged by older scholars in favour of the Isaianic origin of the prophecy.] Israel himself, with all his inconsistent qualities, becomes the absorbing subject of the prophet's meditations. The section opens with a soliloquy of the "Servant of Yahweh," which leads on to a glorious comforting discourse, "Can a woman forget her sucking child," &c. (xlix. 1, comp. li. 12, 13). Then his tone rises, Jerusalem can and must be redeemed; he even seems to see the great divine act in process of accomplishment. Is it possible, one cannot help asking, that the abrupt description of the strange fortunes of the "Servant"--by this time entirely personalized--was written to follow chap. lii. 1-12?

The whole difficulty seems to arise from the long prevalent assumption that chaps. xl.-lxvi. form a whole in themselves. Natural as the feeling against disintegration may be, the difficulties in the way of admitting the unity of chaps. xl.-lxvi. are insurmountable. Even if, by a bold assumption, we grant the unity of authorship, it is plain upon the face of it that the chapters in question cannot have been composed at the same time or under the same circumstances; literary and artistic unity is wholly wanting. But once admit (as it is only reasonable to do) the extension of Jewish editorial activity to the prophetic books and all becomes clear. The record before us gives no information as to its origin. It is without a heading, and by its abrupt transitions, and honestly preserved variations of style, invites us to such a theory as we are now indicating. It is only the inveterate habit of reading Isa. xlix.-lxvi. as a part of a work relating to the close of the Exile that prevents us from seeing how inconsistent are the tone and details with this presupposition.

The present article in its original form introduced here a survey of the portions of Isa. xl.-lxvi. which were plainly of Palestinian origin. It is needless to reproduce this here, because the information is now readily accessible elsewhere; in 1881 there was an originality in this survey, which gave promise of a still more radical treatment such as that of Bernhard Duhm, a fascinating commentary published in 1892. See also Cheyne, _Jewish Quarterly Review_, July and October 1891; _Introd. to Book of Isaiah_ (1895), which also point forward, like Stade's _Geschichte_ in Germany, to a bolder criticism of Isaiah.

IV. _Non-Isaianic Elements in Chaps. i.-xxxix._--We have said nothing hitherto, except by way of allusion, of the disputed prophecies scattered up and down the first half of the book of Isaiah. There is only one of these prophecies which may, with any degree of apparent plausibility, be referred to the age of Isaiah, and that is chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. The grounds are (1) that according to xxv. 6 the author dwells on Mount Zion; (2) that Moab is referred to as an enemy (xxv. 10); and (3) that at the close of the prophecy, Assyria and Egypt are apparently mentioned as the principal foes of Israel (xxvii. 12, 13). A careful and thorough exegesis will show the hollowness of this justification. The tone and spirit of the prophecy as a whole point to the same late apocalyptic period to which chap. xxxiv. and the book of Joel; and also the last chapter (especially) of the book of Zechariah, may unhesitatingly be referred.

A word or two may perhaps be expected on Isa. xiii., xiv. and xxxiv.,