SimBib - Curious Case of Isaiah
800 years before the New Testament was written AND finalized, the book of Isaiah already mirrored the length, structure, and themes of the final canon of the Scriptures (NT + OT). The book of Isaiah is known as one of the greatest prophetical books of all time... in more ways than one. that’s quite curious!
Great SimBib Margin - Isaiah 1
Additional Note:
Because these resources are designed with brevity in mind, I could not include this note but wanted to include it here.
One might wonder about this CURIOSITY because chapter headings were not in the original text, they were added much later to help the modern reader with referencing the text. One might ask themselves, "Self, if the chapter headings were added centuries later after the NT was written, could someone not have manipulated the chapter organization to mirror the canon of the Bible instead of this being curious evidence of prophetic sovereignty?"
Well, you might have a point, but on the other hand, you might have proved the point and made this fact all the more curious....
First, we have copies of the Book of Isaiah long before Christ was incarnate before any book of the NT was written. The content of Isaiah and its order have not been changed, of that we are sure. There was no 'rearranging' or putting chapters that were at the end to the beginning. To have the first 2/3 of the book have one theme and the last 1/3 to have another, is just how Isaiah is organized (just like the Bible).
Second, when you look at the Hebrew text, there are clear divisions in the change of an event, a different prophecy being told, or a change in time. In short, chapter headings were placed in natural narrative breaks ALREADY IN THE TEXT, not new ones created. WHY ADD CHAPTER HEADINGS? Because when they were added, we were moving from the 'oral age' of information (memorization) to the 'written age' of information (printing press). Just FYI, 20 years ago, we moved to the ‘digital age' of information (we carry all the world’s information on a computer or phone in our pocket).
Therefore, with this information, you can either conclude that this curiosity of association was created by man... or (even much cooler) that God's sovereign hand is still showing itself today. That the prophetic book most quoted in your NT (calling out the virgin birth (7:14), His incarnation (9:6), He would be pierced (53:5-6), et al) is still laying 'easter eggs' of prophecy that shows that the God of Heaven and Earth is over all things, including chapter headings created centuries later that revealed the already established structure of the book. For me, that makes it all the more... curious!
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