The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah 9780567684240, 9780567684264, 9780567684257

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JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TEXTS IN CONTEXTS AND RELATED STUDIES

Executive Editor James H. Charlesworth

Editorial Board Motti Aviam, Michael Davis, Casey Elledge, Loren Johns, Amy-Jill Levine, Lee McDonald, Lidia Novakovic, Gerbern Oegema, Henry Rietz, Brent Strawn

THE UNPERCEIVED CONTINUITY OF ISAIAH

Edited by James H. Charlesworth

T&T Clark Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY, T&T CLARK and the T&T Clark logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published 2019 Paperback edition published 2020 Copyright © James H. Charlesworth, 2019 James H. Charlesworth has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editor of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN:

HB: 978-0-5676-8424-0 PB: 978-0-5676-9521-5 ePDF: 978-0-5676-8425-7

Series: Jewish and Christian Texts, volume 28 Typeset by Forthcoming Publications (www.forthpub.com) To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters

C on t en t s

Abbreviations vii Contributors xi Introduction: Is There an Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah? xiii The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah James H. Charlesworth 1 The Continuity in the Prophetic Visions in First Isaiah (1–39) Dan’el Kahn 34 Deutero- (Second-) Isaiah Shalom M. Paul 71 The Insights of Third Isaiah: Observations of a Traditionalist Jeffrey R. Chadwick 76 Exegesis and Theology in the Transmission of Isaiah Emanuel Tov 94 Isaiah, John the Baptizer, and Jesus Dale C. Allison, Jr. 128 The Influence of Isaiah on Paul’s Romans and the Intra-Canonical Gospels James H. Charlesworth 151 The Influence of Isaiah on Jewish and Christian Liturgies Mirosław S. Wróbel 186

vi Contents

Conclusion

202

Afterword: Why Isaiah? Albert I. Baumgarten 204 Appendix: Love in the School of Isaiah and Continuity in 1QIsaiaha James H. Charlesworth 212 Index of References Index of Authors

222 233

A b b rev i at i ons

ÄAT AB AGJU AGSU AIL AnBib ANET ANTJ AOAT ArBib ATA BAR BASOR BBB BEATAJ BETL BHS Bib BibOr BibS(N) BN BNTC BR BZAW CBQ CBQMS ConBOT COS CSCO

Agypten und Altes Testament Anchor Bible Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des Urchristentums Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Spatjudentums und Urchristentums Ancient Israel and Its Literature Analecta Biblica Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by James B. Pritchard. 3rd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969 Arbeiten zum Neuen Testament und Judentum Alter Orient und Altes Testament The Aramaic Bible Alttestamentliche Abhandlungen Biblical Archaeology Review Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research Bonner biblische Beitrage Beitrage zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments und des antiken Judentum Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Edited by Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1983 Biblica Biblica et Orientalia Biblische Studien (Neukirchen, 1951–) Biblische Notizen Black’s New Testament Commentaries Biblical Research Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Catholic Biblical Quarterly Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series Coniectanea Biblica: Old Testament Series The Context of Scripture. Edited by William W. Hallo. 3 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1997–2002 Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Edited by Jean Baptiste Chabot et al. Paris, 1903

viii Abbreviations DJD DSD DSSCOR EDNT

Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Dead Sea Discoveries Dead Sea Scrolls & Christian Origins Library Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider. ET. 3 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990–1993 EDSS Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Edited by Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. VanderKam. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000 ErIsr Eretz-Israel FAT Forschungen zum Alten Testament FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments GM Gottinger Miszellen GNS Good News Studies HBM Hebrew Bible Monographs Hen Henoch HO Handbuch der Orientalistik HUCA Hebrew Union College Annual ICC International Critical Commentary IEJ Israel Exploration Journal INJ Israel Numismatic Journal JAEI Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections JAJSup Journal of ancient Judaism, Supplements JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies JSHS Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series JSPSup Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series JSS Journal of Semitic Studies KAT Kommentar zum Alten Testament KJV King James Version LNTS The Library of New Testament Studies LXX Septuagint MÄS Münchner ägyptologische Studien  MIFAO Membres de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire  MT Masoretic Text NABU Nouvelles assyriologiques breves et utilitaires NAC New American Commentary NCBC New Century Bible Commentary Neot Neotestamentica

Abbreviations NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament NICOT New International Commentary on the Old Testament NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary NRSV New Revised Standard Version NTOA Novum Testamentum et Orbis Antiquus NTS New Testament Studies OBO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis Or Orientalia (NS) OTM Old Testament Message OTP Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Edited by James H. Charlesworth. 2 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1983, 1985 OTS Old Testament Studies OtSt Oudtestamentische Studien PEQ Palestine Exploration Quarterly PG Patrologia Graeca [= Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca]. Edited by Jacques-Paul Migne. 162 vols. Paris, 1857–1886 PHSC Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures and Its Contexts PL Patrologia Latina [= Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Latina]. Edited by Jacques-Paul Migne. 217 vols. Paris, 1844–1864 PTMS Pittsburgh Theological Monograph Series RevQ Revue de Qumran RHR Revue de l’histoire des religions RINAP Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period SAAB State Archives of Assyria Bulletin SBAB Stuttgarter biblische Aufsatzbande SBLAIL Society of Biblical Literature SBLEJL Society of Biblical Literature SBLSCS Society of Biblical Literature SBLSymS Society of Biblical Literature SBLWAW Society of Biblical Literature SBS Stuttgarter Bibelstudien SHANE Studies in the History of the Ancient Near East SHCANE Studies in the History and Culture of the Ancient Near East SNT Studien zum Neuen Testament SPNT Studies on Personalities of the New Testament STDJ Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah TA Tel Aviv TCS Texts from Cuneiform Sources TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–1976 VT Vetus Testamentum VTSup Supplements to Vetus Testamentum

ix

x Abbreviations WMANT WUNT ZAA ZAW

Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archäologie Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

C on t ri b u tor s

Dale C. Allison is Princeton Theological Seminary’s Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament, Princeton University, USA. Albert I. Baumgarten is Professor Emeritus at Bar-Illan University, Israel. Jeffrey R. Chadwick is Jerusalem Center Professor of Archaeology and Near Eastern Studies at the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center, Israel, and Associate Professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA. James H. Charlesworth is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature and Director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA. Dan’el Kahn is Senior Lecturer at the University of Haifa, Israel. Shalom M. Paul is Yehezkel Kaufmann Professor Emeritus of Bible Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Emanuel Tov is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. Mirosław S. Wróbel is Director of the Intertestamental Literature and Auxiliary Sciences for Biblical Studies Department in Biblical Science Institute at Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II, Poland.

I n t rod uct i on: I s T her e a n U n p ercei ve d C ont i nui ty of I s a i a h ?

From August 23 to 26, 2015, scholars from China, Australia, the United States, Poland, and Israel met in Jerusalem to focus on the composition of Isaiah. In focus was this question: “Is there an unperceived continuity of Isaiah?” The full question evolves as follows: “Does the book of Isaiah represent the thoughts of the eighth century BCE or does it reflect additions and insertions that take us down to the third century BCE, and has Isaiah been exceptionally influential on the Dead Sea Scrolls, John the Baptizer, Jesus, Paul, the Evangelists, on through Jewish and Christian liturgies until today?” Is there an unperceived continuity of Isaiah or is Isaiah a seamless book that reflects the career of the eighth-century prophet? Any additions and expansions or divisions would not be apparent in the Isaiah Scrolls found in the Qumran Caves, since the evolution of the text would have been completed before 150 BCE. The chapters appearing in the present volume are introductory and have the average intelligent reader in mind. The authors have tried to avoid jargon and place ancient languages in endnotes. The suggested outline for each publication is as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The corpus or chapters are explained and terms are defined The date and provenience of the work is discussed. Historical allusions are highlighted. Major poetic and theological passages are collected for reflection. For chapters chronologically later, quotations from Isaiah (explicit according to MT, LXX, or other ancient sources) as well as allusions are discussed. Influential passages, such as poetry and symbolism based on Isaiah are explained. Then, the scholar evaluates the influence from Isaiah in the Reception History. The reader is informed that early Jews and “Christians” preferred allusions to texts (that often saturated their minds) and often tended to avoid citations.

xiv Introduction

I am grateful to those who presented lectures, often despite various personal calamities. All scholars invited presented superb papers, engaged in conversations, and opened vistas for all of us to explore. These individuals are John Hoffmann, Dan’el Kahn, Ronnie Goldstein, Shalom Paul, Jeffrey Chadwick, Emanuel Tov, Dale Allison, and Mirosław Wróbel. Those who chaired the session often presented insights and contributed impressively to discussions; these include Ithamar Gruenwald, Albert Baumgarten, Joh Fu (Johan Ferreira), Robert Deutsch, Eitan Chamberlain, Gabi Barkay, Lamar Barden, Judson Dunlap, Matthew J. Adams, and Dan Bahat. The congress clarified many insights that are shared in the conclusion to this book. To complete the congress, Dan Bahat led us through Old Jerusalem, pointing out what Isaiah and Jeremiah would have seen. Archaeology helps us move beyond the myopia of a literary text to imagine Jerusalem through Isaiah’s eyes. I am grateful for those who contributed to this volume and making it clear how Isaiah has influenced Jews and Christians for about 2,700 years. JHC Princeton July 2016

T he U n p er cei ved C on t i n ui ty of I sai ah

James H. Charlesworth

How continuous is the book of Isaiah; that is, does it represent more than the work of the Prophet Isaiah who lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE? Scholars from China, the USA, Israel, and Poland gathered in Jerusalem in August and September 2015 to examine the thesis that there is a continuity of Isaiah from the latter half of the eighth century BCE to Bar Kokhba and even up to the present.1 This continuity is “unperceived” by all who think “the book of Isaiah” is a unity and that all sixty-six chapters were written by one person.2 I have been asked many times if the copies of Isaiah found in Cave 1 showed the divisions given to them by specialists today. I reply: “No.” That would be impossible; the authors and editors of Isaiah lived long before the middle of the second century BCE, the probable date of 1QIsaa (which contains all sixty-six chapters). The copyist of 1QIsaa apparently worked in Jerusalem and reflects the continuity of Isaiah by changing words and molding a language that was ancient to him.3 As J. J. M. Roberts emphasizes: “In general, in the absence of a trail of early datable and evolving manuscripts, the editorial process behind a particular book is both private and largely unrecoverable.”4 1.  The publications I cite are intended to introduce readers primarily to the contri�butions by those who are members of the Jerusalem Isaiah Congress of 2015 and to the most recent major relevant studies. 2.  E.g., see http://biblenotes.net/isaiah.html. The authority of this source is evident from this excerpt: “Isaiah caused time to go backwards, reported in Isa 38:8 as well as in 2 Kgs 20:11.” 3.  See E. Y. Kutscher, The Language and Linguistic Background of the Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa), STDJ 6 (Leiden: Brill, 1974), 2, 18, 89, 94–5. 4.  J. M. M. Roberts, First Isaiah (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015), 3.

2

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

In antiquity, before the advent of critical and scientific biblical research, Jews and Christians alike assumed, without questioning, that Isaiah 1–66 comprises a seamless garment created by a single exceptional genius.5 The author of Sir. 48:24 probably assumed as much when alluding to the beginning and the ending of Isaiah (or 2:1 and 61:2-3).6 Jesus and his followers also assumed that the book of Isaiah was seamless. Josephus (37–c. 100 CE), the historian of Early Judaism, further claimed that Isaiah, the author of 1–66, never wrote anything that was false (Ant. 10.2). The “continuity of Isaiah” can be perceived only by those who know the composition history of Isaiah, as well as the Qumran Scrolls (the Dead Sea Scrolls composed at Qumran) and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (which contains many documents considered sacra scriptura by early Jews and Christians). While many scholars are familiar with the so-called canonical books, these other “sacred” texts are acknowledged but not mastered or considered fit for a major class in many seminaries or Yeshivas. Some universities and seminaries have no class on the Apocrypha, the Pseudepigrapha, or the Dead Sea Scrolls. The vast advances in the field of Second Temple Judaism are ignored or considered somewhat irrelevant by too many New Testament scholars, and far too many miss the shifting paradigm regarding the Parables of Enoch and the profound influence of Isaiah on its Jewish author.7 This book of Enoch is now judged to be certainly Jewish, and probably either contemporaneous with or slightly earlier than Jesus from Nazareth. Almost all scholars who focus on Isaiah, the prophet, or on the compositions by him and by those who added to his work are interested in obtaining personal knowledge of Scripture to benefit their lives. Isaiah is widely recognized as the most important of the prophets, appearing first among them (after Kings in the Jewish Bible, but after the Song of Songs in the Christian Bible).8 What methodology can help us avoid reshaping Isaiah’s message from our own presuppositions? An answer is found in Gary V. Smith’s introduction to his commentary on Isaiah:

5.  All translations, unless otherwise noted, are my own. 6.  See the reflections by Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 1–12. 7.  See James H. Charlesworth and Darrell L. Bock, eds., Parables of Enoch: A Paradigm Shift (London: T&T Clark International, 2013). 8.  See the discussion by Mark McEntire, A Chorus of Prophetic Voices: Introducing the Prophetic Literature of Ancient Israel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2015), 27.



Charlesworth  The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

3

The first step in this process of finding contemporary relevance in an ancient text is to discover the meaning each passage had in its original setting. What did Isaiah’s words mean or convey to his audience? This raises the issue of defining the meaning of the Hebrew words he employed, the grammatical forms that were used to express these ideas, the temporal setting of the audience, and the theological worldview of the audience (Why was he speaking these words to them?).9

The majestic poetry and visions within the book of Isaiah have mesmerized the erudite for over 2,000 years. The masterpiece has been the focus of leading scholars since the beginning of biblical criticism with commentaries on it by scholars ranging from Wilhelm Gesenius (3 vols.) in 1820–1821,10 to Brevard S. Childs in 2001,11 to James J. M. Roberts in 2015.12 Each of these three proceed with the recognition that chs. 1–66 are the work of more than one author and reflect different times and places. During Gesenius’ time the consensus seems to have been that Isaiah has two parts: 1–39 and 40–66. Now, a consensus may be forming that Isaiah contains three parts: 1–39 (First Isaiah), 40–55 (Second Isaiah),13 56–66 (Third Isaiah).14 The change to perceive three parts is due to Bernhard Duhm’s landmark commentary published long ago in 1892.15 It has taken over a century for Duhm’s claims to become a burgeoning consensus. The Eighth Century in Jerusalem and First Isaiah I shall thus proceed with the recognition that the canonical book of Isaiah probably consists of three successive sections that were composed by three authors consecutively: chs. 1–39 in the late-eighth century and early-seventh century BCE in Jerusalem by the incomparable Isaiah 9.  G. V. Smith, Isaiah 1–39, NAC 15A (Nashville: B&H, 2007), 22–3. 10.  Wilhelm Gesenius, Der Prophet Jesaia, 3 vols. (Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, 1820–21 [1. Theil, 2nd ed. 1829]). 11.  Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001). 12.  Roberts, First Isaiah. 13.  For the opinion that there is no “Second Isaiah,” see U. Berges, “Farewell to Deutero-Isaiah or Prophecy Without a Prophet,” in Congress Volume Ljubljana 2007, ed. A. Lemaire (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 575–95. 14.  See the clear and informative publication: Lars Olov Eriksson, “From Gesenius to Childs: Reading the Book of Isaiah with Two Giants,” in New Studies in the Book of Isaiah: Essays in Honor of Hallvard Hagelia, PHSC 21 (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias, 2014), 13–30. 15.  B. Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892 [4­th ed. 1922, 5th ed. 1968]).

4

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

(though obviously these chapters were later edited, interpolated, and expanded). Chapters 40–55 were added in the sixth century BCE in Babylon by at least one thinker who possessed a copy of 1–39; chs. 40–55 were probably composed by an anonymous genius who lived in Babylon during the sixth century exile.16 Chapters 56–66, along with the ostensibly interpolated chs. 24–27, were conceivably crafted by a Jew who returned from Babylon to Jerusalem.17 Perhaps the scribe of Isaiah worked between 550 and 539 BCE.18 Chapters 56–66 were added in Jerusalem by one or more “Jews” who returned from exile with an expanded version of “the book of Isaiah.” Additions and interpolations may have been made to chs. 1–55, as well. An examination of any one of these sections should be studied in terms of the whole the Isaianic corpus and not in isolation.19 The breaks between chs. 39/40 and 55/56 suggest to many scholars different and successive authors all united by the powerful images and terms in 1–39. Chapters 40–66 are best understood in terms of continuity and a flow that picks up new images and relates them to symbols, metaphors, and similes found in 1–39, notably the watchman, the banner, the islands, trees, former things, women, and being God’s servant.20 Perhaps the most imposing recurring theme is a focus on Israel as God’s Chosen, her failure to keep God’s Torah, the necessary punishment, and her return to a position as God’s favorite. Perceiving a shared dependence on 1–39, and noting different emphases and fresh images allows us to imagine a school of thinkers who were shaped by 1–39 in Babylon and 1–55 later in Jerusalem.21 Is it not helpful, then, to speak about a School of Isaiah just as we have heard about the School of Matthew and the School of John?22 And perhaps a 16.  See, notably, Shalom M. Paul, Yesha‘yah, Perakim 40–66 (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2008); and idem, Isaiah 40–66. 17.  See especially Paul D. Hanson, Isaiah 40–66 (Louisville: John Knox, 1995). 18.  See especially K. Baltzer, Deutero-Jesaja, KAT 10/2 (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1999), 57; Roberts, First Isaiah, 3. 19.  Marvin A. Sweeney makes my point more than once in his superb review of Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer and Hans M. Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity: Chronological and Thematic Development in Isaiah 40–66, FRLANT 225 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014). 20.  See Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, “Continuity and Discontinuity of Isaiah 40–66: History of Research,” in Tiemeyer and Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity, 13–40. 21.  Many commentators on Isaiah focus on the final form of Isaiah as a literary unity. See the comments by Roberts, First Isaiah, 2–3. 22.  The most important publications are the following: Krister Stendahl, The School of Matthew and its Use of the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968



Charlesworth  The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

5

“School of Isaiah” especially makes sense if we perceive with F. C. Baur and others that there is a so-called School of Paul; thus, foundational writings by a luminary stimulated compositions in his name by others in later times and different places.23 With these prefatory reflections, we may now summarize each of the three putative sections of “the book of Isaiah.” Chapters 1–39 are the edited prophecies by the eighth-century prophet, Isaiah, the son of Amoz.24 He lived from 738 BCE to 701 or perhaps 686 BCE.25 If Isaiah had a career of about fifty years, he would probably have edited and changed his earliest oracles (redoing them as is evident in 28:1-6). Thus, the continuity of Isaiah may be seen to begin within the life of the eighth-century prophet himself. The crises he faced in Judea are reflected in his prose and poetry and in the names he gave to his sons: She’ar-Ya’shuv, “a remnant shall return” (‫ ְׁש ָאר יָ ׁשּוב‬in 7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, “spoil quickly, plunder speedily” (‫ ַמ ֵהר ָׁש ָלל ָחׁש ַּבז‬in 8:3).26 Peter Machinist notes how the Assyrian rulers aggressively engulfed Israel and Judah, and that Isaiah, responding polemically to this imperial thrust, crafted a poem. Isaiah 10:5-15 seems to indicate Sennacherib’s campaign against Jerusalem in 701 BCE. In his poem, Isaiah re-configures history, so that Assyria’s might has come about due to YHWH’s need to punish Judah. Machinist’s unique and brilliant contribution is in showing that Isaiah, in his poem (10:5-15), not only borrows from Assyrian ideology and inscriptional monuments, but deliberately inverts them so that their focus is not Ashur (the false principal god of the Assyrians) but YHWH (Israel’s only God). Is not Isa. 10:5-15 “an Assyrian inscription in reverse,” or as Isaiah would doubtless have [2nd ed., 1991]). R. Alan Culpeper, The Johannine School: An Evaluation of the Johannine-School Hypothesis Based on an Investigation of the Nature of Ancient Schools (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1975). 23.  F. C. Baur, Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi (Stuttgart: Becher & Muller, 1845). Published in English in 1875 and recently in 2003. 24.  See especially the following recent publications: Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39 (New York: Doubleday, 2000); Patricia K. Tull, Isaiah 1–39 (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2010); Ulrich Berges, The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form, trans. Millard C. Lind (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2012); Roberts, First Isaiah; idem, Near East: Collected Essays (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002). 25.  See Roberts, First Isaiah, 1. 26.  Concerning the international crises Judah and Isaiah experienced, see S. Bar, D. Kahn, and J. J. Shirley, eds., Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature (Leiden: Brill, 2011).

6

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

put it, an Assyrian inscription as it should be properly formulated? These reflections enrich our understanding of Isaiah’s context, his brilliance, and his poetic sophistication.27 It now is obvious that Isaiah (Yesha‘yahu, “YHWH is salvation”) and Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu; “YHWH is high”; c. 650–570 BCE),28 represent the great prophetic minds in Jerusalem before the end of the Kingdom of Judah.29 Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence of their time and city,30 as well as eighth-century bronze weights with West Semitic inscriptions and zoomorphic shapes (including a frog with a scorpion on its back).31 No historical record describes Isaiah’s death, but the much later and folkloristic Martyrdom of Isaiah records that he was bisected by a wooden saw (similar legendary accounts may be found in Yeb. 49b and San. 10). The book of Isaiah opens with these words: “The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (NRSV). Thus, most experts on Isaiah place chs. 1–39 in Jerusalem and ascribe them to 27.  Peter Machinist, “Final Response: On the Study of the Ancients, Language, Writing and the Stata,” in Margins of Writing, Origins of Cultures, ed. Seth L. Sanders, 2nd ed., Oriental Institute Seminars 2 (Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2007), 303–4. 28.  Jeremiah was born in Anathoth (a village about 3 miles northeast of Jerusalem). 29.  See Ronnie Goldstein, Ḥaye Yirmiyahu: Gilguly ha-masoret ʻal nevi ha-ḥurban ʻad shilhe ha-teḳufah ha-miḳra’it [Life of Jeremiah: Traditions about the Prophet and Their Evolution in Biblical Times] (Jerusalem: Mosad Byaliḳ: The Mendel Institute of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University, 2013); also see idem, “Jeremiah Between Destruction and Exile: From Biblical to Post-Biblical Traditions,” DSD 20, no. 3 (2013): 433–51. 30. For a concise report, see Avraham Negev and Shimon Gibson, Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land (New York: Continuum, 2001); for more, see Dan Bahat, Touching the Stones of our Heritage: The Western Wall Tunnels (Jerusalem: Western Wall Heritage Foundation, 2002); Robert Deutsch, Mesarim min he-ʻavar [Messages from the Past: Hebrew Bullae from the Time of Isaiah Through the Destruction of the First Temple] (Tell Aviv: Archaeological Center, 1999); Jeffrey R. Chadwick and Aren M. Maeir, “Household Archaeology in the Southern Levant: An Example from Iron Age Tell Halif,” in New Perspectives on Household Archaeology, ed. B. J. Parker and C. P. Foster (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012). 31.  Conceivably, the bronze frog with an etched scorpion on its back provides the oldest-known evidence of the tale by Aesop of how a scorpion, because of its own nature, stung a frog ferrying him across water. See Robert Deutsch and Alan Millard, “Ten Unpublished West Semitic Bronze Weights,” INJ 18 (2011): 15–26. For the image of the frog, see p. 20. It weighs 2.8g [courtesy of S. Moussaieff, London].



Charlesworth  The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

7

the eighth-century Isaiah, the son of Amoz, who resided in Jerusalem and worshipped in the temple built by Solomon.32 His call to be a prophet is often dated to about 742 BCE, which is also the time of the Assyrian Empire’s incursion into the West, mentioned repeatedly in chs. 1–39. First Isaiah is full of passages that have been echoed over the centuries, including these symbolic words: “Be your sins like crimson, they can be snow-white” (1:18). A contagious dream is shared in ch. 2: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war. (Isa. 2:4 TANAKH)

Such visions allow Isaiah to craft the concept of Israel as “a vineyard on a fruitful hill” (5:1). The LORD of hosts refers to “my vineyard” (5:3, 4, 5); it is Jerusalem and Judah: “For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the House of Israel” (5:7). “Israel” is not the northern kingdom; it is “the men of Judah” (5:7). The vineyard produces only “wild grapes”; hence, its hedge and wall will be demolished and the land “trampled,” and “overgrown.” First Isaiah is optimistic and contains such well-known passages as the following: In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the Temple. Above him stood the Seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; or my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa. 6:1-5; echoes in 2 En. [J] 19:3)33 32.  For a succinct and authoritative discussion of Jerusalem and of the temple during the time of Isaiah, see the following two chapters in Una Città tra Terra e Cielo: Gerusalemme, ed. Luciano Vaccaro (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2014): Dan Bahat, “Gerusalemme—Le premesse a una vicenda straordinaria: La ‘Città di Davide,’ ” 21–32; and idem, “L’edificazione e le vicende del tempio nella storia d’Israele,” 33–42 (with images). 33.  See Reinhard Muller, Ausgebliebene Einsicht: Jesajas “Verstockungsauftrag” (Jes 6,9-11) und die judäische Politik am Ende des 8. Jahrhunderts (NeukirchenVluyn: Neukirchener, 2012).

8

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

Isaiah 6 helps us grasp the earliest beginnings of apocalyptic speculation in the Holy Land.34 For at least the next millennium, Jews and Christians would ponder whether anyone, even Isaiah, can see the Lord. At Qumran, the priests and others were so careful not to pronounce God’s name that they sometimes placed four dots (....) for the ineffable Tetragrammaton.35 The Seraphim are angelic beings in the form of serpents (in 30:6 “viper” and “flying seraph” are synonymous);36 they appear in the Bible only in Isa. 6:2, 6. In antiquity serpents were depicted with wings and feet. Observe the following image of a divine serpent with feet, from the time of Isaiah, the son of Amoz:

722–644 BCE, Thebes [Courtesy of Civico Museo Archeologico di Milano. Photograph J. H. Charlesworth] 34.  The publications on Jewish apocalyptic thought are voluminous; for a good discussion see Albert I. Baumgarten, Apocalyptic Time (Leiden: Brill, 2000). 35.  For a judicious assessment of how Qumran helps us comprehend the devel�opment of the biblical text, see Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint (Leiden: Brill, 2015). 36.  See James H. Charlesworth, The Good and Evil Serpent (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010).



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First Isaiah acknowledges that the LORD has given him “signs and portents” (9:18) that are rich with meaning; but subsequently they were not interpreted within the context of text itself, since Christology trumped Wisdom: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14 NRSV; LXX has “virgin”)

Since the beginnings of critical research, commentators have agreed that ‘alma means “young woman” and not “virgin,” in Isa. 7:14, but the identity of that young woman is debated. Following Ibn Ezra, Gesenius identified her with the wife of Isaiah. Childs concludes that both “virgin” and “young woman” can be misleading and urges us to appreciate that the identity is a secret. Matthew (in 1:22-23) and the author of the Odes of Solomon (in Ode 19) declare and Luke implies (in 1:26-38) that Jesus was born of a virgin. Does Matthew quote Isa. 7:14 and the others echo it in order to prove that Jesus, like Alexander the Great and Augustus, was born of a virgin? And do all show some dependence on the Septuagint’s reading: διὰ τοῦτο δώσει κύριος αὐτὸς ὑμῖν σημεῖον, ἰδοὺ ἡ παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξει καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Εμμανουηλ?37 The great prophet refers to “Galilee of the Gentiles” in 8:23 (‫הגוים‬ ‫ ;)גליל‬but that verse remains ambiguous and must not be used to prove that Jesus was a Gentile, as is being taught too often today. If the “Galilee of the Gentiles” has any meaning in the first century, it would describe the area to the West, the coast of the Mediterranean (including Khirbet Beza). Jesus is never reported to have visited that area; he worked in eastern Lower Galilee in villages that are clearly Jewish (as stone vessels and mikva’ot prove). In contagious poetry, Isaiah urges those in Jerusalem and Judah to revere and hold in awe only the LORD of Hosts (8:13). He remains hopeful: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined. (Isa. 9:2 NRSV)

37.  See Dale C. Allison and William David Davies, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, ICC, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988–1997).

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

Was this verse used by Paul or an Evangelist to declare that Jesus is like a “great light” that has shined on people who live “in a land of deep darkness?” Isaiah repeatedly mentions that “a remnant” shall remain (10:20, 21 [bis], 22). He addresses those on Mount Zion, Jerusalem (10:12; cf. 30:19; 31:9; 33:20), who are the people who dwell on Zion (10:24; cf. 10:32; 12:6; 22:21; 24:23). They are not to fear Assyria (10:24). Passages not clearly apocalyptic and messianic (though identified with David’s throne and kingdom in 9:6) have been interpreted to prove claims about an eschatological Messiah. Two of the most important are in chs. 9 and 11. For a child has been born to us, A son has been given us. And authority has settled on his shoulders. He has been named “The Mighty God is planning grace; The Eternal Father, a peaceful ruler.” (Isa. 9:5 TANAKH) A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.



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They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isa. 11:1–9 NRSV)

Many readers of these verses can imagine that they introduce the beginnings of apocalyptic eschatology; that is, the wolf shall live with the lamb, the lion like the ox shall eat straw, babes and infants shall play over the den of the asp and adder, and no one will again hurt or destroy “on my holy mountain.” The universalism must not be missed: the earth shall be full of “the knowledge of the Lord.” Which of these powerful poetic visions helped stimulate early Jews’ imaginations and shaped the story of Jesus? Soon I shall note the continuing influence of Isaiah in this verse: “he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” It is echoed in many compositions between 100 BCE and 135/6 CE. Isaiah also mentions “the day of the LORD” (13:6, 9). That concept will echo now for centuries. Among condemnations on the inhabitants of Judea, because of immorality and idolatry, arises a hope that will carry the chosen nation into exile. Metaphors and similes define First Isaiah, creating visions and dreams that echo long past Early Judaism and the origins of Christianity. For example, the author of Revelation had most likely memorized portions of Isaiah. He knew at least these passages: The heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll. (Isa. 3:4; cf. Rev. 6:14) For I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth. (Isa. 65:17; cf. Rev. 21:1)

As all biblical exegetes know, history is imbedded in the book. Sennacherib, “the Great King, the king of Assyria,” is reported to have invaded Judah and seized “all the fortified cities” (36:1). An officer of Assyria informs Hezekiah that “the LORD” had told him to destroy Judah (36:10). The Assyrian army dies without fighting and Jerusalem is saved (37:36). The memorable and highly influential poetic vision of First Isaiah ends with this prediction that occurred when “all that” was valuable “in your house” was “carried to Babylon” in 597 and 587 BCE:

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord. Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.” (Isa. 39:5-8 NRSV)

In the early sections of his work, Isaiah warned of exile: “My people will suffer exile” (5:13).

Remnants of Isaiah’s Jerusalem “The House of the Bullae” in which conflagration and arrowheads from c. 586 BCE were found. [Photograph J. H. Charlesworth]

The Sixth-Century Babylonian Captivity and Second Isaiah Chapter 40 begins abruptly; there is no smooth transition from 39:8. Thus, most scholars recognize that chs. 40–55 are an addition by an anonymous figure and are accordingly designated Second Isaiah.38 This author uses a dialect of Hebrew different from the prophet Isaiah,

38.  Paul (Isaiah 40–66, 1) is convinced Isaiah was composed by two authors, Isaiah ben Amoz of Jerusalem and an anonymous prophet, Second or Deutero-Isaiah.



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reflecting Late Postexilic Hebrew with some Aramaic influences.39 Some scholars postulate that Isaiah 34–35 should also be credited to Second Isaiah (either as a total interpolation or an edited version).40 Second Isaiah knows First Isaiah and echoes him repeatedly in metaphors, similes, and condemnations of all idolaters. He also stresses that Israel, Jacob, and Abraham are “my servant,” “my chosen one,” “my chosen people” (41:8–42:1; 43:10, 20; 45:4). Second Isaiah, chs. 40–55, mirrors the life in Babylon. Jerusalem has been devastated; accordingly, the book begins as follows: Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” A voice says, “Cry out!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever. Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

39.  Paul, Isaiah 40–66, 43–4. 40.  Paul, Isaiah 40–66, 4–5.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Behold, the LORD God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. (Isa. 40:1–11 NRSV)

While each year these words are sung in churches throughout the year at Advent, Second Isaiah announces that the LORD has forgiven the people of Jerusalem because they have served their term and their debt has been paid. Hence, a voice declares that a way is to be prepared for those who return to Jerusalem. Because the “word of our God” is forever, Zion, Jerusalem, has heard “good tidings” and will not fear “the cities of Judah.” The author asks: “And to whom, then, can you liken God?” (40:18; cf. 40:23; 46:5). Those who trust in the LORD shall run but shall not grow weary; they shall walk and not faint (40:31). He shall turn the wilderness into ponds, arid land into springs of water, planting “cedars,” “cypresses,” “box trees and elms” (41:18-19; also cited and echoed in 1QHa 16, a poem by the Righteous Teacher).41 The LORD announces that Judah will be inhabited again, the ruined places restored, the city Jerusalem rebuilt, and the temple re-founded (44:26-27). The historical setting becomes clearer in the light of historical and archaeological research. The Persian general Cyrus became a major world figure in the middle of the sixth century. The date of chs. 40–55 is thus discerned by references to Cyrus in 41:2-3 (a clear inference) and in 45:1-6, in which Cyrus “the LORD” hails Cyrus by name as “his anointed one” (‫כֹורׁש‬ ֶ ‫ֹה־א ַמר יְ הוָ ה ִל ְמ ִשיחֹו ְל‬ ָ ‫)כ‬. The promised restorations have not yet been accomplished in the seventh century BCE. They will be achieved through Cyrus, “his anointed one” (not “his Messiah”). In 539 BCE Cyrus peacefully entered Babylon, accomplishing the overthrow of Nabonidus, the Babylonian king. In the first year of his reign, Cyrus proclaimed that the Jews could return to Judah and even helped them rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. Cyrus 41.  See James H. Charlesworth, “An Allegorical and Autobiographical Poem by the Moreh haṣ-Ṣedeq (1QH 8:4–11),” in Sha‘arei Talmon: Studies in the Bible, Qumran, and the Ancient Near East Presented to Shemaryahu Talmonu, ed. M. Fishbane. E. Tov, and W. W. Fields (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1992), 295–307; and Charlesworth’s introduction, texts, and translations of all witnesses to the Thanksgiving Hymns in the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project, in press.



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and his team of propagandists imagined that Judah was an extension of Babylon. The importance of this period is placarded by the Prayer of Nabonidus found in Qumran Cave 442 and by the Cyrus Cylinder.43 Second Isaiah believed in explicit monotheism: “I am the first and I am the last; and there is no god but me” (44:6; cf. 43:10). He enunciates his point: “I am the LORD and there is no one else; beside me, there is no god” (45:4, 14, 18-25; 46:9). No author in the Hebrew Bible so clearly enunciates monotheism so explicitly; we should contemplate henotheism in other biblical passages (coined by W. J. von Schelling [1775–1854] and popularized by M. Müller [1823–1900]). The universalism of Second Isaiah is placarded. He declares that Jacob, Israel, is to be “a light for the nations” so that God’s salvation “will reach the ends of the earth” (49:6). The author declares: “He is called ‘God of all the Earth’ ” (54:5). Second Isaiah likewise emphasizes that God is the Savior to whom “every knee shall bend and every tongue confess” loyalty (45:23). He adds that God has a “plan” (47:10), and that no one can save themselves (47:14). In the following verses, he describes one who is to come and suffer: He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 42.  J. J. Collins, “4QPrayer of Nabonidus,” in Qumran Cave 4.XVII, ed. G. Brooke et al., DJD 22 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), 83–93 (Plate VI). 43.  See M. Cogan’s translation (COS 2:315–16) conveniently re-presented in Paul, Isaiah 40–66, 15–17. According to the “Cyrus Cylinder,” the Persian “delivered Nabonidus” into the hands of “Marduk, the great lord.”

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isa. 53:3-7 NRSV)

Second Isaiah, an anonymous person, is described as “my righteous servant” (53:11). The imagined person, “the Servant of the Lord,”44 as Dibelius reported,45 has been interpreted in three different ways. First, the person may be a messianic figure. Second, he may represent a collective, such as Israel or Jews. Third, he may denote an anonymous person who is suffering; among the many to be so considered would be King Uzziah, King Hezekiah, King Josiah, Isaiah, or Jeremiah. Virtually everyone knows that the first generation of Jesus’ followers believed this “Suffering Servant” passage described Jesus’ life and passion. Scholars ask us to contemplate how and in what ways Isaiah 53 has helped create events in the Jesus Story? Was Jesus silent during his horrible sufferings or did the Evangelists report that “he did not open his mouth” because of their hermeneutical understanding of Isaiah? To reply that Jesus spoke with Pilate misses the point about what we are told by the Evangelists. Second Isaiah records the word of the LORD: “Go forth from Babylon” (48:20). The section ends with the hope of a return to Jerusalem: Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts… For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; 44.  Notably, see M. Zehnder, “The Enigmatic Figure of the ‘Servant of the Lord’: Observations on the Relationship Between the ‘Servant of the Lord’ in Isaiah 40–55 and Other Salvific Figures in the Hebrew Bible,” in Zehnder, ed., New Studies in the Book of Isaiah, 231–82. 45.  M. Dibelius, Der Prophet Jesaia, 3:158–95. I am indebted to the work of Lars Olov Eriksson.



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the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (Isa. 55:6-9, 12-13 NRSV)

It is easy to comprehend that “you shall go out…and be led back” represents the hope of the returnees to Jerusalem; and so ends Second Isaiah. Just as ch. 40 does not transition smoothly from ch 39, neither does ch. 56 flow smoothly from ch. 55. Numerous scholars, therefore, discern another author rather than a rough transition by the same author. The Fourth- and Third-Century Return of the Babylonian Exiles and Third Isaiah Though no consensus now exists, Third Isaiah (or Trito-Isaiah) seems to reflect a time when the Babylonian exiles have returned to Zion but find broken walls, a burned temple, and harsh treatment from those living in ancient Palestine.46 Third Isaiah knows and interprets Second Isaiah.47 These chapters are distinguished by focusing on issues related to Shabbat, foreigners, and eunuchs.48 Note how Third Isaiah opens with the promise that God’s Covenant will be given to all who obey it and him: Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance will be revealed. 46.  See the following essays in Tiemeyer and Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity: Ulrich Berges, “Where Does Trito-Isaiah Start in the Book of Isaiah?,” 63–76; and Joseph Blenkinsopp, “Continuity-Discontinuity in Isaiah 40–66: The Location of the Issue,” 77–88. Berges argues that ch. 55 concludes Second Isaiah and also introduces Third Isaiah. Blenkinsopp shows that chs. 40–55 were composed in the Diaspora because of the hope of a return to Zion and the predominance of Jacob who went into exile. 47.  See Jacob Stromberg, “Deutero-Isaiah’s Restoration Reconfigured,” in Tiemeyer and Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity, 195–218. 48.  See Hans M. Barstad, “Isaiah 56–66 in Relation to Isaiah 40–55: Why a New Reading Is Necessary,” in Tiemeyer and Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity, 41–62.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Happy is the mortal who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil. (Isa. 56:1-2 NRSV)

Following the universalism of Second Isaiah, the author announces that “eunuchs” and “foreigners” will be welcome in the temple, “My House” (Isa. 56:4-6). If they observe the Shabbat and keep the covenant, their sacrifices will be welcome. Why? Here is the memorable answer: “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isa. 56:7; a possible echo from 2:2?). In the following verses, however, Israel’s leaders are compared to ravaging dogs and inattentive shepherds who “have no understanding.” Many in Israel again have been idolatrous, even offering sacrifices to other gods on a mountain (57:7). Long forgotten are the reforms of King Josiah, whose dates are not clear but are often thought to be c. 639– c. 610.49 Note the condemnation of Israel attributed to God in 57:13: “When you cry (for help), let your assortment of idols deliver you!” Echoing the beginning of the book (or scroll), the author states that when they call for the LORD, he will answer: “Here am I” (‫ ִהּנֵ נִ י‬in 58:9; cf. 6:8). The same term also appears in 65:1: “Here I am, here I am.” The answer is attributed to the LORD. The Little Isaiah Canonical Apocalypse (Isa. 24–27) has frustrated scholars’ attempt to explain its provenience, having been variously dated to the late-eighth century BCE (Hayes and Irvine), between the lateseventh and very early sixth century (Roberts), between 587 and the last half of the sixth century (Millar), to the fifth century (Clements), shortly after 539 (Blenkinsopp), about 400 (Gray), and even to the time of John Hyrcanus in the late-second century (Duhm).50 Thus, there is no consensus on its date.51 Some scholars note that Isa. 24:1 seems to begin an interpolation. “Behold, the Lord will strip the earth (‫ )הארץ‬bare” does not flow smoothly from 23:18, “that they may eat their fill and clothe themselves elegantly.” Likewise 27:13, “they shall come and worship the LORD on the holy 49.  See Dan’el Kahn, “Revisiting the Date of King Josiah’s Death,” in The Shadow of Bezalel: Aramaic, Biblical, and Ancient Eastern Studies in Honor of Bezalel Porten (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 255–64. 50.  For a bibliography and discussion, see Roberts, First Isaiah, 306–9. 51.  Dibelius concluded that this section cannot represent the work of the prophet Isaiah, and that it was probably written during the Babylonian Exile. Childs is convinced that the text should not be defined as “apocalyptic” but should be read in terms of “the Day of the Lord.”



