as a result of Persian influence. His prophecies of the Messiah were, later, the chief Old
Testament texts used to show that the prophets foresaw the coming of Christ.
In Christian arguments with both pagans and Jews, these texts from Deutero-Isaiah played a
very important part, and for this reason I shall quote the most important of them. All nations are
to be converted in the end: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into
pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more" ( Is. II, 4). "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel." * (As to this text, there was a controversy between Jews and Christians; the Jews
said that the correct translation is "a young woman shall conceive," but the Christians thought
the Jews were lying.) "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.... For unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace." †The most apparently prophetic of these passages is the fifty-third chapter, which
contains the familiar texts: "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief.... Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.... But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.... He was oppressed, and he was
afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." The inclusion of the gentiles in the
ultimate salvation is explicit: "And the gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising." ‡
After Ezra and Nehemiah, the Jews for a while disappear from history. The Jewish state
survived as a theocracy, but its territory was very small--only the region of ten to fifteen miles
around Jerusalem, according to E. Bevan. § After Alexander, it became a disputed territory
between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids. This, however, seldom
* Isaiah VII, 14.Â
§
Jerusalem under the High Priests, p. 12.â
€
Ibid., LX, 3.â
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¡Ibid., IX, 2, 6.