text · B0023
Sefer Yeshayahu ספר ישעיהו
The great book of consolation — the Gemara's own label for it is "all comfort" (כוליה נחמתא). Its prophecies are Yeshayahu's, but the baraita of Bava Batra says "Chizkiyah and his colleagues wrote" it: a royal circle, not a lone author, committed the prophet's words to final written form. Rashi there explains why the prophet did not do it himself — prophets wrote their books before their death, and Yeshayahu was killed by Menashe before he could; the circle of Chizkiyah's generation who outlived him did the writing. The edge here points to Chizkiyah as the named anchor of that collective.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- ספר ישעיהו
- Also known as
- Yeshayahu, Isaiah, Book of Isaiah
- Era
- bible
II. When
- Traditional
- committed to writing by Chizkiyah and his colleagues, c. 3199–3260 AM, per Bava Batra 15a
- Academic
- chs. 1–39 largely 8th c. BCE; chs. 40–66 dated by most scholars to the exilic and post-exilic periods
- Duration
- ≈61 years
- Precision
- approximate
IV. What
- Language
- Biblical Hebrew
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Chizkiyah and his colleagues wrote — ימש״ק is the mnemonic — Yeshayahu, Mishlei, Shir HaShirim, and Kohelet" (חזקיה וסיעתו כתבו ישעיה משלי שיר השירים וקהלת): the baraita of Bava Batra, assigning the writing to a circle rather than an individual. The edge to Chizkiyah (Chizkiyahu) stands for the whole collective. | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| "Wrote" (כתבו) here means committed to writing, not composed: Rashi explains that prophets wrote their books only before their death (שלא היו הנביאים כותבים ספריהן אלא לפני מותן), and Yeshayahu, killed by Menashe, never did — so Chizkiyah's circle, "the men of his generation who lived on after him," wrote his prophecies down.
The explanation is Rashi's classic gloss on the baraita; the Gemara itself states the attribution without spelling out the mechanism.
|
tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Timeline placement c. 3199–3260 AM: Chizkiyah's reign and the generation after it, when the circle that outlived the king (and the prophet) did its editorial work. The span is schematic. | tradition reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |