Learning to Love Isaiah

For a lot of people, reading Isaiah feels like a chore. When people get to Isaiah when they are reading the Old Testament, some of them simply skim Isaiah and move on. I know even more people who do the same thing when they get to the lengthy Isaiah quotations in the Book of Mormon: skim it and move on. Although I always read it carefully, I did not always get a good return on the investment of my time, and often didn't understand much of what I was reading.

However, more than five years ago, at the request of some friends, I started making a YouTube channel about Isaiah. To make each video, I would start by reading Isaiah carefully, comparing the standard Hebrew version (the Masoretic text) with the Greek translation (the Septuagint) and the Dead Sea Scrolls version (the Great Isaiah Scroll) along with the verses of Isaiah preserved in the Book of Mormon as well as the Joseph Smith Translation. I would then explain each chapter, verse-by-verse, line-by-line, and sometimes word-by-word, in order to give one interpretation of what Isaiah was talking about. Because it was initially just for some friends, I didn't worry much about the sound quality of the first half of the series, so sorry about that. Thankfully, the inimitable Zander Sturgill helped me to improve the quality for the second half.

I figured the whole thing would take me a little over a year to finish. Needless to say, it took me a lot longer than I thought. Part of the cause of the delay is just that life happened and I couldn't finish. But I also got stuck for a while on some critical issues, and spent a long time looking at Assyrian and Babylonian documents, ancient Near Eastern history books, archaeological reports from the Holy Land, and a host of other ancient and modern texts. Finally, as of yesterday, I finished the whole project, chapters 1-66, and am pleased to present Isaiah for Latter-day Saints (formerly Isaiah for Mormons). Just click on the link above to start watching.

As I have done more reading, I have realized that some of my conclusions were wrong or incomplete but I have included this information in the notes or comments section as I went along, so make sure to check that when you watch each video. When you open the link just scroll down to the bottom to start with the first video, and you can watch them all in order. I hope you all enjoy them.