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mountain, in Jerusalem,” does not flow easily into 28:1, “Ah, the proud crowns of the drunkards of Ephraim.” Chapters 24–27 reflect much older Canaanite myths (e.g. Baal, lord of the clouds, defeats Yamm, the sea), lack historical specifics, and are to be categorized as prophetic oracles. Though Roberts, with impressive erudition, concludes that the Little Isaiah Canonical Apocalypse dates “certainly prior to 587 BCE,”52 it may well be post-exilic.53 The chapters may date from 485 BCE and mirror the sack of Babylon by Xerxes.54 It seems to be an early example of protoapocalyptic eschatology,55 is optimistic, and contains (perhaps) some of the earliest references to the resurrection of the dead:56 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain. (Isa. 25:9-10) Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead. (Isa. 26:19 NRSV)57

This optimism is found also in Third Isaiah, which may be contemporaneous with chs, 24–27. The sons and daughters of Israel shall return to Zion, Jerusalem (60:4-9), “City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel” (60:14). Cosmic ramifications are promised: 52.  Roberts, First Isaiah, 306. 53.  The so-called apocalypse was very influential on the Apostolic Fathers, including Justin Martyr, who alluded to Isa. 27:1 in Dialogue with Tryphon 112; Irenaeus, who alluded to Isa. 25:9 in Adv. Haer. 4.9.2 and Isa. 26:19 in Adv. Haer. 4.33.11 and 5.15 (with 5.34.1), and Isa. 27:6 in Adv. Haer. 4.4.1. 54.  See J. J. Collins, “From Prophecy to Apocalypticism: The Expectation of the End,” in The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, ed. J. J. Collins, 3 vols. (New York: Continuum, 1999), 1:130. 55.  Dale C. Allison (“The Eschatology of Jesus,” in Collins, ed., The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, 1:275) places 24–27, along with Daniel, Zech. 9–14, and portions of 1 Enoch, and other writings in the category of the type of “Judaism that nurtured Jesus.” 56.  See the cautious reflections in J. L. Crenshaw, “Love Is Stronger than Death: Intimations of Life beyond the Grave,” in Resurrection: The Origin and Future of a Biblical Doctrine, ed. J. H. Charlesworth et. al., Faith and Scholarship Colloquies Series (New York: T&T Clark International, 2006), 64–5. 57.  The author of 1 Clement 50 cites and echoes Isa. 26:19-20.

20

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you by night; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, or your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended. Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever. They are the shoot that I planted, the work of my hands, so that I might be glorified. (Isa. 60:19-21 NRSV)

Recall also this famous passage about the good news concerning the LORD God’s deliverance of all who mourn in Zion: The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to provide for those who mourn in Zion— to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. (Isa. 61:1-4 NRSV)58

58.  Elizabeth R. Hayes (“Fading and Flourishing: The Rhetorical Function of Plant Imagery in Isaiah 40–66,” in Tiemeyer and Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity, 89–102) concludes that a study of plant imagery in Isa. 40–66 is disparate and does not provide a rhetorical unity.



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Those in Zion shall receive “a garland,” the “oil of gladness,” the “mantle of praise,” and be called “oaks of righteousness” because they are “the planting of the LORD.” Such promises are echoed much later in numerous texts, notably in the Thanksgiving Hymns (col. 16) and the Odes of Solomon (esp. Odes 1 and 13). In 61:8, the LORD is quoted with this marvelous promise: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” One can detect here, however, another fluctuation, such as those found in all sixty-six chapters. In ch. 65, God’s loving kindness quickly turns to anger and condemnation. Why? It is because Israel has become “a people who provoke me” (65:3). They have sacrificed in gardens, offered incense on bricks, and “eat swine’s flesh, with broth of abominable things in their vessels.” We need to explore, however, the purpose and meaning of the claim in 63:15-19a that the LORD is the one responsible for leading Israel into sin and punishment: “O LORD, why have you caused us to stray from your ways” (63:17).59 Is this thought in Third Isaiah not an echo from First Isaiah? Recall 6:9: And he said: Go, and announce to this people: Keep on hearing but do not comprehend. Keep on seeing but do not understand.

God then remembers the remnant and for them he plans a new creation: For I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. (65:17; cf. 66:22)

The focus is on Jerusalem. God asks the faithful to be “glad” and to “rejoice forever” because he is “about to create Jerusalem as a joy” (65:18). Quoting the memorable vision of First Isaiah, this author adds: The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain. (Isa. 65:25 NRSV) 59.  See Blaženka Scheuer, “Why Do You Let Us Wander, O Lord, from Your Ways (Isa 63:17): Clarification of Culpability in the Last Part of the Book of Isaiah,” in Tiemeyer and Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity, 159–74.

22

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

The author knows Isa. 11:6-9, quoting and echoing the famous vision in 65:25, so that the wolf and lamb shall graze together, the lion and ox eat straw, and no evil shall occur on God’s holy mountain.60 The apocalyptic and eschatological tone of Isa. 11:6-9 seems late, when Jewish apocalyptic eschatology flourished, but the imagery is very early, as witnessed in the Enki and Ninhursag Epic and the references in the Sumerian Garden of Eden, Dilmun. There the lion will not kill, the wolf will not snatch the lamb, and the wild dog will be unknown.61 The next to last verse of the book of Isaiah offers an optimistic future, since all humans will observe Shabbat and worship the LORD: From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. (Isa. 66:23 NRSV)

The continuity of Isaiah can also be seen in major alterations to a text of Isaiah in the second century BCE. Recall the well-known passage in Isa. 51:5 according to the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint:

‫ָקרֹוב ִצ ְד ִקי‬ ‫יָ ָצא יִ ְׁש ִעי‬ ‫ּוזְ ר ַֹעי ַע ִּמים יִ ְׁשּפֹטּו‬ ‫ֵא ַלי ִאּיִ ים יְ ַקּוּו‬ 62 ‫וְ ֶאל־זְ ר ִֹעי יְ יַ ֵחלּון׃‬

I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, My salvation has gone out And my arms will rule the peoples; The coastlands wait for me, And for my arm they hope. (Isa. 51:5, rearranging the Hebrew and NRSV)

Very similar is the text of the Septuagint (LXX) of Isa. 51:5 ἐγγίζει ταχὺ ἡ δικαιοσύνη μου, καὶ ἐξελεύσεται ὡς φῶς καὶ τὸ σωτήριόν μου, καὶ εἰς τὸν βραχίονά μου ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσιν· ἐμὲ νῆσοι ὑπομενοῦσιν καὶ εἰς τὸν βραχίονά μου ἐλπιοῦσιν.63 60.  Hence, Roberts (First Isaiah, 182) dates Isa. 11:1-9 to the late eighth century BCE. 61.  See “Sumerian Myths and Epic Tales,” translated by S. N. Kramer (ANET, 38), and Paul, Isaiah 40–66, 607. 62.  BHS. 63.  H. B. Swete, The Old Testament in Greek: According to the Septuagint (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1909).



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My righteousness speedily draws nigh, And even my salvation shall go forth as light. And for my arm the peoples (or Gentiles) shall hope: For me the islands shall wait, And for my arm they shall hope.

According to the “canonical” text of Isa. 51:5, all of the pronouns are first person. They refer to the LORD (‫)יְ הוָ ה‬, who is the speaker. Observe how an anonymous person changed the meaning of this famous and influential passage. Here is the text of 1QIsaa of Isa. 51:5 (col. 41.19): ‫קרוב צדקי יצא ישעי וזרועו עמים ישפוטו אליו איים יקוו ואל זרועו יוחילון‬ Near is my righteousness, My salvation goes out, And his arm will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait for him, And for his arm they will hope. (My editing and translating)

In the Hebrew text of Isa. 51:5 in 1QIsaa three of the pronouns are shifted to the third person: “his arm” “him,” and “his arm.” The orthography is clear. The appearance of waw and yodh are distinct in this line in 1QIsa.64 The change is paradigmatically important and revealing. Between the Babylonian Exile and about 100 BCE, an editor shifted the thought so that the judge is a messianic figure who remains anonymous, as is the one who sits among the Elim according to the Self-Glorification Hymn. Another example of the continuity of Isaiah at Qumran is the fact that the Self-Glorification Hymn has been influenced by Isaiah 52–53. The Hymn contains the suffering to be experienced by some specially chosen person. The alteration found in 1QIsaa and the recognition that this Isaiah Scroll witnesses to ancient exegesis was proved long ago by Shemaryahu Talmon. The recognition of the continuity of Isaiah has increased.65 The shift from first-person to third-person focus also appears in the Apocalypse of Abraham, in which a voice, the Voice, or “the voice of the Mighty One” (8:1), replaces God speaking). Similar shifts occur in

64.  A scribe deliberately changed the Hebrew text. Note E. Ulrich and P. Flint in DJD 32 [Part 1], 84 (Plate 42); also see DJD 32 [Part 2], 173. 65.  See S. Talmon, “DSIa as a Witness to Ancient Exegesis of the Book of Isaiah,” in Qumran and the History of the Biblical Text, ed. F. M. Cross and S. Talmon (Cambridge, MT: Harvard University Press, 1975), 116–26.

24

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

other contemporaneous texts,66 so that the thought is shifted from God to God’s messenger, an angel, a mediator,67 or an eschatological figure. Thus, according to the altered text of 1QIsaa a person (perhaps an eschatological figure, but not necessarily the Messiah) is the one for whom “the peoples” shall wait and hope. One may also note the proximity of Isaiah 51 to Isaiah 53. Are we to interpret each in terms of the Suffering Servant?68 How did the earliest followers of Jesus interpret Isaiah and were any familiar with the tradition now preserved in 1QIsaa?69 Cumulatively, First, Second, and Third Isaiah contain poetic visions and predictions that have been so well couched and memorable that they have fundamentally shaped Western Culture.70 In a vast number of early Jewish texts we find quotations or echoes from them. The Second and First Century BCE and the Importance of Isaiah at Qumran The extreme importance of Isaiah among those who lived at Qumran is obvious from five observations. First, in Cave 1, which seems to be a depository of the most important scrolls composed at Qumran (including the Thanksgiving Hymns, the Rule of the Community, and the Pesher Habakkuk), were placed two copies of Isaiah. While each scroll of Isaiah differs from the common text type (at least in minor ways), one Isaianic text is close to the so-called Masoretic Text and the other represents a divergent text type. Second, at Qumran no fewer than six Pesharim were focused on Isaiah:

66.  Cf. also Dan. 11–12; Aramaic Apocryphon of Levi [4Q540–541]; and T. Benj. 3:8. 67.  Contrast 1QHa, in which an author claims that those in the Yaḥad have no need of a mediator. In the Thanksgiving Hymns, the Righteous Teacher seeks to clarify his election and his suffering. See esp. Hod. 16–17. 68.  B. Janowski, P. Stuhlmacher, and D. P. Bailey, eds., The Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 in Jewish and Christian Sources (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004); see especially the chapter by Martin Hengel and Daniel P. Bailey, “The Effective History of Isaiah 53 in the Pre-Christian Period,” 75–146. See also J. Jeremias in TDNT 5:682. 69.  It is widely recognized now, that early Jews, including the authors of New Testament documents, seldom cited texts; they preferred allusions. 70.  See the contributions to A. Joseph Everson and Hyun-Chul Paul Kim, eds., The Desert Will Bloom: Poetic Visions in Isaiah, AIL 4 (Atlanta: SBL, 2009); also see Roy F. Melugin and Marvin A. Sweeney, eds., New Visions of Isaiah (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1996).



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Sigla Title Lemmata from Isaiah 3Q4=3QpIsa Isaiah Pesher 1 1:1-2a 4Q162=4QpIsab Isaiah Pesher 2 5:5b(?), 6a(?), 11-14, 24c-25, 29b-30(?) 4Q163=4QpIsac Isaiah Pesher 3 8:7-8; 9:11 [9:12 ET], 13-20 [14-21]; 10:12-13b, 19b, 19-22bα, 22a-26ba, 22bβ-24; 14:8, 26-30, 19:9b-12; 29:10-12a, 15c-16b, 18b-23a; 30:1-5, 23b, 15-21, 50; 31:1 4Q161=4QpIsaa Isaiah Pesher 4 10:22-23, 24-27, 28-32, 33-34; 11:1-5 4Q165=4QpIsae Isaiah Pesher 5 40:12; 14:19b; 15:4b-5; 21:10, 11-15; 32:5-7; 11:11-12a 4Q164=4QpIsad Isaiah Pesher 6 54:11c, 12a, 12b

This number is impressive, since at Qumran Hosea, Michah, and Zephaniah received two Pesharim, while Nahum and Habakkuk only one. Third, in the Rule of the Community the Qumranites claim that they have “gone into the wilderness” because they heard the Voice calling them. The proof text is Isa. 40:3. They interpreted it to mean: “A Voice is calling: ‘In the wilderness, prepare the Way of the LORD.’ ”71 Fourth, the Rule of Blessings (1QSb) chose Isa. 11:2-5 to prove that “the Prince of the Congregation” (most likely the Davidic Messiah) will conquer the earth “with the power” of his mouth and killing the wicked “with the breath” of his lips. Fifth, the Qumranites retold the story of God’s Judgment in the Great Flood and future judgments by using concepts not found in Genesis. They were taken from Isa. 24:18-20.72 The authors of 4Q370 col. 1, lines 3-5 and the Thanksgiving Hymns 11.34-35 mention God thundering so that the foundations of the earth quake. Intertextuality indicates the source of these images; it is Isa. 24:18:

71.  For more, see James H. Charlesworth, “Intertextuality: Isaiah 40:3 and the Serek Ha-Yaḥad,” in The Quest for Context and Meaning: Studies in Biblical Intertextuality, ed. C. A. Evans and S. Talmon (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 197–224. 72.  See C. A. Newsom in DJD 19, 94; and esp. A. Feldman, “The Reworking of the Biblical Flood Story in 4Q370,” Hen 29 (2007): 31–49, notably 42; D. M. Peters, Noah Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls, SBLEJL 26 (Atlanta: SBL, 2008), 146; J. D. Lyon, Qumran Interpretation of the Genesis Flood (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2015), 114–15.

26

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah ‫י־א ֻרּבֹות ִמ ָמרֹום נִ ְפ ָתחּו‬ ֲ ‫ִכ‬ ‫מֹוס ֵדי ָא ֶרץ׃‬ ְ ‫וַ יִ ְר ֲעׁשּו‬ For the windows of heaven are opened And the foundations of the earth tremble. (NRSV)

These five selected observations indicate how the continuity of Isaiah helped shape the minds of the Qumranites. The Third Century BCE to the Second Century CE: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha Having taught courses on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha since 1970, I have been impressed by how the book of Isaiah influenced many early Jewish authors. Only one example must now suffice. Isaiah prophesied that the one-to-come would not conquer Israel’s enemies with armies and weapons of war but with “the word of his mouth.” Recall Isa. 11:4: He shall strike the earth with the rod (‫)ּב ֵׁש ֶבט‬ ְ of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

The Septuagint has a different text; the Shoot of Jesse will strike the earth with “the word of his mouth (καὶ πατάξει γῆν τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ). Isaiah 11:4 (often with the LXX reading) is quoted or echoed in the following early Jewish texts (selected): He will strike the earth with the word of his mouth forever… (Pss. Sol. 17:35) [The interpretation of the word concerns the Branch of] David which will sprout in the fi[nal days, since with the breath of his lips he will execute] his [ene]my… (4QpIsaa 8-10) Of the Elect One (the Messiah) it is said: “The word of his mouth will do the sinners in; And all oppressors shall be eliminated from before his face.” [1 En. 62:2]73 73.  Darrell D. Hannah (“Isaiah Within Judaism of the Second Temple Period,” in Isaiah in the New Testament, ed. Steve Moyise and Maarten J. J. Menken, The New Testament and Scriptures of Israel (London: T&T Clark International, 2005), 7–33) accurately reports that in 1 En. 62:2 the “debt owed to Isa. 11:2, 4 is manifest.” Note his following insightful judgment: “The transcendent and heavenly Messiah of the Similitudes fulfills the prophecy of Isa. 11:4 merely by speaking, that is, by pronouncing the verdict of condemnation.” Quotations from p. 18.



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And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth… (2 Thess. 2:8 NRSV) “Something like the figure of a man” destroys a multitude as follows: “He neither lifted his hand nor held a spear or any weapon of war; but I saw only how he sent forth from his mouth as it were a stream of fire, and from his lips a flaming breath, and from his tongue he shot forth a storm of sparks.” (4 Ezra 13:9-10)74 From the rider on a white horse “comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations… (Rev. 19:15)75

Sometimes Isa. 11:4 is combined with Ps. 2:9, as in Psalms of Solomon 17–18 and in 4 Ezra 13.76 Such joining of texts, so well known to New Testament experts, appears long before the advent of Christianity. The image of the tongue as a sword is widespread and may antedate even Isaiah. Early iconography depicts a lion from whose mouth, as a tongue, protrudes a sharp sword.77 To better grasp the complex and creative Reception History of Isaiah, we might do well to recognize how art, humor, myth, and legend shaped the flow and reception of the biblical message.78

74.  This tradition is even more significant and widespread since it appears not only in 4 Ezra, but is a tradition that is earlier than the pseudepigraphon, as shown by Michael E. Stone, Fourth Ezra: A Commentary on the Book of Fourth Ezra (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990), 396–400. 75.  Isa. 11:1-9 influenced the Targum of Isaiah and, according to Bruce D. Chilton (The Glory of Israel: The Theology and Provenience of the Isaiah Targum, JSOTSup 23 [Sheffield: JSOT, 1983]), it may derive from a tradition that is contemporaneous with 4 Ezra and Revelation. 76.  I express my indebtedness to the clear examination by Hannah, “Isaiah within Judaism,” 16–20. 77.  See the contributions in J. H. Charlesworth et al., eds., The Messiah (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992). 78.  See the following: James H. Charlesworth, “Folk Tradition in Jewish Apoca�lyptic Literature,” in Mysteries and Revelations: Apocalyptic Studies Since the Uppsala Colloquium, ed. J. H. Charlesworth and J. J. Collins, JSPSup 9 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991), 91–113; idem, How Barisat Bellowed: Folklore, Humor, and Iconography in the Jewish Apocalypses and the Apocalypse of John, DSSCOR 3 (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL, 1998); Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews: Ancient Jewish Folk Literature Reconsidered, ed. G. Hasan-Rokem and I. Gruenwald (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014).

28

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

In the previous pages, the term “Septuagint” has been used for the Greek translation of “the Old Testament” that appeared in the earliest decades of Early Judaism. I have used it to refer not so much to a translation as to a version of the Scriptures since, in some places, the Greek differs from the Hebrew or Aramaic. On the one hand, the differences are not because of a translation technique, but because of an early reading divergent from the Masoretic Text. On the other hand, in The Old Greek of Isaiah: An Analysis of its Pluses and Minuses,79 Mirjam van der Vorm-Croughs argues that the vast number of “minor” discrepancies between the Septuagint and Masoretic Text of Isaiah are not due to a different Hebrew Vorlage, or because the translator was incompetent, but can be accounted for by translation techniques. Among these are anaphoric translation and intentional alterations; thus her work supports the research of Neves, Hanhart, Koening, and van der Kooij. The translator of the Septuagint can therefore be considered another interpreter of Isaiah who apparently attempted to make the Hebrew text more meaningful and clearer for all readers. Surely, we find more evidence for the continuity of the prophetic genius of Isaiah as we examine the exegetical sophistication of the translator of Isaiah 1–66 into Greek. The Early Decades of the First Century CE and John the Baptizer As will become clear from two presentations in this collection, John the Baptizer’s own teaching was influenced by Isaiah and the Evangelists claimed, almost as a chorus in unison, that John the Baptizer was the consummate Forerunner. He was in the wilderness both to fulfill the prophecy of Isa. 40:3 and to prepare the way of Jesus. The Early Half of the First Century CE and Jesus from Nazareth Dale Allison will explore how and in what ways Jesus was influenced by Isaiah. Luke claims that he began his ministry in a synagogue, reading from a scroll opened to Isaiah 60. Like Isaiah, Jesus could be harshly critical of those who lived in Jerusalem.80 Isaiah and Jesus knew different 79.  Mirjam van der Vorm-Croughs, The Old Greek of Isaiah: An Analysis of its Pluses and Minuses, SBLSCS 61 (Atlanta: SBL, 2014). 80.  Jesus is accosted by fellow Jews in Jerusalem for having the devil as his father, according to John 8:44. On this difficult text, see Mirosław Stanisław Wróbel, Who Are the Father and his Children in JN 8:44? A Literary, Historical and Theological Analysis of JN 8:44 and its Context (Paris: J. Gabalda et Cie, 2005).



Charlesworth  The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

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temples in Jerusalem. The pomegranate from the temple Isaiah knew has been shown to be authentic, according to Robert Deutsch, and it has been possible to re-imagine the temple Jesus knew thanks to the excavations outside the temple walls.81

The Temple as the Baptizer, Jesus, and Paul Probably Knew it [a model] [Photograph J. H. Charlesworth]

The Second Half of the First Century CE: Paul and the Canonical Evangelists In a separate chapter, I will focus on how and in what ways the thoughts of Paul and the Evangelists were shaped by the prophecies in Isaiah.82 We will observe that some of Jesus’ sayings and actions in all early Christian

81.  Deutsch’s conclusion is impressive; see Hershel Shanks, “Ivory Pomegranate: Under the Microscope at the Israel Museum,” BAR 42 (2016): 51–7. On p. 57, Ada Yardeni enunciates that there is now no reason to doubt the authenticity of the pomegranate and its inscription. For the temple Jesus knew and frequented, see Dan Bahat, “The Second Temple in Jerusalem,” in Jesus and Temple, ed. J. H. Charlesworth (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014), 59–74. 82.  For an overview of how the Scriptures shaped New Testament thought, see Dale C. Allison, Scriptural Allusions in the New Testament: Light from the Dead Sea Scrolls (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL, 2000).

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documents were seen to be fulfillments of Isaiah’s prophecies.83 We might wonder if some of them may be more representative of the proclaimed Christ even if not genuine to the historical Jesus. Isaiah is deeply revered in Western literature and art. For example, Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 to 395) judged that Isaiah “knew more perfectly than all others the mystery of the religion of the Gospel.” Jerome (c. 342 to 420) hailed Isaiah for describing beforehand “all the mysteries of the Church” and saluted him as more of an evangelist than a prophet, as he seemed to be recording present or past events. Today, many Christians believe Isaiah predicted that Jesus from Nazareth would be God’s Messiah. Others, including many Mormons, add that Isaiah saw Jesus. As Brevard S. Childs showed, over the course of 2,000 years the stellar thinkers in the Church presented strikingly different views of Isaiah. Yet, from the earliest times to the present, as these ingenious exegetes interpreted the precursor of Christian theology, a “family resemblance” is evident.84 Diverse understandings do not becloud a constant image of the greatest of prophets. Jews developed three methodologies for interpreting Scripture (Torah). First, the mainstream group (or groups like the Pharisees) developed Midrash. It is multidimensional, ranging from the literal to the astoundingly creative. Post-70 Jewish exegesis (or hermeneutics) is representative of this method; it shaped virtually all Rabbinics (but not the other traditions and texts that challenged the Rabbis and carried forward Jewish mysticism and apocalyptic thought, as in 3 Enoch and Sepher haRazim). Second, beginning around 300 BCE, or maybe a century later, is a hermeneutic shaped by a perspective fulfillment (the Fulfillment Hermeneutic). It is a hallmark of the Qumranites as well as the followers of Jesus. For them, Isaiah was the most important text for a Pesher. Third, some Jews retained the meaning and importance of Torah by allegorizing the text, as in the Hellenistic works of Philo (as early as 15 BCE to as late as 50 CE). His precursor was the brilliant Aristobulus (second century BCE; see OTP 2:831–42).

83.  For evidence of reflections on similar phenomena within pre-gnostic texts, see Johan Ferreira, The Hymn of the Pear: The Syriac and Greek Texts: With Introduction, Translations, and Notes (Sydney: St. Pauls, 2002). For how apocalyptic thought flowed into later Jewish speculations, see Ithamar Gruenwald, From Apocalypticism to Gnosticism: Studies in Apocalypticism, Merkavah Mysticism and Gnosticism (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1988). 84.  Brevard S. Childs, The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004).



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The Rabbis lauded Isaiah and imagined him to have descended from Judah and Tamar (Sotah 10b). Leviticus Rabbah 10 expands on the biblical account. The Midrash depicts Isaiah walking in his study and hearing God call: “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah answered: “Here am I, send me.” God warned him he would be insulted and beaten, but Isaiah accepted God’s call and suffered. The Shaping of Jewish and Christian Liturgy by the Images in Isaiah As will be demonstrated, Isaiah continues to shape liturgy in Judaism and Christianity. One question seems relevant to raise now: Was the throne vision of Isaiah 6 as significant for Jews as it was for Christians? The memorable verse reads: And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isa. 6:3 NRSV)

In Greek monasteries in the Wadi Natrun, in Saint Catherine’s Monastery, and on Mount Athos, and also elsewhere, I have heard the Greek of Isa. 6:3 chanted: Ἅγιος ἅγιος ἅγιος κύριος σαβαωθ, πλήρης πᾶσα ἡ γῆ τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, all the earth is full of his glory.

Are not there aspects of the liturgy in synagogues and churches today that will allow Jews and Christians intermittently to praise the one and only God together?85 The Continuity Thesis We have explained a perspective that is unperceived by too many: there is a continuity of Isaiah that begins in the eighth century BCE. Gifted thinkers in Jerusalem, Babylon, and then in ancient Palestine latched onto the words of the prophet Isaiah such that they became a beacon of hope 85.  Clement of Alexandria (Paed. 2.10), quoted Isa. 29:15 and ascribed the text to Isaiah.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

for their time and for future generations also. These inspired individuals achieved their objective by editing, interpolating, and expanding with appendices Isaiah’s stunningly symbolic language. They thus influenced subsequent generations with timely thoughts from their own temporal context. The conceptual continuity and linguistic coherence within “the book of Isaiah” may warrant the concept of a School of Isaiah in ways comparable to the “School of John,” since the Fourth Gospel also contains additions and interpolations reflective of changing social settings. The composite document became a veritable tsunami that shaped the intellectual landscapes of those in Judea, especially in the Qumran Community, in the life and teachings of John the Baptizer and Jesus, and in the world community shaped by Paul the Apostle. At this time, we scholars have gathered from many parts of our globe to test the following thesis: The book of Isaiah and its reception exceptionally shaped Jewish thought from the eighth century BCE to the end of the first century CE. Examinations of the origin, editing, and reception of the book of Isaiah reveal an astounding continuity from before the Babylonian Exile to the Roman defeat of Bar Kokhba and beyond. The key word is the adverb “exceptionally.” Was Isaiah exceptionally important for the Qumranites, the Baptizer, Jesus, Paul, and the Evangelists?

Fascinating insights abound as we read the text of Isaiah from the first verse to the last. Why does an author refer to Eden and the Garden, but not “Paradise” in 51:3; has the Persian concept not yet entered sacra scriptura? Did the pejorative use of “shepherds” in 56:11 influence the Books of Enoch? How did the reference to God’s plans in 55:9 (cf. 5:12) influence the apocalyptists and Jewish thinkers who developed the concept of a divine immutable plan by God? And how has the concept of God’s plan influenced Matthew: “[A]ll this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (1:22). Does Isaiah’s reference to “the day of the LORD” (13:9; cf. 24:21; 34:8) remain a day of wrath and cosmic disturbance or does it evolve with other meanings within Early Judaism? In Isa. 14:12 we hear about a “Shining One” who fell from heaven and is “the Son of Dawn” (‫ן־שׁ ַחר‬ ָ ‫;)ּב‬ ֶ what does that term mean in this verse and also later in the Dead Sea Scrolls? Do not statements such as “I the LORD am your Savior” (60:16) prove that Christianity evolved out of Judaism and not out of Hellenism and the mystery cults? How and in what ways, if at all, did the references to God as “Father” (63:16; 64:7) shape the mind of Jesus? How have the frequent references to a “sign” from the LORD—as in 7:14; 8:18; 20:3; and 55:13—shaped



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the concept of sign in later texts such as Pseudo-Philo and the Gospel of John? What does so-called Third Isaiah mean by “you shall suck the breast(s) of kings” (60:16; cf. 66:11)? Has that shocking image influenced Odes of Solomon 19 in which “the Father” is depicted with breasts full of milk? Why does the eighth-century prophet know so many words for serpent (many of which are hapax legomena)?86 How wise is it to refer to First Isaiah, Second Isaiah, and Third Isaiah; and how can we emphasize continuity among different authors? What are the criteria for discerning expansions and interpolations? These citations and reflections introduce us to the lectures and chapters that follow. As many experts on Isaiah have concluded, the chapters in what we call “the book of Isaiah” enrich all of us with stunning imageries, moving poetic visions, eloquent words, and challenging theological insights.87 As in the world of Isaiah, so today we are experiencing an axial moment as cultures clash.88

86.  See the appendix to Hebrew words for “serpent” in Charlesworth, The Good and Evil Serpent. 87.  See the various contributions to J. T. Hibbard and H. C. P. Kim, eds., Formation and Intertextuality in Isaiah 24–27 (Atlanta: SBL, 2013), esp. 1. 88.  Merrill Morse, Isaiah Speaks: A Voice from the Past for the Present (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2012). While Morse’s book is devotional, it helps us appreciate the continuity of Isaiah as each of us faces both the past and the alarming future.

T he C on t i n ui t y i n t h e P rophe t i c V i si ons i n F i r s t I s a i a h ( 1–39)

Dan’el Kahn

1. Introduction In this essay I will raise some thoughts about the continuity of writing in First Isaiah (Isa. 1–39). Isaiah started to prophesy during the last year of Uzziah. His last datable activity was recorded during Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah in 701 BCE. Yet, it is clear that not all the material found in First Isaiah should be dated to his time. It is possible to find additions of a later date in the text. No scholarly consensus exists today regarding the appropriate methods by which the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible, including the book of Isaiah, are to be analyzed. The diachronic classical methodology employed by the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century critics sought to distinguish, by means of literary-historical considerations, between a given prophet’s actual words and later additions to and revisions of that prophet’s message added by scribes and exegetes, in order to reconstruct the different compositional stages of prophetic books. The study of the book of Isaiah has advanced immeasurably in the last decade within the “traditional” literary-historical method. Nevertheless, dating biblical texts based only on classical biblical research, such as intertextuality, the development of religious ideas or grammar, as is mostly done, is problematic.1 By contrast, one of the main tendencies in contemporary biblical studies is to read prophetic books as uniform and homogeneous literary works, which are all late, at least as late as the time of their final production. 1.  B. D. Sommer, “Dating Pentateuchal Texts and the Perils of PseudoHistoricism,” in The Pentateuch. International Perspectives on Current Research, ed. T. B. Dozeman, K. Schmid, and B. J. Schwartz, FAT 78 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 85–108.



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Biblical scholarship has shifted in the last decades towards an aestheticliterary synchronic analysis. Thus, there has been an increasing tendency in recent scholarship to question whether it is even possible to perform such a reconstruction of the compositional stages of Proto-Isaiah. According to contemporary trend in biblical studies, the original core of the book of Isaiah remains concealed behind the long process of reshaping and reformulation within the book. Scholars are reluctant to attempt reconstructing its compositional stages. Naturally, this tendency disregards the stages in the formation of the prophetic literature and their original Sitz im Leben. Others combine the synchronic approach with a diachronic approach.2 As a consequence, there exists a growing trend in scholarship that views the prophetic books, including Isaiah, as a creation of the Persian and the Hellenistic periods. Such a viewpoint disregards the ancient origins of the prophetic literature, or views it as mere literature, without inquiring into the historical circumstances behind their composition. It is commonly accepted that much of the material in Proto-Isaiah is not original to the prophet. The oracles in the book of Isaiah are commonly dated to a variety of periods: conservative scholars date most of the work to the eighth century, the period of Isaiah himself;3 others to a Josianic/ Assyrian redaction at the end of the seventh century;4 to the exilic or postexilic Persian period, whether composed by Deutero or Trito-Isaiah (sixth/fifth and fifth/fourth century BCE);5 to the Hellenistic (fourth–third

2.  Cf. E. Ben Zvi, “Who Wrote the Speech of Rabshakeh and When?,” JBL 109 (1990): 79–92; U. F. Berges, The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form, trans. M. C. Lind, from Das Buch Jesaja: Komposition und Endgestalt (Freiburg: Herder, 1998; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2012). 3.  S. Erlandson, The Burden of Babylon, ConBOT 4 (Lund: Gleerup, 1970); J. H. Hayes and A. I. Stuart, Isaiah, the Eighth-Century Prophet: His Times and his Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 1987); A. Niccacci, “Isaiah XVIII–XX from an Egyptological Perspective,” VT 48 (1998): 214–38; J. J. M. Roberts, First Isaiah: A Critical & Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015). 4.  H. Barth, Die Jesaja-Worte in der Josiazeit. Israel und Assur als Thema einer produktiven Neuinterpretation der Jesajaüberlieferung, WMANT 48 (NeukirchenVluyn: Neukirchener, 1977); M. J. de Jong, Isaiah among the Ancient Near Eastern Prophets: A Comparative Study of the Earliest Stages of the Isaiah Tradition and the Neo-Assyrian Prophecies, VTSup 117 (Leiden: Brill, 2007); M. A. Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39: With an Introduction to Prophetic Literature (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996). 5.  H. Wildberger, Isaiah: A Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991–2012); H. G. M. Williamson, The Book Called Isaiah: Deutero-Isaiah’s Role in Composition and Redaction (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994).

36

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

centuries) or even late Hellenistic/ Maccabean period (c. 150 BCE).6 This clearly affects the question of composition and understanding of the book. Furthermore, setting certain oracles in the wrong historical context hampers the understanding of the original intent of the prophecies. In the present study I will survey various prophecies in First Isaiah that contain concrete historical data and will date them chronologically according to known historical events that they may reflect. It seems that during the ministry of Isaiah, as well as during the decades after his death, there was a continuous and constant “Fortschreibung” (i.e., updating, re-editing and composing) of prophecies relevant to international relations and historical events, the fate of the exiles and God’s intervention in these issues. On the other hand, the lack of major editing and historically datable additions dating to the postexilic period (neither Persian nor Hellenistic) points to the finalizing of the bulk of First Isaiah just a couple of decades before the earliest datable prophesies in DeuteroIsaiah mentioning Cyrus, king of Persia. This has ramifications for the editing process of the book of Isaiah—a subject that has been highly debated in the past decades. 2. Time of Isaiah’s Prophetic Activity: The Reigns of Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V, Kings of Assyria (Jotham and Ahaz, Kings of Judah) The superscription of Isa. 1:1 states that Isaiah son of Amoz prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Contrary to the superscription, however, scholars generally do not identify prophecies in the book of Isaiah dating from the reign of Uzziah. The earliest dated prophecy in Isa. 6:1 (c. 735 BCE) mentions that Isaiah had his dedication vision in the temple, in the year that King Uzziah died. The last datable events recorded in First Isaiah are the events of 701 BCE during Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah. Thus, Isaiah’s career covers some 35 years. 2.1. The Syro-Ephraimite War: 735 BCE Chapters 6–9 were regarded as the original core of Isaiah’s prophecies, his personal Denkschrift, or memoirs. But the collection can no longer be regarded as a unified work composed by Isaiah. Its core, however, does seem to describe the dramatic period in which Isaiah started his career. 6.  O. Kaiser, Isaiah 1–12: A Commentary, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983).



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Chapters 7–9 describe the events of the Syro-Ephraimite war and siege of Jerusalem which occurred c. 735 BCE or slightly earlier, since it is stated in 2 Kgs 17:37 that Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Israel already waged war against Jerusalem during the reign of Jotham, Ahaz’s predecessor. The exact date of the events described in Isaiah 7 and in 2 Kgs 16:5 is debated.7 The description of the Syro-Ephraimite war, mentioned in these chapters, includes Isaiah’s own viewpoint and a narrative describing the prophet’s deeds in third person. 2.2. Assyrian Intervention (734–723 BCE): Changing Prophecies of Salvation to Judah into Prophecies of Doom Both descriptions of the event (i.e. chs. 7 and 8) contain clear editing, changing the attitude from a favorable “Fear not,” ‫אל תירא‬, war oracle to encourage Ahaz into a rebuke against him.8 It seems that the change in the prophet’s attitude towards Ahaz is due to his political choice to rely upon Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria, against the Syro-Ephraimite coalition, as is stated in 2 Kgs 16:7-9:9 Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up, and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the LORD 7.  B. Oded, “The Historical Background of the Syro-Ephraimite War Recon� sidered,” CBQ 34 (1972): 153–65; N. Na’aman, “Forced Participation in Alliances in the Course of the Assyrian Campaigns to the West,” in Ah, Assyria…: Studies in Assyrian History and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography Presented to Hayim Tadmor, ed. M. Cogan and I. Eph’al, ScrHier 33 (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1991), 91–4; cf. R. Tomes, “The Reason for the Syro-Ephraimite War,” JSOT 59 (1993): 55–71; recently, A. V. Prokhorov, The Isaianic Denkschrift and a Socio-Cultural Crisis in Yehud: A Rereading of Isaiah 6:1–9:6(7), FRLANT 261 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015), proposed an early Second-Temple date in Yehud for the composition of the Denkschrift. This idea is totally rejected in this study. 8.  M. J. de Jong, “From Legitimate King to Protected City: The Development of Isaiah 7:1-17,” in “Enlarge the Site of Your Tent”: The City as Unifying Theme in Isaiah, ed. A. L. H. M. Wieringen and A. Woude, OTS 58 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 21–48. 9.  H. Tadmor and M. Cogan, “Ahaz and Tiglath-pileser in the Book of Kings: Historiographic Considerations,” Bib 60, no. 4 (1979): 491–508; R. E. Clements, “The Immanuel Prophecy of Isa. 7:10–17 and Its Messianic Interpretation,” in Die Hebräische Bibel und ihre zweifache Nachgeschichte. Festschrift für Rolf Rendtorff zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. E. Blum, C. Macholz and E. W. Stegemann (NeukirchenVluyn: Neukirchener, 1990), 225–40.

38

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria listened to him; the king of Assyria marched up against Damascus, and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir; then he killed Rezin.

This information is not mentioned in the original core of Isaiah 7—the Immanuel prophecy—but is reflected in the addition to the prophecy in Isa. 7:17, which mentions the King of Assyria: The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.

