Isaiah 40 · a question people ask

Whose is "The voice of one who calls out" (40:3)?

In the text

Isaiah 40 doesn't name the voice. It says, "The voice of one who calls out" (40:3), then "The voice of one saying" (40:6), and then tells the one with good news, "lift up your voice with strength!" (40:9), without naming any of them. All four Gospels give the words of 40:3 where they tell of John the Baptist. Matthew says of John, "For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet" (Matthew 3:3). Mark gives them after words the chapter on Exodus 23 looks at (Mark 1:2-3), and goes on, "John came baptizing in the wilderness" (Mark 1:4). Luke gives them "in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet" (Luke 3:4) and goes on through the words of 40:4-5 (Luke 3:5-6). And in John's Gospel, when John is asked, "Who are you?" (John 1:19), he first says, "I am not the Christ" (John 1:20), and then answers of himself, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness" (John 1:23). Matthew and John's Gospel say outright that 40:3's words are of John; Mark and Luke give them where they tell of him. The New Testament doesn't say whose is the voice of 40:6, or who tells the good news in 40:9, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.”
Isaiah 40:3 · World English Bible
“The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.”
Isaiah 40:6 · World English Bible
“You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!””
Isaiah 40:9 · World English Bible
“In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make the way of the Lord ready! Make his paths straight!””
Matthew 3:1-3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 40

Isaiah 40: Comfort, comfort my people

Isaiah 40 uses the same two Hebrew verbs three times: the LORD "doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary" (40:28), "the youths faint and get weary" (40:30), and those who wait for the LORD "will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint" (40:31). In between: "He gives power to the weak" (40:29).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions