GENERAL INTRODUCTION THE BIBLE FOR HOME AND SCHOOL is intended to place the results of the best modern biblical scholarship at the disposal of the general reader. It does not seek to duplicate other commentaries to which the student must turn. Its chief characteristics are (a) its rigid exclusion of all processes, both critical and exegetical, from its notes; (b) its presupposition and its use of the assured results of historical investigation and criticism wherever such results throw light on the biblical text; (c) its running analysis both in text and comment; (d) its brief explanatory notes adapted to the rapid reader; (e) its thorough but brief Introductions; (f) its use of the Revised Version of 1881, supplemented with all important renderings in other versions. Biblical science has progressed rapidly during the past few years, but the reader still lacks a brief, comprehensive commentary that shall extend to him in usable form material now at the disposition of the student. It is hoped that in this series the needs of intelligent Sunday School teachers have been met, as well as those of clergymen and lay readers, and that in scope, purpose, and loyalty to the Scriptures as a foundation of Christian thought and life, its volumes will stimulate the intelligent use of the Bible in the home and the school. PREFACE THE textual, critical, and historical problems of the book of Isaiah are very numerous; and this volume, which has been obliged to consult brevity at every point, has been able to do little more than record results without the processes which justify them. Frequently the data are so slender and capable of so various interpretations that those results are very far from certain. Where-as not infrequently in Isaiah- two scholars, adopting the same critical methods, differ by half a millennium in their estimate of the date of a passage, we are clearly yet a long way from unanimity. But, in face of this regrettable uncertainty, two things have to be said. First, there is much that is practically certain: few to-day, for example, doubt the exilic origin of chapters 40-55. And secondly, on any view of the origin of the book, it is literature and it is religion. Within the limits prescribed by the editor of the series, I have endeavored to do justice to both these aspects of it. Though the subject of Hebrew metre swarms with unsolved problems, it seemed worth while, following recent scholars, to attempt a metrical arrangement of the book. There can be little doubt that this encourages an appreciation of its literary quality and helps us to feel that much of Hebrew prophecy is poetic not only in spirit and substance, but in form as well. Naturally the terseness and symmetry of a Hebrew verse are sometimes gravely obscured by the English translation, which may render two Hebrew words by eleven (cf. 61:11), or even by thirteen (cf. 5: 2) English words. It is further obscured by an occasional omission (cf. 37: 25), or more frequently interpolation of words (cf. 7:18b) or even of lines (cf. 22:9-11; 59: 18c). When, however, allowance is made for these intrusions, which are sometimes plain enough in the metrically arranged text, and are usually noted in the commentary, we cannot but recognize that in the book of Isaiah poetry no less than prophecy has attained some of its noblest flights. But the supreme interest of the Bible must ever be the religious interest; and any worthy study of the book of Isaiah ought to carry us not only into the history of those far-off days, but into the soul of the prophet himself and of those others-great, too, though less majestic than he whose words are embodied in his book. This is what, in brief compass, I have tried to do-to show how for these men the worship of God involved the service of man, and how their hearts were kept steady and hopeful in the face of disappointment and disaster by their faith in God and his eternal purpose. LAKE OF BAYS, ONTARIO, 5th August, 1910. JOHN E. MCFADYEN. |