Friday, September 4, 2015

3 Nephi 22-23 - Isaiah

Surely one of the greatest Old Testament prophets is Isaiah! After quoting him extensively, the Savior gives a unique endorsement found nowhere else in all the scriptures: “Yea, a commandment I give unto you that ye search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah.”

Isaiah didn’t just prophecy with clarity and power, he wrote it in poetry. We don’t see it so much because much of the artistic beauty has been lost in the translation from Hebrew into English. Some of it remains: Hebrew poetry doesn’t so much rhyme, as it is very structural in nature, like a Shakespearean sonnet. I’m by no means a Hebrew scholar much less an Isaiah scholar, but I know enough to see the strong parallelism in the writing. I’ve seen a book which had Isaiah rendered in verse form. The imagery and messages were much easier to see in that version.

Isaiah was a poet and a prophet.

Because he wrote in verse, the face value meanings are less clear than simple prose. Once you see the verse and get what he’s doing however, the power of the meaning is amplified. It’s my opinion the depth and scope of his prophecies were protected from ignorant editors because of it. It’s also why Nephi chose to incorporate so much of Isaiah in his record. He understood him. He saw the verse, he was educated enough its power and beauty and messages that he could read and understand it all.

Today, while few of us understand Hebrew poetry, we can all understand the power and insights of the Holy Ghost. Just as Isaiah’s words were translated from Reformed Egyptian to English for Joseph Smith by the power of God, by that same power, we can have the meaning transmitted across the centuries to our hearts. What a great blessing!

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