Originally, Isaiah promised a period of exceeding prosperity; however, the addition of the words “the king of Assyria” completely reversed the meaning of the original prophecy from a prophecy of salvation to a prophecy of doom. Following the arrival of the Assyrian king the times will become the worst since the schism between Judah and Israel.10 In another case, the prophet again reworks the positive ‘Imanu’el prophecy of salvation in Isa. 8:5, that “God is with us,” into a prophecy of doom, threatening that Assyria will almost drown Judah as a flooding river: The LORD spoke to me again: Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and melt in fear before Rezin and the son of Remaliah; therefore, the Lord is bringing up against it the mighty flood waters of the River,11 the king of Assyria and all his glory; it will rise above all its channels and overflow all its banks; it will sweep on into Judah as a flood, and, pouring over, it will reach up to the neck. (Isa. 8:5-8)

These additions can be dated to the period of the Judean subjugation to Assyria, probably still during the reign of Ahaz or Hezekiah.12 10.  J. J. M. Roberts, “Isaiah and his Children,” in Biblical and Related Studies Presented to Samuel Iwry, ed. A. Kort and S. Morschauser (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1985), 199. Clements (“The Immanuel Prophecy,” 239) contrasts Ahaz with Hezekiah and his faith in God during the 701 BCE siege of Sennacherib, later to be compared with the 587 destruction of the temple. 11.  Roberts, “Isaiah and his Children,” 199–200; Clements, “The Immanuel Prophecy,” 231. For the motif, see Peter Machinist, “Assyria and Its Image in the First Isaiah,” JAOS 103 (1983): 726–8. 12.  There is a clear relation between the composition of Isa. 7 and Isa. 36–37, as Ackroyd has shown. Whether Isa. 36–37 was composed in order to accentuate the difference between the conduct of Hezekiah as opposed to Ahaz, or Isaiah 7 was



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2.3. Assyrian Intervention (734–723 BCE): Prophecies of Doom against Damascus and Israel Chapters 17,13 and 28:1-8 as well, prophesy against Damascus and Israel, and must be dated to the years prior to the fall of Damascus brought about by the Assyrians in 732 BCE, and the fall of Samaria in c. 723 BCE. Thus, they can be dated between c. 735–723 BCE, describing the events and political climate during the Syro-Ephraimite war, the reigns of Tiglathpileser III, and possibly Shalmaneser V, kings of Assyria. 2.4. Prophecies against Egypt Isaiah’s prophecies also deal with the political reliance on Egypt during these turbulent years. Isaiah 19 is an oracle against Egypt. It is found among the Oracles against the Nations (OAN) in Isaiah 13–23.14 Many of these oracles do not seem to be original to the prophet Isaiah of the eighth century BCE and cannot be considered a priori as authentic. Isaiah 19 is located in a cluster of prophecies against Kush and Egypt in chapters 18–20. Chapter 19 is divided into at least two parts: the prophecies of doom in Isa. 19:1-15, which were written in poetic form, and vv. 16-25, which were written in prose. Verses 1-15 may be divided into three additional units (vv. 1-4, 5-10, 11-15) dealing with political strife, environmental catastrophe and a taunt against Pharaoh and his advisors, respectively. It is not clear if these were separate units or if they were originally part of the same composition.15 The oracles in Isaiah 19 are difficult to date, and there composed later, is difficult to decide. See P. R. Ackroyd, “Isaiah 36–39: Structure and Function,” in “Von Kanaan bis Kerala”: Festschrift für Prof. Mag. Dr. Dr. J.P.M. van der Ploeg O.P. zur Vollendung des siebzigsten Lebensjahres am 4. Juli 1, ed. W. C. Delsman et al., AOAT 211 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 1982), 3–21. Repr. in Studies in the Religious Tradition of the Old Testament (London: SCM, 1987), 105–20. 13.  W. A. M. Beuken, “From Damascus to Mount Zion: A Journey through the Land of the Harvester (Isaiah 17–18),” in “Enlarge the Site of Your Tent,” 63–72. 14.  P. R. Raabe, “Why Prophetic Oracles against the Nations?,” in Fortunate the Eyes that See: Essays in Honor of David Noel Freedman in Celebration of His Seventieth Birthday, ed. A. B. Beck et al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 236–57. 15.  H. Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27: A Continental Commentary, trans. T. H. Trapp (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997), 233–9. O. Kaiser (Isaiah 13–39: A Commentary, 2nd ed. [London: SCM, 1974], 97–104) does not see even unity between vv. 1b-4 and 11-14. Hayes and Stuart (Isaiah, 260–3) date these prophecies to the last third of the eighth century BCE. See also John D. Currid, Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 229–46; Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39, 265–8; H. Marlow, “The Lament over the River Nile—Isaiah xix 5-10 in Its Wider Context,” VT 57 (2007): 229–42; C. B. Hays, “Damming Egypt/Damning Egypt: The Paronomasia

40

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

is no agreement concerning their exact historical setting. The reference to the warfare of Egyptians among themselves ensuing in civil war (19:2), ultimately resulting in Egypt being conquered by a harsh ruler (19:4), has raised several options for dating the chapter. The ruler has been variously identified as Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, kings of Assyria; Piankhy or Shabaka, kings of Kush; as well as Nebuchadnezzar, Cambyses, Xerxes, Artaxerxes II, III or Antiochus III.16 Without entering the many nuances of Egyptian history, it is possible to say that the notion of civil war and fragmentation (19:2) would fit the period of “the Libyan anarchy” which lasted until approximately the end of the eighth century BCE, preceding the conquest of Egypt by the Kushite king Piankhy (754–721 BCE),17 though to some extent the conflicts were resumed and continued until the unification of Egypt by Psammetichus I in 656 at the latest, and thus rule out the identification of the Babylonian and Persian kings with the harsh ruler and fearsome king, ‫ּומ ֶלְך ַעז‬ ֶ ‫אד ֹנִ ים ָק ֶׁשה‬. ֲ 18 The king could be historically identified with either Piankhy or Shabaka, of ‘skr’ and the Unity of Isa 19,1-10,” ZAW 120 (2008): 612–17. G. Eidevall, Prophecy and Propaganda: Images of Enemies in the Book of Isaiah, ConBOT 56 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2009), 86–9; P. M. Cook, A Sign and a Wonder: The Redactional Formation of Isaiah 18–20, VTSup 147 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 81–98; C. Balogh, The Stele of YHWH in Egypt: The Prophecies of Isaiah 18–20 Concerning Egypt and Kush, OTS 60 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 292–311, 333–6, 341–3, 351–5. 16.  Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27, 238–9; Hayes and Stuart, Isaiah, 263–6; A. Niccacci, “Isaiah XVIII–XX from an Egyptological Perspective,” VT 48 (1998): 217–20; J. J. M. Roberts, “Isaiah’s Egyptian and Nubian Oracles,” in Israel’s Prophets and Israel’s Past: Essays on the Relationship of Prophetic Texts and Israelite History in Honor of John H. Hayes, ed. B. E. Kelle and M. Bishop Moore (London: T&T Clark International, 2006), 205–6; Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39, 271; Balogh, Stele, 356 n. 369; Kaiser, Isaiah 13–39, 99. 17.  N.-C. Grimal, La stèle triomphale de Pi(‘ankh)y au Musée du Caire: je 48862 et 47086-47089, Etudes sur la propagande royale égyptienne 1, MIFAO 105 (Cairo: IFAO, 1981), 239–54. 18.  R. A. Caminos, “The Nitocris Adoption Stela,” JEA 50 (1964): 71–101; cf. Herodotus, Histories II.151–52. During most of the 26th Dynasty, there was no civil strife (except for the usurpation of Amasis II in 570 BCE and the unsuccessful invasion of Nebuchadnezzar II in 567 BCE). See E. Edel, “Amasis und Nebukadrezar II,” GM 29 (1978): 13–20; A. Leahy, “The Earliest Dated Monument of Amasis and the End of the Reign of Apries,” JEA 74 (1988): 183–99; I. Ladynin, “The Elephantine Stela of Amasis,” GM 211 (2006): 31–56. During the Persian period the conflict was mainly directed against the Persians and not internally. However, change of the Egyptian dynasties was accompanied by short periods of civil strife. The basically stable period of political stability during the mid-seventh to the end of fourth century BCE does not reflect the political situation described in Isa 19:2.



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kings of Kush, or Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, Kings of Assyria. The suggestion to identify either Sargon II or Sennacherib as the fearsome king would require reading the prophecy as an authentic unfulfilled prophecy, since neither of these kings conquered Egypt or even threatened Egypt’s independence. Thus, on historical grounds, it would seem that at least Isa. 19:1-4 can be ascribed to the days of Isaiah himself. Furthermore, the mention of the political centers of Mof—Memphis and Tanis—and Zoan, which lost its political significance, reflect a period prior to Egypt’s conquest by Piankhy, king of Kush, and the unification of Egypt under Kushite rule and in c. 734 BCE according to my chronology.19 This is also true of the prophecy against Egypt in Isaiah 30: Oh, rebellious children, says the LORD, who carry out a plan, but not mine; who make an alliance, but against my will, adding sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt without asking for my counsel, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh, and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt; Therefore the protection of Pharaoh shall become your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation. For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes… (Isa. 30:1-4)

From the text itself, it is not clear whether the rebellious children are the people of Israel or Judah. Whereas the king of Israel (2 Kgs 17:4) is known to have turned to the king of Egypt for an alliance, it is not known whether Judah did the same during the second half of the eighth century BCE.20 The date of this prophecy is thus debated and most scholars assign it to the events of 701; however, the political reality does not fit that period, but one some decades earlier. This political situation in Egypt, in which Pharaoh controls the Delta and the Nile Valley only up to Heracleopolis in Middle Egypt, and has no control over Upper Egypt, rather fits the reign of Shoshenq V, who probably was followed on the throne of Tanis by his successor Osorkon IV in c. 734 BCE, who lost control over the Nile Valley to King Peftjauawybast of Heracleopolis, and also lost control over the Central and Western Delta to local rulers.21 In Isaiah 31 the prophet calls not to rely on Egypt and its military aid: 19.  D. Kahn, “The Inscription of Sargon II at Tang-I Var and the Chronology of Dynasty 25,” Or 70 (2001): 14–18; idem, “The War of Sennacherib against Egypt as Described in Herodotus II 141,” JAEI 6, no. 2 (2014): 24–5. 20.  Cf. Isa. 18 where Judean (?) ambassadors are sent to far away Kush. 21.  Herakleopolis Magna in Middle Egypt. See K. A. Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC), 2nd ed. (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1996), 354, 364; cf. D. Kahn, “A Problem of Pedubasts?,” Antiguo Oriente 4 (2006): 23–42, where I suggest the date of the prophecy several decades later.

42

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Alas for those who go down to Egypt for help and who rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! Yet he too is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will rise against the house of the evildoers, and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. The Egyptians are human, and not God; their horses are flesh, and not spirit. (Isa. 31:1-3)

Isaiah 31 calls on the people not to turn to Egypt for help, but to trust in YHWH. The verb ‫בטח‬, “to trust,” occurs in Isa. 30:1-7, 12, 15 and 31:1-3. Both chapters denounce trust in Egypt, for it will fail to deliver help. Isaiah 31 also claims that the Judeans expected Egypt to supply horses and chariots. Some scholars date ch. 31 to Hezekiah’s preparations against Sennacherib’s invasion. However, there is nothing in Isa. 31:1-3 that can confidently be attributed to the events of 701.22 3. The Reign of Sargon II (722–705 BCE) 3.1. Early Conquests of Sargon The invasion of Sennacherib’s army in Judah is reported in Isaiah 36–37 (cf. 2 Kgs 18:13–19:37). The Assyrians send emissaries headed by Rāb šaqê to the walls of Jerusalem. Hurling threatening words at the defenders on the walls, Rāb šaqê questions God’s ability to save his people and Jerusalem and demands its immediate submission. Rāb šaqê opens his second speech to the people on the walls of Jerusalem themselves (Isa. 36:13-20) with words of hubris, glorifying the accomplishment of the Assyrian king. He compares the inability of YHWH to save Jerusalem to that of other foreign gods who have succumbed to the mighty power of Assyria: “Has any of the gods of the nations23 ever delivered its land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah?24 Where are the gods 22.  Hayes and Stuart, Isaiah, 346–8; J. K. Hoffmeier, “Egypt as an Arm of Flesh: A Prophetic Response,” in “Israel’s Apostasy and Restoration”: Essays in Honor of Roland K. Harrison, ed. A. Gileadi (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988), 89–90; S. Z. Aster, “Isaiah 31 as a Response to Rebellions Against Assyria in Philistia,” JBL 136, no. 2 (2017): 347–61. 23.  W. R. Gallagher, Sennacherib’s Campaign to Judah: New Studies, SHCANE 18 (Boston: Brill, 1999), 205, identifies this as the Assyrian term ilāni mātāti. 24.  Hena and Ivvah are not mentioned in Isa. 36:19 and seem to be a later addition in harmony with 2 Kgs 19:13. See N. Na’aman, “Updating the Messages: Hezekiah’s



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of Samaria?25 Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these26 countries have saved their countries out of my hand, that the LORD should save Jerusalem out of my hand?” (Isa. 36:18-20; cf. 2 Kgs 18:33-35)

Yet, these verses contain an earlier layer, dating to the reign of Sargon II. The list of conquered kingdoms in Isa. 36:19 reflects the conquests of Sargon II especially between 720 and 717 BCE, and not the military achievements of Sennacherib. Na’aman27 summarized the reasons for dating this list to the reign of Sargon II (721–705 BCE) at the end of the eighth century BCE as follows: an anti-Assyrian rebellion that broke out in 722 BCE in Syria-Palestine upon the death of Shalmaneser V and Sargon II’s ascension to the throne. The kingdom of Hamath and the provinces of Arpad, Samaria (Ṣumur), and Damascus participated in the rebellion. After Sargon crushed the rebellion in 720 BCE, he turned Hamath into an Assyrian province. Arpad, which had been an Assyrian province since 738 BCE, was probably re-organized. The rebelling populations were exiled to remote parts of the empire and new populations were deported to the recently subdued areas in order to repopulate them. Sepharvaim appears in 2 Kgs 17:2428 as the origin of settlers whom Sargon deported Second Prophetic Story (2 Kings 19.9b-35) and the Community of Babylonian Deportees,” in “Like a Bird in a Cage”: The Invasion of Sennacherib in 701 BCE, ed. L. L. Grabbe, JSOTSup 363, European Seminar in Historical Methodology 4 (London: Sheffield Academic, 2003), 204. According to A. Baruchi-Unna, “The Story of Hezekiah’s Prayer (2 Kings 19) and Jeremiah’s Polemic Concerning the Inviolability of Jerusalem,” JSOT 39 (2015): 265–78, the composition of B2 should be dated to the Babylonian siege against Jerusalem. For the division of 2 Kgs 18:13–19:37 into three sources/accounts, A, B1 and B2, see B. Stade, “Miscellen. 16. Anmerkungen zu 2 Kö. 15-21. Zu 18, 13-19, 37,” ZAW 4 (1886): 172–86. 25.  See Na’aman, “Updating the Messages,” 204, with literature there. 26.  ‫ האלה‬is omitted from 2 Kgs 18:35. 27.  Na’aman, “Updating the Messages,” 204–5. 28.  The date of the pericope 2 Kgs 17:24-33 is debated. See M. Z. Brettler, The Creation of History in Ancient Israel (London: Routledge, 1998), 128–34, with earlier literature there. I tend to concur with S. Paul, “Sargon’s Administrative Diction in II Kings 17:27,” JBL 88 (1969): 73–4, who dates v. 27 (which belongs to this pericope) to the reign of Sargon II; however, the following points should be noted: (1) the continuation of the text makes it clear that it was written later (v. 34, “until this day”); (2) the lists of 2 Kgs 17:24 and 2 Kgs 18:34 differ considerably despite the assertions of Ben Zvi (“Who Wrote the Speech of Rabshakeh and When?,” 88) and Evans (The Invasion of Sennacherib, 77), who claim great similarity. Only three toponyms out of eight resemble each other. Only Sepharvaim is identical, the identity

44

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

to the province of Samerina in his late years, and is identified as being in eastern Babylonia. It is mentioned before Samaria, the region where the deportees were settled. The text of Isa. 36:18-19 refers to three cities that participated in the rebellion against Sargon in 720 BCE and to a place in eastern Babylonia that was conquered by Sargon during his campaigns against Babylonia in the years 710–709 BCE. It is evident that the four toponyms mentioned in Account B1 were originally drawn from the western and eastern campaigns of Sargon II, Sennacherib’s father,29 and were attributed to Sennacherib at an early stage (when he had not yet devastated and conquered many kingdoms that he could boast about), probably already in the days of Isaiah. The Assyrian demand to surrender may have been originally voiced during Sargon’s campaign against Judah after which he designated himself by the title mušakniš mātIaudu ša ašaršu rûku: “Subduer of Judah which lies far away.” Scholars have associated Sargon’s epithet with an alleged campaign against Judah in 720 BCE following the subjugation of Samaria.30 Isaiah 10:5-19, which incorporates a prophecy against Assyria, has undergone editing as well. The original historical kernel can be detected and ascribed to the reign of Sargon II. The list of subjugated

of Hamath in both lists is uncertain, and the orthography of ‫עוה‬/‫ עוא‬differs and is absent from the Isaiah version. Ben Zvi claims that Babylon and Cutha were omitted from the list of conquered cities since their gods, which were Mesopotamian (also acknowledged in Assyria), did not protect them. The author of 2 Kgs 17:30 did not have a problem with the Mesopotamian gods of Babylon and Cuthah. 29.  Na’aman, “Updating the Messages,” 205. 30.  Dated by M. A. Sweeney (“Sargon’s Threat against Jerusalem in Isaiah 10:27–32,” Bib 75 [1994]: 457–70) to 720 BCE. See K. Lawson Younger, “Sargon’s Campaign against Jerusalem: A Further Note,” Bib 77 (1996): 108–10; N. Na’aman, “The Historical Portion of Sargon II’s Nimrud Inscription,” SAAB 8 (1994): 17–20. However, there is no evidence of any Assyrian activity against Judah in 720 BCE; see J. J. M. Roberts, “Egypt, Assyria, Isaiah, and the Ashdod Affair: An Alternative Proposal,” in Jerusalem in the Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period, ed. A. G. Vaughn and A. E. Killebrew, SBLSymS 18 (Atlanta: SBL, 2003), 270, for a voluntary re-subjugation of Judah by Ahaz in 720 BCE after the quelling of the rebellion in Samaria. It may cautiously be suggested that Sargon’s subjugation of Judah may belong to the events of 715, with the accession of Hezekiah and the rebellion of Ashdod; see B. Becking, The Fall of Samaria: An Historical and Archaeological Study, SHANE 2 (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 54–5. However, Becking’s dating of Hezek­ iah’s fourteenth year to 715 is in my opinion untenable. For a similar suggestion, see A. K. Jenkins, “Hezekiah’s Fourteenth Year,” VT 26 (1979): 284–98.



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kingdoms describes Sargon’s suppression of the rebellion in the Levant in 720 BCE instigated by Jaubidi of Hamath until the conquest of Carchemish in 717. The prophet then turns from proclaiming God’s punishment against Samaria to Jerusalem, possibly referring to the events of 701 BCE, and finally the punishing of God’s Rod of Anger— Assyria. This change of subject in the prophecy seems to reflect three different historical periods: For he says: “Are not my commanders all kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?” (Isa. 10:8-9)

The reassuring prophecy in Isa. 10:24-25 is directed to Judah concerning the defeat of Assyria: Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: O my people, who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you on the way to Egypt31 For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. (Isa. 10:24-25)

This prophecy may reflect Sargon II’s victorious campaign against the Egyptians at the height of Assyria’s power in 720 BCE when he defeated Re the Turtānu of Egypt at Raphiah.32 If this identification is correct, Isaiah’s prophecy against Assyria did not materialize. It seems to me that it reflects a different time period, as I will claim below. 3.2. Sargon’s Campaign to the Levant in 715 BCE Isaiah 14:28-32, directed against Philistia, is dated by a superscription to the year in which the death of Ahaz, king of Judah, occurred. It is not clear in which year Ahaz died and Hezekiah ascended the throne. According to 2 Kgs 18:1 Hezekiah became king in the third year of Hoshea, which many scholars date to 727 BCE: the year in which Tiglath-pileser died and Shalmanesser V ascended the throne of Assyria. But according to 2 Kgs 18:13, Sennacherib invaded Judah in Hezekiah’s fourteenth year; 31.  ‫ ְּב ֶד ֶרְך ִמ ְצ ָריִ ם‬is usually translated “as the Egyptians did,” but should probably be understood as “on the way to Egypt.” See the next note. 32.  Kahn, “The Inscription of Sargon II,” 11–12; M. J. de. Jong, “A Window on the Isaiah Tradition in the Assyrian Period: Isaiah 10:24-27,” in “Isaiah in Context”: Studies in Honour of Arie van der Kooij on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. N. van der Meer et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 83–107.

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thus, his first regnal year must have been 715 BCE,33 during the reign of Sargon II, and the prophecy in Isa. 14:28 may reflect the Assyrian intervention in Philistia, in order to quell Ashdod’s rebellion, as is told in his royal inscriptions.34 3.3. The Jamani Affair and the Campaigns against Ashdod (c. 713–711 BCE) The superscription of ch. 20 dates Isaiah’s prophecies against Philistia to the year in which Sargon sent his Turtänu against Ashdod: In the year that the commander-in-chief, who was sent by King Sargon of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it. (Isa. 20:1)

This event can probably be dated to 713–11 BCE. Whether or not the rest of the prophecy is authentic and relates to the events of this year is debated by scholars.35 3.4. The Death of Sargon (705 BCE) Finally, the dirge song against Heilel ben Shahar in Isaiah 14, whose identity eludes us, may close the events from the reign of Sargon. In 705 BCE Sargon went to central Anatolia to fight a certain Gurdi, ruler of Til-Garimmu. Gurdi and his troops routed the Assyrian camp, killed the Assyrian king, and carried off his body.36 Following Sargon’s shocking death on the battlefield the entire Assyrian Empire rebelled against their overlord. Heilel ben Shahar should most probably be identified as 33.  This chronological conundrum exceeds the scope of the present study and will be treated elsewhere. 34.  J. J. M. Roberts, “The Rod that Smote Philistia Isaiah 14:28–32,” in Literature as Politics, Politics as Literature: Essays on the Ancient Near East in Honor of Peter Machinist, ed. D. S. Vanderhooft and A. Winitzer (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2013), 381–95. 35.  For dating the conquest of Ashdod to 711, see A. Fuchs, Die Annalen des Jahres 711 v. Chr. nach Prismenfragmenten aus Ninive und Assur, State Archives of Assyria Studies 8 (Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1998), 85–8, 124–31; J. J. M. Roberts, “Egypt, Assyria, Isaiah, and the Ashdod Affair: An Alternative Proposal,” in Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period, SBLSyS 18 (Atlanta: SBL, 2003), 265–83; idem, “Isaiah’s Egyptian and Nubian Oracles,” in Kelle and Bishop Moore, eds., Israel’s Prophets and Israel’s Past, 201–9. For later stages of edition, see P. M. Cook, A Sign and a Wonder: The Redactional Formation of Isaiah 18–20, VTSup 147 (Leiden: Brill, 2011). 36.  E. Frahm, “Nabû-zuqup-kenu, Gilgamesh XII, and the Rites of Du’uzu,” NABU 5 (2005): 4–5.



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Sargon II, who was killed in battle in 705 BCE.37 Therefore, the book of Isaiah contains several prophecies and texts that can be dated to various phases and events in Sargon’s reign. 3.5. The Reign of Sennacherib (704–681 BCE) The book of Isaiah also describes the political and military events during the reign of Sennacherib. Isaiah 22 describes the preparations for the siege of Jerusalem—either the Babylonian siege, or more probably the Assyrian siege of Sennacherib in 701. Following this description there is a personal prophecy to Shebna, the steward )‫)אשר על הבית‬, close to the events of 701 BCE. The climax of First Isaiah is the description of Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah in 701 BCE. For millennia the story of Hezekiah’s miraculous deliverance by the Angel of God from Sennacherib, who hastily returned to Assyria, where he was murdered by his sons while worshiping his god (Isa. 36–37; cf. 2 Kgs 18:13–19:37), has been perceived as the fulfilment of God’s words of salvation to Jerusalem as a reward for the pious king of the House of David. Yet, according to the Assyrian sources, Hezekiah did not win the war against Assyria. A similar description occurs in 2 Kgs 18:13-16, and the terrible destruction of Judah is reflected also in Isa. 1:4-9. Isaiah 1:8 describes the desolated state in which Judah remained after a conquest, with only Jerusalem, the daughter Zion, left like a booth in a vineyard, like a shelter in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. This certainly fits the political situation of Judah in the aftermath of the events of 701 BCE, as many scholars have noted.38 However, as Ben Zvi and others have claimed, it is not possible to assign these verses with certainty to the events of 701 BCE, and they could fit other scenarios.39 37.  H. L. Ginsberg, “Reflexes of Sargon in Isaiah after 715 BCE,” JAOS 88 (1968): 49–50; contra P. van Keulen, “On the Identity of the Anonymous Ruler in Isaiah 14:4b-21,” in Isaiah in Context: Studies in Honour of Arie van der Kooij on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. van der Meer et al., VTSup 138 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 109–23. Van Keulen claims that the King of Babylon is not an individual Assyrian monarch, but the Assyrian king as a typus. He dates the dirge song to the end of the seventh century BCE. 38.  See recently R. Müller, Ausgebliebene Einsicht: Jesajas “Verstockungsauftrag” (Jes 6, 9–11) und die judaische Politik am Ende des 8. Jahrhunderts, BibS(N) 124 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2012), 80–4. 39.  Ben Zvi, “Isaiah 1,4–9,” 95–111; Berges, Isaiah, 50–2. The attempt to date the pericope to a late exilic date based on linguistic arguments is not unequivocal, but is beyond the scope of this study. See J. A. Emerton, “The Historical Background of Isaiah 1:4–9,” ErIsr 24 (1993): 34–40.

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Isaiah 5:1–7 compares Jerusalem to a devastated and deserted vineyard following the Assyrian campaign. A detailed examination of data from dozens of excavated sites, urban and rural, reveals that many parts of Judah—mainly in the Judean Shephelah (e.g., Lachish),40 highlands, and the Be’er Sheba Valley—were destroyed at the end of the eighth century BCE, and their population either died or was exiled. It is commonly accepted that these destructions should be attributed to Sennacherib’s campaign.41 In fact, Assyria kept control over the Levant, but its expansionistic policy towards Egypt was halted in the last twenty years of Sennacherib’s reign. Another verse that was recently reinterpreted and re-dated to the reign of Sennacherib is 2 Kgs 19:23-24/Isa. 37:24-25. The mention of the rivers of Maṣor, identified as the Nile of Egypt, caused this pericope to be wrongly dated. The first Assyrian king to conquer Egypt and reach the Nile was Esarhaddon (671 BCE). Accordingly, this verse was thought to refer to Esarhaddon’s conquest of Egypt and not to his father Sennacherib’s (as the claim in the taunt song against Sennacherib was understood by most scholars). However, Weissert has recently claimed that ‫ מצור‬is derived from the root ‫ צור‬in the maqtal form, meaning “place of dripping water.” He shows that these verses are a reaction to Sennacherib’s irrigation projects in his first regnal decade.42 In sum, in the book of Isaiah we can find texts that were written during Isaiah’s ministry from 735 until the campaign of Sennacherib against Judah in 701 BCE. Some of the prophecies may be original to the prophet Isaiah. However, it is possible to identify updates to the narratives and prophecies in Isaiah. 40.  I. Eph‘al, “The Assyrian Siege Ramp at Lachish: Military and Lexical Aspects,” Tel Aviv 11 (1984): 60–70; D. Ussishkin, The Conquest of Lachish by Sennacherib, Publications of the Institute of Archaeology 6 (Tel Aviv: The Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, 1982). 41.  A. G. Vaughn, Theology, History, and Archaeology in the Chroniclers Account of Hezekiah, Archaeology and Biblical Studies 4 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 19–79; I. Finkelstein and N. Na’aman, “The Judahite Shephelah in the Late 8th and Early 7th Centuries BCE,” TA 31 (2004): 60–79; A. Faust, “Settlement and Demography in Seventh-Century Judah and the Extent and Intensity of Sennacherib’s Campaign,” PEQ 140 (2008): 168–94; contra J. A. Blakely, and J. W. Hardin, “Southwestern Judah in the Late Eighth Century B.C.E,” BASOR 326 (2002): 11–64. 42.  E. Weissert, “Jesajas Beschreibung der Hybris des Assyrischen Königs und seine Auseinandersetzung mit ihr,” in Assur: Gott, Stadt und Land, ed. J. Renger, Colloquien der Deutschen Orient-Gesselschaft (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011), 287–309.



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4. Updates of Prophecies during the First Half of the Seventh Century: The Reign of Esarhaddon (680–669 BCE) 4.1. The Mentioning of Taharqa, King of Kush In Isa. 37:9 (cf. 2 Kgs 19:9) Tirhaqa (Kushite Taharqa) is mentioned as king of Kush. The designation of Taharqa as king of Kush does not fit the events of 701, since Taharqa ascended the throne of Kush in 690 BCE, eleven years after the campaign of 701, and ruled in Kush and Egypt until 664 BCE.43 4.2. The Murder of Sennacherib Another event from the first half of the seventh century BCE, which is vividly described in the book of Isaiah is the prediction of the murder of Sennacherib by his son(s)44 and the actual murder, which occurred in 681 BCE, while he was worshiping his god: As he (=Sennacherib) was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him. (Isa. 37:38; cf. 2 Kgs 19:37)45

The murder of Sennacherib is described in the Babylonian Chronicles and is dated to 681 BCE,46 twenty years after Sennacherib’s campaign to the west, as follows: In the month of Tebeth, the twentieth day, during an insurrection, the son of King Sennacherib of Assyria killed his (father). Sennacherib reigned [twenty-four] years over Assyria. In Assyria, the insurrection lasted from the month of Tebeth, the twentieth day, to the month of Adar, the second day. In the month of Adar, the [twenty]-eighth (?) day, Esarhaddon, his son, ascended the throne of Assyria.47 43.  The accession year of Taharqa was 690 BCE, according to J. Von Beckerath, Chronologie des Pharaonischen Ägypten, MÄS 46 (Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1997), 91; E. Hornung, R. Krauss and D. A. Warburton, Ancient Egyptian Chronology, HO 38 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 256. 44.  O. Tammuz, “Punishing a Dead Villain: The Biblical Accounts on the Murder of Sennacherib,” BN 157 (2013): 101–6. 45.  A short and less informed version of the event appears in 2 Chr. 32:21. 46.  S. Parpola, “The Murderer of Sennacherib,” in Death in Mesopotamia, ed. B. Alster, XXVI Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale (Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1980), 171–82. 47.  J.-J. Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles, SBLWAW 19 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2004), 199–201.

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The exact location of the murder and the identity of the god Nisroch, in front of whom he was murdered, are debated.48 The escape of the assassins and their accomplices to Urartu where they found asylum and the ascent of Esarhaddon to the Assyrian throne are verified in Assyrian and classical sources.49 They are mentioned in the Babylonian Chronicles,50 as well as in an Inscription of Nabonidus.51 The description in Isaiah/2 Kings is by far the most elaborate one. 4.3. The Assyrian Defeat 4.3.1. Possible Echoes of the victory over Assyria in the Book of Isaiah. The narrative of the Assyrian invasion of Judah in Isaiah 36–37 (cf. 2 Kgs 18:17–19:37) leads the reader masterfully through the events of 701 BCE towards their conclusion. The campaign ends with the defeat of the Assyrians, the return home of Sennacherib, and his murder by his sons. The biblical narrative ends with the description of total annihilation of the Assyrian army by the Angel of God, which is the climax of the Hezekiah–Sennacherib narrative in Isaiah and 2 Kings, and describes a divine victory of God over the Assyrians: The angel of the LORD set out52 and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; when morning dawned, they were all dead bodies. (Isa. 37:36; cf. 2 Kgs 19:35)

However, this divine victory in 701 BCE contradicts the Assyrian annals,53 which describe the total submission of Hezekiah and a vast destruction of Judah, sparing only Jerusalem from the Assyrian wrath. Some scholars have treated the defeat of the Assyrian army by the Angel of God with complete skepticism, denying the miracle and claiming that 48.  See M. Cogan, “Sennacherib and the Angry Gods of Babylon and Israel,” IEJ 59, no. 2 (2009): 171. 49.  S. Zawadzki, “Oriental and Greek Tradition about the Death of Sennacherib,” SAAB IV/1 (1990): 69–72. 50.  Glassner, Mesopotamian Chronicles, 199–201. 51.  H.-P. Schaudig, Die Inschriften Nabonids von Babylon und Kyros des Grossen: samt den in ihrem Umfeld entstandenen Tendenzschriften: Textausgabe und Grammatik (Münster: Ugarit, 2001), 515, 523. 52.  In 2 Kgs 19:36 the verb opens with the temporal phrase ‫ויהי בלילה ההוא‬, “That very night.” The addition of this sentence creates greater intensity to the angel’s reaction, since the events occur that same night. 53.  For Sennacherib’s third campaign, see A. K. Grayson and J. Novotny, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 1, RINAP 3/1 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012), 63–66.



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the supernatural event is the author’s late theological-political opinion.54 Others consider the mysterious victory to contain a historical kernel. These scholars have attempted to show that, in contrast to the information in the Assyrian annals and 2 Kgs 18:14-16, the Assyrian army suffered some kind of setback. Sennacherib departed without conquering Jerusalem and, for some reason, Hezekiah remained unpunished on his throne despite Rāb šaqê’s threats. They tried to find hidden clues in the texts for this alleged defeat.55 The Angel of God slayed 185,000 Assyrians. The high number of casualties has been taken as a sign of its fictional nature. And yet, while the figure is clearly exaggerated, there is no reason why it should be treated differently from other biblical and ancient Near Eastern descriptions that make use of high numbers,56 including the numbers of enemy casualties of war.57 Since the narrative in Isa. 37:9, 36-38 includes the reign of Taharqa and the murder of Sennacherib, which clearly are to be dated to the first half of the seventh century, decades after Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah in 701 BCE, the defeat of Assyria may also be assigned to the same period. A defeat of Assyria—the only known massive defeat of the Assyrians in the west—is recorded in the Babylonian Chronicle dating to 673 BCE. It describes the defeat of the Assyrians in Egypt. The biblical description of an Assyrian disaster does not have to be regarded as a miracle if it refers to the events of 673 and not to the days of Sennacherib. 54.  R. E. Clements, Isaiah and the Deliverance of Jerusalem: A Study of the Interpretation of Prophecy in the Old Testament, JSOTSup 13 (Sheffield: JSOT, 1980), 58–9; F. J. Gonçalves, L’Expédition de Sennachérib en Palestine dans la Littérature Hébraïque Ancienne, Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain 34 (Louvain-La-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste, 1986), 471–84; K. A. D. Smelik, “King Hezekiah Advocates True Prophecy: Remarks on Isaiah xxxvi and xxxvii/II Kings xviii and xix,” in Converting the Past: Studies in Ancient Israelite and Moabite Historiography, ed. K. A. D. Smelik, OtSt 28 (Leiden: Brill, 1992), 122. 55.  H. Tadmor, “Sennacherib’s Campaign to Judah: Historical and Histori­ ographical Considerations,” in “With My Many Chariots I Have Gone up the Heights of Mountains”: Historical and Literary Studies on Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel, ed. M. Cogan (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2011), 665; Gallagher, Sennacherib, 121–2. 56.  D. M. Fouts, “Another Look at Large Numbers in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions,” JNES 53 (1994): 205–11. 57.  W. von Soden, “Sanherib vor Jerusalem 701 v. Chr.,” in Bibel und Alter Orient, BZAW 162 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1985); repr. from “Antike und Universalgeschichte”: Festschrift Hans Erich Stier, FC Supplementband 1 (Münster: Aschendorff, 1972).

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The Babylonian Chronicle mentions an expedition to Egypt in the month of Adar of the year 673 BCE. The Assyrians did not succeed in eliminating the Kushite threat and were defeated in Egypt: The seventh year: On the fifth day of the month Adar (March 673 BC) the army of Assyria was defeated (ina KURMiṣir) in Egypt. (Babylonian Chronicle 1, iv, 16)58

The notion of a divine victory over Assyria can be found in several oracles in the book of Isaiah. These oracles appear to be later additions: “Then the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of mortals; and a sword, not of humans, shall devour him; he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor” (Isa. 31:8).59 Another chapter in the book of Isaiah dealing with the anticipated defeat of Assyria and most probably describing the same events is Isaiah 10: Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: O my people, who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you on the road to Egypt )‫(בדרך מצרים‬. For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end and my anger will be directed to their destruction. (Isa. 10:24-25)

Recently M. de Jong has enhanced our understanding of several aspects of the chapter. He has shown that the expression ‫ בדרך מצרים‬does not mean “as the Egyptians did,” as commonly understood, but should be translated as “on the road to Egypt.”60 Consequently, de Jong dates this oracle to the first years of the reign of Sargon II, when the Assyrian king joined battle against the Turtanu of the Egyptian king near Raphiah. Since Sargon defeated the Egyptian army, de Jong concluded that this 58.  A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, TCS 5 (Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin, 1975), 84; H. Tadmor, “Autobiographical Apology in the Royal Assyrian Literature,” in History, Historiography and Interpretations: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures, ed. H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986), 42. Tadmor assumes that this battle was fought in the vicinity of Ashkelon. 59.  The beginning of Isa. 31 opposes reliance upon Egypt and describes its defeat together with its allies who rely upon her. In vv. 8–9 the defeated party is Assyria. It is thus clear that the oracle was updated at a later stage when the political and military situations had changed. Cf. U. Berges, The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form, trans. M. C. Lind, HBM 46 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2012), 281. 60.  De Jong, “A Window on the Isaiah Tradition,” 88–91.



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prophecy did not come to pass during the prophet’s lifetime.61 Yet, if Isa. 10:24-27 is assigned to 673 BCE, the prophecy could be understood as a vaticinium ex eventum, reflecting the defeat of Assyria on the road to Egypt, and the ensuing hope of throwing off its yoke. 4.3.2. Egypt under Assyrian Rule: The Reigns of Esarhaddon (671–669 BCE) and Ashurbanipal (668–c. 650 BCE?). The oracles in Isa. 19:16-25 are almost universally regarded as later additions. The oracles are composed of five pericopes, written in prose and beginning with the words “On that day”: vv. 16-17, v. 18, vv. 19-22, v. 23 and vv. 24-25. According to scholars, the opening of the oracle “And it shall come to pass in that day…” is a sign of a redactional unit added at a later date to the original prophecies in order to create a temporal relation between pericopes. However, it is not agreed upon among scholars whether Isa. 19:16-25 is a coherent text composed on one occasion or the result of gradual growth. Suggested Dates: The dating of this text varies considerably and spans about 550 years. Erlandsson appended vv. 16-25 to the judgment oracle of vv. 1-15, attributed to the prophet himself or his closest disciples. He notes that the geographical names Assyria and Egypt fit the eighth and seventh centuries BCE, while Babylonia, Media and Persia, which dominated the scene from the late eighth and early seventh centuries onwards, all the way down to the Greek period, are absent.62 Hayes and Irvine, working with the hypothesis that 19:1-25 is a coherent text, original to Isaiah, looked for historical moments in the eighth century that would comply with this text. They argued that echoes of the threat caused by hearing the name Judah (Isa. 19:17) can be found in 1 Chr. 4:40-43, according to which the Simeonites drove away the sons of Ham (Meunites) in the days of Hezekiah.63 Hayes and Irvine identified the latter with the Egyptians. In a similar manner, the commercial centre of Sargon II in the neighborhood of Gaza, and Sargon’s boasting of mingling Egyptians with Assyrians to trade together64 was supposed to explain Isa. 19:23-25.65 61.  De Jong, “A Window on the Isaiah Tradition,” 102, 104. 62.  Also S. Erlandsson, The Burden of Babylon: A Study of Isaiah 13:2–14:23 (Lund: Gleerup, 1970), 77, 79–80. 63.  S. Z. Aster, “Isaiah 19: The ‘Burden of Egypt’ and Neo-Assyrian Imperial Policy,” JAOS 135, no. 3 (2015): 453–70, opts for an early date during the campaign of Tiglath-Pileser III against Philistia in 734 BCE. 64.  A. Fuchs, Die Inschriften Sargons II. Aus Khorsabad (Göttingen: Cuvillier, 1994), 314, Ann. ll. 17–18. 65.  Hayes and Stuart, Isaiah, 263–6; summary from Balogh, The Stele of YHWH, 356 n. 379.

