Introduction to Nephi’s Isaiah Chapters

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Introduction to Nephi’s Isaiah Chapters

Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian who wrote or abridged a record of the people of Israel at the time of the Roman conquest of Jerusalem A.D. 70, said of Isaiah:

He was by the confession of all, a divine and wonderful man in speaking truth; and out of the assurance that he had never written what was false, he wrote down all his prophecies, and left them behind him in books, that their accomplishment might be judged of from the events of posterity.

Josephus: Complete words, trans. William Whiston, Grand Rapids, Mich: Kregel Publications [1972], Antiquities of the Jews, 10. 2. 2

Valeton pays this tribute to him: “Never perhaps has there been another prophet like Isaiah, who stood with his head in the clouds and his feet on the solid earth, with his heart in the things of eternity and with mouth and hand in the things of time, with his spirit in the eternal counsel of God and his body in a very definite moment of history.” (As quoted by G.L. Robinson, The Book of Isaiah [First Edition], p. 22)

Sidney B. Sperry, The Voice of Israel’s Prophets, p. 14

If the Lord’s example of quoting Isaiah was not sufficient motivation for the Nephites and for us to read, ponder, and pray over his prophetic words—indeed, it is one thing to quote the Lord and quite another to have the Lord quote you!—then his commandment to do so is surely sufficient.

Millet & McConkie, BOM Commentary, Vol. 1 p. 274

3 Nephi 20:11

11 Ye remember that I spake unto you, and said that when the words of Isaiah should be fulfilled--behold they are written, ye have them before you, therefore search them—

3 Nephi 23:1

1 AND now, behold, I say unto you, that ye ought to search these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah.

The Book of Mormon is a book of scripture. It is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is written in biblical language, the language of the prophets.

For the most part, it is in easy-flowing New Testament language, with such words as spake for spoke, unto for to, with and it came to pass, with thus and thou and thine.

You will not read many pages into it until you catch the cadence of that language and the narrative will be easy to understand. As a matter of fact, most teenagers readily understand the narrative of the Book of Mormon.

Then, just as you settle in to move comfortably along, you will meet a barrier. The style of the language changes to Old Testament prophecy style. For, interspersed in the narrative, are chapters reciting the prophecies of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. They loom as a barrier, like a roadblock or a checkpoint beyond which the casual reader, one with idle curiosity, generally will not go.

You, too, may be tempted to stop there, but do not do it! Do not stop reading! Move forward through those difficult-to-understand chapters of Old Testament prophecy, even if you understand very little of it. Move on, if all you do is skim and merely glean an impression here and there. Move on, if all you do is look at the words.

Soon you will emerge from those difficult chapters to the easier New Testament style which is characteristic of the rest of the Book of Mormon.

Because you are forewarned about that barrier, you will be able to surmount it and finish reading the book.

You will follow the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah through the generations of Nephite people to that day when those prophecies are fulfilled and the Lord appears to them.

Elder Boyd K. Packer, “The Words of Isaiah,” CR, April, 1986, 74-75

How important is it that we understand Isaiah?

Isaiah has been preserved for a reason. Nephi and Mormon went to great efforts to see that Isaiah’s writings were a part of the Book of Mormon. They are meant to be understood. Nephi never intended that we skip or hurry through the now sixteen-page segment in the middle of his second book. “If our eternal salvation,” Elder McConkie warned, “depends upon our ability to understand the writings of Isaiah as fully and truly as Nephi understood them—and who shall say such is not the case!—how shall we fare in that great day when with Nephi we shall stand before the pleasing bar of Him who said: ‘Great are the words of Isaiah’?...It just may be that my salvation (and yours also!) does in fact depend upon our ability to understand the writings of Isaiah as fully and truly as Nephi understood them. For that matter, why should either Nephi or Isaiah know anything that is withheld from us? Does not that God who is no respecter of persons treat all his children alike? Has he not given us his promise and recited to us the terms and conditions of his law pursuant to which he will reveal to us what he has revealed to them?” (Ensign, October 1973, p. 78.)

Millet & McConkie, BOM Commentary, Vol. 1 p. 277