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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 6

1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne.⁠ The hem of his robe filled the temple.⁠ 2 Seraphs stood over him;⁠ each one had six wings.⁠ With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly.⁠ 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy⁠ is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!⁠ His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”⁠ 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke.⁠ 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” 6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” 8 I heard the voice of the Lord say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?”⁠ I answered, “Here I am, send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell these people:⁠ “‘Listen continually, but don’t understand. Look continually, but don’t perceive.’⁠ 10 Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind.⁠ Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”⁠ 11 I replied, “How long, Lord?” He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated, 12 and the Lord has sent the people off to a distant place, and the very heart of the land is completely abandoned. 13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.”⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 6:1 and John 12:41 and Jonathan Isaiah 6:1

Hebrew Bible · New Testament · Targum

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Summary

Isaiah describes seeing God directly, but the Aramaic translation in the Targum avoids this by focusing on divine glory. This may follow an early Aramaic tradition that also influenced John's gospel, which says Isaiah saw the Messiah's glory.

Passages

Isaiah 6:1

Hebrew Bible
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

John 12:41

New Testament
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them.” 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s glory and spoke about him. 42 Nevertheless, even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
90–110 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John

Jonathan Isaiah 6:1

Targum
1 In the year that King Uzziah was struck with leprosy, the prophet said, I saw the glory of the LORD sitting on His throne, high and lifted up to the highest heavens, and the temple was filled with the brightness of His glory. 2 Holy ministers on high stood before Him; each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, so that it could not see; with two he covered his body, so that it could not be seen; and with two he was ministering.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

"... It is not impossible that the author of the Fourth Gospel, using these quotations from the prophet Isaiah, may have also had other texts of his in mind and texts of the Targumic tradition. In John 12:41, Isaiah’s vision is referred to the glory of Jesus. The theme of “glory” is an important point in the Targumic tradition ... The text of Isaiah, who speaks about the vision of God: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple (Isaiah 6:1), reads in the Aramaic translation (Targum Isaiah 6:1) ... In the light of the Aramaic version, the text of the Fourth Gospel becomes more comprehensible: Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him (John 12:41) ..."
Mirosław S. Wróbel, “Ideological and Intertextual Relations Between the Targum Isaiah and the Gospel of John,” Collectanea Theologica 93.1 (2023): 85–102.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 6:1 and John 12:41 and Jonathan Isaiah 6:1

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