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According to Niccacci, there are clear historical dates mentioned in the book of Isaiah during Isaiah’s ministry (Isa. 1:1; 6:1; 7:1; 14:26; 20:1-2). These dates appear in the book in chronological order. Thus, Isaiah 18–20 should be dated between the death of Ahaz (Isa. 14:26), which occurred in 728/7 BCE according to Niccacci, and the curbing of Ashdod’s rebellion by Sargon in 713/12 (Isa. 20:1). Isaiah 19:16-17 hints to Sargon’s battle against the Egyptians near Gaza in 720 BCE. The five cities within Egypt are seen as Judean settlements in Egyptian territory, encouraged by Sargon in order to assure safe trade with Egypt (cf. v. 23).66 The border of Egypt where the ‫ מצבה‬pillar is erected is understood as the border of Egypt with Asia.67 Sommer dealt with the problem of dating texts according the religious ideas presented in them. He claimed that “Scholars in our field [i.e. biblical studies] frequently support a speculative dating of a text by asserting that, since the text’s ideas match a particular time period especially well, the text was most likely composed then.”68 Dealing with Isaiah’s famous depiction of a peaceful world in the future in Isa. 2:2-4 and in 19:16-25, Sommer noted the reluctance of scholars to date these texts to the time of Isaiah, since the “message of universal peace, these scholars tell us, is one that fits another era much better.”69 Sommer claims, contrary to common opinion that “Isaiah conceived of notions which were unexpected, even bizarre to his time. Therein lies the genius of any original thinker. To deny that an idea could have been thought of in a given age…is to deny the possibility of intellectual creativity.” In other words, there is no reason to deny that Isaiah could have prophesied world peace in a time of war. In addition, Sommer notes that “the absence of Late Biblical Hebrew speaks against (an) extremely late dating; and it is easier to see the reference to Assyria in 19:23-25 as a reference to Assyria rather than…a reference to Persia.”70 Thus, according to Sommer, these verses should be regarded as authentic to Isaiah. 66.  Cf. J. J. M. Roberts, “Isaiah’s Egyptian and Nubian Oracles,” 206. 67.  A. Niccacci, “Isaiah XVIII–XX from an Egyptological Perspective,” VT 48 (1998): 251. 68.  B. D. Sommer, “Dating Pentateuchal Texts and the Perils of PseudoHistoricism,” in The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research, ed. T. B. Dozeman, K. Schmid and B. J. Schwartz, FAT 78 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), 85. 69.  Sommer, “Dating Pentateuchal Texts,” 94. 70.  B. D. Sommer, “Allusions and Illusions: The Unity of the Book of Isaiah in Light of Deutero-Isaiah’s Use of Prophetic Tradition,” in New Visions of Isaiah, ed. R. F. Melugin and M. A. Sweeney, JSOTSup 214 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1996), 163–64 n. 16.



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But these verses cannot be dated to the period of Isaiah, since they do not reflect the events of the time. Some see this text as eschatological, thus transcending any particular historical situation and do not even attempt to date it.71 Marti, Duhm and others have dated these verses to the late Hellenistic period, that is, to the period of the Maccabees and the time of the high priest Onias IV in Egypt, who, according to Josephus, built a temple for YHWH at Leontopolis after 160 BCE.72 Kaiser dated the text to the Ptolemaic–Seleucid wars at the end of the third or early second centuries BCE.73 Still others date these verses to the Early Hellenistic period, following the death of Alexander the Great,74 71.  J. Krašovec, “Healing of Egypt through Judgment and the Creation of a Universal Chosen People (Isaiah 19:16–25),” in Jerusalem Studies in Egyptology, ed. I. Shirun-Grumach, ÄAT 40 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), 304. 72.  K. Marti, Das Buch Jesaja (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1900), 156; B. Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1914), 116, 118. See my comments of J. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 317–18. 73.  Kaiser (Isaiah 13–39, 110) opts for the reign of Ptolemy III Eurgetes (246–241 BCE). The fourth addition is dated by Kaiser to the treaty of Apamea in 118 BCE. See also R. Kessler, Die Ägyptenbilder der Hebräischen Bibel: Ein Beitrag zur neueren Monotheismusdebatte, SBS 197 (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2002), 88. Following the discovery of the Isaiah scroll from Qumran, this date is impossible to maintain. 74.  T. K. Cheyne, “The Nineteenth Chapter of Isaiah,” ZAW 13 (1893): 125–8; idem, Introduction to the Book of Isaiah (London: A. & C. Black, 1895), 105, suggests the reign of Ptolemy I Soter with a possible allusion to his throne name in v. 20 “Saviour,” or his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. J. Vermeylen, Du prophète Isaïe à l’apocalyptique: Isaïe, I–XXXV, miroir d’un demi-millénaire d’expérience religieuse en Israël, Études Bibliques 1 (Paris: Gabalda, 1977), 324, after the death of Alexander the Great. E. Haag (“Gesegnet sei mein Volk Ägypten―: Ein Zeugnis alttestamentlicher Eschatologie,” in M. Minas and J. Zeidler, Aspekte spätägyptischer Kultur [= Aegyptiaca Trevirensia 7 (1994)]: 145) proposes a date after the death of Alexander and before the Seleucids acted in a very aggressive manner towards Judah during the reign of Antiochus III (223–187 BCE); A. Deissler (“Der Volk und Land überschreitende Gottesbund der Endzeit nach Jes 19,1–25,” in Zion Ort der Begegnung. Festschrift für Laurentius Klein zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres, ed. F. Hahn et al., BBB 90 [Frankfurt: A. Hain, 1993], 10). Blenkinsopp (Isaiah 1–39, 319) suggests that the good relations between “Egypt” and “Assyria” were inspired by the alliance between Antiochus II and Ptolemy II; F. Sedlmeier, “Israel, ‘ein Segen inmitten der Erde’: Das JHWH-Volk in der Spannung zwischen radikalen Dialog und Identitätsverlust nach Jes 19,16-25,” in Steht nicht geschrieben? Festschrift für Georg Schmuttermayr, ed. J. Frühwald-König, F. R. Postmeier and R. Zwick (Regensburg:

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or the Persian period (525–332 BCE).75 A minority of scholars date these verses to the seventh century, namely, the reigns of either Josiah76 or Manasseh.77 Basically, I adhere to a continuous Fortschreibung of consecutive oracles during the seventh century BCE. For the sake of brevity I will summarize the reconstructed events described in these pericope:78 The oracles deal mainly with international relations between Egypt and Assyria. They were not written as a coherent text composed on one occasion, but are the result of a continuous updating of prophecies, or Fortschreibung, during the seventh century. It can be surmised that the verses correspond to the following events in consecutive order: Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2001), 107–8. See S. Lauber, ‘JHWH wird sich Ägypten zu erkennen geben, und die Ägypter werden an jenem Tag JHWH erkennen’ (Jes 19, 21): Universalismus und Heilszuversicht in Jes 19,16–25,” ZAW 123 (2011): 383–8, bases his dating on non-biblical texts that express eschatological optimism and hope by the Judean diaspora in Egypt during the early Ptolemaic period. According to him the same hope is expressed in Isa. 19:16-25. See also J. Hausmann, “Eschatologische Zuversicht—Erwartung an die Zukunft und Bewältigung von Gegenwart: Überlegungen zu Jes 19,18-25,” in Ex oriente Lux, Studien zur Theologie des Alten Terstaments. Festschrift für Rüdiger Lux zum 65. Geburstag, ed. A. Berlejung and R. Heckl (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2012) 381–2. 75.  H. Barth (Die Jesaja-Worte in der Josiazeit. Israel und Assur als Thema einer produktiven Neuinterpretation der Jesajaüberlieferung, WMANT 48 [NeukirchenVluyn: Neukirchener, 1977], 7, 291–2) argues that the positive view of the nationsin this passage as well as in 19:18-25 can only have been possible at a time of relative calm in Judah and warfare among the nations—namely, the beginning of the fourth century. Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27, 279; Williamson, The Book Called Isaiah, 126–7 (thinks that these sayings are dependent on Deutero-Isaiah); J. F. A. Sawyer, “ ‘Blessed Be My People, Egypt’ (Isaiah 19.25): The Context and Meaning of a Remarkable Passage,” in A Word in Season: Essays in Honour of William McKane, ed. J. D. Martin and P. R. Davies, JSOTSup 42 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1986), 59; Berges, Isaiah, 149. 76.  R. Nelson, “Realpolitik in Judah (687–609 B.C.E.),” in Scripture in Context II: More Essays on the Comparative Method, ed. W. H. Hallo, J. C. Moyer, and L. G. Perdue (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1983), 185. 77.  According to J. Skinner (The Book of the Prophet Isaiah: Chapters I–XXXIX [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963], 163–4), the building of the altar and pillar must predate the prohibition in Deut. 12 and 16:22. Sweeney (Isaiah 1–39, 272) suggests two stages of textual development and different authorship for vv. 16-17 and 19-25. See also Balogh, The Stele of YHWH, 355–9. 78.  A detailed study of these oracles exceeds the scope of the present study, and will be dealt with in a future study by D. Kahn, “The Historical Background of Isaiah 19:16-25” (forthcoming).



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Verses 16-17: Verse 18: Verses 19-22: Verse 23:

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701 BCE—Outcome of the battle of Eltekeh 671 BCE—Assyrian conquest of Egypt and manning of strongholds by mercenaries and Assyrian soldiers and erecting victory stelae in Egypt 671–667 BCE—Recurring battles of the Egyptians for independence against the Assyrians79 671–c. 652 BCE—Egypt under Assyrian hegemony

The highway between the two world powers of the day, Assyria and Egypt, are open. There will be a reciprocal relationship between both, and there will be a highway between them. This seems to be a motif describing a peaceful period with commercial relations and free travel between the world empires. This state of Assyrian hegemony, Philistine urban development, cultural flourishing, stability, open ways and flowing commerce between Egypt, the Levant and Assyria are elements of the pax Assyriaca recorded during the last third of the eighth through the seventh centuries BCE.80 Scholars who see vv. 16–25 as a unit and treat the entire text as an ideological unity describing an eschatological vision of world peace and harmony cannot fathom that Egypt would be subjugated to Assyria, all the more so since in the previous verses it was healed, repented, and turned to God. Thus, accordingly, the verse was interpreted to mean that the Egyptians and Assyrians worshiped God together, anticipating vv. 24–25.81 However, the verse seems to be very clear and should not be interpreted according to theological conceptions or literary-critical 79.  For a historical background of these events, see D. Kahn, “The Assyrian Invasions of Egypt (673–663 B.C.) and the Final Expulsion of the Kushites,” Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 34 (2006): 251–67. 80.  M. Fales, “On Pax Assyriaca in the Eighth-Seventh Centuries BCE and Its Implications,” in Isaiah’s Vision of Peace in Biblical and Modern International Relations, ed. R. Cohen and R. Westbrook (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 18–20. 81.  Duhm, Jesaia, 121–2; Cheyne, Isaiah, 107; W. Vogels, “L’Egypte mon peuple–L’universalisme d’Is 19, 16–25,” Bib 57 (1976): 511; Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27, 280; Jože Krašovec, “Healing of Egypt Through Judgment and the Creation of a Universal Chosen People (Isaiah 19:16–25),” in Jerusalem Studies in Egyptology, ed. I. Shirun-Grumach, ÄAT 40 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), 303; B. Wodecki, “The Heights of the Religious Universalism in Is XIX: 16–25,” in “Lasset uns Brücken bauen…” Collected Communications to the XVth Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament, Cambridge 1995, ed. K.-D. Chunck and M. Augustin, BEATAJ 42 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1998), 186; A. Schenker, “Jesaja 19,16-25: die Endzeit Israels rekapituliert seine

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premises relating to the rest of the chapter. It is clearly stated that Egypt will serve Assyria and be subjugated to it.82 In the royal Assyrian texts of Assurbanipal, King of Assyria, it is recorded that the kings of Egypt were subjugated to Assyria and were tributaries (ardānī, lit. “slaves”) of Assyria since Esarhaddon’s conquest of Egypt in 671 BCE and during Assurbanipal’s reign.83 It is possible to date Isa. 20:3-5 concerning the deportations of Egyptians and Kushites to this period as well: Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Ethiopians as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia their hope and of Egypt their boast.

This prophecy fits the events in Esarhaddon’s and Ashurbanipal’s reigns as can be seen on the glazed bricks from Esarhaddon’s palace and reliefs of Ashurbanipal’s throne room, describing the deportations from Egypt.84 Did Isaiah prophesy these events with such great precision forty to forty-five years in advance? It can therefore be concluded that the editor of Isaiah 19 and 20 constantly added and updated prophecies against Egypt during the seventh century BCE concerning the fate of Judah, and also the political reality in regards to the empires of the seventh century, Assyria and Egypt. Another prophecy of Isaiah can be added to the discussion, namely Isa. 11:11-16. The historical setting of Isa. 11:11-16 is a matter of debate. Ursprünge,” in Studien zu Propheten und Religionsgeschichte, SBAB 36 (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2003), 8; Sedlmeier, “Israel–‘ein Segen inmitten der Erde,’ ” 100; see, however, the objections of Balogh, The Stele of YHWH, 292. 82.  Niccacci, “Isaiah XVIII–XX,” 223; Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39, 270; Schenker, “Jesaja 19,16-25,” 9; Balogh, The Stele of YHWH, 326–7. 83.  H.-U. Onasch, Die Assyrischen Eroberungen Ägyptens, Teil I: Kommentare und Anmerkungen, ÄAT 27 (Wiesbaden, 1994), 104, Large Egyptian Tablets (LET) Vs.10’; 116, Prism A. col. I, l. 76 (also attested in Prism C). 84.  D. Nadali, “Esarhaddon’s Glazed Bricks from Nimrud: The Egyptian Campaign Depicted,” Iraq 68 (2006): 109–19; E. Bleibtreu “Die Feldzüge Assurbanipals nach Ägypten,” in Florilegium Aegyptiacum—Eine wissenschaftliche Blütenlese von Schülern und Freunden für Helmut Satzinger zum 75. Geburtstag am 21. Jänner 2013, ed. J. Budka, R. Gundacker and G. Pieke (Göttinger Miszellen Beihefte 14; Göttingen: Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie der Georg-August-Universität, 2013), 21–40.



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The prophecy is part of a collection of four prophecies introduced by the formula ‫“—והיה ביום ההוא‬and it shall come to pass in that day.” These oracles announce the future relief of Assyrian oppression. The first oracle in 10:20-26 may have described the events of 720 BCE and was possibly edited at a later stage.85 The second prophecy in Isa. 10:27–11:9 is comprised of several literary units basically announcing the impending fall of the Assyrian monarch and the subsequent rise of the Davidic monarch.86 The third short prophecy (11:10) is a later editorial addition, which focuses on the nations’ future recognition of the new Davidic monarch, and serves as a bridge between the prophecies.87 The fourth and last prophecy in this collection is Isa. 11:11-16, which announces the future restoration of Israel when the remnant of the people will return from exile. Many scholars have tried to date this pericope through a wide variety of dating methods: historical, linguistic, intertextual criticism etc. Many scholars have argued that the oracle, or parts thereof, are not originally from Isaiah himself, and refute the integrity of v. 11b in the prophecy, treating it as a later expansion of an older text. Koenig maintains that the mention of Assyria in vv. 11 and 16 may point to an older original and that “all the following places were added later,” with the possible exception of Egypt.88 Assyria and Egypt in Isa. 11:11 were recognized as a pair, mentioned again in vv. 15 and 16, as well as in several additional prophetic books.89 This led to the notion that the toponyms following Egypt in v. 11 were later additions, which fit a later historical reality.90 Thus, most scholars agree that vv. 11-12, or 85.  M. J. de Jong, “A Window on the Isaiah Tradition in the Assyrian Period: Isaiah 10:24-27,” in van der Meer et al., eds., Isaiah in Context, 83–107. 86.  M. A. Sweeney, “Jesse’s New Shoot in Isaiah 11: A Josianic Reading of the Prophet Isaiah,” in Reading Prophetic Books, ed. R. D. Weiss and D. M. Carr, JSOT 225 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1996), 103–18. Isaiah 10:28-32 is an insertion from a different source. See D. L. Christensen, “The March of Conquest in Isaiah X 27c-34,” VT 26 (1976): 385–99. 87.  J. Stromberg, “The ‘Root of Jesse’ in Isaiah 11:10: Postexilic Judah, or Postexilic Davidic King?,” JBL (2008): 655–69; J. J. M. Roberts, “The Translation of Isa 11:10 and the Syntax of the Temporal expression ‫והיה ביום ההוא‬,” in Near Eastern Studies Dedicated to H. I. H. Prince Takahito Mikasa on the Occasion of his Seventyfifth Birthday, ed. Mori Masao, Ogawa Hideo and Yoshikawa Mamoru, Bulletin of the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan 5 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1991), 363–70. 88.  E. Koenig, Das Buch Jesaja (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1926), 166. 89.  Cf. Niccacci, “Isaiah XVIII–XX,” 226–7; Hos. 7:11; 9:3; 11:5, 11; 12:1-2; Mic. 7:12; Isa. 7:18; 19:23, 25; 27:13; Jer. 2:18. 90.  Hayes and Stuart, Isaiah, 216.

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parts thereof, do not stem from the Assyrian period, but are of a later date (exilic or postexilic) in part or in its entirety, and suggest the following dates for the prophecy: The Hellenistic Period. Duhm91 claims that Isa. 11:11-16 reflects the expansionist activity of the Hasmoneans, namely Yohanan Hyrcanus (134–104 BCE) and Alexander Yannay (103–76 BCE) at the end of the second century BCE. The mention also of only Assur and Egypt in vv. 15-16 was regarded as a proof that all the other provinces in v. 11 are additions of the editor, who, in order to show his geographical and historical knowledge, added the provinces of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires. Nevertheless, an updated list, dating to this period appears in LXX Isa. 11:11 and speaks against this late dating.92 Kaiser and Vermeylen dated the prophecy to the early Hellenistic Period and identify Egypt and Assyria with the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires.93 Yet, the identification of the Seleucid Empire with “Assyria” cannot be accepted since Assyria never designates the Empires west of the Euphrates.94 The Persian Empire. Wildberger dates the prophecy to the Persian period. The traditions of the exodus in v. 16 would be surprising, since Isaiah never mentions the exodus from Egypt. The idea of a new exodus is found in Deutro-Isaiah. Wildberger considers the early Persian period, when Zechariah and Malachi prophesied, but eventually opts for the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and the return from Exile in their days (mid-fifth century BCE). Blenkinsopp dates the prophecy to the early to middle Achaemenid period.95 The Babylonian (Exilic) Period. Williamson assigns the prophecy to Deutero-Isaiah (the end of sixth century BCE and before the Cyrus edict of 538). He bases his arguments on similarities of ideas, motifs, and phraseology with Deutero-Isaiah and parallel ideas in Zech. 10:11-16. Williamson claims that Isa. 11:11-16 is part of the alleged editorial work 91.  Duhm, Jesaia, 85–7. 92.  Williamson, Isaiah, 127–8; F. M. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qumran, 3rd ed. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1995), 176; E. Ulrich, ed., The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants; Based on the Identification of Fragments by Frank Moore Cross et al. and on the Editions of the Biblical Qumran Scrolls by Maurice Baillet et al., VTSup 134 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 353–4. 93.  O. Kaiser, Isaiah 1–12: A Commentary, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983), 264 n. 8, 266; Vermeylen, Isaïe, 279. 94.  G. F. Hasel, The Remnant: The History and Theology of the Remnant Idea from Genesis to Isaiah (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1974), 344. 95.  H. Wildberger, Isaiah 1–12: A Commentary, trans. T. H. Trapp (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991–97), 490; cf. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39, 267–8.



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of Deutero-Isaiah in Isaiah 1–39.96 However, the following geographichistorical considerations suggest that the dating to the Babylonian period cannot be accepted: (1) the political difficulties in having a body of Judean exiles during the Babylonian period in Kush, or in the islands of the Sea; (2) the Assyrian Empire is mentioned as the disperser of Jews in vv. 11 and 16; (3) the Babylonian exile was of limited scope and involved a removal to a few areas in Babylonia as opposed to the vast exile described in the prophecy; and (4) Babylon’s insignificant place within the prophecy. Reign of Josiah/Late-Assyrian Rule. Sweeney dates the prophetic unit Isa. 11:1–12:6 to the reign of Josiah and stresses the following points: (1) the close relation between the several prophecies in the unit 11:1–12:6. He identifies the future “messianic” king (Isa. 11:1-9) as the young Josiah (639–609 BCE); (2) the punishment of Egypt and Assyria in the context of the return of the exiles from these countries corresponds to Josiah’s attempt to rebuild the Davidic Empire in the face of opposition from Egypt and Assyria in the late seventh century; (3) the interest in Exodus traditions apparent in both 11:11-16 in the context of the Josianic redaction, in 2 Kgs 23:21-23 and in 2 Chr. 35:1-19, indicate that the celebration of Passover served as the festival basis for Josiah’s reform.97 The above scholars, using historical, linguistic and intertextual criticism as dating methods, did not achieve a conclusive and accepted date (ranging between 734 BCE and c. 170 BCE). In a forthcoming study,98 I analyze the historical and geographical information that occurs in the verses of the prophecy in their order of appearance so as to clarify the historical setting of the prophecy, keeping in mind the possibility that parts of the oracle were composed at different times and added or edited at a later stage. I will briefly summarize my conclusions, which are the subject of a different study, and lie beyond the scope of this paper. 1. The prophecy seems to be a unit without later additions. 2. The literary form of the list of toponyms—Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Kush, from Elam, from Shin‘ar, from Hamath, and from the Islands of the sea—suggests that it is an authentic unity without any late additions.

96.  Williamson, Isaiah, 125–33, 141. 97.  Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39, 204–5. 98.  See D. Kahn, “Egypt and Assyria in Isaiah XI 11-16,” JAEI (2016): 9–20.

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3. The survey of a historical reality in which Judeans and/or Israelites could be exiles in the listed kingdoms does not reflect the Babylonian or Persian period, as is commonly assumed, but points to the mid-seventh century as the most probable dating possibility. The dating could be narrowed down to Assurbanipal’s reign during the end of the Assyrian rule in Egypt in the mid-seventh century BCE (c. 655–645 BCE), most probably due to the Assyrian military limitations as a result of the war between Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shuma-ukin between 652–648 BCE. 4.4. The End of the Assyrian Empire in the Levant99 What we refer to as First Isaiah contained references to events that occurred during the second half of the seventh century BCE as well. At the end of the seventh century the Assyrian Empire was breathing its last breath. The last secure evidence of Assyrian presence in the Levant dates to 644 BCE, when Ashurbanipal conducted a campaign against Ushu and Acco.100 The next secure evidence of Egyptian–Assyrian relations is thirty years later, in 616 BCE, with the presence of Egyptian forces of Psammetichus I (664–610 BCE) aiding the Assyrians in the Middle Euphrates campaigning against Babylonia. Thus, it is not clear when exactly Assyria withdrew from the Levant, and the Egyptians took over control over the Levant and under what circumstances. According to Na’aman, Assyria left Egypt following the conclusion of an agreement with Psammetichus, Assyria’s protégé-turned-ally. At a later period Egypt entered Asia. It was not a forcible conquest, but part of an Assyrian retreat by agreement, with Egypt taking the place of Assyria in the vacated areas possibly in 623 BCE, when Sin-shar-ishkun, king of Assyria, quelled a rebellion, and was willing to pay a heavy territorial price in the west. The Assyrian retreat was implemented in coordination with Egypt, which could be considered as a successor state.101 99.  D. Kahn, “Why Did Necho II Kill Josiah?,” in There and Back Again— The Crossroads II: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in Prague, September 15–18, 2014, ed. J. Mynářová, P. Onderka and P. Pavúk (Prague: Charles University in Prague, 2015), 511–28. 100.  R. Borger, Beiträge zum Inschriftenwerk Assurbanipals: Die Prismenklassen A, B, C = K, D, E, F, G, H, J und T sowie andere Inschriften (mit einem Beitrag von A. Fuchs) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996), 249. 101.  N. Na’aman, “The Kingdom of Judah under Josiah,” Tel Aviv 18 (1991): 40, 57; idem, “Chronology and History in the Late Assyrian Empire (631–619 B.C.),” ZAA 81 (1991): 262–5.



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This reconstruction has been endorsed by many scholars.102 However, the transfer between the Assyrian Empire and Egypt in the Levant does not seem to have been peaceful. A struggle over the Levant quickly ensued. Herodotus (II.157) preserves a story about a siege of twenty-nine years against Ashdod by Psammetichus. A twenty-nine-year-long siege cannot be correct. A more reasonable suggestion is that the campaign took place during Psammetichus’ twentyninth regnal year (636 BCE). Recently, an ostracon once ascribed to the reign of Ptolemy II has been redated by Chauveau to the twenty-eighth regnal year of Psammetichus I (637 BCE).103 Psammetichus, who was at Daphnae, was marching to the Land of Kharu (Canaan). Psammetichus I was active in the Levant during the early 630s. Was Assyria still present in the southern Levant during these years? What would its response have been to the Egyptian forces entering its sphere of control? Notably, the prophet Jeremiah, who started his prophetic activity in the thirteenth regnal year of Josiah, which is to be dated to 627 BCE (Jer. 1:2),104 warned his listeners some time later neither to rely on Egypt’s aid, nor on Assyria’s. What then do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates? (Jer. 2:18)

Clearly Assyria and Egypt were still struggling over hegemony in the Levant during the 630s and Judah’s leaders had not decided on which empire they should rely. A similar situation of Assyria and Egypt occupying the entire land can be found in additions to Isa. 7:18-19:

102.  O. Lipschits, The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005), 13–15; A. Fantalkin, “Meṣad Ḫashavyahu: Its Material Culture and Historical Background,” Tel Aviv 28 (2001): 13; cf. D. S. Vanderhooft, The Neo-Babylonian Empire and Babylon in the Latter Prophets, Harvard Semitic Museum Monographs 59 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 65–8. 103.  M. Chauveau, “Le saut dans le temps d’un document historique: des Ptolémées aux Saïtes,” in La XXVIe dynastie: continuites et ruptures: promenade saite avec Jean Yoyotte: actes du colloque international organise les 26 et 27 novembre 2004 a l’Universite Charles de Gaulle, Lille 3, ed. D. Devauchelle (Paris: Cybele Éditions, 2011), 39–45. 104.  For dating the prophecies in Jer 2:18, 36 to the years 627–622 BCE, see J. Milgrom, “The Date of Jeremiah, Chapter 2,” JNES 14 (1955): 65–69.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah On that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.

Isaiah 14:24-25 may also be dated to the end of the seventh century. It describes the defeat of the Assyrians in the mountainous areas of the Land of Israel.105 The LORD of hosts has sworn: As I have designed, so shall it be; and as I have planned, so shall it come to pass: I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him under foot; his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden from their shoulders.

I will now return to Isaiah 19, with its Fortschreibung; as I have claimed above, the prophecies in vv. 18-23 can be dated to the Assyrian conquest of Egypt by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. Verses 24-25 are considered the climax of biblical universalism. The text is seen as an eschatological paradise where the whole world, embodied by Egypt and Assyria, will be blessed by YHWH—not only the nation of Israel. Egypt and Assyria, the former archenemies, are united together with their former subjugated vassal, Israel. However, since all the oracles in this chapter seem to reflect specific historical situations, it would be surprising if these verses had no real historical background. In fact, if the setting of the previous oracles is correct, it is possible to date these verses to the last quarter of the seventh century BCE. While, as stated above, it is not clear when the Assyrians retreated from the Levant, or under what circumstances, it is clear that at some point the Egyptian Saite (26th) Dynasty established control over the Levant and cooperated with the remnant of the Assyrian Dynasty to ward off the Babylonian threat. Cooperation between Egypt and Assyria during this period is recorded in the Babylonian Chronicle.106

105.  Cf. R. E. Clements, “Isaiah 14.22-27: A Central Passage Reconsidered,” in Jerusalem and the Nations: Studies in the Book of Isaiah, HBM 16 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2011), 163–72, who opts for a different dating. Verses 26-27 may stem from a later period, as several scholars have aptly noted; see Williamson, The Book Called Isaiah, 162–3; J. Stromberg, Isaiah after Exile: The Author of Third Isaiah as Reader and Redactor of the Book, OTM (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 225. 106.  A. K. Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles, Texts from Cuneiform Sources 5 (Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin, 1975), 91, Chron. 3, l. 10.



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Judah (identified as Israel) was subjugated to Egypt107 and was part of the coalition that stood up against the rising Babylonian Empire.108 4.5. The Babylonian Period The humiliation and demise of the Assyrian Empire at the hands of the Babylonians in c. 610 BCE is probably recorded as well, depending on the interpretation of Isa. 7:20: On that day the Lord will shave with a hired razor beyond the River—the king of Assyria; (he will shave) the head and the hair of the feet, and will take off the beard as well.

An Update During the Babylonian Period. Returning to the composition of the story of Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah in Isaiah 36–37, it may reflect the Babylonian defeat of Assyria as well. Recently, Holloway, Na’aman and Baruchi-Unna have established with a high degree of certainty that the list of ruined towns mentioned in 2 Kgs 19:12-13/Isa. 37:12-13 reflects the result of the military activity of the Babylonian kings Nabopolassar and Nebuchadnezzar during their wars against the Assyrians in the 610s BCE, and the demise of the Assyrian Empire largely brought about by Nabopolassar and his wars on Assyrian soil from 616 to 609 BCE when the Babylonians devastated the heartland of Assyria and conquered its western provinces. Following Assyria’s demise, Babylonia crossed the Euphrates and conquered the Levant (605–598/7 BCE). Demanding Hezekiah’s capitulation for a second time, the “Assyrian” king, in reality, Nabopolassar, boasts of having destroyed all the kingdoms without serious resistance. This seems to be true. The kingdoms mentioned in the list indeed fell very rapidly to the Babylonians, including the main cities of Assyria: Nineveh, Aššur and Harran. It seems that Raṣappu, Gozan and Bit Adini were swiftly passed by with no real need to besiege them for any prolonged period. No information is given as to whether Hamath and Arpad were also besieged, but Nebuchadnezzar reached the district of Hamath in 605, and by the following year he had already conquered Ashkelon on the border of Egypt.

107.  B. U. Schipper, “Egypt and the Kingdom of Judah under Josiah and Jehoiakim,” Tel Aviv 37 (2010): 218. 108.  Kahn, “The Historical Background of Isaiah 19:16-25.”

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4.6. The Babylonian Sieges of Jerusalem: 597, 588–586 BCE Clements has suggested that the reediting of the story about the Babylonian delegation to Jerusalem in Isaiah 39 and Hezekiah’s boasting about his riches to the emissaries of Merodach Baladan should be dated to the period following the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, pillaging of the temple and carrying Jehoiachin into exile in 597, but preceding the fall of Jerusalem eleven years later. It seems that this date of composition is correct and should be accepted.109 However, Na’aman has recently dated the B2 source to the late Babylonian or early Persian period, reflecting the historical events of the Neo-Babylonian Period.110 Baruchi-Unna suggested that B2 was written during the siege of Jerusalem in 588 BCE as a polemic against a political party, which believed that the inviolability of Jerusalem was unconditional. Nebuchadnezzar began the siege of Jerusalem on the tenth of Tebeth, in the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, and the city fell on the ninth of Tammuz in his eleventh regnal year. He conquered Jerusalem in his nineteenth regnal year (2 Kgs 25:8). Documentation regarding this war is preserved only in the Bible. The temple was burned down on the seventh or tenth of Ab 587, or more probably 586 BCE (cf. 2 Kgs 25:1-4; Jer. 39:1-2; 52:4-7).111 From these data it appears that the siege lasted eighteen or thirty months, depending on the system of calculation.112 According to Baruchi-Unna’s interpretation, the motivation of the text was to call the inhabitants of Jerusalem to repent and pray in order to save the city, just as Hezekiah did in his days.113 109.  R. E. Clements, “The Prophecies of Isaiah and the Fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.,” VT 30 (1980): 421–36. 110.  Na’aman, “Updating the Messages,” 207–11, 219; contra Ben Zvi, “Who Wrote the Speech of Rabshakeh and When?,” 89–91. 111.  For dating the destruction of the temple at 587 BCE, see R. Albertz, Israel in Exile: The History and Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E., Studies in Biblical Literature 3 (Atlanta: SBL, 2003), 76–81; and the list of scholars in G. Galil, “The Babylonian Calendar and the Chronology of the Last Kings of Judah,” Bib 72 (1991): 368 n. 5. 112.  The difference between scholars concerning this calculation is attributable to the debate whether Zedekiah’s regnal years started on 1st of Nisan or on 1st of Tishri. See Malamat, “The Twilight of Judah,” 300, which has no evidence to support it and creates more problems than it solves. See H. Tadmor, “Chronology of the Last Kings of Judah,” JNES 15 (1956): 226–30; Galil, “The Babylonian Calendar,” 367–78, esp. 371. 113.  Baruchi-Unna, “The Story of Hezekiah’s Prayer (2 Kings 19),” 286–97.



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In this context we can understand the words of the derisive song directed towards Sennacherib by the people of Jerusalem (2 Kgs 19:21): “She despises you, she scorns you—Virgin daughter Zion;114 she tosses her head behind your back, Daughter Jerusalem.” The majority of scholars consider the derisive song of the daughter of Zion (2 Kgs 19:21b-28) to be an independent unit taken to be a secondary interpolation.115 However, Zion’s mocking of the boasts by the Assyrian king seems empty and ironic if they were written after the destruction of Jerusalem. 4.7. Prophesying the End of the Babylonian Empire (Prior to the Fall of Babylon in 539 BCE) A final addition First Isaiah was made during the last years of the Babylonian Empire, just before its final demise by Cyrus. The prophecy against Babylon in chs. 13–14 is added at the beginning of the Oracles against the Nations.116 There is almost a scholarly consensus that these chapters reflect the threat of the fall of the Babylonian Empire, but they must be dated before its actual occurrence, and before the defeat of Astyages of Media by Cyrus, King of Persia in 550 BCE.117 114.  U. Berges, “Personifications and Prophetic Voices of Zion in Isaiah and Beyond,” in The Elusive Prophet: The Prophet as Historical Person, Literary Character and Anonymous Artist, ed. J. C. de Moor, OTS 45 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 56–64. 115.  Childs, Isaiah and the Assyrian Crisis, 74–6, 96–7, 103. Childs considers vv. 21-31 to be a late interpolation, which contains old material (cf. Isa. 10:5–15). See also Kaiser, Isaiah 13–39, 395–7; Wildberger, Isaiah 28–39, 415–16; Laato, “Hezekiah and the Assyrian Crisis,” 54; Clements, “The Prophecies of Isaiah to Hezekiah,” 69–74; Gonçalves, L’Expédition de Sennachérib, 450–4, 485–7; Hayes and Stuart, Isaiah, 377–81; Machinist, “Rab Šāqēh at the Wall of Jerusalem: Israelite Identity in the Face of the Assyrian ‘Other’,” Hebrew Studies 41 (2000): 155; Berges, Isaiah, 276. However, scholars of the synchronic approach claim that although the passages do not fit neatly into the narrative, they need not be removed as additions. Cf. Seitz, Zion’s Final Destiny, 68, 95; Smelik, “King Hezekiah Advocates True Prophecy,” 121; Evans, The Invasion of Sennacherib, 55–6. 116.  Into these is inserted the original dirge song against Heilel ben Shahar in Isa. 14:4-21, who should, most probably, be identified as Sargon II, who was killed in battle in 705 BCE. See above. 117.  M. Waters, “Cyrus and the Medes,” in The World of Achaemenid Persia: History, Art and Society in Iran and the Ancient Near East, ed. J. Curtis and St. John Simpson (London: I. B. Tauris, 2010), 64; R. E. Clements, Isaiah 1–39, NCBC (Grand Rapids: London, 1980), 137; Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39, 277–9; G. Eidevall, Prophecy and Propaganda: Images of Enemies in the Book of Isaiah, ConBOT 56 (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2009), 113.

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Additional references to Babylonia are inserted at the end of the Oracles against the Nations. The prophecy concerning the elusive wilderness of the sea, ‫משא מדבר ים‬, in Isaiah 21 addresses the fall of Babylon,118 and seems to be close in date to the prophecy in Isaiah 13.119 The following prophecies against Dumah (north-central desert or Arabia—modern alJauf)120 in Isa. 21:11-12 (in the LXX Edom)121 and against the cryptic ‫ בערב‬mentioning the Qedarites may reflect the activity of the Assyrian kings from Tiglath-Pileser III to Ashurbanipal, whose military activity against the Arabs, and specifically against the Qedarites, is attested. However, the proximity of these prophecies in time and space to the prophecies concerning the fall of Babylon, and the known military activity of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, in Edom122 and his attested stay at Teimah in Arabia,123 suggest to me that they should be dated to his reign.124 Thus, these chapters reflect prophecies from the heyday of Babylon just before the Persian conquest by Cyrus. They are clearly not original to First Isaiah, but immediately precede the period of DeuteroIsaiah, who prophesied during the last days of Babylon and the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; 45:1), and were added or edited to the Oracles against the Nations during the activity of Deutero-Isaiah. 118.  Benjamin Uffenheimer, “The ‘Desert of the Sea’ Pronouncement (Isaiah 21:1-10),” in Pomegranates and Golden Bells: Studies in Biblical, Jewish, and Near Eastern Ritual, Law, and Literature in Honor of Jacob Milgrom, ed. D. P. Wright, D. N. Freedman, and A. Hurvitz (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1995), 681–2; Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27, 310. 119.  Contra Childs, Isaiah 1–39, 150–1; Sweeney (Isaiah 1–39, 282–3) connects this prophecy with Sennacherib’s attacks against the Arabs and Babylonia in 691–689 BCE; however, note that Elam and the Medes are the enemies of Babylon and not the Assyrians. 120.  Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27, 331. 121.  J. B. Geyer, “The Night of Dumah (Isaiah XXI 11 12),” VT 42 (1992): 17–39. 122.  B. L. Crowell, “Nabonidus, as-Sila‘, and the Beginning of the End of Edom,” BASOR 348 (2007): 75–88. 123.  W. G. Lambert, “Nabonidus in Arabia,” in Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (London: Seminar for Arabian Studies, 1972), 53–64; Y. Gruntfest and M. Heltzer, “Nabonid, King of Babylon (556–539 BCE) in Arabia in Light of New Evidence,” in Biblische Notizen 110 (2001): 25–30; S. F. Al-Said, “Eine neu entdeckte Erwähnung des Königs Nabonid in den thamudischen Inschriften,” Zeitschrift für Orient-Archölogie 2 (2009): 358–63. 124.  Wildberger, Isaiah 13–27, 331–3; contra Sweeney, Isaiah 1–39, 282–3; Hayes and Stuart, Isaiah, 271–7; Childs, Isaiah 1–39, ­150–4. E. Bosshard-Nepustil, Rezeptionen von Jesaia 1–39 im Zwölfprophetenbuch, OBO 154 (Freiburg, CH: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997), 23–42, identifies an original kernel from the eighth century BCE reworked during the sixth century BCE.



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4.8. The Redactional Activity of Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah in the Formation of Proto-Isaiah It is a commonly held view that Proto-Isaiah contains substantial literary creations that are later than Isaiah’s ministry during the eighth century, and possibly date to exilic or even postexilic times (i.e. the Isaiah apocalypse in 24–27;125 the “small apocalypse” in 34–35;126 and Hezekiah’s psalm in 38:11-20,127 which is absent in the parallel in 2 Kgs 20:12–19); recently, the case was made for redactional activity in Deutero-Isaiah,128 as well as in Trito-Isaiah.129 It should be noted, however, that these later redactional interventions do not show any sign of clear allusions to historical events and specific political entities that can be identified and securely dated. They rather keep the prophecies vague, concerning “the whole earth,” and lack specific identifiable details. 5. Conclusion Four main theories regarding the formation of First Isaiah are prevalent: 1. The book consists of the original prophecies of Isaiah. Most of the book is his creation. This view seems difficult to maintain. 2. Only a minority of the book was composed in the eighth century. Most of the prophecies originate from reworkings and editing by Second Isaiah,130 or much later authors spanning some 500 years deep into the Hellenistic period.131 125.  M. A. Sweeney, “Textual Citations in Isaiah 24–27: Toward an Understanding of the Redactional Function of Chapters 24–27 in the Book of Isaiah,” in Reading Prophetic Books: Form, Intertextuality, and Reception in Prophetic and Post-Biblical Literature, ed. M. A. Sweeney, FAT 89 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014), 64–78. Recently Hays advocates the dating of these chapters to the preexilic period, based on linguistic arguments. See C. Hays, “The Date and Message of Isaiah 24–27 in Light of Hebrew Diachrony,” in Formation and Intertextuality in Isaiah 24–27, ed. J. T. Hibbard and H. C. P. Kim, SBLAIL 17 (Atlanta: SBL, 2013), 7–24. 126.  See O. Steck, Bereitete Heimkehr, Jesaja 53 als redaktionelle Brucke zwischen dem ersten und dem Zweiten Jesaja (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1985). 127.  See the study of M. L. Barré, The Lord Has Saved Me: A Study of the Psalm of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:9-20), CBQMS 39 (Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2005). 128.  Williamson, The Book of Isaiah. 129.  See discussion in Stromberg, Isaiah after Exile, 146–228. 130.  Cf. Williamson, The Book Called Isaiah. 131.  Cf. Kaiser, Isaiah 13–39.

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3. Recently, Haran suggested that most of the prophecies were collected some 150 years after Isaiah’s tenure on one or two occasions.132 However, from the survey presented in the present study, it would seem that the prophecies in the book of First Isaiah were constantly reworked, reedited and supplemented with sayings referring to current events in the political arena during the entire seventh century until the destruction of the temple, spanning no more than 200 years, and were supplemented even during the Babylonian Exile, up to a decade before the activity of Deutero-Isaiah. It is not clear to me who was responsible for collecting and updating the prophecies and adding them together, and where the individual prophecies were kept during the time. 4. The redactional activity of the authors of Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah in Proto-Isaiah did not include any clear reference to specific historical events during their ministry.

