The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction Commentary

J. Alec Motyer [For years I pronounced his name to myself as "mot-yer", but I have subsequently been told that it is pronounced "mo-teer". I don't have this on especially good authority, so if I ever meet him I will wait for someone else to pronounce his name before I confirm for all that I am an ignoramus. I do not consider being an ignoramus about the pronunciation of words or names, however, to be ignominious: it is the mark of an autodidact, an honor to whch I am only partially entitled.] As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Motyer is my kinda guy. He proclaims from the start that what he set out to do for the book of Isaiah is impossible: to include all the material -- linguistic, exegetical, expository, introductory -- that he has collected over years of lecturing on the Hebrew text of Isaiah. Whew! "But," he says, "of course the world is not big enough to contain such a book, no publisher foolish enought to undertake it, nor am I competent to write it." What we have here in this commentary is the glory without the blood and guts: the benefit of his depth of study, without the underlying minutiae. And the gleanings are rich indeed. His footnoes alone are a model of scholarly efficiency: to follow each to its source would be in itself a course in Hermeneutics and History of Theology. Moreover, he keeps them on the foot of the page, as they should be, so that the reader doesn't need to flip back and forth to read them. The work is not, however, pedantic. This depth of study and insight into the work of some obscure ancient, such as Nicolas of Cusa for example, would be tedious indeed. But his subject is Isaiah, the premier of the Hebrew prophets. Isaiah is as "full of quotes" as Shakespeare, and is even more readable. The combination of Isaiah and Motyer holds a permanent place in the roll of biblical citicism. Other recommended books on the subject: Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries) Introduction to the Old Testament and the two-volume commentary The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39 (New Intl Commentary on the Old Testament)The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40-66 (New International Commentary on the Old Testament)

In seminary I had access to numerous commentaries but I continue to find Motyer and Brevard Childs's commentaries on Isaiah to be the most helpful and most insightful. I highly recommend it.

As I work through Isaiah, I have come to appreciate this work more and more. Motyer observes and explains literary artistic value in the text with a minimum of words. He also gives bits on textual criticism, but I find they are sometimes harder for me to grasp what he is referring to unless I have dug into the textual problem already. But the heart of this commentary is not about literary design or textual criticism. The heart of this commentary is about explaining in a well reasoned way the basic exegetical idea paragraph after paragraph with references to related issues sprinkled throughout the commentary. One negative is that the format of the text is condensed in my view and therefore a little less comfortable to read than say the NICOT or NIVAC formats. This past Sunday I worked on Isaiah 38-39. Motyer sees that as the beginning of a new section that ends in Isaiah 55. His outline is interesting and his explanations defending his outline are good. In Isaiah 38-39 he deals with Hezekiah's predicatment and outlines the passage with a Chiastic structure that points to Hezekiah's deeper challenge that seems to underlie the text. I found that in this passage at least, Motyer's comments were more illuminating than even the excellently written NIVAC by Oswalt or the NICOT by Oswalt. Motyer sees the Chiasm in Isaiah 38-39 as pointing to Hezekiah's difficulty in obeying the point of the law where Judah is not to make alliances with foreign nations. The poetic structure with an emphasis on the dedication of Hezekiah in 38:8-22 and the defection of Hezekiah in 39:1-2 is a fresh and preaching alliterated point that I actually ended up using in my sermon on Hezekiah. My respect for this author has been on the rise the more I look into his work. He packs a lot into every page. Excellent book, well worth the shekels.

A massive masterpiece. Motyer, who is a life long student of Isaiah produces this evangelical commentary that will remain the standard. Written from a conservative stance, yet passionate and convincing. Any one who intends to do serious study in Isaiah must deal with this work.