Isaiah Berlin

Isaiah Berlin was a Russo-British Jewish social and political theorist and a historian of ideas. He was born June 6, 1909 in Riga, Latvia. He was the son of a successful timber merchant and land owner. His family moved to St. Petersburg where he was an eyewitness to the Russian Revolution. His family then emigrated in 1921 to London where the family had business interests. As a young boy, Isaiah was known as Shaya and had his bar mitzah. In his high school years he attended St. Paul’s in London although he wanted to go to Westminster school. He did very well in school although he never was ranked #1 in his class. He was always very close though coming in at 2nd his last year. He moved to NYC during World War II and worked for the British Information…

A Summary on “Two Concepts of Liberty” by Sir Isaiah Berlin Sir Isaiah Berlin’s writing on the two concepts of liberty, which can be found in Chapter VII titled “Two Concepts of Liberty” in Political Philosophy edited by Anthony Quinton, helps people to understand to what degree they are free. He organizes his chapter into two sections, the first section is on the notion of negative freedom and the second section is on the notion of positive freedom. Sir Isaiah Berlin‘s discussion on the notion…

Introduction & Main Theme The historical interlude, Isaiah chapters 36-39, surrounds the military might of two parties: Hezekiah, king of Judah and the Assyria king Sennacherib. The Assyrian king sends his messengers to Hezekiah to frighten him to distance himself from God and to rely upon Assyria. Isaiah is called in to prophesize to Hezekiah. God gives him signs. Sennacherib ends up dying. Hezekiah also suffered from an illness, which he recovered in his health by God. Ironically, he…

The Prophet Isaiah The Prophet Isaiah was a man dedicated to his mission (Radmacher, Allen & House, 2007, p. 1037). He lived in Jerusalem, and was called upon to deliver God’s message during the Assyrian crisis (Hays, 2010, p. 96). Isaiah delivered words of confrontation, exhortation, and warning. This made Isaiah unpopular among the people (Radmacher, Allen & House, 2007, p. 1037). Isaiah’s message was delivered during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and all the kings of…

According to Jan Hoffman in “A Girls Nude Photo, and Altered Lives,” Margarite a 14-year girl sext her nude photo to her then boyfriend Isaiah. Sexting is the act of sending sexual photos or text messages through your cellphone. A week later Isaiah was pressured by one of Margarite’s former friend to send her Margarite’s nude photo. Later that night the former friend forwarded Margarite’s nude photo to all her contacts. Her nude photo went viral immediately. Not only was the photo being…

The 40th chapter of Isaiah is difficult to interpret because of the ambiguity of the text. This chapter has caused numerous scholarly discussion leading to many different interpretations of the chapter. This paper will focus on verses one through eleven, answering questions regarding some of the difficulties of the text. A few questions that will be addressed are the following: Who is the speaker of the text? Is there multiple speakers in this passage? What is the main point of the message? Who…

Within the book of Isaiah there are three main geopolitical events which take place; as these events occur Isaiah plays a role in these eighth century conflicts as his message from God advises the people in power. These messages had a different meaning to the people around him than it does to the audience who reads the book of Isaiah today. The Syro-Ephraimite War, The Threatened Conquest of Egypt and Ethiopia (714 BCE),and Sennacherib's Siege (701 BCE) all add historical context to the message…

of the Prophet Isaiah is very dramatic. In the center, the painting depicts the moment when a seraph purifies Isaiah’s lips with live coal. In the Bible, Isaiah focuses on his “unclean lips” from speaking sins in the past and how those sins would make it impossible to speak the word of Yahweh. To make it so that he could receive the gift of utterance, the seraph purified his lips (Armstrong 42). This gave Isaiah the ability to purely convey the words he will be asked to speak and if it had not…

Israel. Thus, the inheritance language of the land as a whole is used metaphorically when it is compared with the physical meaning: the territory of tribes or the whole nation.160 Wright explains the word lxn; " (or hl'x]n): as follows: In the Old Testament the terms are used in a kind of triangular set of relationships involving the LORD, Israel and the land. Thus (most commonly) the land is Israel’s (Ps. 105:11). But then, sometimes the land is the LORD’s (Exod. 15:17; 1 Sam. 158Harry M.…

The Syro-Ephraimitic War occurred in the eighth century B.C.E. This was of heavy concern for Ahaz because it presented a clear and present danger to his kingdom from attack by Syria and Israel (Tullock & McEntire, 2012). Isaiah’s advice for Ahaz was to pay no attention to these threats. “Instead, he counseled, “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear,” for the little tyrants threatening him would soon vanish” (Tullock & McEntire, 2012, p. 216). Isaiah tells King Ahaz that he must ask God for a…