132.  M. Haran, The Biblical Collection: Its Consolidation to the End of the Second Temple Times and Changes of Form to the End of the Middle Ages (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2008), 130–273.

D eut ero - (S ec on d - ) I sai ah*

Shalom M. Paul

The Masoretic version of the book of Isaiah is composed of two autonomous sections,1 comprising the prophecies of two different figures living in two different eras. Chapters 1–39 (with the exception of chs. 34 and 35) contain the oracles of Isaiah ben Amoz (also designated First or Proto-Isaiah), who prophesied in Jerusalem during the second half of the eighth century, as evidenced by the many names of kings mentioned in his prophecies: the Judean kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1); the Israelite king Pekah son of Remaliah (7:1; 8:6); the Aramean king Rezin (7:1, 4, 8; 8:6; 9:10); and the Assyrian kings Sargon (20:1), Sennacherib (26:1; 37:17, 21, 37), and Esarhaddon (37:28). So, too, several of the historical events recorded in these chapters are datable to the same period—for example, the Syro-Ephramite alliance against Judah (chapters 7–8), the Assyrian conquest of Ashdod (ch. 20), and the siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE (chs. 36–37).

*   The present short study is based on my lecture, delivered on August 26, 2015, at the seminar conference on Isaiah in Jerusalem, “The Continuity of the Prophetic Genius of Isaiah,” organized by Professor James H. Charlesworth. For an elaboration and the development of all the subjects mentioned herein, I refer the reader to my commentary: Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012). 1.  The persistent problem of whether the book contains the oracles of yet another prophet (chs. 56–66), the so-called Third or Trito-Isaiah (terms coined at the end of the nineteenth century) was not dealt with in this lecture, but was the subject of a presentation I gave at the annual conference of the Society of Biblical Literature in 2014 (based on my commentary), wherein I attempted to refute the arguments for the existence of a third prophet.

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By contrast, the anonymous prophet of the second section, chs. 40–66, called Second or Deutero-Isaiah (terms coined in the last half of the eighteenth century), can be dated to the second half of the sixth century BCE, during the final years of the Babylonian exile and the beginning of the return of the exiles to Jerusalem. This can be seen by the fact that his initial prophecies (chs. 40–48) portray the populace in Babylon—a nation fully described as replete with sorceries, riches, and hubris (ch. 47). The two chief deities of the Babylonian pantheon, Bel (= Marduk) and his son Nebo (= Nabû), are portrayed on the brink of deportation (46:1–2) and Babylon is on the precipice of imminent downfall (ch. 47) at the hands of the Persian king Cyrus, referred to explicitly by his name (44:28; 45:1) and also by several epithets: “My shepherd” (44:28), “His anointed one” (45:1), and “the man of My counsel” (46:11). From ch. 49 on, the Jerusalemite background comes to the fore. Linking these two sections may be explained by the discernible influence of the former prophet on the latter (though it can be shown that the affinities of Jeremiah are much more tangible than those of Proto-Isaiah). Furthermore, since ch. 39 concludes with the dire threat of exile, the compiler/editor/redactor created a positive segue to the words of consolation with which ch. 40 begins. The melding of the two units into one book can be dated very early, by at least the beginning of the second century BCE, as is evident from verses of the two being cited together in Sir. 48:24 (composed c. 180 BCE): “With inspired power he (Isaiah) prophesied the future (‫—חזה אחרית‬quoted from 2:1) and consoled the mourners in Zion (‫—וינחם אבלי ציון‬quoted from 61:23).” The large Qumran scroll of Isaiah, 1QIsaa, dated to the mid-second century BCE, also shows no signs of separation between the two sections of the book. Significant Features of Deutero-Isaiah The very first words of the prophet, with his emphatic repeated imperative, “ ‘Comfort, comfort, My people!’ says your God” (Isa. 40:1), contain the two key words of the well-known biblical covenant formula. This formula is evidenced, for example, in Jer. 7:23: “I am your God and you are My people” (cf. Exod. 6:7; Lev. 26:12; Jer. 11:4; 31:33). Though Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed and the people were in exile, the prophet consoles them by declaring that the covenant between God and Israel nevertheless remains intact. There was a period of separation caused by punishment for their sinful behavior, but there was no writ of divorce. They are still His one and only covenanted people.



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More than any other prophetic book, Deutero-Isaiah’s prophecies contain manifold inner-biblical echoes and allusions. One can discern direct and indirect influences from Deuteronomy, Proto-Isaiah, Jeremiah, Psalms, and Lamentations (for multiple examples, see my commentary). He also makes recourse to many earlier traditions of the nation—for example, the mythical victory of God over the primeval dragon (51:9-10), the Garden of Eden prototype as a paradigm for Zion’s future everlasting peace (51:3; 65:25), and the flood story as a means of expressing God’s immutable covenant with the nation (51:9-10). Many more examples are derived from the exodus narrative, starting with the nation’s descent into Egypt (52:3) and including the rotting of the fish and the plague of darkness in Egypt (50:2-3), the description of the splitting of the sea (42:15; 44:27), the annihilation of Pharaoh’s army, horses, and chariots (43:17), and God’s leading of the people on their trek through the wilderness (42:16). He also makes specific mention of Noah (54:9), Abraham (41:8; 51:2), Sarah (51:2—the sole reference to the matriarch outside of Genesis), Jacob as a sobriquet for Israel (e.g., 41:8; 44:21), and Moses (63:11-12). Moreover, references to the blessings of the patriarchs for multiple progeny and inheritance of the land are dispersed throughout the oracles (e.g., 44:4; 48:19; 57:13; 58:14). Deutero-Isaiah also stands out as a virulent and vitriolic polemicist on two levels. Chapters 40–48 are replete with tirades directed against Babylonian beliefs inherent within their epic tale of creation and against Marduk, the head of their pantheon. Furthermore, the most extensive, intensive, and derisive catalogued attacks against Babylonian idol production and the respective craftsmen are scattered throughout many passages, but highlighted particularly in 44:9-20. Yet, even more striking is the polemic waged against inner-biblical thought and belief. In contrast to the ritual prescriptions that banned non-priests and Levites from approaching the shrine, the prophet dramatically declares, “You [i.e., the entire nation] shall be called ‘priests of the Lord’, termed ‘servants of God’  ” (61:6)—a prophetic fulfillment of Exod. 19:6 that Israel will be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Contrary to the widespread belief that there will be a future reinstatement of a Davidic scion upon the throne, he unequivocally declares that the “enduring loyalty” promised to David shall be transferred to the nation as a whole (55:3-4). He also takes to task those who refuse to accept God’s appointment of Cyrus as His “shepherd” (44:28), “anointed one” (45:1), and “man of My counsel” (46:11), the agent of God’s mission to bring about the release from exile.

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Particularly innovative and riveting are his utterances against specific beliefs found in the priestly account of the creation narrative: the pre-existence of darkness, God’s consultation in the creation of humans, the corporeal image of the deity, and His fatigue following the six days of creation.2 1. According to Gen. 1:2, darkness was primordial, and God is said to have created only the light. But the prophet decisively declares that God “formed light and created darkness” (45:7); this is the only place in the entire Bible that attributes the creation of darkness to God. 2. According to Gen. 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” God took counsel with the divine council. This thought is totally rebutted and refuted when the prophet categorically exclaims, “Whom did He consult, and who taught Him” (40:14)? The supreme deity reigns above in heaven and has no need for any counselors. 3. The corporeal image of God as recorded in Gen. 1:26-27 is abundantly clear: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And God created man in His image. In the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” As opposed to the image-likeness (‫ ְ)דמּות‬of God (an anthropomorphic concept of the deity found in many other biblical passages), the prophet poignantly polemicizes by way of a series of rhetorical questions, “To whom can you liken (‫)ּת ַד ְמיּון‬ ְ God? What image (‫ ְ)דמּות‬compares to Him?” (40:18). “To whom can you liken Me (‫?)ת ַד ְמיּונִ י‬ ְ To whom can I be compared?” (40:25). “To whom can you liken Me (‫)ת ַד ְּמיּונִ י‬ ְ so that we can seem comparable (‫( ”?)וְ נִ ְד ֶמה‬46:5). 4. Last, but not least, when God ceased on the seventh day after the six days of creation (Gen. 2:1-3), He “refreshed Himself” (Exod. 31:17). To this the prophet reacts, “He never grows faint or weary.” Indeed it is He who “gives strength to the weary, fresh vigor to the spent” (40:28-29). An additional contribution to biblical theological thought is DeuteroIsaiah’s idea of religious universalism, whereby all nations will eventually recognize and acknowledge that the God of Israel is the only God and 2.  This is based on the study of Moshe Weinfeld, “God the Creator in Gen 1 and in the Prophecy of Second Isaiah,” Tarbiz 37 (1968): 105–32, esp. 120–6 (Hebrew).



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Him alone shall they worship (45:14-15). They will walk by His light (60:3), participate in the temple ministry (66:21), and “New moon after new moon, and sabbath after sabbath, all mankind shall come to worship Me” (66:23). For all those who keep the Lord’s sabbath and His covenant, “their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be welcome on My altar. For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (57:6-7). For many other varied features of Deutero-Isaiah’s prophecies—for instance, his vivid and elaborate descriptions of Jerusalem; his unique and florid literary style (including his tapestry of associative concatenation with his oracles and his excessive employment of verbal repetition; assonance, and alliteration); his language featuring Late Biblical Hebrew and early Aramaic influences; his Mesopotamian and Ugaritic literary and linguistic heritage embedded within his prophecies; and, of course, his enigmatic presentation and interpretation of the four servant songs—see my commentary, which also discusses the exegetical importance of the Isaiah scrolls from Qumran and Wadi Murabba‘at along with the Greek and Latin translations of the book.

T h e I n s i g h t s of T h i r d I sai ah: O b s ervat i on s of a T radi t i onali st

Jeffrey R. Chadwick

Thirty-five years ago, in 1980, when I was preparing to teach a course on Isaiah for the very first time, I read and digested the commentary on Second Isaiah prepared by John McKenzie for the Anchor Bible Series.1 It was a startling experience for a young seminarian, raised and educated in an environment of traditionalist thought with regard to the Bible in general, and Isaiah in particular. But it was also an extremely enlightening experience. I consider McKenzie’s work a classic, and still refer to it often, along with a number of other more recent Isaiah studies.2 To begin this discussion, I will paraphrase and quote a few of the thoughts that occur in the first two pages of McKenzie’s treatment. The suggestions that chs. 40–66 of Isaiah were composed decades or centuries later than chs. 1–35 was first advanced separately by two German scholars: in 1783 by Professor Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (sometimes called the father of modern Old Testament criticism) of Friedrich Schiller University Jena; and in 1789 by Eichhorn’s older colleague and contemporary, Professor Johann Christoph Döderlein. It was not until a century later, in 1892, that Professor Bernhard Lauardus Duhm of the University of Basel proposed that, in addition to a “Second Isaiah” (or Deutero-Isaiah) who wrote in the period of Judah’s captivity in Babylon, there must have been a later “Third Isaiah” (or Trito-Isaiah) to whom chs. 56–66 of the book should be attributed, the writing of which was dated to the mid-Persian period of the satrapy of Judah (c. 450 BCE). 1.  John L. McKenzie, Second Isaiah, AB 20 (New York: Doubleday, 1968). 2.  For more recent additional insight, see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1–39: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 19 (New York: Doubleday, 2000), which also addresses multiple authorship in Isaiah.



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Over the last two centuries, McKenzie notes, “the distinction between First Isaiah and Second Isaiah [has become] so widely accepted in modern scholarship that the argument against it need not be examined at length… The distinction between Second Isaiah and Third Isaiah is almost as widely accepted.” Yet, as McKenzie explains, “[t]he division of Isaiah in to these three portions does not solve all the critical problems.”3 These problems include, from my point of view, the notable unity of Hebrew language, metaphor, and message in Second and Third Isaiah, and the continuity of language and imagery these two share with First Isaiah— their widely different thematic backgrounds notwithstanding. Here I pause to offer a comment demanded by the principles of scholarly transparency and full disclosure. I was raised a traditionalist, and having reached the age of 60, remain comfortably in that mindset. In contrast to the superb introduction to this volume by James Charlesworth, my starting point in discussing Isaiah regards the book as the product of a single author, Isaiah of eighth- and early seventh-century BCE Jerusalem, with the exception, of course, of chs. 36–39, which seem clearly to have been composed late in the seventh century by the biblical Deuteronomist.4 That being said, I fully understand and greatly appreciate the works and positions of my colleagues who accept Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah models as the reality behind the composition of chs. 40–66. I have learned more from them than I could ever have imagined when I was younger—and I speak their language, as it were, just as fluently as my own traditionalist dialect. In classes that I teach and the publications I prepare I make every attempt to be bilingual on the subject of Isaiah, suggesting to anyone willing to listen that there is much to learn from all thoughtfully and sincerely presented sides of the critical and historical questions involved in the composition of the Isaiah texts. I am frequently asked how, as a traditionalist scholar, I can possibly account for the significant differences between the two major parts of Isaiah, leaving the topic of Third Isaiah aside for just a moment. To this I simply paraphrase the two main issues cited by McKenzie as the reasons for Isaiah’s multiple authorship, and offer what I believe to be credible and intelligent alternatives. The first of these is McKenzie’s observation that the text of Second Isaiah “moves in a different world of discourse from that of First Isaiah…even though there are literary connections between 3.  McKenzie, Second Isaiah, xv–xvi. 4.  For a discussion of the dating and authorship of 2 Kings and the rest of the Deuteronomic history found in the Hebrew Bible, see Chapters 5 and 6 in Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York: Summit Books, 1987).

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First and Second Isaiah.”5 With this I entirely agree, but the question is why? Why is the discourse different? Rather than regard the thematic divide as due to a century or more in time and 500 miles in distance, may it not be just as logically attributed to the horrific trauma and destruction of the Assyrian attacks on Israel and Judah in the final 35 years of the eighth century BCE, and more specifically to the Assyrian devastation of Judah in 701 BCE?6 Here I suggest a model somewhat different and more developed in terms of historical context than offered by traditionalist scholars, such as Edward Young, of an earlier generation.7 It is clear that chs. 2–35 of Isaiah, with their political and historical allusions to the Assyrian threat and their thematic emphasis on the destruction that Israel and Judah faced if they did not mend their ways, were addressed by Isaiah of Jerusalem to the pre-701 BCE audience of Judah that had not yet been attacked and destroyed or deported away by the Assyrians. (Isaiah 1, of course, serves as the summary of that debacle,8 as well as a preface to the compilation 5.  McKenzie, Second Isaiah, xvi. 6.  For a complete description of the Assyrian campaigns in Israel and Judah, see Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley, The Sacred Bridge: Carta’s Atlas of the Biblical World (Jerusalem: Carta, 2006), 225–46. 7.  For that traditionalist perspective, see Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah: The English Text, With Introduction, Exposition, and Notes, NICOT, 3 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965–72). 8.  The first chapter of Isaiah alludes to events in the aftermath of the 701 BCE attack on Judah by the Assyrian armies of Sennacherib, as well as the earlier attacks upon and deportations from Judah’s northern neighbor, the kingdom of Israel, in the years between 733 and 720 BCE: “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers” (Isa. 1:7, KJV). The reference to “strangers” alludes to the Assyrians having resettled areas of Samaria and the Galilee (in territory of the defunct kingdom of Israel) with Gentiles brought from other regions in the ancient Near East which Assyria had conquered (see 2 Kgs 17:24; see also Isa. 9:1, “Galilee of the nations,” which refers to residents from gentile nations, cf. Matt. 4:15, “Galilee of the Gentiles”). Much of the depopulated territory of Hezekiah’s kingdom of Judah was occupied, in the aftermath of the 701 BCE attack, by Philistines, whom Sennacherib charged to move there from their coastal state. The Prism of Sennacherib reports: “As for his (Hezekiah’s) towns which I plundered, I detached from his country and gave them to Mitinti, king of Ashdod, to Padi, king of Ekron, and to Sil-Baal, king of Gaza” (English translation by Rainey in The Sacred Bridge, 245). That Jerusalem, alone, of all the cities of Judah, avoided conquest, destruction, and deportation in 701 BCE is alluded to in Isa. 1:8-9: “And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord



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that follows it, beginning with Isa. 2.9) But the latter chapters of Isaiah, from 40–66, despite their continuity with the earlier chapters in terms of certain key phraseology and language use, have a much different emphasis: comforting a wounded, traumatized, and reduced nation of Israel, and looking forward to a regeneration and gathering of Israel in a distant, future period. And the address for this message can quite logically have been the post-701 BCE audience of Israel in the immediate aftermath of the Assyrian disaster: essentially the small community of Judah in Jerusalem, which was the only remnant of all Israel that had not been destroyed or deported by the Assyrians. From this point of view, the early chapters of Isaiah are thematically so different from the later chapters because their audiences were so different—the pre-destruction, pre-dispersion Israel and Judah of the decades prior to 701 BCE, as contrasted with the remnant of Judah in Jerusalem after everything and everyone else had been annihilated or carried away. And with this in mind, when I teach a course on Isaiah, I tell those who are comfortable with the Deutero-Isaiah approach that they are welcome to interpret the differences in Isaiah in that way, and that such an approach puts them within the majority of scholarly consensus. And I likewise inform the traditionalists among my students that they must come to grips with the very real differences between the first and second halves of Isaiah, and that if they are not comfortable with the terms “First Isaiah” and “Second Isaiah” they must still acknowledge the thematic differences of “Isaiah Part One” as comparted to “Isaiah Part Two,” and understand them contextually. The other main issue identified by McKenzie in the Second Isaiah discussion is the appearance of the name of Cyrus in Isa. 44:28 and 45:1, and McKenzie’s view “that [for] Isaiah of Jerusalem…[to] use the name of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” In other words, had Jerusalem (Zion) not avoided conquest and deportation, the entire people of Israel would have become extinct. Because Jerusalem was spared, however, Judah was able to recover and grow again in the century after 700 BCE. 9.  That Isa. 1 serves as a forward to the collection of Isaiah’s writings, whereas the actual beginning of Isaiah’s prophecies begin with the second chapter, is acknowledged by Young, who notes that “Chapter 1 is an introduction to the entire prophecy, whereas with chapter 2 the prophetic messages proper begin”—see Young, The Book of Isaiah, 1:94. See also the view of Joseph Blenkinsopp (Isaiah 1–39, 175): “As it stands…this first superscription introduces the entire book of Isaiah. The poem in the first chapter was prefixed at some point to the passage (Chapter 2) predicting the restoration of Jerusalem.”

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of a king, in a language unknown to him, who ruled in a kingdom which did not exist in the eighth century B.C., taxes probability too far.”10 This is a formidable issue, which boils down to more than the question of whether or not God knows details of the future. For those who reject the notion of an omniscient God, there is no discussion to be had on this issue. But for those who accept the existence of an omniscient God, the questions are then not only whether God could reveal to the mind of a prophet a detail as precise as a future foreign name like Cyrus, but also whether God would reveal such a thing. To those, who, like myself, believe that God both could and did, the Cyrus issue becomes moot in terms of dating chs. 44 and 45. But for others who may feel that God simply does not work in that way, it may also be wise to remember his own caution to us all: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Yahuweh;11 for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9). Israel and the World—Distinct Themes in Chapters 56–66 With all this in mind, let us stipulate that from wherever we stand, the study of Isaiah 40–66 as a distinct unit from the earlier part of the book is a valuable and insightful exercise and that, in particular, the study of chs. 56–66 as a distinct sub-component—we may call it Third Isaiah from any number of perspectives—is of particular value in examining the prophet’s messages and themes. There is nothing in my own approach to the book as a whole that prevents me from considering the final eleven chapters as a unique and individual work, whether by Isaiah of Jerusalem or by an anonymous other. We may now examine selected examples of those messages and themes, for which I will offer my own teaching commentary. And in addition to their face-value meanings we may discern how they may fit, or may not fit, with the proposition that their context and origin lie in Persian-period Judah of the fifth century BCE. While the continuity of message and image throughout the two or three components 10.  McKenzie, Second Isaiah, xvi. 11.  I render the Hebrew divine name of God, YHWH, as “Yahuweh” in English transliteration throughout. This is slightly different than the usual rendition of “Yahweh,” in that a “u” is included after the first H, creating a very slight second syllable “oo” preceding the third syllable “weh.” This recognizes the emphasis on the “oo+w” value of W, the third letter of the divine name, as reflected in many ancient Hebrew names (from the Bible and other inscriptions) which contain the “Yahu” theophoric element that accentuates the “oo” value of W.



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in the book of Isaiah is in such frequent evidence that it is essentially beyond dispute, there are unique elements of the last eleven chapters that merit their study as a distinct section of the whole. To illustrate that this distinction is to be taken seriously, I shall utilize a superscript number 3 with the name Isaiah as this presentation proceeds (that is, Isaiah3, to be read as “Isaiah Three”), indicating that we are considering Third Isaiah as a genuinely separate study. Isaiah 56—Thus Saith Yahuweh: The Gentile Nations to Join Israel From the outset of ch. 56 it seems that Isaiah3 commences a distinct and, in some ways, recognizably separate component message of the book as a whole. This is evident from the introductory charge in the first verse: “Thus saith Yahuweh”—a phrase found throughout all the chapters of the book, but also an authoritative exhortation that demands the reader give both full and new consideration to the content which follows. And what follows is remarkable! Isaiah3 boldly invites the human race beyond the house of Israel to join the covenant family in worshipping Yahuweh and receiving his divine blessings! Emphasizing that honoring the Sabbath and refraining from evil are standard expectations that God has of the people of Israel, v. 3 moves forward to exhort those of non-Israelite heritage—“the son of the stranger”—to join themselves to Israel’s God and be fully accepted by him. The theme of gentile nations joining the house of Israel is not unheard of in other biblical books, or even earlier in Isaiah itself. But while this invitation is certainly foreshadowed in the Torah, where “the stranger that dwelleth among you shall be unto you as one born among you” (Lev. 19:34), the largess with which it is extended here by Isaiah3 is breathtaking, going quite beyond where any of the prophets of Israel had gone before. If non-Israel will keep his Sabbath and covenants, God’s invitation to them to join with Israel extends in vv. 6–7, even to the holy temple! The prophet quotes Yahuweh promising “even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar, for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” Non-Israel appears here destined to be completely accepted as an extension of the covenant people: “The Lord Yahuweh which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him” (v. 8). The implication is important. Contrary to the claim of modern moralists who insist that the concept of a chosen people, and specifically the chosen people of Israel, must be viewed negatively and as excluding other peoples’ potential for divine blessing and acceptance, Isaiah3 makes it very clear that God’s intent for the Israelite covenant never was that it

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should be a perpetually exclusive arrangement, but that ultimately, in his own time and his own way, it would progress into a totally inclusive covenant. All humankind is invited to be counted among the people of Israel and to enjoy the privileges and blessings of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here it seems clear that Isaiah3 has moved beyond the theme established in First and Second Isaiah and in the first and second “servant songs,” where Israel and the gentile nations stand juxtaposed and separated. The servant whom Isaiah2 had earlier featured (and whom I regard, in one possible identification, as ideal Israel) represents a covenant to the people of Israel themselves, but only a light unto the gentile nations (see Isa. 42:6). “It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the gentiles” (Isa. 49:6). But Isaiah3 has moved on in ch. 56 to offer the gentiles incorporation into the covenant family, without any caveat to identity—“Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself unto Yahuweh, speak, saying, Yahuweh hath utterly separated me from his people” (v. 3); “Even to them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off” (v. 5). Non-Israel that will fully accept the obligations of the covenant of Abraham will be known to and counted by God himself as legitimate children of Israel. Astute commentators have suggested that the ancient context for the declaration of Isaiah3 in ch. 56 might be found in Judah of the Persian period, when the temple of Zerubbabel had been established and the prospect of non-Israelites who lived among the Jews of Jerusalem and its environs could have taken heart at the prophet’s willingness to include them in the covenant family. This, however, contrasts strongly with the actions of Ezra and Nehemiah who rejected Jewish assimilation and intermarriage with gentile peoples, and sought to prevent both (cf. Ezra 9–10; Neh. 13). Here, then, it should be recognized that the writings of Isaiah3 are imbued with a spirit of future prophecy, looking forward to a day long beyond his own, when the ideals which God had set in place for the house of Israel would finally be realized. Isaiah3 wrote as much for the so-called latter days as he did for his own time; he wrote as much to us, far in his future, as he did to the troubled Judah of his present. As more than an aside, then, two more brief insights may be mentioned before moving on from ch. 56. The first, of course, is that a key phrase in v. 7 was famously emphasized centuries later by Jesus of Nazareth as he taught at Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem: “My house shall be called of all nations



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the house of prayer” (Mark 11:17, cf. Matt. 21:13). And the term “a place and a name” in v. 5, which in Isaiah’s Hebrew is yad vashem, became a powerful symbol in the modern Jewish world when it was adopted as the name for Jerusalem’s holocaust memorial, simultaneously giving a place and a name to the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide while trumpeting forth God’s promise for the perpetual and eternal rejuvenation of the people of Israel. Isaiah 57—Mockery of Righteousness: But There Is No Peace to the Wicked As Isaiah3 extends membership in the house of Israel to the righteous among gentile nations, the prophet extends no quarter whatsoever to the world at large, which mocks those righteous and the commandments and values of the covenant that God offers the world. It is clear from the lengthy excoriation of the wicked in ch. 57 that the world at large which rejects and mocks the commandments, promises, and values of God’s covenant with Israel are not destined to be counted among the chosen people; nor can they expect, short of their sincere repentance, to receive anything from God other than the bitter fruit of their own iniquity. And the condemnation of smug and sophisticated mockers is as aptly applied to those in media and public life today, who ridicule and revile the values and practices of faithful believers, as it is to the wicked and vile of Isaiah’s own time: “Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood” (v. 4)? Yet, the gift of repentance and healing is ultimately the hope of Isaiah3 for the covenant children who stray into depraved paths. Of the penitent God is portrayed as saying: “I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners… Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith Yahuweh, and I will heal him” (vv. 18-19). This forgiveness is conditional, however, and based entirely upon the willingness of the individual to turn from the evils spelled out in laws of God. While the transgressors who repent are no longer counted among the wicked, those who persist in violating the laws of the covenant continue to be described by that politically and socially incorrect term: they are “the wicked!” And their efforts to spread and promote evil and advocate for the immoral will ultimately result in a self-inflicted, stormy, and sorry reward: “the wicked are like a troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, unto the wicked” (vv. 20-21).

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Isaiah 58—The Fast to Free the Oppressed, and the Sabbath as a Delight In ch. 58 Israel is portrayed by Isaiah3 as having not realized the error of their ways, yet wondering why their perfunctory fasting and Sabbath observance has not resulted in blessings from God being sent upon them. Israel asks “wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?” (v. 3), to which Yahuweh replies that fasting for strife, debate, and to inflict injury is of no worth. The reason to fast, God explains, is not for mourning, not for affliction, and not for conflict, but rather to free the oppressed, to shelter the poor, to clothe the destitute, to feed the faint, and to comfort the afflicted soul. And while comfort to the soul afflicted includes the soul of him who does the fasting, the tangible results of fasting are also meant to bless others—“to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house…the naked, that thou cover him” (v. 7). The product of fasting, as envisioned by Isaiah3, includes the obligation to share with those in need that food not consumed during the fast, or to share means saved during the fast with those lacking raiment or a roof. Centuries later, Jesus of Nazareth expanded these insights by linking fasting to the obligation of personal prayer and alms giving, or sharing with the poor (Matt. 6:1-18). He emphasized privacy in fasting, explaining that the reward of those who fast should be the satisfaction of a soul in harmony with God: “when ye fast, be not…of a sad countenance…when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto the Father which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 7:16-18). Jesus’ instructions for the fast seem clearly derived from Isaiah3. As for the Sabbath, Isaiah3 offered the simplest of instructions: observe it! “Turn away,” God is portrayed as saying, “…from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of Yahuweh…and honor him, not doing thine own ways” (v. 13). Often, in certain discourse, conversation would focus on what was not permitted on the Sabbath, but Isaiah3 did not engage in such accounting. The remarkable, though later, story in the Talmud of how young Hillel was rescued from hypothermia and death by a teacher who instructed a fire to be kindled on the Sabbath (b. Yoma 35b) is more in keeping with Isaiah3’s theme of doing God’s will on the Sabbath rather than pursuing our own notions or pleasures. Or, as Jesus of Nazareth, who followed the Hillel example and regularly engaged in the healing arts on the Sabbath, would express it: “It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day” (Matt. 12:12). Isaiah3 summarized the promise for those who would truly keep



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the Sabbath day holy in this positive manner: “Then shalt thou delight thyself in Yahuweh, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Yahuweh hath spoken it” (v. 14). The reward of true observance of the Sabbath would be God’s realization of the covenant of Israel upon the observant. Isaiah 59—Righteousness as a Breastplate, and a Helmet of Salvation In ch. 59, Isaiah3 continued his criticism of those in Israel who complained that God did not bless them, but did nothing to deserve any blessing: “Behold, Yahuweh’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (vv. 1-2). The condemnation that follows employed poisonous images of crime and murder, darkness and revolt. Juxtaposed against these toxic metaphors, however, is a remarkable passage describing God as preparing personally for battle with the influences of evil that ensnare Israel. Unlike the wickedness that holds Israel bound, the armor of God is described as his righteousness: “He saw that there was no man [to rescue Israel], and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garment of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak” (vv. 16-17). Although clearly metaphoric, these are also remarkably anthropomorphic images of God donning his war armor. The images from Isaiah3 are not heavily quoted in traditional Jewish sources, probably because of their straightforward anthropomorphic nature. But no student of early Jewish literature will fail to recognize these images in the Hellenistic-era pseudepigraphic work known as the Wisdom of Solomon (5:17-20), and also as employed by Paul the apostle in his letter to the Ephesians; the “breastplate of righteousness” and “helmet of salvation” are part of the “whole armor of God” that Paul recommends to his readers in their own spiritual battles (see Eph. 6:11-17). Paul’s gentile audience in Ephesians would probably not have taken umbrage at the anthropomorphic allusions to God donning armor in Isaiah3, nor in the references of Paul, since the gentile Hellenistic pantheon, with which they were familiar, was often heavily imaged in armor in the art of ancient western Turkey. (A similar observation could be made for the Hellenistic Jewish references in Wisdom.)

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The final verses of ch. 59 take the righteously armored redeemer-God of Israel to Jerusalem, to Zion, to be accepted by those in Israel who have mended their ways: “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Yahuweh” (v. 20). This passage belongs, functionally, to the theme continued in ch. 60. Isaiah 60—Arise and Shine… The Gentiles Shall Come to Thy Light “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of Yahuweh is risen upon thee!” (v. 1). With this declaration, Isaiah3 begins his description of God collecting his people of Israel from the dispersion of spiritual darkness through which they have wandered. By the end of the third verse of this chapter, it becomes clear that this gathering will have commenced the inclusion of gentile nations into the house of Israel, guided even by their own royalty and leaders: “Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people [of Israel]; but Yahuweh shall arise upon thee [Israel], and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of the rising” (vv. 2-3). Each successive verse in this chapter multiplies the theme of the great ultimate gathering of righteous Israel, including the gathering of the righteous of the gentiles as a new and accepted component of Israel. If viewed only in the context of Persian or Hellenistic periods, these passages seem incongruent to the reality of the small and dependent satrapy of Judah, so short of resources and respect from its neighbors. But if viewed in a futuristic latter-day context which Isaiah3 attempts to envision, the triumphant images take on the spirit of potential reality. The house of Israel, consisting of the millions of the people of Judah, have here recommitted to the law and covenant of their God. And the righteous gentiles of all nations on the globe gather to them as of one heart and one mind. Selections of these verses convey the thrill of what the prophet foresaw: “Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far” (v. 4), an earlier theme continued from Isa. 43:6-7. The gentile nations join the throng: “Then shalt thou see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged: because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the gentiles shall come unto thee” (v. 5). Observers of the gathering foreseen by Isaiah3 are depicted as astonished: “Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Surely [God says to Israel] the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of Yahuweh thy God, and to the Holy



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One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee” (vv. 8-9). The magnificent title “Holy One of Israel,” which appears in this Isaiah3 passage, is again an example of the continuity of language and imagery throughout the entirety of the book of Isaiah: it occurs 26 times in passages attributed to Isaiah (not counting Isa. 36–39), scattered throughout the book. On the other hand, it appears on only half a dozen passages outside of Isaiah; it is rarely used by anyone else in the Bible. This demonstrates a singularity of diction that seems to bind all components of Isaiah together, whether one views the book from the traditional unified or the historical-critical tripartite points of view. The ultimate glorification of gathered Israel, in its capital city of Jerusalem, sustained by its own citizenry, which now includes the righteous of the gentiles counted among the covenant people, is summarized in v. 14: “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee The City of Yahuweh, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 61—Beauty for Ashes, and the Oil of Joy for Mourning The initial verses of ch. 61 are among the most triumphant and quoted in all of the book of Isaiah—they were even quoted prominently by Jesus of Nazareth in his messianic introduction (Luke 4:18-19). But it is unclear whether Isaiah3 is attributing these words to himself or to the anonymous servant of God (whom I regard as ideal Israel). What is clear, however, is that the passage has been regarded as a messianic oracle ever since the concept of a Jewish Messiah began to crystalize in the late Second Temple period—hence Jesus’ own use of the passage: “The Spirit of the Lord Yahuweh is upon me, because Yahuweh has anointed me to preach good tidings…” (v. 1). The lengthy introduction includes blessings to several key groups: good news to the meek, healing of the brokenhearted, freedom for the captives, release of the prisoners, and comfort for the mourners. To the latter will be given “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (v. 3), indicating that after centuries of death and dispersion, the house of Israel will have arrived at its promised era of peace and redemption, where mourning for the past and the dead prevail no more. Isaiah3 foresees generations of reconstruction and reclamation—building up the old wastes, raising up the former desolations, and repairing the waste cities. These images certainly seem credible if contextualized in the very first decades of the satrapy of Persian-period Judah rather than in

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the mid-fifth century BCE. But they are also quite credible, and perhaps even more so, in the modern setting which has witnessed the creation and building up of the present Jewish State of Israel. Isaiah3 foresees that the priesthood of old will be rejuvenated and reactivated (v. 6), as implied earlier when the gentile nations were predicted to join Israel in the renewed temple. Enjoying and eating of “the richness of the gentiles” (v. 6), the restored nation of Israel will enjoy a divine renewal of the ancient contract with Abraham: “I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them” (v. 8). Isaiah 62—Thou Shalt Be Called Hephzibah, and the Land Beulah In ch. 62, Isaiah3 continues the triumphant theme by assigning two new and symbolic names to redeemed Israel and its land of promise: “Thou shalt no longer be termed forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for Yahuweh delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married” (v. 4). The name Hephzibah means my desire is in her, and indicates that the metaphor of Israel being the beloved bride of Yahuweh, seen previously in chs. 50 (v. 1) and 54 (vv. 1-7) of Isaiah2. The continuation of this metaphor is again a significant sign of the continuity of symbolism and speech found in the entire second half of the book of Isaiah; however, another image is added in ch. 62—the land of Israel itself is described as married, and assigned the name Beulah, meaning a married wife. In this instance, the land is not the bride of God, but the bride of the sons of Israel. Speaking to the land, Isaiah3 declares: “For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee” (v. 5, and in this case, the emendation of “sons” to “builders” offered by McKenzie becomes unnecessary). Speaking finally to the people of Israel as a whole, the prophet continues: “as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (v. 5). These images enhance the main message found throughout Isaiah3, that Israel and Jerusalem are no more rejected for their former estrangement from God, but that Israel’s trials and repentance have been accepted, and Yahuweh will redeem and cherish them eternally. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night,” says Yahuweh to his holy city and people (v. 6), who goes on to guarantee that their land and produce will never again become the property of Israel’s enemies. It is difficult to reconcile this vision of freedom and independence with the modest and dependent situation of Judah in the Persian period; rather, the oracle here seems to refer to a distant and latter-day era when God will bring Israel to continual triumph: “Behold, Yahuweh hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, say ye to



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the daughter of Zion, behold, thy salvation cometh, behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him” (v. 11). Isaiah 63—Thou, Yahuweh, Art Our Father, Our Redeemer The arrival of Israel’s God, bearing this salvation, is cloaked in decidedly warlike images beginning in ch. 63. Yahuweh is depicted as a warrior whose garments have been stained red all over in his personal battle for Israel’s salvation, freedom, and security. Coming from Edom, the land of red sandstone south and east of Judah, which seems in this passage to have been the beginning venue of his warfare on behalf of Israel, Yahuweh describes the redness of his clothing as the result of having “trodden the wine press alone.” Of the foe still threatening Zion, and yet to be defeated, he declares: “I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment” (v. 3). Lest anyone mistakenly conclude that Israel’s salvation and freedom are to arrive as the result of some peace-seeking process, Yahuweh declares: “the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come” (v. 4). It is a startling passage, this warring-savior-song of ch. 63, and again difficult to place in the context of Persian-period Judah, when Edom had certainly not been injured, and had in fact occupied the Negev, the Lachish region, and the hills of Hebron. But these verses do flow quite naturally out of the redemption and redeemer-arrival passages that precede it at the end of ch. 62, and the continuity is both logical and unbroken. We are left to conclude that Israel’s ultimate salvation, as apocalyptically envisioned by Isaiah3, will occur in a day long after Isaiah’s own, and will involve traumatic and total defeat for Israel’s enemies. But there is another startling image found in ch. 63, which, in its own way, is more radical and significant than that of Yahuweh the warrior. It is the image of Yahuweh as the father! The identification is expressed in a mysterious passage that seems to be the plea of a people who recognize themselves as covenantal, but are not recognized as such by Israel at large: “Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not” (v. 16). I suggest that these words may be attributed to that new component of Israel, the righteous of the gentile nations who were earlier predicted to become absorbed into the covenant family. In any event, their exclamation is remarkable: “Thou, Yahuweh, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from everlasting” (v. 16). The metaphor of the God of Israel as the father of humankind, both the family of Israel and the gentile nations, is well known from Jewish conversation of the late Second Temple period. Avinu she-bashamayim, or in English,

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“our father who art in heaven,” was as common a phrase in the prayer of the average Pharisee worshipper as it was in the Lord’s Prayer uttered by Jesus of Nazareth (see Matt. 6:9), and is still common in the Jewish prayer Siddur today. But here we see that the idea of the God of Israel as the father of humankind had entered into the conversation of the prophet centuries prior to Jesus and the Pharisees. Indeed, this passage may have been the catalyst for the later phraseology. Isaiah 64—We are the Clay, and Thou Our Potter Chapter 64 continues the apocalyptic vision of Isaiah, where God’s redemptive and saving arrival is both anticipated and acknowledged in the same passage. The marvelous nature of the event is unprecedented: “Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him” (v. 4), a triumphant acclaim that would be adapted by the apostle Paul centuries later (1 Cor. 2:9). Israel is depicted, upon the arrival of God and the era of redemption, as fully acknowledging all its misdeeds of the past: “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags: and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (v. 6). But Israel is now as if made anew, a clean and fresh creation, as a nation redeemed, and born anew in a day: “But now, Yahuweh, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand” (v. 8). The idea of Israel as a clay vessel, wrought by the divine Potter, appears also in the late seventh century BCE writings of Jeremiah (Jer. 18:6), and it is common to attribute the origin of the image to that source rather than to Isaiah3. The difficulty with this, however, is that in Isaiah 64, Jerusalem, on the eve of the redemption described, is depicted as a wilderness and desolation, with its temple—“our holy and our beautiful house”—burned with fire (vv. 10-11). This can hardly reflect the situation in the Persian period, the modesty of Judah’s revival then notwithstanding, and is more at home in a context where the Jerusalem temple is not standing in its appointed place. One could suggest that the passage is a throwback to the direct aftermath of the Babylonian destruction of the capital in 586 BCE, but that era also seems incongruous with the imminent advent of the triumphal redemption that is the chapter’s main theme. It would seem that a better solution is to see the passage as apocalyptic, and as an extension of ch. 63, set in a time far future to Isaiah3, when Jerusalem will have been essentially desolate and downtrodden, and absent its temple, as the latterday regeneration and redemption of Israel finally approaches.



