Isaiah’s Structure from Random Forest Regression Analysis

Abstract

This is the first paper to analyze the tripartite linguistic structure of Isaiah using Random Forest Regression, a supervised machine learning statistical approach.  By predicting the occurrences of ‘judgment’ and ‘hope’ verses, we examine the threefold structure of Isaiah (section 1--chapters 1-39; section 2--chapters 40-55; and section 3--chapters 56-66) for differences in expression within and between each section. We find more inter-sectional homogeneity between sections 1 and 2 than between sections 1 and 3 or between sections 2 and 3, with respect to both judgment and hope word structures. Moreover, analysis of the judgment-vs-hope word structure indicate that section 3 heterogeneity differs significantly from sections 1 and 2 homogeneity, reinforcing the hypothesis that there is indeed a post-exilic authorship of section 3 (Isaiah 56-66).