Influence On Christianity
Isaiah is the most quoted of all the books of the Hebrew Bible outside of the Torah. Of notable importance is Isaiah 7:14, where the prophet is assuring king Ahaz that God will save Judah from the invading armies of Israel and Syria; the sign that will prove this is the forthcoming birth of a child called Emmanuel, "God With Us". The Hebrew of the original calls the child's mother a "young woman", but the Greek-speaking 1st century CE author of Matthew 1:23, using the Hellenistic Greek translation of the Hebrew sacred texts, interpreted it as a prophecy that the Messiah would be born of a virgin.
Another important passage was Isaiah 40:3–5, which imagines the exiled Israel proceeding home to Jerusalem on a newly-constructed road, led by the victorious Yahweh who has conquered the gods of Babylon. The vision was taken up by all four Gospels and applied to John the Baptist and Jesus, leading God's people out of exile.
Isaiah 52:13–53:12, the fourth of the "Suffering Servant" songs, was interpreted by the earliest Christians as a prophecy of the death and exaltation of Jesus, a role which Jesus himself seems to have accepted (Luke 4:17–21).
Read more about this topic: Book Of Isaiah
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