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Isaiah 65—I Will Bring Forth a Seed Out of Jacob, and Out of Judah an Inheritor The image of the potter had been set into a prayer to God from repentant Israel: “Be not wroth very sore, Yahuweh, neither remember iniquity forever” (Isa. 64:9). In ch. 65, the answer of God recaps the misdeeds of Israel. Certain transgressions which render one particularly unclean are condemned as if still common among the populace: “A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick: which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels” (vv. 3-4). It would seem that, whether we speak of Judah in the seventh century BCE, or in the sixth or fifth, or even if we speak of expanded Israel, joined by the righteous of the gentiles in the age of redemption, the God of Israel still has basic expectations of his people: no idolatry, no uncleanness, and the dietary restrictions of the Torah remain in force. I will not deny that this passage causes me to pause over the question of whether I should have bacon with my eggs or clams in my chowder. But these condemnations seem to serve only as a reminder that redeemed Israel is expected to behave well. Chapter 65 moves quickly past these stern warnings and emphasizes the new order and destiny of the covenant family: “I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains, and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there” (v. 9). Significant in this and similar passages is the mention not only of the descendants of the ancient state of Judah, but also the seed of the ancient state of Israel—the old northern kingdom. Isaiah3 seems to envision an apocalyptic, redeemed, latter-day house of Israel which consists of the descendants of all the ancient tribes, north and south. If applied to territory, which is not an improbable interpretation for the Jacob/Judah reference, it implies that the ultimate redemption of latter-day Israel envisioned by Isaiah3, which would include the beautiful land he earlier tagged as Beulah, would encompass the physical territory of both Iron Age kingdoms, from Dan to Beersheba, so to speak, and even beyond. Even the coastal plain and the Jordan Valley are mentioned: “And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me” (v. 10). Again, far from reflecting the small satrapy of Persian-period Judah, this description sounds much more like the current configuration of the land of Israel in present times—Isaiah3 seems clearly to be speaking of a time far in his future.

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As if to drive that point home, Isaiah3 also repeats the metaphoric images of redeemed Israel’s total safety and security which were first penned back in ch. 11—a remarkable indicator of the continuity of the Isaianic message: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and the dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith Yahuweh” (v. 25, cf. Isa. 11:6–9). Isaiah 66 Insights—Rejoice Ye with Jerusalem, and Be Glad with Her The concluding chapter of the book of Isaiah, ch. 66, begins with the same phrase used by Isaiah3 in the initial chapter of this section, ch. 56—“Thus saith Yahuweh!” The miracles attendant to Israel’s ultimate regeneration and redemption are summarized and characterized as inconceivable to human understanding: “Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (v. 8). When the signs and miracles of the redemption Isaiah3 promises commence, the time until their complete fulfillment will seem as having passed quickly. A modern song, made popular in the State of Israel in the heady days after both the 1948 and 1967 victories, draws its Hebrew lyrics from v. 9: Sisu et Yerushalayim, gilu vah kol ohavehah!—“Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her!” Again, the gentiles of foreign nations are depicted as joining Israel in the return to Jerusalem, and even becoming priests working in the holy temple: “I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations…and they shall declare my glory among the gentiles. And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto Yahuweh out of all nations…as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of Yahuweh. And I will also take of them for priest and for Levites, saith Yahuweh” (vv. 19-21). In the Herodian ashlars of the Western Wall of Jerusalem’s temple mount, not far from Robinson’s Arch, is a block inscribed by a Jewish pilgrim of the medieval period, when the hope of Israel’s redemption could not have seemed further from realization. But the phrase carved into the boss of that stone, taken from v. 14 of Isaiah3’s concluding chapter, represents not only the prophet’s own vision of the ultimate gathering and redemption of Israel, but that of every son and daughter of Jacob that ever fell in love with the destiny of Jerusalem: “And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb!” That stone, and that phrase from ch. 66, are an apt symbol and summation to this short treatment of the insights of Third Isaiah—the hope of Israel, the hope for



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its temple, and the hope for the gathering of its people, and hope of all the nations who choose to become such. And as Isaiah3 concludes, he leaves us with one last promise from Israel’s God: “It shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Yahuweh” (v. 23). All flesh—that is, all humankind—is cordially invited!

E x eg es i s a n d T h eol ogy i n t he T r a n s m i s s i on of I sai ah

Emanuel Tov

1. The Continuity of the Prophetic Genius of Isaiah in the Transmission of the Book After the book of Isaiah was written in a single exemplar it was copied by scribes, generation after generation, and was submitted to processes of exegesis by translators and early exegetes. Our study deals with the textual and exegetical transmission of that book, one of the most influential in the Bible. As a rule, the textual transmission started upon the completion of the literary composition—that is, after it had been written and had undergone a process of editing. Not every book was edited, but in the case of Isaiah this was definitely the case. For one thing, the historical chapters 36–39 had been appended to the book of Isaiah son of Amoz and the hand of the editor is visible in many details. The textual transmission and exegesis of the book started when the literary composition of the book named Isaiah had been completed; yet the words of the prophet were interpreted and changed by scribes, translators, and exegetes in manuscripts, translations, pesharim and in the New Testament. For example, the large Isaiah scroll includes exegesis, and the ancient translators embedded their ideas in the various translations. Likewise, the pesharim introduced actualizing exegesis. Each source developed in its own way, which was haphazard to some extent, and there are but few tendencies that characterize several sources at the same time. The 2015 symposium focused on the “continuity of the prophetic genius of Isaiah.” Frankly, I find this a challenging approach that I had not thought about beforehand. I interpret our mission in such a way that the generations after Isaiah were inspired by his elevated ideas and that this inspired exegesis is visible in the literatures of the next generations, and in the creations of scribes, translators, and exegetes. In the



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case of the pesharim, the Qumran sectarian commentaries, and the New Testament the words of the prophet were reinterpreted in order to fit the new religious ideas developed by two communities on which Isaiah exerted much influence, the Qumran community and the young Christian religion. In the latter case, major religious ideas were based on the words of the prophet in Greek, which is evident especially in the use of the term χριστός, “Christos,” in the New Testament and the wording of Isa. 7:14 in the LXX in which the idea of the παρθένος, “virgin,” representing the virgin birth, plays a major role.1 The idea of the continuity of the prophetic genius of the prophet Isaiah pervades the history of the reception history of the book. Scribes and translators planted their exegesis in the book of Isaiah because, so to speak, they continued to breathe the ideas of Isaiah. Some of them felt that they needed to make certain details more understandable, even to improve on Isaiah. When inserting these changes, scribes and translators felt that they did not harm the message of Isaiah. On the contrary, they sensed that they improved on it. They took this liberty because in their understanding they continued to live the world of the biblical authors. All the paragraphs in this study should be understood in this light. I do not think that in the issue of the reception history Isaiah was any different from the other biblical books. However, that book had a more central position than the other books and therefore its exegesis is more prevalent than the other prophetic books, although this aspect cannot be proven. It is therefore remarkable that in Qumran we find rewritten compositions of Jeremiah (the so-called Apocryphon of Jeremiah) and Ezekiel (the so-called Pseudo-Ezekiel), but not of Isaiah. A composition named Ascensio Isaias (Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah) is known among the so-called Pseudepigrapha, but no such compositions have been found at Qumran.2 In this analysis in which we try to locate elements of exegesis it should be stressed that we found such evidence in all sources, but hardly in the Masoretic text. As far as we can tell, the Masoretic text reflects a rather strict process of copying that did not allow for changes. This does not mean that the Masoretic text does not reflect occasional exegesis as compared with the other sources, but not many such elements can be located. The attentive reader will find them in the textual notes of critical commentaries or in the critical apparatuses of the Biblia Hebraica Quinta.3 1.  See Lust as quoted below, n. 69. 2.  See the edition by M. A. Knibb in OTP, 2:143–76. 3.  Biblia Hebraica Quinta, ed. A. Schenker (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2004–).

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2. More Than One Author of Isaiah? No Evidence from Qumran One of the most debated issues in the critical research of Isaiah is its possible multiple authorship. Critical scholarship posits the composite nature of the book named Isaiah as created by the juxtaposition of two or three literary compositions. Scholars usually make a distinction between the writings of Isaiah son of Amoz living in the eighth century BCE in chs. 1–39 and that of Deutero-Isaiah living in the second half of the sixth century in chs. 40–66.4 Often the chapters of the second part of Isaiah are subdivided into Deutero-Isaiah (chs. 40–55) and Trito-Isaiah (chs. 56–66). Presumably at one point these two or three books were combined and at a still earlier stage Isa. 36:1–39:8 had been copied partially from 2 Kgs 18:13–20:19 and added as an appendix to the words of Isaiah son of Amoz, just like 2 Kgs 24:18–25:30 was appended to Jeremiah 1–51 as ch. 52. Not all scholars accept these critical assumptions, and when the Dead Sea scrolls were found, there were great expectations that an answer to this vexed dispute would be found. However, no evidence has been found in any of the scrolls either to prove or disprove the composite nature of Isaiah. These scrolls are simply too late in order to show any evidence.5 I might add that the copying of the large Isaiah scroll by two different scribes (Isa. 1–33 and 34–66) is irrelevant, since this division of work reflects a mere scribal convenience of dividing the copying of this long scroll into two exactly equal segments6 (cols. I–XXVII, XXVIII–LIV).7 4.  Note the mentioning of Cyrus in 44:28 as “my shepherd” (‫ )רעי‬and in 45:1 as “his anointed” (‫ )משיחו‬and the threatening of the downfall of Babylon (not Assyria) in 47:1 and 48:14. One of the most recent commentators of Isa. 40–66, S. M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2012), 1–11, presents a lucid description of the data together with his views. 5.  Such evidence could have been reflected in (almost) complete scrolls such as 1QIsaa and 1QIsab. The former has been dated to 125–100 BCE and the latter to 75–50 BCE; see E. Ulrich and P. W. Flint, Qumran Cave 1.II: The Isaiah Scrolls, Part 1: Plates and Transcriptions, Part 2: Introductions, Commentary, and Textual Variants, DJD XXXII (Oxford: Clarendon, 2010), 2:61, 199. At an earlier stage, probably around 180 BCE, Ben Sira already quoted from both segments of Isaiah in the same breath (48:20-25). 6.  For a description of the distinctive features of the two scribes, see E. Tov, “Scribal Features of Two Qumran Scrolls,” in Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint: Collected Writings, Volume 3, VTSup 167 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 368–86. 7.  In modern scholarship chs. 34 (beginning of scribe B) and 35 are often considered as authored by Deutero-Isaiah (see Paul, Isaiah 40–66, 4–5), but the historical



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In my view the two segments of the scroll were copied separately in such a way that when scribe A finished his work he had to leave three lines open at the end of Isaiah 33 in col. XXVII, while scribe B started at the beginning of a new column. 3. The Central Position and Popularity of Isaiah in the Judean Desert Texts Isaiah holds a central position within the Bible and also afterwards, in Second Temple Judaism. Isaiah is among the most quoted books in the literature of the Qumran community and in early Christian literature. In some biblical books we are blessed with many copies among the Judean Desert scrolls, whereas for other books the evidence is more limited and often very scant.8 Thus the Qumran caves yielded no fewer than 21 copies of Isaiah, while two additional copies were found elsewhere in the Judean Desert. Other books represented at Qumran in large numbers are Deuteronomy, of which 26 copies are known, and Psalms with 36 copies. The reason for the large number of copies of these three books was probably their popularity among the Qumran covenanters. A close affinity with these three books is also manifest in the sectarian writings of the Qumranites. The popularity of these books does not imply that all these copies had been produced at Qumran. Some had been written there, while others had been produced elsewhere in Palestine and had been brought to Qumran. This assumption implies that the information about the textual condition and transmission of Isaiah visible in the Qumran scrolls probably reflects the status of that book in ancient Israel as a whole, and not only at Qumran. By far the greatest number of copies of Isaiah comes from Qumran Cave 4, although the only complete copy of that book, which had probably been stored in a jar, was found in Cave 1. No copies of Isaiah were found at Masada, and a single copy was among the fragments found at Wadi Murabba‘at, viz. Mur 3 (MurIsaiah).9 Another copy (X20) derived from an unknown locality. appendix in chs. 36–39 is not. These chapters form an appendix to the words of Isaiah son of Amoz, and hence their inclusion among the chapters written by scribe B shows that the division is unrelated to matters of content. 8.  For details, see E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed., revised and expanded (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012), 96–7. 9.  Published by J. T. Milik in P. Benoit et al., Les grottes de Murabba‘at, DJD II (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961), 79–80 and pl. XXII.

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Remarkable also is the relatively large number of pesharim of Isaiah. Running pesharim are only known for the Prophets and Psalms, and among them the largest group is that of Isaiah, which has no fewer than six different pesharim (3QpIsa, 4QpIsaa-e). The other preserved pesharim comment on other books of the Prophets and Psalms. More than the other major Prophets, Isaiah is quoted (with or without a quotation formula) in the Qumran sectarian literature (according to Brooke, at least 23 times), compared with a much smaller number of quotations for Jeremiah and Ezekiel (each four times).10 Brooke divides these quotations into legal, eschatological, poetic, and exhortatory use. In addition to these quotations, these books are alluded to many times in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of the central ideas and terms of the Qumran sect are borrowed from Isaiah. Thus the enemies of the Qumran community in Jerusalem are often named “scoffers,” ‫אנשי לצון‬, for example in 4QpIsab (4Q162), col. ii, 6, where the harsh words of Isa. 5:11-14 were applied to the enemies of the community, here named “scoffers.” The prophet Isaiah speaks ill about those who are in pursuit of strong drink and who feast the whole day and they do not regard the deeds of the Lord. The pesher (lines 6-7) applied to these words says in simple terms: “These are the Men of Scoffing who are in Jerusalem. Those are they who ‘have rejected the law of the Lord and they have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel’ ” (Isa. 5:24-25): ‫הם אנשי הלצון אשר בירושלים הם אשר מאסו את תורת יהוה‬ ‫ואת אמרת קדוש ישראל נאצו‬. Notably the term ‫ אנשי לצון‬occurs only twice in Scripture, once in Isa. 28:14 and once in Prov. 29:8. In Isaiah the text uses this phrase in conjunction with Jerusalem (“Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem”) and therefore the pesher undoubtedly quotes this verse because it speaks about both “scoffers” and “Jerusalem.” A few lines later the pesher uses the exact same phrase explaining Isa. 5:24-25: “That is the congregation of the Men of Scoffing who are in Jerusalem” (col. ii, 10).11

10.  See Brooke, “Isaiah,” 610–11; J. J. M. Roberts, “The Importance of Isaiah at Qumran,” in The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. I. Scripture and the Scrolls, ed. J. H. Charlesworth (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 1997), 273–86. 11.  The same term appears in CD XX:11 and 4Q525 frg. 23:8 and in the singular in 4Q266 frg. 2:18 and CD 1:14.



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4. The Textual Traditions of Isaiah and the Original Text of that Book The first paragraphs of this study focus on exegetical elements included among the textual variants and in the translations, and we therefore need to say something about these variants. A variant is any detail in a Hebrew scroll or an ancient translation differing from the traditional text of Hebrew Scripture usually named the Masoretic text (MT). These variants are the main source for the discussion, and not the MT itself, because after some study we determined that the MT usually contains preferable elements in Isaiah. At the same time, the textual sources of Isaiah do not often differ from each other. In my view, Isaiah was transmitted in several textual witnesses that do not diverge from each other in large details such as the witnesses of the Torah, Joshua, Samuel, and Jeremiah. It may well be that at an earlier period there were major differences between the Isaiah scrolls, but they have not been preserved. My working hypothesis is that at one time there existed a single book of Isaiah that may be considered the original text of the book from which all subsequent versions derived. This original text was preceded by earlier formulations, such as a separate copy of Isaiah 1–35. No parallel editions of Isaiah are known and the differences between the textual witnesses are relatively small. In my view, the MT group forms the best witness to that early text. The early shape of Isaiah would have been something like the proto-MT text, more or less identical with the medieval text, and differing from the medieval texts with a rate of up to 2 percent of deviation. In other words, the early texts would have differed from the medieval manuscripts such as codex Leningrad or the Aleppo codex no more than they differ from one another. This is mere theory, since no unmistakable proto-MT texts have been preserved. Probably MurIsa (dated to 50–100 CE) was proto-Masoretic, but the text is too fragmentary for precise analysis.12 Several of the fragmentary Qumran texts may have been proto-Masoretic as well, but they cannot be identified any longer. The Targum, Vulgate, and Peshitta, as well as Theodotion, Aquila and Symmachus, reflect the same proto-MT, and they should therefore also be considered members of the MT group. Next in line, and slightly more removed from the kernel of the MT group, are the so-called MT-like texts. Relatively free scribes inserted a number of changes in the text, often facilitating the reading, probably 12.  See J. T. Milik, DJD II, 79–80.

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adding up to 10 percent of variation from the proto-MT if the numbers of words are counted. However, in most cases no firm decisions can be made because of the fragmentary nature of the Qumran scrolls which does not allow us to differentiate clearly between allegiance to MT or the LXX.13 The only scroll that certainly is MT-like is 1QIsab. For this and similar scrolls, Barthélemy uses the term pre-Masoretic.14 The LXX translation differs much from MT, but most of its deviations probably reflect the translator’s interventions. Accordingly, ultimately the LXX has been translated from a text like the MT.15 By the same token, 1QIsaa and 4QIsac probably reflect free orthographic-morphological variants of this tradition.16 If my view on these two manuscripts and the LXX is correct, we are faced with a rather unified textual tradition of Isaiah, most clearly visible in the Masoretic and proto-Masoretic tradition. All other texts deviated slightly from this tradition. We now turn to these deviations as contained in ancient Hebrew scrolls, the LXX, and the pesharim. 5. Textual and Literary Analysis in Isaiah When focusing on the exegetical and theological aspects of the textual transmission of Isaiah, we necessarily deal with small details, since at that stage only small details were changed in the manuscripts. Most 13.  This generalization also pertains to the following texts, which are close to both MT and the LXX: 4QIsaa, 4QIsae, 4QIsaf. The following texts are too short for pronouncing a clear judgment: 4QIsag, 4QIsah, 4QIsai, 4QIsaj, 4QIsak, 4QIsal, 4QIsam, 4QIsan, 4QIsao, 4QpapIsap, 4QIsaq, 4QIsar. 14.  D. Barthélemy, Critique textuelle de l’Ancien Testament, 3. Ézéchiel, Daniel et les 12 Prophètes, OBO 50/3 (Fribourg: Éditions Universitaires; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1992), xcviii–cxvi. The English translation of this work was published posthumously in 2012: Studies in the Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012), 383–409 (389). 15.  This is the view of A. van der Kooij, “Isaiah in the Septuagint,” in Writing & Reading the Scroll of Isaiah: Studies of an Interpretive Tradition, ed. C. C. Broyles and C. A. Evans, 2 vols., VTSup 70.1–2 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 2:513–29 (517), who also quotes the earlier views of other scholars; J. Koenig, L’herméneutique analogique du judaïsme antique d’après les témoins textuels d’Isaïe, VTSup 33 (Leiden: Brill, 1982); R. L. Troxel, LXX-Isaiah as Translation and Interpretation: The Strategies of the Translator of the Septuagint of Isaiah, JSJSup 124 (Leiden: Brill, 2008). 16.  It cannot be determined with certainty whether that scroll was copied from a proto-Masoretic text, an MT-like text, or another tradition.



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scholars believe that the book had already reached its final literary shape when scribes started copying the book, but some scholars disagree. According to Ulrich, occasionally a detail in one or more manuscript derived from an earlier stage when the book had not yet reached finality. According to this scholar, the occasional omissions of scribe B of 1QIsaa reflect a “variant edition,” that is, a stage anterior to the literary edition contained in all other witnesses. Ulrich capitalized on six omissions in the scroll, subsequently added between the lines or in the margin, to which he adds three minuses of the LXX.17 However, in the scroll they all have the characteristics of scribal omissions by a scribe that erred more than scribe A.18 6. Exegesis and Theology in the Hebrew Qumran Manuscripts The Qumran scrolls, especially 1QIsaa, and the ancient versions, especially the LXX, reflect many exegetical variants.19 On the whole, exegetical elements are more easily recognizable in the LXX than in the known Hebrew sources, and their recognition is subjective—as shown by the following two examples. Isaiah 53:11 may well reflect theological exegesis, discussed at length by Seeligmann20 and van der Kooij,21 but at the same time it is not certain that this verse reflects a variant at all. S. Paul reads this text in accordance with the Masoretic accents as ‫מעמל נפשו יראה ישבע‬, “because of his 17.  E. Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Developmental Composition of the Bible, VTSup 167 (Leiden: Brill, 2015), 109–29; an earlier version was published as “The Developmental Composition of the Book of Isaiah: Light from 1QIsaa on Additions in the MT,” DSD 8 (2001): 288–305. 18.  In my view, Ulrich’s views have been refuted convincingly by Drew Longacre, “Developmental Stage, Scribal Lapse, or Physical Defect? 1QIsaa’s Damaged Exemplar for Isaiah Chapters 34–66,” DSD 20 (2013): 17–50. 19.  The analysis of exegetical and theological elements in the next paragraphs does not depend on the working hypothesis formulated in §4 according to which the MT is the closest to the presumed original text of Isaiah among the preserved witnesses. 20.  I. L. Seeligmann, “Δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς,” Tarbiz 27 (1957–58): 127–41 (Heb.) = idem, Gesammelte Studien zur hebräischen Bibel, ed. E. Blum, FAT 41 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004), 401–19. 21.  A. van der Kooij, “The Text of Isaiah and its Early Witnesses in Hebrew,” in Sôfer Mahîr: Essays in Honour of Adrian Schenker Offered by the Editors of Biblia Hebraica Quinta, ed. Y. A. P. Goldman, A. van der Kooij and R. D. Weis, VTSup 110 (Leiden: Brill, 2006), 143–52 (150–1).

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anguish he shall be sated and saturated with light,” noting that the objects of the two verbs are implied, namely “light” and “days” (]‫)ישבע [ימים‬.22 That is, these two objects were in the prophet’s mind without being stated. At the same time, some sources explicitly added the object of the first verb as “light,” which should thus be taken as a textual variant: Isa. 53:11 MT JPS S. Paul LXX NETS 1QIsaa 1QIsab 4QIsad

‫מעמל נפשו יִ ראה‬ “Out of his anguish he shall see it” “because of his anguish he shall be sated” (‫ יִ ראה‬taken as ‫יִ רוה‬ = be sated) ἀπὸ τοῦ πόνου τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς “…from the pain of his soul, to show him light” )‫מעמל נפשוה יראה אור (וישבע‬ )‫מעמל נפשו יראה אור (יש[בע‬ )‫מעמל נפשוה יראה או[ר] (ושבע‬

The LXX reads the vowels of ‫יִ ראה‬, “will see,” as ‫יַ ראה‬, “will show,” and also reflects a Hebrew variant ‫אור‬, “light,” which is also found in the mentioned three scrolls 1QIsaa, 1QIsab, and 4QIsad. Some scholars see in the added ‫( אור‬light) a gnostic variant (φῶς γνώσεως, “the light of wisdom”),23 but this assumption would be far-reaching based as it is on only a single word. In my view, ‫אור‬, “light,” developed as a secondary variant in the mentioned Qumran manuscripts, on one of which the LXX may have been based. Again others consider the word “light” to be original (NRSV). The expression “to see light” occurs elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible in the sense of “to enjoy life” (e.g. Ps. 36:10), but the meaning in Isaiah is intellectual because of ‫ישבע בדעתו‬, “he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge,” in the immediate context and should therefore be taken as “to gain insight.” Seeligmann believes that the reading is secondary since the phrase “to see the light” does not occur in this meaning in Scripture. In dealing with 21 variants common to 1QIsaa and 1QIsab, Barthélemy claims that this reading, together with two other ones in Isa. 53:11-12, has “the greatest weight…because they have the support of the only four witnesses to be rooted in a textual state prior to standardization”— 1QIsaa, 1QIsab, 4QIsad, and LXX-Isaiah.24 As far as 1QIsab is concerned, he then argues that the unity of the three variants in Isa. 53:11-12 22.  Paul, Isaiah 40–66, 412. 23.  See the discussion of Seeligmann, “Δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς.” 24.  Barthélemy, Studies, 402.



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shows that “1QIsab is clearly situated before the proto-Masoretic textual stabilization.”25 Also, additional variants are considered to fall into “the category of the minor variations that can show up within a single stream of textual transmission.”26 The alleged textual standardization, in his view, “took place between the two Jewish revolts.”27 Isa. 37:13 MT NRSV 1QIsaa

‫איה מלך־חמת ומלך ארפד ומלך לעיר ספרוים הנע ועוה‬ “Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?” + ‫ ושומרון‬+ “and (where is the king) of Samaria”

One could easily be tempted into thinking that the gifted scribe of this scroll applied historical exegesis to this verse. He could have realized that the events depicted in these verses took place after the fall of Samaria (722 BCE) and that therefore that city should be included in this list of the kings who were unable to resist the force of the Assyrians. This is the view reflected in a study by Pulikottil.28 However, a simpler solution would be to ascribe to that scroll a harmonization to the similarly phrased verse 36:19 that mentions Samaria next to Hamath, Arpad, and Sepharvaim in the same context: “Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?” These two examples show how difficult it is to give an objective and stable interpretation of a difference between texts. Nevertheless, scholars agree in their views on many forms of exegesis subdivided into the following groups. a. Theological Interpretations Theological interpretations of the text of Isaiah were created in a haphazard way, and cannot be combined into a single picture. I therefore limit myself to occasional examples.

25.  Barthélemy, Studies, 403. 26.  Barthélemy, Studies, 403. 27.  Barthélemy, Studies, 404. 28.  J. Pulikottil, Transmission of Biblical Texts in Qumran: The Case of the Large Isaiah Scroll 1QIsaa, JSPSup 34 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2001), 132.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Isa. 16:12 MT NRSV 1QIsaa

‫והיה כי־נראה כי־נלאה מואב על־הבמה ובא) אל מקדשׁו (להתפלל‬ )‫ולא יוכל‬ (“When Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself) upon the high place (when he comes to his sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail”) ‫אל מקדשיו‬ “to his sanctuaries“”

The word miqdash (“temple”) does not occur elsewhere in Isaiah in the plural so that no parallel verse could have influenced the scribe who added a yod of the plural suffix.29 This change was meant to stress that Moab does not sacrifice in a single sanctuary but in many such places as opposed to a single miqdash for the Israelites. The scribe did not change bamah since that did not raise sensitive issues for this scribe. Isa. 57:12 MT NRSV 1QIsaa

‫אני אגיד צדקתך ואת מעשׂיך ולא יועילוך‬ “I will concede your righteousness and your works, but they will not help you” ‫אני אגיד צדקתך ואת מעשיך ולא יועילוך קובציך‬ “I will concede your righteousness and your works, but your assembly of idols will not help you”

According to the MT, ‫צדקתך‬, “your righteousness,” and ‫מעשׂיך‬, “your works,” are the subject of the next verb ‫יועילוך‬, “I will help you.” The scribe of the scroll found the need to add a new subject, “your assembly (of idols).” Pulikottil presumes that the scribe could not accept the assumption that “your righteousness and your works” were of no avail, and he therefore added ‫קובציך‬, “your assembly.” This word was copied from the next verse:30 Isa. 57:13 MT NRSV

‫בזעקך יצילך קבוציך‬ “When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you!”

29.  Elsewhere in Scripture this word occurs rarely in the plural with regard to Israel, and when it does occur it refers especially to negative contexts such as Lev. 26:31. 30.  Pulikottil, Transmission, 107.



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The word itself is a hapax, probably referring to a collection of idols, in which case the MT and the scroll present different patterns of the same word.31 Isa. 26:14 MT NRSV 1QIsaa

‫מתים בל יחיו רפאים בל יקמו לכן פקדת ותשׁמידם ותאבד כל זכר למו‬ “The dead do not live; shades do not rise—because you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them” ‫מיתים בל יחיו {ו}רפאים בל יקומו לכן פקדת ותשמידם ותאסר כול‬ ‫זכר למו‬ “The dead do not live; shades do not rise—because you have punished and destroyed them, and forbade all memory of them”

According to the MT, God wiped out the memory of the shades or spirits of the lords who had dominion over Israel (v. 13), while according to the scroll God forbade that memory. Seemingly the scroll is less harsh, but actually the forbidding also refers to the future, and is therefore more permanent.32 The scroll uses ‫ אסר‬in the post-biblical sense, and is therefore secondary.33 Already in 1955, Rubinstein showed interest in theological aspects of some variant readings.34 The descriptive term “theological” should, according to Rubinstein, be used in a limited sense, “as denoting certain religious susceptibilities which can reasonably be inferred from the variant readings selected for discussion.”35 All the readings selected by him are undoubtedly of importance for understanding the scribe, but it is often difficult to know whether the change is intentionally carrying theological implications. Rubinstein ascribes much importance to instances of an added vav or kaph, and harmonizations, in which he discovers theological tendencies. For example,

31.  See E. Y. Kutscher, The Language and Linguistic Background of the Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa), STDJ 6 (Leiden: Brill, 1974), 53, 475. 32.  Thus A. Rubinstein, “The Theological Aspect of Some Variant Readings in the Isaiah Scroll,” JSS 6 (1955): 187–200 (192). 33.  See Kutscher, Language, 220. 34.  Rubinstein, “The Theological Aspect.” 35.  Rubinstein, “The Theological Aspect,” 187.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Isa. 45:7 MT 1QIsaa

‫ =( עשה שלום ובורא רע‬V, T) “I make prosperity and I create evil” ‫עשה טוב ובורא רע‬ “I make the good and I create the evil”

However, we need not go as far as Rubinstein, who sees in this reading “an affirmation of the doctrine of the sectaries of Qumran, who held that both good and evil are created by God and that the morally good or bad in human conduct is predetermined by Him, at least for the duration of the period preceding the ultimate ‘visitation.’ ”36 More likely, this variant has been created on the basis of the context. The scribe considered the opposition between “prosperity” and “evil” of the MT inappropriate, therefore creating the pair “good” and “bad,” parallel to the opposition between “light” and “darkness” in the first stich.37 Talmon likewise discussed the exegetical aspects of several readings.38 According to van der Kooij, the readings of this scroll, as of any other biblical text, need to be viewed not as reflecting occasional and unrelated exegesis, but as exponents of a more or less coherent exegetical system within each pericope (cf., e.g., his analysis of 8:4-11),39 certainly in those places in which the paragraph division in 1QIsaa differs from that of the MT.40 A similar approach underlies the text-critical commentary of Barthélemy.41 Koenig recognizes a special type of content exegesis in 36.  Rubinstein, “The Theological Aspect,” 194. However, it has not been established that Qumran scribes inserted sectarian readings in biblical scrolls, see Ulrich, Developmental Composition, 169–86. 37.  The expression of “making peace” occurs elsewhere in Scripture only in Isa. 27:5. 38.  S. Talmon, “1QIsaa as a Witness to Ancient Exegesis of the Book of Isaiah,” in The World of Qumran from Within: Collected Studies (Jerusalem: Magnes/The Hebrew University; Leiden: Brill, 1980), 131–41; idem, “Aspects of the Textual Transmission of the Bible in the Light of the Qumran Manuscripts,” Textus 4 (1964): 95–132. 39.  A. van der Kooij, “1QIsaa Col. VIII, 4–11 (Isa 8, 11-18): A Contextual Approach of Its Variants,” RevQ 13 (1988): 569–81. 40.  A. van der Kooij, Die alten Textzeugen des Jesajabuches, Ein Beitrag zur Textgeschichte des Alten Testaments, OBO 35 (Freiburg: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1981). For examples of exegesis underlying different paragraph divisions, see J. Høgenhaven, “The First Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsa) and the Masoretic Text: Some Reflections with Special Regard to Isaiah 1–12,” JSOT 28 (1984): 17–35 (28–9). 41.  Barthélemy, Critique textuelle, 3.



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this scroll, as well as in the LXX, and describes at length the background of small pluses in the scroll.42 According to Koenig, these are not just incidental scribal pluses, but they reflect a refined system of what the author names “herméneutique analogique,” and which links certain texts internally, similar to the rabbinic gezerah shavah (arguments based on analogies). b. Messianic Interpretations? Messianic interpretations received much attention in scholarship, but it should be remembered that they are but a highly subjective subsection of theological exegesis. Already in 1955, Chamberlain recognized messianic interpretations in several readings in the Isaiah scroll.43 For example, according to this scholar, the third person singular forms ‫ זרועו‬and ‫אליו‬ (“his arm” and “to him”) in 1QIsaa 51:5 for the first person forms ‫זר(ו)עי‬, “my arm,” and ‫אלי‬, “to me,” in the MT refer to the Messiah. The other words in the context (vv. 4-6) were conceived of as messianic names: ‫תורה‬, “teaching”; ‫משפטי‬, “my justice”; ‫צדקי‬, “my deliverance”; ‫ישעי‬, “my justice”; ‫ישועתי‬, “my salvation”; and ‫צדקתי‬, “my deliverance”. Isa. 51:5 MT NRSV 1QIsaa

‫קרוב צדקי יצא ישׁעי וזרעי עמים ישׁפטו אלי איים יקוו ואל זרעי ייחלון‬ “I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope” ‫ וזרועו…אליו‬ “his arm…for him”

Other forms of exegesis in the scrolls pertain to more easily recognizable exegesis: c. Contextual Exegesis Creative scribes such as the scribe of 1QIsaa inserted many contextual changes. For example:

42.  J. Koenig, “L’activité herméneutique des scribes dans la transmission du texte de l’Ancien Testament,” RHR 161 (1962): 141–74; 162 (1962): 1–43; idem, L’Herméneutique analogique. See my review of this book in Bib 65 (1984): 118–21 as well as that of A. van der Kooij, “Accident or Method: On ‘Analogical’ Interpretation in the Old Testament Greek of Isaiah and in 1QIsa,” BibOr 43 (1986): 366–76. 43.  J. V. Chamberlain, “The Functions of God as Messianic Titles in the Complete Qumran Isaiah Scroll,” VT 5 (1955): 366–72.

108

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Isa. 14:30 MT JPS 1QIsaa Isa. 46:11 MT NRSV 1QIsaa

‫ = )והמתי ברעב שרשך ושאריתך) יהרג‬LXX T “(I will kill your stock by famine) and it shall slay (the very last of you)” ‫אהרוג‬ “I shall kill” (cf. V) ‫)דברתי אף אביאנה) יצרתי אף אעשנה‬ “(I have spoken, so I will bring it to pass;) I have planned, and I will do it” ‫יצרתיה אף אעשנה‬ “I have planned it, and I will do it”

d. Linguistic Exegesis Linguistic exegesis is very frequent in 1QIsaa. For example, in late Hebrew there is a tendency to add the article before nouns,44 as in: Isa. 1:2 MT 1QIsaa

‫והאזיני ארץ‬ ‫והאזיני הארץ‬

Likewise, there is a tendency to add the conjunctive vav,45 as in: Isa. 1:8 MT 1QIsaa

‫)ונותרה בת־ציון כסכה בכרם) כמלונה במקשׁה‬ ‫וכמלונה במקשה‬

7. Exegesis as Reflected in Sense Divisions in Early Sources Each and every detail in the text may reflect exegesis, not only the words, but also the relation between words. See the following example. Isa. 40:3 MT NRSV

‫קול קורא במדבר פנו דרך יהוה ישרו בערבה מסלה לאלהינו‬ “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’ ”

The internal parallelism of the MT, supported by the Masoretic accents, is structured around four pairs of parallel words: in the wilderness // in the desert, prepare // make straight, the way // a highway, the Lord // our God. 44.  See Kutscher, Language, 411–12. 45.  See Kutscher, Language, 414–29.



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This understanding probably reflects the original text. The same parallel structure shines through in the quotation of this verse in 1QS VIII 13: ‫ללכת למדבר לפנות שם את דרך הואהא‬, “to go to the wilderness, to prepare there the way of the Lord (huha).” This quotation clearly separates the words “a voice cries out” from the quoted text. Another interpretation is: “A voice cries out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord.” This division is evidenced in ancient Jewish traditions,46 and in the New Testament where John the Baptizer says: John 1:23 ἔφη, Ἐγὼ φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, Εὐθύνατε τὴν ὁδὸν Κυρίου, καθὼς εἶπεν Ἠσαΐας ὁ προφήτης. NRSV He said: “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’ ”

Likewise, the parallel Gospels (Matt. 3:3 = Mark 1:3 = Luke 3:4) provide the same quote from the words of John the Baptizer, preceded in v. 1 by an account about John “proclaiming in the Desert of Judah” (κηρύσσων ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τῆς Ἰουδαίας, Matt. 3:1 par Luke 3:3). The New Testament interpretation, parallel to early Jewish traditions mentioned above, links the voice with the wilderness. This way of understanding is not impossible, but it is secondary because it disrupts the parallelism. The background of the alternative interpretation is probably that the phrase “a voice cries out” was considered too abstract and was therefore connected with the more concrete mentioning of the wilderness. In the case of early Christianity it was natural to connect the experience of John the Baptizer with the verse in Isaiah, because he was actually active in that area. This interpretation is seemingly based on the LXX as in the editions of that text: Isa. 40:3 LXX (editions) φωνὴ βοῶντος ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ Ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν· NETS A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God.” 46.  E.g., Agadath Bereschith, ed. S. Buber (Krakau: Josef Fischer, 1902), §68 (p. 133).

110

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

However, the modern editions of the LXX are misleading. It would be equally possible to read the LXX as: (reconstr.) φωνὴ βοῶντος· ᾽Eν τῇ ἐρήμῳ ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν κυρίου, εὐθείας ποιεῖτε τὰς τρίβους τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν· (reconstr.) A voice of one crying out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God.”

Therefore, it seems that the standard editions of the LXX have been adapted to the division of the New Testament, since the ancient manuscripts of the LXX present a running text without interpunction and capital letters.47 Likewise, both the editions and manuscripts of the Vulgate present a running text. Incidentally, the New Testament utterance became famous and among other things is reflected in the motto of Dartmouth College, founded in 1769: Vox clamantis in deserto. The text of the ancient Hebrew manuscripts was not divided into verses, as that division was part of the oral tradition and only in the early Middle Ages were the verse numbers added on the basis of the cantillation marks (musical signs) that were part of the traditional Hebrew text. The only place in the ancient Hebrew biblical manuscripts in which several verse divisions were indicated, it so happens, is in an Isaiah scroll. While occasional spaces at the ends of verses in 4QDana are unconvincing, the conglomeration of such possible verse divisions in 1QIsaa shows a definite design.48 Spaces were indicated between verses in Isa. 50:1-11 (XLI 29–XLII 13), larger than elsewhere between verses (after vv. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9).49 The reason for the conglomeration of verse breaks in this pericope is unclear, but since this practice pertains to a very small part of 1QIsaa, it cannot be taken as proof for the indication of verses elsewhere in this scroll.

47.  Codices A, B, and S have a running text without any interpunction, but in codex S a high dot has been added secondarily after the last letter of ἐρήμῳ. Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam Vulgatam versionem ad codicum fidem…, XIII, Isaias (Rome: Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, 1969); R. Weber, Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1975): Vox clamantis in deserto parate viam Domini rectas facite in solitudine semitas Dei nostri. 48.  For a discussion, see E. Tov, Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert, STDJ 54 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 138. 49.  Further, two closed sections are indicated in the middle of v. 2.



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The division into larger sense units (open paragraph [parashah petuhah] and closed paragraph [parashah setumah] in the traditional Masoretic terminology) likewise depends on content exegesis by early scribes and therefore differs in all sources. Much research has been devoted to this topic, including a monograph on the divisions of 1QIsaa.50 The comparison between the divisions in ancient biblical manuscripts and the medieval manuscripts of the MT shows different tendencies. Some ancient scrolls have fewer section units than their medieval counterparts. Thus, 1QIsaa and 4QSama present only 70–80 percent of the section units of the medieval manuscripts of the MT, and 1QIsab only 56 percent of the sections of the MT. In other cases, the ancient scroll has more sections than the medieval texts; thus, 4QpaleoExodm and 4QNumb have more sections than MT, also in the middle of verses, in the latter case 20 percent more. Further, 1QIsaa and 1QIsa­b differ among themselves.51 Scholars have attempted to pinpoint the rules guiding the scribes in indicating sense divisions. According to Steck, the system of section divisions and paragraphoi in 1QIsaa is internally consistent, a conclusion which is highly debatable.52 Both Steck and Olley list the phrases occurring at the beginnings of new sections, such as ‫“( כ(ו)ה אמר יהוה‬thus says the Lord”) appearing after a closed or open section (e.g. VI 21 [Isa. 7:7]). However, not all these phrases start new sections, and conversely not all new prophecies or units start with an easily recognizable phrase. One therefore wonders about the validity of such a listing. It seems that content analysis made the scribe realize that a new section (prophecy) started at a particular point, and that certain phrases may have aided him in reaching his decision.

