Isaiah
biblical character
Isaiah (UK: or US: ; Hebrew: יְשַׁעְיָהוּ, Yəšaʿyāhū, "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from Greek: Ἠσαΐας) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet", but the exact relationship between the Book of Isaiah and the actual prophet Isaiah is complicated. The traditional view is that all 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written by one man, Isaiah, possibly in two periods between 740 BC and c. 686 BC, separated by approximately 15 years.
Another widely held view suggests that parts of the first half of the book (chapters 1–39) originated with the historical prophet, interspersed with prose commentaries written in the time of King Josiah 100 years later, and that the remainder of the book dates from immediately before and immediately after the end of the 6th-century BC exile in Babylon (almost two centuries after the time of the historical prophet), and that perhaps these later chapters represent the work of an ongoing school of prophets who prophesied in accordance with his prophecies.
Biography
The first verse of the Book of Isaiah states that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. Uzziah's reign was 52 years in the middle of the 8th century BC, and Isaiah must have begun his ministry a few years before Uzziah's death, probably in the 740s BC. He may have been contemporary with Manasseh for some years. Thus, Isaiah may have prophesied for as long as 64 years.
According to some modern interpretations, Isaiah's wife was called "the prophetess", either because she was endowed with the prophetic gift, like Deborah and Huldah, or simply because she was the "wife of the prophet". They had two sons, naming the elder Shear-Jashub, meaning "A remnant shall return", and the younger Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, meaning, "Quickly to spoils, plunder speedily." According to the Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 7:14 the two also had a son named Immanuel, a verse interpreted by Christians as prophesizing the virgin birth of Jesus.
The public source identifies “Isaiah” as biblical character. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Isaiah, biblical and character.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q188794. VIAF identifies the subject as 143011742. The Library of Congress control number is n80109418. 3 of 9 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Isaiah” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.