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The Isaiah Connection
We will refer to this unbelievable relationship as "The Isaiah Connection." Here is chart showing which chapter of Isaiah corresponds to which book of the Bible.
This Isaiah connection is a strong evidence for the divine inspiration of the Bible, and the completeness and authenticity of the received canon. The Isiaiah connection affirms that the Apocrypha is indeed, apocryphal! The omnipotent foreknowledge of God in history is demonstrated by this connection. While Isaiah, when he wrote, was largely addressing the real-life situations and people of his day, God was purposing that His words through Isaiah would serve a larger aim. Isn't this always the way with God? Isaiah was told, as were all the prophets, that he was not serving himself, but us. (1 Peter 1:12) We will be foolish indeed to limit the wonderful words of the prophet Isaiah to his own day, his own understanding. We would be making the Bible a merely human production. Let us not do that! Let the Bible soar! Let it speak to us now. As never before, we need it. The sequential order of Bible books which must be followed for a perfect match with Isaiah chapters has profound implications. It will be noted that the order in our English Bibles is NOT the order confirmed by the Isaiah connection. The order for the Old Testament books is that found in the Hebrew Bible, which is the original order. Jesus put His stamp of approval on this order, when, in reasoning with the men on the road to Emmaus, He told them that ll things written about Him "in the law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled." (Luke 24:44) In the Hebrew Bible the order of the books follows Jesus' order: Law, Prophets, Psalms. But our English Bible has the order as Law, Psalms, Prophets. Which is correct? The "proof must be in the pudding." The Isaiah connection must "fit." The reader is invited to explore through study the Bible--Isaiah Connection. The order of the link-up with Isaiah chapters and the books of the New Testament also follows the original order as contained by the vast majority of Greek uncial manuscripts. The first and second church councils to address the subject of the New Testament, Laodicea (363 AD) and Hippo (393 AD), both confirm this order. The Russian Orthodox Bible also carries this original order. This order puts Hebrews right in the middle of the Pauline epistles, not on their border as in the English Bible. This would seem to be evidence for Paul being the author of Hebrews:
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The Old Testament
prophetic book of Isaiah, with its 66 chapters, is a microcosm of the whole Bible with its
66 books. There is a definite, direct, one-to-one correspondence between each chapter of
Isaiah and each book of the Bible. This is an amazing, if indirect, proof, of the
sovreignty of God and the superintendence of His Spirit over the whole of Scripture.
Written by different authors, in different languages, in different cultures at different
times, it is incredible that this relationship exists between the book of Isaiah, and the
whole of the Bible.