50.  O. H. Steck, Die erste Jesajarolle von Qumran (1QIsa): Schreibweise als Leseanleitung für ein Prophetenbuch, SBS 173/1 (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1998). 51.  The overall number of differences between 1QIsaa and 1QIsab has been tabulated by J. W. Olley, “ ‘Hear the Word of YHWH’: The Structure of the Book of Isaiah in 1QIsaa,” VT 43 (1993): 19–49 (24–5), and analyzed by O. H. Steck, “Bemerkungen zur Abschnittgliederung in den Jesaja-Handschriften aus der Wüste Juda,” in Die Textfunde vom Toten Meer und der Text der Hebräischen Bibel, ed. U. Dahmen et al. (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2000), 51–88 (71–2). 52.  O. H. Steck, “Abschnittgliederung,” 53; idem, “Sachliche Akzente in der Para­graphos-Gliederung des Jesajatextes von 1QIsa,” in Qumran kontrovers—Beiträge zu den Textfunden vom Toten Meer, ed. J. Frey and H. Stegemann, Einblicke–Ergebnisse–Berichte–Reflexionen aus Tagungen der Katholischen Akademie Schwerte 6 (Paderborn: Bonifatius, 2003), 147–56 (150).

112

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

A good example of content exegesis by an early scribe is the internal division of the text of 8:1–9:3 in 1QIsaa, presented here in English according to the NRSV translation. This understanding differs in details from that of the medieval text of the MT. Table 1 Sense divisions in 1QIsaa in Isa. 8:1–9:3 (P = open paragraph [major division], S = closed paragraph [minor division]) Then the Lord said to me, Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, “Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz,” 2 and have it attested for me by reliable witnesses, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah. 3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. S Then the Lord said to me, Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for before the child knows how to call “My father” or “My mother,” the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria. P 5 The Lord spoke to me again: 6 Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and melt in fear before Rezin and the son of Remaliah; 7 therefore, the Lord is bringing up against it the mighty flood waters of the River, the king of Assyria and all his glory; it will rise above all its channels and overflow all its banks; 8 it will sweep on into Judah as a flood, and, pouring over, it will reach up to the neck; and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel. P 9 Band together, you peoples, and be dismayed; listen, all you far countries; gird yourselves and be dismayed; gird yourselves and be dismayed! P 10 Take counsel together, but it shall be brought to naught; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. P 11 For the Lord spoke thus to me while his hand was strong upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: 12 Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread 13 of the Lord of hosts, S Him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14 He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over—a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15 And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken. S 16 Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. 18 See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. P 19 Now if people say to you, “Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and mutter; should not a people consult their gods, the dead on behalf of the living, 20 for teaching and for instruction?” Surely, those who 8:1



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speak like this will have no dawn! 21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry; when they are hungry, S they will be enraged and will curse their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward, 22 or they will look to the earth, but will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness. 23 [ET 9:1] But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. S In the former time S he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 9:1 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them light has shined. S 2 You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. S 3 For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. S

This segment is subdivided into several small paragraphs in 1QIsaa, more than most other chapters, which shows the exegetical nature of these divisions. Chapter 8 starts off after an open section at the end of ch. 7, but does not end with an open section as it draws 9:1 to the last paragraph of ch. 8. Situations like these are expected since the modern chapter division derives from the Middle Ages. The first prophecy of Maher-shalal-hash-baz in vv. 1-4 naturally ends with an open paragraph in 1QIsaa and codex Leningrad (L). The second prophecy about the waters of Shiloah and the Euphrates in vv. 5-8, likewise ends with an open paragraph in 1QIsaa and codex L. It is difficult to assess the next two verses, 9-10. In the scroll they reflect two separate units, both ending with an open section, while in the MT (codex L) they comprise one paragraph (“God is with us”). The fourth prophecy, about God as conspirator (vv. 11-15), ends with a closed paragraph in 1QIsaa and codex L. In the middle of the pericope that scroll has an additional break, S, in an exceptional place after the first words of what is v. 13 in the MT. In my view, the division of the scroll reflects a misunderstanding. First the MT: Isa. 8:12 MT “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread” Isa. 8:13 MT “The Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread”

114

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Isa. 8:12 1QIsaa “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread of the Lord of hosts vacat” Isa. 8:13 1QIsaa “Him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread”

Verse 12 ends with ‫לוא תיראו ולוא תעריצו‬, “do not fear or be in dread,” while the next verse starts with a new statement, ‫את יהוה צבאות אותו‬ ‫תקדישו‬, “the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy.” Somehow the scribe made a wrong connection, linking the words “the Lord of hosts” with the preceding words, “or be in dread” (8:12). He then left a space, and started what is v. 13 in the MT. The scribe’s understanding of the context is unique among the textual witnesses. More than anything else, this added sense division shows the subjective nature of the spacing system. The fifth paragraph, vv. 16-18 forms a prose epilogue to these prophecies, ending with an open paragraph (a small space at the end of the line followed by an indentation in the next line, also indicated by a paragraphos, a dividing line). The sixth paragraph, vv. 19-23 (about consulting spirits), contains three fragmentary thoughts, continued in the scroll by 9:1. The scroll probably treats this unit as composed of two segments, vv. 19-21a (ending with an S) and 8:21b–9:1, likewise ending with an S after 9:1. In this regard the scroll differs completely from codex L, since L has no break between 8:19 and 9:6. Both the scroll and the MT (codex L) have no break at the end of ch. 8, presenting a continuous text. The same continuous text is also reflected in Matt. 4:15-16. (Matthew quotes “the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali” of 8:23 and “The people who walked in darkness” of 9:1 as one unit, different from the present chapter division.) Not all elements of the sense divisions are understandable, since in an unusual way the scroll marks two words in v. 23 as a separate unit, ‫“( כעת הרישון‬In the former time”), surrounded by spaces. 1QIsaa thus shares elements with other traditions, but also goes its own way. Exegetical elements are found not only in the words themselves, but also in the connections between the words. See Table 2:



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Table 2 Sense divisions in Isaiah 8:1–9:6 1QIsaa after 7:23 8:2 8:3 8:4 8:8 8:9 8,10 8:“12” 8:15 8:18 8:21a 8:23a 9:1 9:2 9:3 9:4 9:6

Division in 1QIsaa P P P P P S S P S S, S? S S S S P

L P P P P S S S

8. Exegesis and Theology in the Septuagint Exegetical elements are more easily detectable in the LXX than in Hebrew sources. Furthermore, the Greek translation of this book contains more exegesis than most LXX books.53 This is a book that invites exegesis, but also books that seemingly do not present much food for thought in that area, such as 1 Kings, drew much theological exegesis.54 The translator of a prophetical book realizes that the book he is translating speaks about a period different from his own, but some translators will adapt the prophet’s sayings occasionally to their own time. This tendency may also be phrased in such a way that the translator sensed that the prophecies of Isaiah would be fulfilled in his time, as may be illustrated with a few examples.55 53.  At the same time, the historical chapters in that book are rendered in a more literal fashion, see M. S. Hurwitz, “The Septuagint of Isaiah 36–39 in Relation to That of 1–35, 40–66,” HUCA 28 (1957): 75–83 54.  See especially I. L. Seeligmann, The Septuagint Version of Isaiah (Leiden: Brill, 1948), 95–120. 55.  Seeligmann, Isaiah, 4: “This translation, in fact, is almost the only one among the various parts of the Septuagint which repeatedly reflects contemporary history… [T]hose places where the paraphrase of the text contains allusions to events happening

116

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Isa. 9:11 MT NRSV LXX NETS

‫ארם מקדם ופלשׁתים מאחור ויאכלו את־ישׂראל בכל פה‬ “the Arameans from the east and the Philistines from the west and they devoured Israel with open mouth” Συρίαν ἀφ᾿ ἡλίου ἀνατολῶν καὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας ἀφ᾿ ἡλίου δυσμῶν τοὺς κατεσθίοντας τὸν Ισραηλ ὅλῳ τῷ στόματι “Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun—those who devour Israel with open month”

In this verse, the enemies of the time of the prophet Isaiah (Aram in the north-east and the Philistines in the south-west) were replaced in the LXX with those of the translator’s time. The equivalents chosen are intentional, since elsewhere in the LXX of Isaiah ‫ ארם‬is rendered differently: Αραμ, “Aram” (7:1, 2, 5, 8), and τῶν Σύρων, “the Syrians” (17:3).56 This is also the only place in the LXX where “Philistines” is rendered with Ἕλληνας, “Greeks.” These equivalents show that the translator of Isa. 9:11 referred to the enemies of his time, the Seleucid Empire in Syria, and the Hellenistic coastal cities in the west. In many ways this approach resembles that of the Qumran exegetical pesharim and the New Testament exegesis of the Old Testament. Isa. 46:1 MT NRSV LXX NETS

‫כרע בל קרס נבו‬ “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops” Ἔπεσε Βηλ, συνετρίβη Δαγων “Bel has fallen; Dagon has been crushed”

The gods of the Babylonians are described in this satirical description as fleeing from the invading Cyrus. While in the MT they are named Bel and Nebo, in the Greek translation they are presented as Βηλ and Δαγων, “Dagon.” The equivalent Nebo—Δαγων, “Dagon”—is unusual, since Δαγων usually represents ‫דגון‬, “Dagon,” and ‫נבו‬, “Nebo,” is usually represented by Ναβαυ or Ναβου (including Isa. 15:2). The translation of in the more or less immediate neighbourhood of the translator’s place of residence give one a surprising image of the translator’s notion that the period in which he lived was the time for the fulfillment of ancient prophecies, and of his efforts to contemporize the old biblical text and revive it by inspiriting it with the religious conceptions of a new age.” See the analysis in Seeligmann, Isaiah, 83–6. 56.  Συρία is the main rendering of ‫ ארם‬elsewhere in the LXX. For an analysis of this verse, see R. L. Troxel, “What’s in a Name? Contemporization and Toponyms in LXX-Isaiah,” in Seeking Out the Wisdom of the Ancients: Essays Offered to Honor Michael V. Fox on the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. R. L. Troxel et al. (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2005), 327–44 (331–2).



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117

this verse thus shows that the translator made a special effort to embed his exegesis in the translation. Bel Marduk was revered together with his first-born Nabu as in the MT. However, the translator may have known Dagon as a Babylonian deity alongside Bel Marduk, and against this background he may have contemporized the translation, although the full exegetical picture is unclear. Isa. 37:38 MT JPS NETS

‫והמה נמלטו ארץ אררט‬ “They fled to the land of Ararat” “…but they escaped into Armenia”

Upon killing their father Sennacherib, his sons fled to Ararat. The exegetical process of identifying Ararat with Armenia, not reflected elsewhere in the LXX, but quoted by Josephus, reflects contemporary exegesis.57 Isa. 27:12 MT LXX

‫נחל מצרים‬ “the Wadi of Egypt” ῾Ρινοκορούρων “Rhinocorura”58

Everywhere else in the LXX, the term naḥal (“wadi, torrent”) is rendered by one of its stereotyped renderings, such as φάραγξ, ποταμός, or χείμαρρος. On the other hand, the translator of Isaiah contemporized the term as Rhinocorura (literally: “the Place of the Mutilated Noses”), the main border town between Egypt and Syria in Hellenistic times, known today as al-Arish.59 57.  In Gen. 8:4; 2 Kgs 19:37; Jer. 51 (28):27, Ararat is transcribed as Αραράτ. See Josephus, Ant. 1.3.6 §93, quoting from “Berosus the Chaldean.” This identification is found in Gen 8:4 in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. See Seeligmann, Isaiah, 77–8. 58.  MT: “And in that day, the Lord will beat out the peoples like grain from the channel of the Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt”; LXX: “And it shall be on that day that the Lord will fence them in from the channel of the river to Rhinocorura.” 59.  The town is named after the cutting of the noses of criminals. See P. Figueras, “The Road Linking Palestine and Egypt along the Sinai Coast,” in The Madaba Map Centenary 1897–1997: Travelling through the Byzantine Umayyad Period: Proceedings of the International Conference Held in Amman, 7–9 April 1997, ed. M. Piccirillo and E. Alliata, SBF Collectio Maior 40 (Jerusalem, 1999), 223; idem, http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/mad/articles/FiguerasSinai.html. See also J. Ziegler, Untersuchungen zur Septuaginta des Buches Isaias, ATA XII.3 (Münster i. W.: Verlag der Aschendorffischen Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1934), 203.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

The number of contemporizing renderings is probably limited, but they are there. Troxel points out that the greater part of the translation was not contemporized.60 Turning now to other theological patterns in Isaiah, the Greek translation does not reflect a single theological pattern, but several tendencies.61 a. The translator of Isaiah frequently used δόξα, “glory,” not only as the standard translation of ‫כבוד‬, “honor, glory,” but also as an equivalent of several other words, especially with reference to God: ‫חסד‬, ‫הוד‬, ‫עז‬, ‫תפארת‬, ‫און‬, ‫גאות‬, ‫( הדר‬loving-kindness, splendor, might, beauty, strength, pride, majesty). He even inserted it in the translation against his Hebrew source, for example: Isa. 6:1 MT NRSV LXX NETS

‫ושוליו מלאים את ההיכל‬ “and the hem of his robe filled the temple” καὶ πλήρης ὁ οἶκος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ “and the house was full of his glory”

For this translator, δόξα, “glory,” thus serves as one of the central characteristics of God.62 This translation is intentional and it is unlikely that the translator did not know this word.63 b. The idea that God brings σωτήριον, “salvation,” referring particularly to salvation from the exile, has often been inserted into the LXX against its Hebrew source text. For example:

60.  Troxel, LXX-Isaiah, 173–99. For a later study, see J. R. Wagner, Reading the Sealed Book: Old Greek Isaiah and the Problem of Septuagint Hermeneutics (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2013). 61.  For a description of this translator’s theological inclinations, see Seeligmann, Isaiah, 95–121 (‘The translation as a document of Jewish-Alexandrian theology’), and A. van der Kooij, “Zur Theologie des Jesajabuches in der Septuaginta,” in Theologische Probleme der Septuaginta und der hellenistischen Hermeneutik, ed. H. Graf von Reventlow, Veröffentlichungen der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft für Theologie 11 (Gütersloh: Chr. Kaiser, 1997), 9–25. 62.  See L. H. Brockington, “The Greek Translator of Isaiah and His Interest in δόξα,” VT 1 (1951): 23–32. 63.  The word is rendered correctly, though in different ways, in the tabernacle chapters in Exodus (5×) and elsewhere (Jer. 13:22, 26; Nah. 3:5; Lam. 1:9).



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119

‫לא אראה יה יה בארץ החים‬ “I shall not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living” Οὐκέτι μὴ ἴδω τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς “No longer shall I see the salvation of God on the earth”

The “viewing of the Lord” was expressed in more practical terms in the LXX as the “viewing of the salvation of the Lord.” Possibly this is an anti-anthropomorphic rendering. Isa. 40:5 MT NRSV LXX NETS

(‫וראו כל בשר יחדו (כי פי ה' דבר‬ “and all people shall see it together, (for the mouth of the Lord has spoken)” καὶ ὄψεται πᾶσα σὰρξ τὸ σωτήριον τοῦ θεοῦ “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”

Again, the viewing in a general sense was perceived of as viewing “the salvation of God.” c.

Isa. 5:13 MT NRSV LXX NETS

‫)לכן נגלה עמי) מבלי דעת‬ “(Therefore my people go into exile) without knowledge” (τοίνυν αἰχμάλωτος ὁ λαός μου ἐγενήθη) διὰ τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι αὐτοὺς τὸν κύριον “(Therefore my people have become captive) because they do not know the Lord”

The general reference to “knowing” has been represented by “knowing the Lord.” d. νόμος, “custom, law,” the constant equivalent of ‫תורה‬, “teaching, Law,” must have played a very important part in Jewish Alexandria. It was only natural that the more one talked about the importance and virtues of the νόμος, the more frequently negative aspects of life would be described as opposed to the νόμος. It was recognized long ago by Flashar64 that for the translator of Psalms ἀνομία (“lack of νόμος,” or “lawlessness”) was often

64.  M. Flashar, “Exegetische Studien zum Septuagintapsalter,” ZAW 31 (1912): 81–116, 161–89, 241–68.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

used to designate various forms of transgressions and irreligiousness. Thus, according to this translator all these transgressions constitute sins against the νόμος, “the Law.” A similar trend is visible in Isaiah, for instance, Isa. 57:4, where ‫זרע שקר‬, “offspring of deceit,” is rendered by σπέρμα ἄνομον, “offspring without νόμος,” that is “offspring without the Law, the Torah.” Isa. 57:4 MT NRSV

‫)הלוא אתם ילדי פשׁע) זרע שׁקר‬ “(are you not children of transgression,) the offspring of deceit” LXX (οὐχ ὑμεῖς ἐστε τέκνα ἀπωλείας,) σπέρμα ἄνομον “(are you not children of destruction,) offspring without the Law”

Likewise: Isa. 24:5 MT NRSV LXX NETS

‫והארץ חנפה תחת ישׁביה כי־עברו תורת חלפו חק הפרו ברית עול‬ “The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws (torot) violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant” ἡ δὲ γῆ ἠνόμησεν διὰ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας αὐτήν, διότι παρέβησαν τὸν νόμον καὶ ἤλλαξαν τὰ προστάγματα, διαθήκην αἰώνιον “And the earth behaved lawlessly because of those who inhabit it, because they transgressed the law and changed the ordinances—an everlasting covenant”

e. More than other translators, the Greek translator of Isaiah represented names in his Vorlage with exegetical renderings. This procedure reflects a rather daring intervention by the translator.65 Some of these renderings adapt the historical situation of Hebrew Scripture to a later period as described above (p. 114). Two further examples follow: ‫בשן‬, “Bashan,” and Γαλιλαία, “Galilaia.” In addition to the transliteration Βασαν (Isa. 2:13 and elsewhere in the LXX), ‫בשן‬, “Bashan,” is rendered quite unexpectedly by Γαλιλαία, “Galilaia,” in Isa. 33:9:66

65.  See the analysis by Seeligmann, Isaiah, 76–81. For a valuable subsequent study, see Troxel, “What’s in a Name?” 66.  In Isa. 8:23, Γαλιλαία reflects ‫גליל‬, “Galil.”



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121

‫השׁרון כערבה ונער בשׁן וכרמל‬ “Sharon has become like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare” ἕλη ἐγένετο ὁ Σαρων· φανερὰ ἔσται ἡ Γαλιλαία καὶ ὁ Κάρμηλος “Saron became marshes; Galilee and Carmel will become visible”

The parallel nouns in this verse (Sharon, Carmel) probably influenced the translator into replacing Bashan with a mountain ridge west of the Jordan. Isa. 49:12 MT JPS LXX NETS

‫)הנה־אלה מרחוק יבאו והנה־אלה מצפון ומים) ואלה מארץ סינים‬ “(Look! These are coming from afar, these from the north and the west,) and these from the land of Sinim” ἄλλοι δὲ ἐκ γῆς Περσῶν “…but others from the land of the Persians”

The context of bringing people from a faraway country may have led the translator to refer to the Jewish diaspora.67 The identification of the Sinim remains contested among scholars. 1QIsaa reads ‫סוניים‬, “Suniyim,” which S. Paul explains as referring to the people from Syene (Assuan, near Elephantine), for which compare Ezek. 29:10; 30:6, 15, 16 (‫סוֵ נֵ ה‬, ְ “Sweneh,” in the first two, in the last two “Sin,” ‫)סין‬.68 f. It is often assumed, especially in Catholic circles, that the LXX of Isaiah reflects Messianic exegesis, which implies that such exegesis preceded the writing of the New Testament, for example in such terms as παρθένος, “virgin.” In a bold study, the Catholic scholar Johan Lust expressed the view that the LXX does not reflect such exegesis. “Our reading [of Isa. 7:14] today does not deny that the LXX facilitates a Christological Messianic interpretation, especially with respect to its choice of words, in particular the use of the term παρθένος ‘virgin’ and the future tense of the verbal expression ‘she shall become pregnant.’ On the other hand, it would seem that such a messianic accentuation was not intended by the translator.”69 67.  Seeligmann, Isaiah, 79. 68.  Paul, Isaiah 40—66, 331. LXX: Συήνη in 29:10; 30: 6, 16, and Σάιν in 30:15. 69.  J. Lust, “A Septuagint Christ Preceding Jesus Christ? Messianism in the Septuagint Exemplified in Isa 7,10-17,” in Messianism and the Septuagint: Collected Essays, BETL CLXXVIII (Leuven: University Press, 2004), 211–26 (225).

122

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

Troxel has taught us to consider the translation as basically faithful to the message of the Hebrew, and to consider theologoumena as exceptions rather than the rule.70 That is, the translation is free, but most of the elements of the parent text are transferred to the translation, and therefore the message of the source language is presented to the reader together with the translator’s exegesis.71 It is true that the translator often focused on the δόξα “glory” of God, but he did so especially when he found no better way to represent an unfamiliar word. The translator’s freedom is visible also when he harmonized the translation ad hoc with other verses in the book and elsewhere, particularly the Torah, and especially Deuteronomy 32, as suggested in detail by Koenig. 9. Exegesis and Theology in the Targum Often the Targum is literal, but it also has distinct theological tendencies.72 Thus, in several verses it is stressed that this is a book of “prophecies.”73 See the addition of the words for “prophet” or “prophecy” or the substitution of another word with these words in the following examples: Isa. 1:1 MT ‫חזון ישׁעיהו בן־אמוץ‬ “The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz” T ‫נבואת ישׁעיה בר אמוץ‬ “The prophecy of Isaiah son of Amoz” Isa. 7:10 MT ‫ויוסף יהוה דבר אל־אחז‬ “The Lord spoke further to Ahaz” T ‫ואוסיף נבייא דיוי מליל עם אחז למימר‬ “Then the prophet of the Lord spoke again with Ahaz” 70.  Troxel, LXX-Isaiah. 71.  Troxel, LXX-Isaiah, 73–132. 72.  See especially B. D. Chilton, The Glory of Israel: The Theology and Provenience of the Isaiah Targum, JSOTSup 23 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1982), xi–xii, 6–12; idem, The Isaiah Targum: Introduction, Translation, Apparatus, and Notes, ArBib 11 (Wilmington, DE: Glazier, 1987); idem, “Two in One: Renderings of the Book of Isaiah in Targum Jonathan,” in Broyles and Evans, eds., Writing & Reading, 2:547–62. 73.  Gudrun E. Lier, in Textual History of the Bible, The Hebrew Bible. Vol. 1B, Pentateuch, Former and Latter Prophets, ed. Armin Lange and Emanuel Tov (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 625.



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Isa. 40:1 MT ‫נחמו נחמו עמי‬ “Comfort, O comfort My people” T ‫נבייא אתנבו תנחומין על עמי‬ “O prophets, prophesy consolations concerning my people” This rendering explains the plural form of ‫נחמו‬, “comfort.”

Anthropomorphic terminology is avoided. God is referred to in terms of “word,” ‫מימרא‬, and “divine presence,” ‫שכינתא‬. The term “Messiah” features more in the Targum than in the MT because the Targum made certain Messianic prophecies more explicit than the MT. Thus ‫צמח יהוה‬, “branch of the Lord,” in Isa. 4:2 is rendered as “the Messiah of the Lord.” The “child that has been born” according to Isa. 9:5 has been given several names in the MT, the last one of which is: Isa. 9:5 MT ‫שׂר־שׁלום‬ “Prince of peace” T ‫משׁיחא דשׁלמא יסגי עלנא ביומוהי‬ “The Messiah who will increase peace upon us in his days”

“Holding on to the Torah” has been added occasionally in T. Note the following description of the Messiah: Isa. 9:6 MT ‫לםרבה המשרה‬ “His authority shall grow continually” (NRSV) T ‫סגי רבו לעבדי אוריתא‬ “Much is the greatness for the doers of the Torah” Isa. 53:10 MT ‫וחפץ יהוה בידו יצלח‬ “through him the will of the Lord shall prosper” T ‫ועבדי אוריתא דיוי ברעותיה יצלחון‬ “and those who ‘do’ the Torah of the Lord will succeed by his favor”

124

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

10. Exegesis in the Pesharim The book of Isaiah attracted much exegesis in the course of its transmission, both in Hebrew and the ancient translations. However, the easiest detectable type of exegesis is in the pesharim, the tendentious sectarian documents that explained the Bible in accord with the views of the Essene community. The purpose of these pesharim was to prove that the Scripture books themselves already included the sectarian codes, alluding to issues that pertained to the life of the sect. According to the Qumran sectarians, God had embedded all these codes in particular into the books of the Prophets and Psalms, and they waited to be decoded by the Teacher of Righteousness. Put differently, Scripture was reinterpreted in accord with the views of the Essene community and may often be named actualizing. Similarly the LXX translator reinterpreted several names in Isaiah, adapting the message of Scripture to the readership of the LXX, and the New Testament reinterpreted the Old Testament showing that the Old Testament Prophets foresaw the events described in the New Testament. The sectarian compositions are thus the embodiment of exegetical activity on the Bible text, and theology is in the heart of that activity. Both the pesher literature and the New Testament attest to the continuity of the genius of Isaiah. Although the pesharim differ from one another in several ways, the Isaiah pesharim do not stand out as differing in system from the other ones. The pesharim provide a living tradition in word exegesis and in tendentious sectarian exegesis. It is difficult to know how many separate pesharim the Isaiah fragments represent, possibly no more than two.74 The best preserved pesharim are 4QpIsaa (4Q161) and 4QpIsab (4Q162). Three aspects of the pesharim should be commented upon: a. word exegesis, b. tendentious exegesis, c. underlying text. a. Word Exegesis In addition to tendentious exegesis, the pesher provides explanations of individual words and contexts according to their base meaning. When 74.  Thus G. J. Brooke, “Isaiah in the Pesharim and Other Qumran Texts,” in Broyles and Evans, eds., Writing & Reading, 2:609–32 (618–19).



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explaining the system of the pesher one often bypasses this aspect, focusing instead on tendentious exegesis. The explanation of the base meaning of the word is clad in several forms. For example, Isa. 10:22 ‫“( כליון חרוץ‬destruction is decreed,” NRSV, JPS). These words were explained in 4QpIsaa frgs. 2–4:4 by a parallel word as ‫( ורבים יוב]דו‬and many will perish). Isa. 5:5 ‫“( פרץ גדרו והיה למרמס‬I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down,” NRSV). The figurative language of the prophet was explained in simpler terms in 4QpIsab 1:2 as ‫( פשר הדבר אשר עזבם‬the interpretation of the phrase is that he forsook them). Isa. 10:19 ‫שׁאר עץ יערו מספר יהיו ונער יכתבם‬ “The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.” 4Qpap pIsac frgs. 4–7 ii 8 ‫פשרו למעוט האדם‬ “Its interpretation concerns the diminution (or: the few) of mankind”; cf. ii 18, “its interpretation concerns the diminution ‫פשרו למועט‬.”

The words of Isaiah are not easy to understand, and the brief summary in the pesher helps the reader. The most detailed exegesis of the words and subject matter of an Isaiah text is that of the description of the Messiah of Isa. 11:1–5 in 4QpIsaa frgs. 8–10:11 (Isa. 11:2), “The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,” is explained as ‫ואל יסומכנו ב[ ה]תורה‬, “God will sustain him with[ the] Torah[” (line 18). The description of the Messiah seated in heaven is not detailed in this chapter in Isaiah, but it is in the pesher. Here the Messiah is described as seated on a “th]rone of glory, a ho[ly] crown, and garments of variegat[ed stuff],” ‫כ[סא כבוד נזר ק]ודש[ ובגדי רוקמו]ת‬.75 In this context the pesher also mentions (the land) Magog, home of Gog (Ezek. 38–39). 1QM 11:16 mentions Gog as someone ruled by God in the end of days. In any event, Magog is part of the future activity of the Messiah in this pesher.

75.  The ‫ נזר קודש‬occurs in the tabernacle chapters (Exod. 29:6; 39:30) as well as in Lev. 8:9. For ‫כסא כבוד‬, see 1 Sam. 2:8; Isa. 22:23; Jer. 14:21; 17:12. for ‫בגדי רקמה‬, see Ezek. 16:18; 26:16.

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b. Tendentious Exegesis The wording of the pesharim is permeated with the terminology that is typical of the Qumran sectarian writings. In the beginning of this study we mentioned the term ‫אנשי לצון‬, “scoffers,” that derives directly from the book of Isaiah. Other terms that are used in the Isaiah pesharim are: The doom prophecy in Isa. 30:15-18 is not explained in so many words in the MT, but the pesher says that this prophecy speaks about the dorshe hakhalakot, “the seekers-after-smooth-things,” in Jerusalem: 4Qpap pIsac frg. 23 ii: ‫פשר הדבר לאחרית הימים על עדת ד[ורשי] החלקות אשר בירושלים‬. This term is a code word for the Pharisees, with a pun on their usual activity as dorshe hahalakhot, “those who expound the laws.” The text of Isa. 10:24-27 serves as the lemma for the pesher in 4QpIsaa frgs. 5–6:2–4. The biblical text speaks about the punishment for the Assyrian attackers of Israel which serves as a prophecy of consolation for Israel. In line 2 the pesher speaks about returning from the “wilderness of the nations” (‫)בשובם ממדבר הע[מים‬. The text thus speaks about a future eschatological war of the people, probably the Sons of Light, who stop in this place on their way from the exile to Jerusalem (1QM 1:3; cf. Ezek. 20:35). The next line in the pesher speaks about the ‫נשיא העדה‬, “the prince of the congregation,” who led the army in the future eschatological war. This term (sometimes: ‫נשיא כול העדה‬, “the prince of all the congregation”) recurs in other sectarian texts, such as 1QSb 5:20, 1QM 5:1 and CD 7:20, and the whole context of these lines is thus sectarian, remote from the intentions of Isaiah son of Amoz. Equally sectarian is the continuation of the pesher. In frgs. 8–10:1–2 the biblical text describes the failure of the attack of the Assyrians (Isa. 10:33-34). The sectarian exegesis, however, applies this attack to the enemies of the sect named ‫כתיאים‬, “Kittiim” (line 3), and the ‫גבורי‬ ‫כת]יאים‬, “warriors of the Kittiim” (line 5). These Kittiim are mentioned in several places in the sectarian scrolls, especially in 1QM and 1QpHab, and according to the description of their weaponry in 1QM they are usually conceived of as the Romans. 11. Conclusion In sum, in the last paragraph we discussed the actualizing exegesis of the pesharim, which runs parallel to several types of exegesis in the New Testament and the LXX. Exegesis of Isaiah is an integral part of the reception history of that book. It is individual, subjective, and atomistic, as it reflects the exegesis of one or more individuals who probably considered themselves inspired by the genius of the prophet himself.



Tov  Exegesis and Theology in the Transmission of Isaiah

127

Similar exegesis is reflected in the ancient translations, foremost in the LXX, as well as in variants such as are contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls. When dealing with such a vast area I can only give examples and point to tendencies in the reception history. The exegesis of the book started when its literary composition had been completed, and it is reflected in all textual witnesses, but much less so in the Masoretic Text that was transmitted carefully. None of these witnesses give evidence of an earlier stage of the composition history in which the words of a Second Isaiah were added to those of Isaiah son of Amoz.

I s a i a h , J oh n t h e B a p t i ze r , and J e sus

Dale C. Allison, Jr.

I. John the Baptizer My task is to weigh the debt of John the Baptizer and Jesus to the book of Isaiah. I begin with the Baptist, and I begin with a word of warning. It is this: we know far less about John than one might gather from reading some of the secondary literature about him. Scholars have written countless articles on this enigmatic figure, as well as a number of books, some of them quite lengthy.1 Yet, apart from a passing summary in Josephus (Ant. 18:116-19) and a handful of pertinent sentences in the New Testament, we have very little to go on. Neither Josephus nor any contributor to the New Testament was interested in passing down a protracted, dispassionate summary of John’s proclamation. This means that much of what he was about must be missing. That is not good news for historians. The brief summary descriptions in the canonical Gospels are just that, brief summary descriptions, and we have beyond them at best only a handful of sentences with a claim to reflect things John really said (Matt. 3:7-10, 11-12 = Luke 3:7-9, 16-17 are usually thought to be the best candidates). So unless the Baptist was exceedingly boring and uttered the same words again and again, he must have said much more than what our sources recount. This matters because selection inevitably distorts. I have sometimes wondered whether the few lines we do have are a bit like those annoying mini-synopses of TV shows that appear in newspapers: even when they are strictly true, they leave so much out of account as to be almost useless.

1.  For the most recent reconstruction see Joel Marcus, John the Baptist in History and Theology, SPNT (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2018).



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Despite my introductory warning, I am confident that we can say some important things about John. One of them is that he paid a good deal of attention to Isaiah. Josephus, to be sure, nowhere says this, nor does anything Josephus asserts imply this. It is, however, otherwise with the canonical Gospels. All four of them associate John with Isa. 40:3, which is part of the prologue to Second and Third Isaiah. According to Matt. 3:3, the Baptist was the one Isaiah spoke of when he declared: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Mark 1:3 similarly cites Isa. 40:3 immediately before introducing John, as does Luke 3:4-6, although there the quote from Isaiah 40 is longer and includes not only v. 3 but also vv. 4-5: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” One may further note that Luke 1:17 and 76—which some have thought goes back to traditions from the Baptist movement—allude to Isa. 40:3 in their predictions about John: “he will go before him…to make ready for the Lord a people prepared”; “and you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.”2 Then there is John 1:19-23. Here priests and Levites from Jerusalem ask the Baptist, “Who are you?” He denies that he is the Messiah or Elijah or “the prophet”—presumably the prophet like Moses of Deut. 18:15-18. He affirms rather: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” We have, then, four early Christian sources that associate John with Isaiah 40. The implications of this are disputed. One could claim, as have many, that the association goes back to John himself.3 The Fourth Gospel, after all, has the Baptist quote Isaiah. Moreover, many modern scholars regard John as independent of the other Gospels while still others believe that the quotations of Isaiah in Matthew and Luke derive not from Mark, but from a lost collection of sayings of Jesus—the so-called Q source. And then there are those who see Baptist traditions behind Luke 1.

2.  So, e.g., François Bovon, Luke 1: A Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 1:1–9:50, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002), 37, 68; cf. Carl H. Kraeling, John the Baptist (New York/London: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951), 166–8. See Klyne R. Snodgrass, “Streams of Tradition Emerging from Isaiah 40:1-5 and their Adaptation in the New Testament,” JSNT 8 (1980): 36–7, 38. 3.  So, e.g., James D. G. Dunn, “John the Baptist’s Use of Scripture,” in The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, ed. Craig A. Evans and W. Richard Stegner, JSNTSup 104 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1994), 45–6.

130

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

So we could have three or four independent witnesses—Mark, Q, John, a Baptist tradition—that link the Baptist to Isaiah. Not everyone, however, is persuaded that the author of John’s Gospel was unaware of the other three Gospels. Beyond that, even if one accepts the Q hypothesis, it is far from clear whether the quotations of Isaiah 40 in Matthew and Luke are from the Sayings Source rather than Mark.4 In theory, then, one could urge that Matthew, Luke, and John are after all not independent sources, and that everything hinges upon what one makes of Mark. And perhaps Mark, which seems implicitly to identify the “Lord” of Isa. 40:3 with Jesus, preserves a specifically Christian interpretation of Isa. 40:3; and perhaps the passage came to characterize the Baptist only after his death.5 This was the view of Rudolf Bultmann. He thought that it was only in the minds of the followers of Jesus that Isaiah foretold the Baptist.6 How might one adjudicate this matter, that is, decide whether it was the Baptist or later Christians—or perhaps John’s disciples after he was gone—who first tied his activity to Isaiah?7 My own view is that traditional source criticism will not give us our answer. Although it is clear that much in John is independent of the other Gospels, I am nonetheless inclined to think that the author or authors of the final edition of John had heard one or more of the Synoptics, and I see no way to determine when precisely the association of John with Isaiah entered the Fourth Gospel or its tradition. Again, although the Q hypothesis is to my mind a decent one, it is unclear to me that Q, if it existed, quoted Isaiah 40.

4.  For the debate on this, see John S. Kloppenborg, Q Parallels (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge, 1988), 6. James M. Robinson, Paul Hoffmann, and John S. Kloppenborg. The Critical Edition of Q, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress; Leuven: Peeters, 2000), 6–7, does not include the quotation of Isaiah in its text of Q. 5.  This is the most common reading; for discussion see Joel Marcus, The Way of the Lord: Christological Exegesis of the Old Testament in the Gospel of Mark (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 37–41; Adela Yarbro Collins, Mark: A Commentary, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 137. 6.  Rudolf Bultmann, History of the Synoptic Tradition, rev. ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), 246. Cf. Joachim Gnilka, Jesus of Nazareth: Message and History (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997), 75. Joan E. Taylor, The Immerser: John the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997), 29, also expresses doubt. 7.  In addition to what follows, see Marcus, John the Baptist, Appendix 8, pp. 143–8; also Tucker S. Ferda, “John the Baptist, Isaiah 40, and the Ingathering of the Exiles,” JSHS 10 (2012): 174–86.



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131

There is, nonetheless, a way forward. It involves a close reading of sentences attributed to the Baptist in Matt. 3:7-10 and Luke 3:9-10, a passage which scholars who believe in Q typically assign to that source. I quote Matthew’s form, which differs inconsequently for our purposes from the parallel in Luke: You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

My contention is that these words depend upon a passage in Isaiah and its interpretation within certain Jewish circles. That is, although Isaiah is not here plainly quoted, dependence upon that book and its reception is likely. So if these sentences rightly remember John, the Gospels are likely on target in linking his ministry with the later chapters of Isaiah. Many exegetes through the centuries, when commenting on the words, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham,” have turned to Isa. 51:1-2: “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.” Already in the fourth century, John Chrysostom brought the two texts together. He wrote: the Baptist “reminds them of this prophecy [Isa. 51:1-2], showing that if at the beginning he [God] made him [Abraham] a father, as marvelously as if he had made him so out of stones, it was possible for this now also to come to pass.”8 In the twelfth century, the Syrian bishop and exegete, Dionysius bar Salibi, said something very similar,9 and quite a few others have made the connection, among them Albert the Great, Bonaventure, Hugo Grotius, and Cornelius à Lapide.10 Closer to our own time, Joachim Jeremias urged 8.  John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew 11.3 (PG 57.195). 9.  Dionysius bar Salibi, Commentarii in Evangelia ad loc. (CSCO 77, Scriptores Syri 33, ed. J. Sedlacek and J.-B. Chabot, 151). 10.  Albertus Magnus, Super Mt cap. I–XIV ad loc. (Opera Omnia 21/1, ed. B. Schmidt, p. 73); Bonaventure, Exp. Luc. ad loc. (Opera Omnia 10, ed. A. C. Peltier, p. 288); Grotius, Operum theologicarum, vol. 2, part 1, p. 23; Cornelius à Lapide, The Great Commentary of Cornelius à Lapide, 4 vols., rev. ed. (Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto, 2008), 1:117.

132

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

that the “strange image” of lifeless stones with “the power to bring forth men” is “based on Isaiah 51:1-2, where Abraham is compared with a rock, and his descendants with stones hewn out of the rock.”11 The facts warrant this interpretive verdict. The notion of stones being turned into people is sufficiently startling as to call for some special explanation, and for this Isa. 51:1-2, in which the descendants of father Abraham and of Sarah are hewn and quarried from rock, is to hand. It is true that the image of rocks giving birth to Israel appears also in Deut. 32:18. There, however, God is the originating rock. It is only in Isa. 51:1-2 and in and texts dependent upon those two verses that Abraham is given this metaphorical role.12

11.  Joachim Jeremias, “Lithos, Lithonos,” TDNT 4:271. Like-minded others include Cornelius Jansen, Tetrateuchus sive Commentarius in sancta Jesu Christi Euangelia (Brussels: Francisci t’Serstevens, 1776), 23; Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel of S. Luke, ICC (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1922), 90; M.-J. Lagrange, Évangile selon Saint Luc (Paris: J. Gabalda, 1927), 107; Charles H. H. Scobie, John the Baptist (London: SCM, 1964), 84–5 (“perhaps”); Reinhard Kratz, “Lithos,” EDNT 2:352; Pierre Bonard, LʼÉvangile selon Saint Matthieu, 3rd ed. (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1992), 36; R. Alan Culpepper, “Luke,” NIB (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 9:84; George Wesley Buchanan, The Gospel of Matthew, Volume 1, Book 1 (Lewiston, NY: Mellen Biblical Press, 1996), Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 176; Warren Carter, Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2000), 98; Mogens Müller, Kommentar til Matthaeusevangeliet (Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2000), 115–16. William Dodd, A Commentary on the Books of the Old and New Testament (London: R. Davies, 1770), vol. 3, ad Matt. 3:9, attributes this view to “many.” A smaller number of exegetes have thought rather of the stones in Josh. 4:2-24; see, e.g., Paschasius Radbertus, Exposition of Matthew 2.3 (PG 120:159A-B); Remigius apud Aquinas, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels. Vol. 1, St. Matthew (London: Baronius, 2009), 160; Rupert of Deutz, Commentary on Matthew ad loc. (PL 168:1361A); Erasmus Schmid, Opus sacrum posthumum (Nuremberg: Michaelis Endteri, 1658), 55; Craig A. Evans, “John the Baptist: His Immersion and his Death,” in Dimensions of Baptism: Biblical and Theological Studies, ed. Stanley E. Porter and Anthony R. Cross, JSNTSup 234 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2002), 50–2. This proposal, however, fails to clarify the connection with Abraham, with merit, or with fruit bearing. For the thesis that the word of the Baptist alludes both to Isa. 51:1-2 and Josh. 4:1-9, see Oscar J. F. Seitz, “What Do These Stones Mean?,” JBL 79 (1960): 247–54. 12.  The reference to Abraham is also part of the reason for looking first to Jewish sources rather than to those Greco-Roman tales (such as those about the Gorgons) that recount the metamorphosis of human beings into stone.



