1. Discuss dual prophesy. A modern example of a dual prophesy is a pun because it has two meanings. One verse can mean two things. This is called sensus plenior. First, Joel 3:18 is a picture of the Messianic Age. John 2:1-11 corresponds to that passage, though, because of the connection between the Messiah and wine. The Old Testament people would have associated the wine at Cana with the Joel 3:18 prophesy. Second, Malachi 4:5 (compare to Luke 1:17) refers to the Messianic Age which has not happened yet. In Malachi, Elijah will announce the coming of the Lord, but in Luke, John the Baptist did. Third, in Psalm 34:20 (compare to John 19:36) says, "He keepeth all his bones. None are broken." The "he" is the righteous person, and this is an affirmation that the Lord rewards the righteous with good health (but not all the time). Fourth, in Isaiah 7:14, the Syro-Ephramite War is mentioned when Ahaz will not unite with the Syrian group. Instead, he aligns himself with the Assyrian king and allows a pagan god to be erected in Jerusalem. Isaiah gave Ahaz the sign of Immanuel and said that the two Assyrian kings will be gone by the time that Immanuel reaches the age of accountability. This seems to suggest that there was an Immanuel in Ahaz's lifetime.

2. Discuss a case study of Isaiah 52-53. These two chapters, which were divided by the early church, should be read as one passage. There are four similar passages in Isaiah relative to the Servant Song. They are Isaiah 42:1-9, Isaiah 49:5-13, Isaiah 50:4-11, and Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Non-Christians have several views about the identity of the servant. First, they say it could be Cyrus (see Isaiah 44:28 and Isaiah 45:1) because he allows the Jews to return from Babylonian exile. But Cyrus is seen as a hero, and the servant in Isaiah 52-53 is not treated like a hero. Second, they say it could be Israel (see Isaiah 41:8, Isaiah 44:1, 21, and Isaiah 45:4) because Israel is called a servant and the chosen people. But the context must always decide on multiple uses of the same word. The first problem is that servant in the song is anonymous. The second problem is that the figure in the song is innocent, but Israel definitely was not innocent. Isaiah is using the same word in two different contexts, but this is not a dual prophesy. The servant of God does not always mean the same person or people.

3. Discuss a review of lexical semantics. The servant of God could be Israel according to Isaiah 41:8 and Exodus 4:22. He could be a Davidic king according to the superscription of Psalm 18, where David is called a servant of God. He could be the Messiah based on Isaiah 52:13 and Isaiah 53:11. Similarly, the "son of God" could be Israel because of Hosea 11:1, a Davidic king because of II Samuel 7:14, or the Messiah based on Psalm 2:7. The same word does not always have the same meaning. "Leaven" in Matthew 13:33 is said to be like heaven, but the Bible calls leaven sin in many other places. In the Book of Ezekiel, the "son of man" is Ezekiel. The king of kings is Daniel 2 refers to Nebuchadnezzar. Context must always be considered. Habakkuk 2:4 says that the just shall live by faith, but this verse refers to people who are already in the faith. By contrast, Romans and Galatians says the same thing, but those instances are referring to people who are not yet in the faith.

4. Discuss the prophesy about justice during the Messianic Age. In Isaiah 2:1-4 and 11:1-9, justice in the Messianic Age is described. In Isaiah 42:1, the author writes about justice to the world. In Psalm 96:13, the subject is justice. The conclusion is that "Yahweh" in Psalms is the same as the Messiah in Isaiah. The Israelites should have been able to make this connection.

5. Discuss the idea of a second author for the Book of Isaiah. This alternate view says that Isaiah, from chapter forty on, was written by someone else. According to this view, there was one Isaiah in Jerusalem during the 8th century BC, but starting with chapter forty, the new author lived during Cyrus in the 6th century BC around the return from exile. The 8th century BC was before Cyrus and even before the exile, so the people during Isaiah's time would not have understood any of this prophesy. They might have wanted to live right so that they would be the ones who would come back to their homeland if and when the captivity in Babylon occurred.

				Tom of Bethany

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