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The four Suffering Servant songs are found in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-10; 52:13–53:12). They are in a section of Isaiah that was probably written about one hundred fifty years after the prophet Isaiah was ministering in Jerusalem (chapters 40-55).
We don’t know exactly who this fellow was, but because he appears to have been part of a school of prophets formed by Isaiah’s teachings, he is commonly called Deutero-Isaiah, or Second Isaiah.
The main reason why scholars suggest that these chapters were not written by Isaiah himself is because this new section in the book describes the situation of the Jews after they were conquered by the Babylonians and sent into exile—around 587-538 b.c. By contrast, Isaiah himself prophesied between 742 and 687 b.c.
Where Isaiah focused his attention on Jerusalem and the people’s need to turn to the Lord for protection from outside invaders, Deutero-Isaiah was speaking to a people who had already been conquered and were living now in Babylon. In Isaiah’s time, the primary threats came from Assyria and Egypt.
In Deutero-Isaiah’s time, the world stage…
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