The two halves of Isaiah

Standard Critical Approach (change in authorship)

Isaiah 1-39 written in the context of the Assyrian threat; Isaiah 40-66 written in the context of the Babylonian threat.

Standard Evangelical Approach (change in audience)

Isaiah 1-39 applied to those under the Assyrian threat; Isaiah 40-66 applied to those under the Babylonian threat.

My Problems with the Standard Evangelical Approach (no change in audience)

1. Surely the intended audience of chapter 1 is the same as that of the intended audience of chapter 66. They are engaged in the same types of sin; they are called to hear God's word and they both await the renewal of Jerusalem.

2. The hinge chapter, Isaiah 40, makes no reference to an exile whatsoever and no mention of Babylon. God returns to Jerusalem after their suffering. While other prophets focus on the movement of exiled people, Isaiah seems to focus on the renewal of Jerusalem.

3. While Babylon and the return from exile do feature in chapters 40-66 (albeit in a smaller way - see above), surely the message could still be for Isaiah's contemporaries to live in the light of God's future punishment and salvation.

4. Exile appears in Isaiah 1-39. (Is. 5:13) 'Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.' Return from exile also appears in Isaiah 1-39. Isaiah 35 paints the picture of the redeemed returning to Jerusalem.

4. There is no indicators in the text whatsoever that the intended audience has changed when you read Isaiah 40-66. It is just as future as passages like Isaiah 9, 11 and 35.

5. Surely the commendation of those who 'tremble at God's word', unlike everyone else who offer meaningless sacrifices (Isaiah 66), is a word to Isaiah's current generation? Or is it a word that only those who in the distant future have been exiled and now return to the land need to hear? I hope you can see that I don't think very highly of this convoluted standard evangelical position.