person · P0041
Yeshayahu ישעיהו בן אמוץ
Prophet of Jerusalem across the reigns of Uziyahu to Chizkiyahu — prophet of the Assyrian crisis and of the grandest visions of consolation in Tanakh. His call came in a Temple vision in the year king Uziyahu died. Tradition holds he was killed under Menashe. Per the Rambam he received the Oral Torah from Amos and transmitted it to Michah.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- ישעיהו בן אמוץ
- Also known as
- Yeshayahu ben Amotz, Isaiah
- Era
- bible
- Received the mesorah from
- Amos
- Transmitted the mesorah to
- Michah
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3140–3230 AM
- Academic
- fl. c. 740–700 BCE (Isaiah of Jerusalem)
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈90 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Jerusalem
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Received the Oral Torah from Amos and his court, and transmitted it to Michah — the fourteenth link in Rambam's forty-generation chain.
Confidence is for the chain as stated by the Rambam. |
rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| "In the year of king Uziyahu's death I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne" — the Temple vision of his consecration.
Confidence is for what the biblical text states. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| The unity of the book of Yeshayahu is debated: most modern scholars date chapters 40–66 to the Babylonian exile and Persian period (so-called Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah), while the traditional view ascribes the whole book to Yeshayahu ben Amotz.
Recorded as the scholarly discussion; the atlas positions the prophet himself by the traditional chronology in either case.
|
reconstruction | ★★★★☆ | |
| Yeshayahu was the son of Amotz and was active during the reigns of Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz, and Chizkiyahu, kings of Judah.
The superscription supplies his father and royal synchronisms. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| A son named Shear-Yashuv accompanied Yeshayahu when he met King Achaz near the conduit of the upper pool.
The child's relationship and the meeting location are explicit. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Yeshayahu's wife is called "the prophetess," and she bore him a son named Maher-Shalal-Chash-Baz.
Her personal name is not supplied. |
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Yeshayahu served as a royal prophetic adviser during Sennacherib's invasion and during Chizkiyahu's life-threatening illness.
Both episodes directly place him in contact with Chizkiyahu's court.
|
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| Divrei HaYamim attributes records of the reigns of Uziyahu and Chizkiyahu to Yeshayahu son of Amotz.
These notices attest literary records associated with him but do not prove that distinct copies survive.
|
biblical | ★★★★★ | |
| A Bavli martyrdom tradition states that King Menashe prosecuted and killed Yeshayahu; the narrative says Yeshayahu hid within a cedar that was then sawn apart.
This death account is rabbinic and is not recorded in Kings, Chronicles, or Yeshayahu.
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Traditional placement c. 3140–3230 AM, from the reign of Uziyahu into that of Menashe; academic dating for Isaiah of Jerusalem c. 740–700 BCE.
Schematic traditional dating. |
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ) from Qumran (Qumran), c. 2nd century BCE, preserves the complete book of Yeshayahu a millennium before the earliest medieval codices — the oldest substantial physical witness to any prophetic book, and overwhelmingly consistent with the received text. | archaeology | ★★★★★ |