Do We Still Need Deutero-Isaiah?

Abstract

To speak of 'Deutero-Isaiah' has become standard practice in Hebrew Bible schol arship, to refer both to a body of oracles (Isa. 40-55), and to an anonymous prophet active among the Babylonian exiles in the 540s BCE. Neither of these references is as secure as is commonly supposed. Much of the material commonly identified as 'Proto-Isaiah' may actually be later than this period, and the unity of chs. 40-55 is also doubtful. In addition there are sociological, geographical and historical reasons for questioning the existence of a group of exiles in Babylon to whom the supposed 'Deutero-Isaiah' may have witnessed. To understand these chapters as having a Babylonian, exilic, background owes more to ideological considerations than has commonly been recognized.