Finer Literary Structure of Isaiah 40 – 53
The information below moves into a finer granularity of the structure of Isaiah. Individuals new to Isaiah, if possible, should be members of a group Bible study focused on more than just structure. A well-rounded understanding of Isaiah involves a mixture of geography, Ancient Near Eastern history (particularly Assyria and Babylon), some knowledge of how to read poetry, knowledge of Deuteronomy as presented elsewhere on this site, and then certainly the multitude of connections to the New Testament.
However, knowing what the original or natural structure is in the book (i.e., where the structural breaks are and what chiastic structures are) is quite important for study of the book. Otherwise, it is not known where Isaiah’s inspired thought parallelisms start and stop and how they fit together. Bible Study leaders or students planning to get serious would be best served by the book Isaiah Revisited, A Structural View, and then also needed is an interpretive commentary, and so please consider one of the commentaries recommended on this website.
Sections of Isaiah further divide into Major Units and then further divide into Units.
Major Units of Isaiah tend to contain three or more units. Major Units tend to be surrounded by what can be termed Major Unit Inclusio. (Since the interior is not one chiasm, some will say they are not technically inclusio, but others use that word for bracketing of interior text that is not formally chiastic. ) In Isaiah 40 – 53, it has been proposed that three of the major units are Isaiah 41:8 – 44:22, 44:24 – 48:19, and 48:20 – 52:12 (these divisions are the ones presented in Isaiah Revisited).
As an example, examining the further division of Isaiah 48:20 – 52:12, it has been proposed the units are 49:1 – 49:12, 49:14 – 50:8, 50:9 – 51:8, and then 51:9 – 52:8 which has further subdivisions. (These divisions are presented in Isaiah Revisited.) Units tend to have inclusio like marker verses containing near and/or far, or Hymn verses. That is, they tend to be surrounded or bracketed by these verses.
Here is a portion of one of several charts from The Near and Far Theme and the Literary Structure of Isaiah, Figure 9.3, page 180, but with more recent updates.
Written in 2017, The Near and Far Theme seriously needs to be updated with additional understanding gained from Scriptures written prior to Isaiah, and slight chart modifications made, but the book has continuing technical value for serious students and commentary writers (but please get the errata sheet and stay tuned to this website). Most individuals are better off with Isaiah Revisited.
However, a point to be made is that the structure of Isaiah is inextricably interlinked with the theme of the book, and this provides strong assurance of the single authorship of the book.
