Exile in the Mirror of History in Calvin’s Commentary on Isaiah

In his 1559 commentary on Isaiah, John Calvin as refugee pastor ventures a largely ecclesiastical rather than christological reading of this book, written at a time when Geneva experienced a large influx of religious exiles. For Calvin, the majority of Isaiah’s prophecies reference in the first instance the experience of the people of Israel and their future return from Babylon. Biblical history at the time of Isaiah then becomes a mirror for the contemporary experience of exile. Calvin explores the true church throughout the ages as a refugee community, literally and metaphorically. The image of the past as mirror—common in Calvin’s other exegetical works—is here particularly well-developed to maintain the integrity of Israel’s history and allow sixteenth-century Christians to make sense of their own experience and to foster trust in divine providence for the restoration of the church.