Feel like an AIRHEAD when it comes to Isaiah?

You are not alone! So while reading the Book of Mormon for the 60 day challenge I had the desire to not just "get through" the Isaiah chapters, but try to understand them. So I found this book at deseret book and bought it with my birthday money. And look at the author! I love John Bytheway!! You actually have your scriptures open and study them along with the book. I feel as if I'm in his institute class! But let me share a few paragraphs in there that he uses to describe how Isaiah writes. It really is very funny!

As an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University, I took a rigorous class called "Business Writing." I was taught a formula for writing that is consistent with our modern culture: "Say what you're going to say, say it, then say what you've said. Be concise, use simple words rather than complex, multi-syllabic phrases. Be brief, clear, and direct. Deny the listener the right to misunderstand.

Isaish did not take that class. His method of writing was taught somewhere else on campus, perhaps in the "Humanities Writing" class. Isaiah was a poet and an intellectual. He was also what LDS scholar Victor L. Ludlow called a "deliberately difficult" prophet. I imagine "Humanities Writing" class to have instructions more like these:

Conceal what you're going to say. Never use the same noun twice when referring to a person, group, or place (Isaiah uses five different names to describe the same place in 2 Nephi 17). Speak of future events in past tense at times. In fact, have no time frame-move in and out of past, present, and future without telling the reader what you're doing. Use complex symbolism rather than simple metaphors. Never let anyone know whether you're being literal or figurative. Keep 'em guessing!"

I am excited to read more of this book! I would totally recommend it!