Review
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Title: Search Diligently the Words of Isaiah
Author: Donald W. Parry
Publisher: Deseret Book/BYU Religious Studies Center
Genre: Academic/Devotional
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 244
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-9503-0446-2
Price: 25.99
Reviewed by Ivan Wolfe for the Association of Mormon Letters
The first thing I did with Search Diligently the Words of Isaiah, as I find this generally a good proxy for understanding where an expert academic (and Parry has impeccable credentials, regardless of whether you agree with his conclusions or not) is coming from regarding Isaiah, was look up his thoughts on 1st/2nd/3rd Isaiah. No surprise he’s closer to the “unitary author” camp (though with a lot more nuance than you might find in the more knee-jerk “there’s only one author in Isaiah”), but he also does three things I believe are the hallmarks of a solid, credible, and careful thinker: 1.) He fairly summarizes and does not “strawman” those who subscribe to the multiple Isaiahs theory; 2.) He generously quotes/cites many academics from many sides of the debate; and 3.) He encourages readers to go read the relevant literature for themselves.
Now, most of Search Diligently does not deal with debates, controversies, and academic trends regarding Isaiah (there is some of that in his Q&A section, which is the section that deals with the multiple authors’ questions). However, I find that Parry’s discussion of these and other issues helps illustrate his careful, clear, and concise explanations mixed with academic rigor, popular accessibility, and thorough research. Parry knows his stuff, and he wants you to know it.
Now, this is a popular, and ultimately devotional text, but at the same time it could function as a great textbook for not just a class on Isaiah but almost any class on understanding the Old Testament. Those who are already well-versed/well-read in the academic literature likely won’t find anything new here, but the average non-specialist looking to “get into” Isaiah beyond the surface level of common misunderstandings and interesting speculations that too often feed our discourse on Isaiah, this book works very well. Rather than (as is the usual practice) isolating verses and chapters from their contexts, Parry takes a “forest and the trees” approach, making sure we neither miss the forest nor the trees but that we see how the two are the same thing,
Chapters on culture, history as well as ancient poetry, the use of multiple speakers (not necessarily authors – see above) in the text, and other literary devices help make Search Diligently the Words of Isaiah likely the best, most accessible, and comprehensive introductory text to Isaiah for the LDS market that I’ve ever seen. Other texts on Isaiah for LDS readers can range from fairly useful to bizarrely speculative, but I hope this one becomes the standard one people go to for the foreseeable future.