Allison  Isaiah, John the Baptizer, and Jesus

133

That the line in Matthew and Luke deliberately alludes to Isa. 51:1-2 is further supported by the recognition that John’s words are an attack on a presumably popular take on the notion of ‫זכות‬, or “merit.” The Gospel text entails that “one cannot…expect inherited zekhut; it has to be earned individually in the present time by each person in his or her own life; only then can s/he truly continue the spirit of Abraham.”13 While commentators have often enough seen this point, they have seemingly been unaware that, in rabbinic texts, the idea of ‫ זכות‬was regularly associated not only with the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also with rocks, stones, and mountains, presumably in reliance upon Isa. 51:1-2.14 Consider these three passages from the Mekilta of Rabbi Ishmael on Exodus: • Amalek 1 on Exod. 17:9: “ ‘Upon the top of the hill’…R. Eleazar of Modi‘im says: ‘Let us declare tomorrow a fast day and be ready, relying upon the deeds of the forefathers. For ‘the top’ refers to the deeds of the fathers and ‘the hill’ refers to the deeds of the mothers.” • Amalek 1 on Exod. 17:10: “ ‘And Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill.’ This bears upon what we have already said above—to make mention of the deeds of the fathers and of the deeds of the mothers, as it is said, ‘For from the top of the crags I see him, and from the hills I behold him’ ” (Num. 23:9). • Amalek 1 on Exod. 17:12: “What did he [Moses] do? He turned to the deeds of the forefathers. For it is said: ‘And they took a stone and put it under him,’ which refers to the deeds of the fathers.” The association of the merit of the patriarchs with rocks, stones, and mountains also appears outside the Mekilta. Here are three samples: • Sifre 353 on Deut. 33:15: this glosses the scriptural words, “and for the precious things of the everlasting hills” with this: “this shows that the patriarchs and matriarchs are called mountains and hills, as it is said: ‘I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense’ ” (Cant. 4:6).

13.  Taylor, The Immerser, 130. See further R. Menahem, “Commentary on the New Testament: A Sample Verse,” Immanuel 21 (1987): 43–54. 14.  See Arnold Marmorstein, The Doctrine of Merits in Old Rabbinical Literature (New York: Ktav, 1968); Peter Egger, Verdienste vor Gott? Der Begriff zekhut im rabbinischen Genesiskommentar Bereshit Rabba, NTOA 43 (Freiburg, CH: Universitätsverlag; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000).

134

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

• y. Sanh. 27d (10:1): “If you see that the merit of the fathers reels, and the merit of the mothers trembles, go and cling to grace. ‘For mountains may reel, and hills tremble.’ ‘For mountains may reel,’ that is the father’s merit, ‘and hills tremble,’ this is the mothers’ merit.” • Targum Neofiti 1 on Num. 23:9: this interprets “For from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him” with reference to the merits of the patriarchs and matriarchs: “For I see this people being led and coming for the merits of the just fathers who are comparable to the mountains, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and for the merits of the just mothers who are comparable to the hills, Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah.” It would be easy to cite more rabbinic texts.15 But the point for us is twofold. First, the link between rocks, mountains, stones, and merit was evidently made because, in Isa. 51:1-2, Abraham and Sarah, whose merit was so great, are, respectively, the rock from which God’s people were hewn and the quarry from which they were dug; and one is to “look to them,” presumably for some encouragement or benefit.16 Second, the words of the Baptist sound very much like a rejection of what one finds in the rabbis. According to the latter, in the past God raised up, from the rock that is Abraham, children to Abraham, and they benefit from his merit. But

15.  See, e.g., b. Roš Haššanah 11a (“leaping upon the mountains” [Mic. 6:2] means “for the merit of the patriarchs” and “skipping upon the hills” [ibid.] means “for the merit of the matriarchs”); the Mekilta of Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai 44:3 on Exod. 17:12 (“ ‘they took a stone and put it under him’… This refers to the deeds of the fathers”); the Fragment Targum P V on Gen. 49:26; Targums Neofiti 1 and Ps.-Jonathan on Num. 23:9 (“the merits of the fathers…who are comparable to the mountains”); Targums Neofiti 1 and Pseudo-Jonathan on Deut. 33:15 (see below); and the Targum on Cant. 2:8 (“for the sake of the merits of their fathers, who are like the mountains”). 16.  See N. A. van Uchelen, “The Targumic Versions of Deuteronomy 33:15: Some Remarks on the Origin of a Traditional Exegesis,” JJS 31 (1980): 199. The exegetical presupposition is explicit in multiple sources; cf. Tanḥuma Buber Wayyera 4:23 (“there is no rock but Abraham, as it is said, ‘Look to the rock from whence you were hewn”); Pequde 11:5 (“their rock” in Deut. 32:30 “can only be their father Abraham, since it is stated, ‘Look to the rock from whence you were hewn’ ”); Exod. Rab. 15:4, 7, 26; 28:2; Num. Rab. 20:12; the Midrash on the Ps. 52:8 (“Abraham is your father, as it is said, ‘Look to the rock when you were hewn;’ the rock is Abraham, for in the next verse it is said, ‘Look to Abraham your father’ ”); 53:2 (Abraham “is the rock of whom it is said, ‘Look to the rock when you were hewn’ ”). Outside of Isaiah, the image of a rock is rather associated with God.



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135

according to the former, in the future God can raise up, from the stones on the ground, children to Abraham, and individual Israelites are not rescued by their ancestor’s merit. Now one may object that it is hazardous to interpret the New Testament in the light of rabbinic sources. But several things can be said on the particular matter at hand. One is that I have quoted from the Mekilta of Rabbi Ishmael and from Sifre, both of which are Tannaitic, and both of which contain much early material. Furthermore, neither introduces the association of the patriarchs and their merit with rocks, stones, or mountains as though it were new. They rather pass on an exegetical convention. Another consideration is that, in a case such as this, one fails to see why the New Testament itself is not evidence that what we find in the early rabbinic literature, or something closely related to it, was already known in pre-Mishnaic times. If the Baptist rejects a conviction that shows up in the rabbinic sources, is this not evidence that it was already known by the first century CE? If you will allow me this much, I should like to go one step further. I believe that the biblical background of John’s saying about Abraham may be further clarified. Let me begin by citing two targumic texts (whose dates cannot be precisely determined). The first is Targum Neofiti 1 on Deut. 33:15. This speaks of a land “producing good fruits by the merits of our fathers, who are like the rocks, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by the merits of the mothers, who are like the hills, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah.” Very close to this is Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Deut. 33:14-15: “And from the abundance of fine fruits and produce that his [Joseph’s] land ripens by the gift of the sun, and from the abundance of the first fruits of the trees that his land produces at the beginning of each and every month, and from the abundance of the mountain tops, the birthright that the blessing of the fathers, who resemble the rocks, caused him [the tribe of Joseph] to inherit, and from the abundance of the heights whose produce never ceases that the blessing of the matriarchs from eternity, who resemble the hills.” Both of these targumic texts not only concern the merit of the fathers, name Abraham, and associate him with rocks— they also refer to bearing fruit. This is so intriguing because, in Matthew 3 and Luke 3, John’s warning about reliance upon Abraham is immediately preceded by the demand to bear fruit and immediately followed by a warning about the consequences of not bearing fruit: “Bear fruit that befits repentance…every tree…that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” John is saying: you must yourselves bear fruit; Abraham cannot do that for you.

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How does one explain the fact that both the Baptist and the targums on Deuteronomy add fruit bearing to the complex of motifs we have been contemplating? Here the Qumran scrolls found near the Dead Sea come to our aid. The Masoretic Text of Isa. 51:1-2 has this: “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.” But the famous Isaiah scroll from Cave 1, 1QIsaiaha, does not have “and I blessed him” (‫)ואברכהו‬. It rather has: “and I made him fruitful” (‫)ואפרהו‬. Here then, in a Qumran version of Isaiah, we have the building blocks for the tradition common to the Baptist in the New Testament and the targums on Deuteronomy. In 1QIsaiaha, the children of Abraham come from a rock, there is fruit-bearing, and there is the call to “look to Abraham,” which implies gaining some benefit from doing so. And all of this is indisputably pre-Christian. The upshot of my discussion so far is that, in Matthew and Luke, the Baptist not only provocatively alludes to Isa. 51:1-2 as a foil to call his hearers to repentance, but sets himself against some people’s understanding or use of that passage and its equation of Abraham with a rock. John denies that being hewn from Abraham, the rock, will guarantee personal deliverance. One cannot rely upon another’s merit. One must rather bear fruit befitting repentance. If all this is correct, then it is not just the formal quotation of Isa. 40:3 that associates the Baptist with Second Isaiah. We also appear to have, in the very few extant sentences attributed to him, interaction with Isa. 51:1-2 and with its interpretation in some Jewish circles. This should not surprise. If the Baptist paid any attention to Scripture at all—and what religious Jew did not?—we would expect him to know Isaiah. This follows simply from its popularity in early Judaism. According to James C. VanderKam, among the Qumran scrolls “the book of Psalms is present in the largest number of copies (36), with the next two being Deuteronomy (29) and Isaiah (21).”17 As for the Pseudepigrapha, the index of scriptural references at the end of Sparks’s Apocryphal Old Testament gives first place to Genesis and second place to Isaiah.18 In Delamarter’s scriptural index to Charlesworth’s collection of the Pseudepigrapha, Isaiah comes 17.  James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 30–2; cf. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism, the Background of Christianity, the Lost Library of Qumran (Philadelphia/Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society, 1994), 163. 18.  H. F. D. Sparks, ed., The Apocryphal Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1984), 967–9.



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behind only Genesis, Psalms, and Exodus.19 In Lange and Weigold’s compilation of biblical quotations and allusions in Second Temple Jewish literature, the entries for Isaiah trail only Deuteronomy and the Psalms, and that not by much.20 The most frequently cited books in the Loeb edition of Philo are, after the Pentateuchal books, Psalms, 1 Samuel, and Isaiah. The list of biblical passages at the end of Montefiore and Loewe’s Rabbinic Anthology shows this order: the Psalms, then Deuteronomy, then Isaiah.21 It is true that the index of scriptural citations at the end of Danby’s Mishnah lists more entries for Proverbs than for Isaiah, but that result is skewed by the inordinate interest tractate ʼAbot has in Proverbs (19 out of the 31 of the Mishnah’s quotations appear in Mishnah ʼAbot).22 Isaiah beats Proverbs in the indices to the Soncino editions of the Babylonian Talmud and Midrash Rabbah, and in both collections the most cited portion of Scripture is the Pentateuch followed by the Psalms and then Isaiah.23 Finally, since most of the authors of the New Testament were Jews, it is quite pertinent that, after the Psalms, the biblical book they cite and allude to and name most often is Isaiah.24 In line with all the statistics is the presentation of Isaiah in Ecclesiasticus.25 Ben Sira mentions other writing prophets—Jeremiah in 49:6, Ezekiel in 49:8—but he pays the most attention to Isaiah. In his famous “Hymn to the Fathers,” Isaiah is not only mentioned in the summary report of King Hezekiah, but the prophet and his prophecies merit a section of their own. It includes these words: “By his dauntless spirit he saw the future, and comforted the mourners in Zion. He revealed what was to occur to the end of time, and the hidden things before they happened” (see 48:20-25). 19.  Steve Delamarter, A Scripture Index to Charlesworth’s The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (London/New York: Sheffield Academic, 2002). 20.  Armin Lange and Matthias Weigold, Biblical Quotations and Allusions in Second Temple Jewish Literature, JAJSup 5 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011). 21.  C. G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology (New York: Schocken, 1974), 746–52. 22.  Herbert Danby, The Mishnah (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933), 807–11. 23.  Babylonian Talmud: Index Volume, ed. I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1952), 473–620; Midrash Rabbah: Index Volume, ed. Judah J. Slotki (London: Soncino, 1939), 139–322. 24.  The New Testament names Isaiah 22/23 times, Jonah 9 times (all in the synoptic text about the sign of Jonah), Jeremiah 3 times, Zechariah 2 times (probably), Daniel 1 time, Joel 1 time. None of the other prophets are mentioned by name. 25.  I thank Albert Baumgarten for this observation, in response to an oral presen�tation of the present chapter.

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Three final, brief points about John before moving on to Jesus. First, the proclamation of John, as Matthew and Luke present it, has an eschatological focus. It is about judgment. It is about repentance before the coming wrath. And it is about an eschatological figure who will baptize with fire. All of this matters because, of the more popular books in the Hebrew Bible—Genesis, Exodus, the Psalms, Isaiah—it is Isaiah that has by far the most eschatological material. So it is all but impossible to imagine an ancient Jew with a strong eschatological orientation who did not pay keen attention to Isaiah. Second, Matthew and Luke attribute a saying to Jesus which assumes that the Baptist knew Isaiah pretty well. I refer to Matt. 11:2-6 and Luke 7:18-23. I quote Matthew’s version: Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.”

This is not the place for a careful analysis of this text. What matters for us is that, as the commentators recognize, Jesus’ answer is largely a series of allusions to Isaiah (see Isa. 26:19; 29:18; 35:5-6; 42:7, 18; 61:1).26 For instance, “the poor have good news preached to them” is a clear reference to Isa. 61:1: “the Lord has…sent me to bring good news to the poor.” The implicit logic of the passage then is this: Question Answer Recognition Conclusion

Is Jesus the coming one? The blind see, the lame walk, etc. These deeds were prophesied by Isaiah Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy

In other words, understanding Jesus’ answer requires knowing Isaiah. So whoever drew up this list—and to my mind Jesus is as good a candidate as anyone—presupposed that the Baptist was sufficiently acquainted with Isaiah that he could recognize allusions to it. Third and finally, we should not forget, when evaluating John, the number of intriguing links between Qumran and the traditions about him. Some have thought these suffice to indicate that the Baptist at one time 26.  See further Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Intertextual Jesus: Scripture in Q (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 2000), 109–14.



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lived at Qumran. They may well be right: the evidence seems more than suggestive.27 Yet, whatever one makes of that issue, it is indisputable that the sectarians, who like John had an eschatological outlook, made a great deal of Isa. 40:3, the text all four Evangelists use to characterize John. The sectarians literally went to the desert to prepare the way of the Lord.28 For them, Isa. 40:3 was programmatic. Moreover, 4Q213a (4QAramaic Levib) contains a line that joins a creative use of Isa. 40:3 with what appears to be a reference to ritual immersion: “I washed myself completely in living water and all my paths I made straight.”29 Surely all of this ups the odds that a first-century eschatological prophet such as the Baptist might have read himself and his ministry of baptism into Isaiah 40 and the following chapters. I opened by cautioning that we know less about the Baptist than scholars typically care to admit. We regrettably have only a few snapshots and a few snippets of speech. If, however, the previous pages come near their target, we know one thing with a decent degree of probability: John engaged the prophet Isaiah. To what extent he directed his attention to other biblical or prophetic books, we do not know. Some have urged that some scriptural lines from outside of Isaiah may be in the background of certain passages describing and quoting John.30 But the fact remains: the one text explicitly cited comes from Second Isaiah, and the clearest allusion comes also from Second Isaiah.31 II. Jesus But what then of Jesus? Here we enter the so-called quest for the historical Jesus, which is strewn with controversy at every turn. I propose to do two things herein. First, I shall outline how one can make the case that Jesus, 27.  See further James H. Charlesworth, “John the Baptizer and Qumran Barriers in Light of The Rule of the Community,” in The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New Texts, and Reformulated Issues, ed. Donald W. Parry and Eugene Ulrich, STDJ 30 (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 353–75; Marcus, John the Baptist, 27–45. 28.  See 1QS 8:12-16; cf. 9:19-20; 4Q176. 29.  See Michael E. Stone and Jonas C. Greenfield, “The Prayer of Levi,” JBL 112 (1993): 247–66. They reconstruct the Aramaic of the Qumran fragments with the help of the Greek ms., Athos, Monastery of Koutloumous, Cod. 39 (catal. no. 3108), from the eleventh century. 30.  For details see Dunn, “John the Baptist’s Use of Scripture,” 42–54. 31.  To what extent other scriptural sources influenced John, we cannot know. The sources for his proclamation and ministry are too meager.

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like the Baptist, had a lively interest in the book of Isaiah. Second, I shall offer a suggestion about the relationship between Isaiah and Jesus’ brand of eschatology. My initial argument, that Isaiah greatly influenced Jesus, develops in three steps. The first step is to claim for Jesus what I claimed for John, namely, that we would anticipate, given the popularity of Isaiah, that a religious Jew such as Jesus—and if Jesus was anything he was a religious Jew—would be familiar with that book; and, beyond that, likely attracted to it if, as the sources indicate, he was much taken with eschatological subjects. The alternative—that Isaiah had little or no impact upon the eschatologically oriented Jesus—is hard to imagine. The second step is to observe that if Isaiah was a major influence upon John, we might reasonably expect it to be an influence upon someone he inspired. Now Jesus reportedly submitted to John’s baptism, which implies endorsement. In addition, the Synoptics have Jesus praise John in several places.32 Indeed, they have him speaking more of the Baptist than of any figure in the Hebrew Bible and attribute to him the claim—perhaps hyperbolic yet still astounding—that “among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptizer” (Matt. 11:11; Luke 7:28). It is hard not to presume considerable religious concord between the two men. The third step is more concrete. The sources have Jesus citing and alluding to Isaiah on multiple occasions. Luke 4:16-30 has him quote Isa. 61:1-2 and claim its fulfillment in his own ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Then there is Matt. 11:2-6 and Luke 7:18-23, where Jesus responds to the Baptist’s question about his identity. As we have already seen, his words here clearly allude to Isaiah, including the passage he quotes in Luke 4:1-30: “the poor have good news preached to them.” Matthew’s version of the beatitudes likewise adverts to Isaiah 61 and so offers more of the same: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” takes up the language of Isa. 61:2, “the Lord has anointed me…to comfort all who mourn.” When we come to Mark, we find Jesus, when he is in the temple, quoting Isa. 56:7: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’?” (Mark 11:17). We also find him, in Mark 9:48, borrowing from Isa. 66:24 when he warns that the 32.  Matt. 11:7-19 = Luke 7:24-35 (Q); Luke 16:16; Mark 11:27-33; Matt. 11:1415; 21:28-32; Gos. Thom. 46. The argument is all the stronger if John’s Gospel is right in asserting that Jesus himself followed John’s precedent and baptized (3:22).



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worm in Gehenna does not die; and we find him likely alluding to Isaiah’s suffering servant when, in Mark 10:45 and 14:24, he speaks of his death as being “for many.”33 John’s Gospel is no different. In 6:45, Jesus quotes Isa. 54:13—“And they shall all be taught by God”—and in 16:22—“I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice”—he rewrites Isa. 66:14: “You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice.” Although there is more evidence to muster,34 I need not belabor any further the obvious, which is that we have a pattern here. In Mark, in Q, in material unique to Matthew, in material unique to Luke, and in material unique to John, Jesus quotes from and/or alludes to passages in Second and Third Isaiah. Now one could of course play the skeptic and urge that every Gospel text that draws upon Isaiah derives not from Jesus but from the church; and I admit that I do not know how to demonstrate that any of the relevant verses go back to Jesus. That sort of proof is, in my opinion, a much harder task than many New Testament scholars are prepared to concede.35 Nonetheless, I equally see no way to establish that they were all authored by people other than Jesus; and if, as I contended earlier, what we otherwise know both of early Judaism and of Jesus favors the view that he paid attention to Isaiah’s prophecies, skepticism on this matter seems excessive.36 I am strongly inclined to think that when the evangelist Matthew, in 12:18-21, quotes Isa. 42:1-4 in order to characterize the entirety of Jesus’ ministry he is rightly understanding and interpreting the tradition he received—a tradition informed at its origins by Jesus himself. I now come to the next section of this study. I wish to make a proposal about what scholars have called Jesus’ “realized eschatology.” They use this term because, as is well known, several sayings attributed to Jesus seem to speak of the kingdom as though it has already arrived. In Matt. 12:28 and Luke 11:20, Jesus declares, “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Luke 17:21—“the kingdom of God is in your midst”—could be of similar 33.  See Joel Marcus, Mark 8–16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 27A (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 749–57, 966–7. 34.  See further Werner Grimm, Weil ich dich Liebe: Die Verkündigung Jesu und Deuterojesaja, ANTJ (Bern/Frankfurt am Main: Herbert Lang/Peter Lang, 1976); A. E. Harvey, Jesus and the Constraints of History (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1982), 120–53; and Bruce Chilton, A Galilean Rabbi and His Bible: Jesus’ Use of the Interpreted Scripture of His Time, GNS 8 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1984). 35.  See further Dale C. Allison, Jr., Constructing Jesus: History, Memory, and Imagination (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010). 36.  Cf. also Steve Moyise, “Jesus and Isaiah,” Neot 43 (2009): 249–70.

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import. In addition to such explicit statements, Mark 2:19—“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?’ ”—seems to imply that the disciples of Jesus do not fast because the kingdom is somehow present; and the similes in Mark 2:21-22—“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment”; “No one puts new wine into old wineskins”—convey that the old is even now passing, that the new has already arrived. In line with all this, Mark 3:27 indicates that Satan has already been bound, Luke 10:18 that he has already fallen from heaven. Thus, as Matt. 13:16-17 and Luke 10:23-24 put it, even now people can open their eyes and see that which the prophets and the righteous only longed to see. New Testament scholars have often scratched their heads about these sayings, wondering how they can be harmonized with those other sayings, of greater number, that unequivocally see God’s kingdom as still coming. Some, in fact, have sensed such tension that they have been moved to eliminate one group of sayings or the other. That is, they have insisted that if Jesus thought of the kingdom as future, he could not have thought of it as present, or that if he thought of it as present, he could not have thought of it as future.37 I find the history of this debate a bit strange. It is as though the participants had never read Isaiah. In this scarcely obscure book, salvation is not exclusively in the offing. Although Israel has not, in Isaiah 40 and following chapters, left behind the age of trouble and entered the ideal future, that future is nonetheless beginning to unfold. Babylon has fallen. God has raised up Cyrus, who shall fulfill God’s purpose (44:28). A way in the wilderness is being prepared (40:3-4), and even now the messenger announces peace, brings good news, announces salvation and declares, “Your God reigns” (52:7). The redemption of Jerusalem has begun. In the words of Claus Westermann, “Now the time has come to shout for joy. Everything is now put right, for ‘Yahweh has comforted his people’… Everyone can now see what God is doing to his chosen people, and the time of trial—due to the fact that his sovereign power had been kept concealed—is now past.”38 One understands why modern scholars have characterized “Deutero-Isaiah’s expectation of salvation… as ‘realized eschatology,’ ‘present eschatology,’ ‘actualized eschatology’ and ‘actualizing eschatology.’ ”39 The implication for us is obvious. If in 37.  See, e.g., Robert Funk, Honest to Jesus: Jesus for a New Millennium (New York: Macmillan, 1996), 166–9. 38.  Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary (London: SCM, 1969), 252. 39.  Henk Leene, “History and Eschatology in Deutero-Isaiah,” in Studies in the Book of Isaiah: Festschrift Willem A. M. Beuken, ed. J. van Ruiten and M. Vervenne, BETL 132 (Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 1997), 234.



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Isaiah—that is, in a book Jesus paid some heed—eschatological salvation is not purely future but is also beginning to enter the present, the objection that, with Jesus, the kingdom had to be either present or future rings hollow. There is more, however, to say than that. I should like to offer the hypothesis that Jesus, just as Luke has it, not only read the opening part of Isaiah 61 as a sort of script for his ministry and self-understanding, but that this circumstance helps us to understand his so-called realized eschatology. I begin by observing that Isa. 61:1 (“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound”) is linked by both theme and catchwords to Isa. 52:7-9 (“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’ Listen, your sentinels lift up their voice, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem”): Isa. 61:1: “sent me to announce good tidings” (‫)לבשר‬ Isa. 52:7: “the messenger (‫ )מבשר‬who…announces good tidings” (‫)מבשר‬ Isa. 61:2: “to comfort (‫ )לנחם‬all who mourn” Isa. 52:9: “the Lord has comforted (‫ )נחם‬his people” Isa. 61:3: “to provide for those who mourn in Zion” (‫)ציון‬ Isa. 52:7-8: “who says to Zion” (‫)ציון‬, “the return of the Lord to Zion” (‫)ציון‬

Now given (i) that Christian and Jewish readers of Isaiah have often identified the herald of ch. 61 with the servant in ch. 52 and (ii) that Jewish exegetes regularly associated biblical texts sharing the same words, one might guess that ancient, scripturally informed Jews sometimes linked Isa. 61:1-2 with Isa. 52:7-8.40 But we do not have to guess. We find the following in the scrolls found at Qumran, in 11QMelch 2:15-20: 40.  See, e.g., W. A. M. Beuken, “Servant and Herald of Good Tidings: Isaiah 61 as an Interpretation of Isaiah 40–55,” in The Book of Isaiah, Le livre d’Isaïe: Les oracles et leurs relectures unite et complexité de l’ouvrage, ed. Jacques Vermeylen, BETL

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah This […] is the day of [peace about whi]ch he said […through Isa]iah the prophet, who said, [“How] beautiful upon the mountains are the feet [of] the messen[ger who] announces peace, the mess[enger of good who announces salvati]on, [sa]ying to Zion: your God [reigns”] (Isa. 52:7). Its interpretation… The messenger i[s] the anointed of the spir[it] as Dan[iel] said [about him: “Until an anointed, a prince, it is seven weeks” (Dan. 9:25). And the messenger of] good who announ[ces salvation] is the one about whom it is written that […] “To comfo[rt] the [afflicted” (Isa. 61:2-3). It interpretation:] to instruct them in all the ages of the wo[rld…]41

Although much in this text is obscure, one thing is clear because it is explicit: the herald of Isa. 52:7 (whether Melchizedek or some other) is the anointed one of Isa. 61:1-3.42 These same two portions of Isaiah also come together in another Dead Sea Scroll, in 1QH 22(18).12-14: “You [God] have opened a spr[ing] to rebuke the path of those fashioned from clay, the guilt of the one born of woman according to his deeds, to open the sp[ring] of your truth to the creature whom you have supported with your power, to [be,] according to your truth, a herald […] of your goodness (‫)טובכה […] מבשר‬, to proclaim to the poor (‫ )לבשר ענוים‬the abundance of your compassion.” ‫טובכה‬ ‫“( […] מבשר‬herald…of your goodness”) borrows from Isa. 52:7 (‫מבשר‬ ‫)טוב…מבשר‬, and ‫“( לבשר ענוים‬to proclaim to the poor”) is lifted without alteration from Isa. 61:1. Moreover, whatever 1QH 22(18):12-14 means precisely, the two phrases from Isaiah refer to the same individual.43 What does all this have to do with Jesus? Simply this. If he identified himself with the messenger of Isa. 61:1-3, the prophet who brings good news to the poor and comforts those who mourn, and if, like the author of 11QMelchizedek and other readers, both ancient and modern, he equated that messenger with the herald of Isaiah 52, then his biblical script would have told him to proclaim, “Your God reigns,” because that is the message 81 (Leuven: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 1989), 411–40. Christians through the centuries have typically read Jesus into both passages. See Jean Koenig, L’herméneutique analogique du judaïsme antique d’après les témoins textuels d’Isaïe, VTSup 33 (Leiden: Brill, 1982). 41.  Translation and reconstruction of Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition. Vol. 2, 4Q274–11Q31 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), 1207–9. 42.  Cf. Johannes Zimmermann, Messianische Texte aus Qumran: Königliche, priesterliche und prophetische Messiasvorstellung in den Schriftfunden von Qumran, WUNT 2/104 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1998), 410–12. 43.  See further Shiu-Lun Shum, Paul’s Use of Isaiah in Romans, WUNT 2/156 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2002), 160–2.



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of the herald in Isa. 52:7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’ ” (‫)מלך אלהיך‬. The targum on Isaiah, interestingly enough, turns “Your God reigns” into a sentence with “the kingdom of God” as its subject: “The kingdom of your God is revealed.” In short, a scripturally minded Jesus, who saw himself in Isa. 61:1 and so in Isa. 52:7, could well have found the announcement of realized eschatology, of the presence of the kingdom, dictated to him by a prophetic oracle.44 So much for my suggestion, which cannot be proven. I would offer other suggestions if space permitted, such as that Jesus sometimes envisaged himself as a Mosaic figure in the new exodus as foretold by Isaiah, or that, at a late stage in his life, he identified himself with the suffering servant of Second Isaiah.45 Enough has been said, however, to establish that, whatever the precise details, this large conclusion is assured: Jesus, like the Baptist before him, interpreted his ministry in terms drawn from Isaiah. 3. A Parallel: Paul Before closing, I wish to observe that many modern scholars have tended to shy away from the conclusions that I have defended; that is, they have often been disinclined to believe that it was John and Jesus who associated themselves with Isaiah. It was rather their followers after the fact.46 44.  Scholars who have surmised that Jesus himself paid attention to Isa. 52:7 include Otto Betz, “Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom,” in The Gospel and the Gospels, ed. Peter Stuhlmacher (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 59–60, and Rudolf Schnackenburg, God’s Rule and Kingdom, 2nd ed. (London: Burns & Oats; New York: Herder & Herder, 1968), 37. As a speculative aside, one could find in Isa. 52:7 a motivation to conduct a ministry in Jerusalem, for the messenger announces salvation and God’s reign “to Zion.” 45.  For this possibility, see Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Intertextual Jesus: Scripture in Q (Harrisburg: Trinity Press, 2000), 216–20. For relevant essays on this issue, see W. H. Bellinger and William R. Farmer, eds., Jesus and the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1998). 46.  Cf. Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus (Sonoma, CA/New York: Polebridge Press/Macmillan, 1993), pp. 68 (“Jesus taught on his own authority and seems not to have invoked scripture to justify his pronouncements”), 98 (“Citations of Scripture [in the gospels] are usually a sign of the interpretive voice of the evangelist or the early Christian community”).

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I am unsure as to the reasons for this not uncommon presumption. Perhaps such critical skepticism is driven in part by the knowledge that religions are adept at turning people into what they never were. Enoch, who was nothing but a legend (Gen. 4:17-18; 5:18-24), grew into the author of a large corpus of texts (1 Enoch, 2 Enoch) and eventually morphed into Metatron, occupant of God’s throne (3 En. 4). In our own time, the Rastafarians transformed Haile Selassie, while he was yet alive, and without any help from him, into “the lion of the tribe of Judah,” their Messiah, an incarnation of God. The religious imagination has again and again piled layer upon layer of legend upon heroes and saints—Buddha, Muhammad, Bahula, and on it goes—effectively giving them new identities. Although the famous Paiute prophet, Wovoka, founder of the Ghost Dance, did not claim to be the Christ, his followers so acclaimed him. Perhaps, then, in like manner, it was the disciples of John and Jesus who, without prodding from their masters, linked their lives to the last half of Isaiah. It is, however, no less true that history is full of human beings who have aspired to greatness, who have sought to lead others, and who have imagined themselves to be at the center of what they believed the gods or God were doing. Just as many have sought to be, in the world of practical politics, kings, prime ministers, and presidents, so others have aspired to be, in the world of religious hope, eschatological leaders or principal mediators of the divine—and some have found their own times and even themselves in ancient prophecy. One recalls, to stay in the first century, the man whom Josephus dubs “the Egyptian false prophet” (see B.J. 2.261-63; Ant. 20.169-72). He reportedly gathered thousands of followers and “led them by a circuitous route from the desert” to the Mount of Olives, from where he would command Jerusalem’s walls to fall down and then enter the city and rule over it. If Josephus is anywhere near the truth, this would-be ruler hoped to replay the liberating past. He aspired to emulate Joshua, who made the walls of a city come tumbling down (Josh. 6). It is wholly unlikely that this fellow did not find himself somewhere in biblical prophecy. He almost certainly thought of himself as a prophet-king like Moses, perhaps even the prophet like Moses of Deut. 18:15 (“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your people; you shall listen to him”) and 18 (“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their people; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him”). Indeed, if we knew more, we might well discover that this man who led his followers in “a circuitous route from the desert” related his aspirations directly to the new exodus about which Second Isaiah



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prophesies.47 Unfortunately, we do not know more and almost certainly never will. Given our ignorance, I leave behind the Egyptian prophet to consider instead, if briefly, yet another first-century Jew, one about whom we know a great deal more. I refer to Saul or Paul of Tarsus, whose letters support my claim that we should not balk at the idea of a religious Jew such as the Baptist or Jesus reading himself into Isaiah’s eschatological scenario. I begin with the book of Acts. It contains three accounts of Paul’s so-called conversion experience (Acts 9:1-19; 22:6-16; 26:12-18). The third account, which purports to give us Paul’s own words, occurs in ch. 26, where we find the following: And I said, “Who are you, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (vv. 15-20)

These sentences are full of scripture. Verses 17-18, for example, echo Jeremiah 1, which recounts the call of the famous prophet: Acts 26:17-18 delivering you (ἐξαιροῦμενός σε)…from the Gentiles (ἐθνῶν), to whom I send you (οὓς ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω σε) Jer. 1:7-8, 10 you shall go to all to whom I send you (οὓς ἐὰν ἐξαποστείλω σε)… I am with you to deliver you (ἐξαιρεῖσθαι σε)… I have appointed you over Gentiles (ἔθνη)

The previous verse, 26:18, recalls lines from Isaiah 42: Acts 26:18 to open their eyes (ἀνοίξαι ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν),48 to turn from darkness to light (τοῦ ἐπιστρέψαι ἀπὸ σκότους εἰς φῶς) 47.  Cf. Exod. 13:18: “God led the people by the circuitous way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.” 48.  Some textual witnesses have “blind” (τυφλῶν; so E 096 vgmss), which enhances the parallel with Isaiah.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Isa. 42:6-7, 16 as a light to the Gentiles (εἰς φῶς ἐθνῶν) to open the eyes of the blind (ἀνοίξαι ὀφθαλμοὺς τυφλῶν)… those who sit in darkness (καθημένους ἐν σκότει) I will turn the darkness into light (ποιήσω αὐτοῖς τὸ σκότος εἰς φῶς)

Readers have regularly observed these correlations.49 They imply, first, that, in Acts, Paul is like or takes upon himself the role of the servant of Deutero-Isaiah in that he is “a light to the nations” (Isa. 42:6).50 As Paul and Barnabas declare in Acts 13:46-47: “We are now turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying [in Isa. 49:6], ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” The second implication of the parallels is that, in Acts, Paul is also like Jeremiah, who was similarly appointed to be “a prophet to the nations” (Jer. 1:5), and whose prophetic mission brought him great opposition (cf. esp. Acts 26:17).51 But this is Acts, a book Paul did not write, and a book whose historical reliability can hardly be, as a matter of course, taken for granted. So what then of Paul himself? In Gal. 1:15-16, the apostle, when speaking of his Damascus road experience, writes that “when God, who had set me apart from my mother’s womb (ἐκ κοιλίας μητρός μου) and called (καλέσας) me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might 49.  See, e.g., Gerhard Lohfink, The Conversion of St Paul: Narrative and History in Acts (Chicago: Franciscan Herald, 1976), 70; Robert F. O’Toole, Acts 26: The Climax of Paul’s Defense (Ac 22:1–26:32), AnBib 78 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1978), 66–7. 50.  So, e.g., C. K. Barrett, The Acts of the Apostles, 2 vols., ICC (London: T&T Clark International, 1998), 2:1159–62, and Holly Beers, The Followers of Jesus as the “Servant”: Luke’s Model from Isaiah for the Disciples in Luke–Acts, LNTS 535 (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015), 170–2. Note F. F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of the Acts: The English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1954), 491–2: “The commission itself echoes the commission of the Servant of the Lord in Isa. 42:1ff. (or at least words in the immediate context of that commission)—and very properly so, for the commission of Paul and of all Christian witnesses is the perpetuation of the Servant’s commission… As the Servant was to open the eyes of the blind and turn their darkness into light, so Paul was summoned to continue this healing ministry.” 51.  See Lohfink, Conversion, 70–1; Johannes Munck, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (London: SCM, 1959), 27–8; O’Toole, Acts 26, 67. Note the extension of the allusion to Jeremiah in Epistle of the Apostles 31, in its account of Paul’s call: “he will be a wall that does not fall” (cf. Jer. 1:18). Note also that Luke has Paul quote Isa. 6:9-10 in Acts 28:26-28.



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proclaim him among the Gentiles (ἔθνησιν), immediately I did not confer with any human being.” These words, as has long been observed, are conceptually very close to Jer. 1:4-5: “Before I formed you in the womb (ἐν κοιλίᾳ) I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the Gentiles” (ἔθνη).52 There are, in addition, parallels to the calling of God’s servant in Isa. 49:1-6: 49:5 “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me” (ἐκ κοιλίας μητρός μου ἐκαλεσεν τὸ ὄνομα μου) 49:5 “who formed me from the womb (ἐκ κοιλίας) to be his servant” 49:6 “I will give you as a light to the nations (ἐθνῶν), that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth”53

What all this means is that Acts is not alone in construing Paul’s initial encounter with Jesus as something akin to what happened to Jeremiah and Isaiah’s servant. Paul himself did this very thing, that is, understood his experience as being like the calling of two famous Hebrew prophets.54 The 52.  So, e.g., J. Louis Martyn, Galatians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 33A (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 156 (“he clearly has in mind the call of Jeremiah”); cf. already Ambrosiaster, Commentary on Galatians ad loc., who cites Jer. 1:5 when commenting on Gal. 1:15. According to James D. G. Dunn, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, BNTC (London: A. & C. Black, 1993), 63, the implication may be “that Paul’s appointment to ‘preach God’s son among the nations’ was of the same order, inspiration and authority as Jeremiah’s commission.” 53.  Barnabas Lindars, New Testament Apologetic: The Doctrinal Significance of the Old Testament Quotations (London: SCM, 1961), 223, calls this an “overt allusion.” He goes on to write: “That this passage…had been deeply pondered by St. Paul, and actually helped to formulate his own special apostolic vocation, may perhaps be deduced from the importance of it in this autobiographical section. For it seems to be in his mind all through the rest of the chapter.” He sees a parallel between 1:24 (“they glorified God because of me”) and Isa. 49:3 (“You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified”) and between 2:2 (“lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain”) and 49:4 (“I have labored in vain”). 54.  See further Johannes Munck, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (London: SCM, 1959), 24–33; George W. E. Nickelsburg, “An ἜΚΤΡΟΜΑ. Though Appointed from the Womb: Paul’s Apostolic Self-Description in 1 Corinthians 15 and Galatians 1,” in Christians Among Jews and Gentiles: Essays in Honor of Krister Stendahl on

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interpretation that we find in Acts is not a post-Pauline invention. It rather lines up with the self-understanding of the apostle himself. Also highly pertinent for us is Rom. 10:13-18: [13] For, “every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” [14] But how are people to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? [15] And how can people preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” [16] But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” [17] So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. [18] But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have; for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

Here Paul quotes four biblical texts. The citation of Joel 3:5 in v. 13 (“every one who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved”) and of Ps. 18:5 in v. 18 (“Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world”) do not concern us here. What matters for our purposes is that twice Paul formally quotes Isaiah. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” is from Isa. 52:7, and “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” is from Isa. 53:1. So when the apostle characterizes his own missionary endeavors, he does so by drawing upon sentences from the latter part of Isaiah. Indeed, he sees his own ministry as part of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies. In this connection he indeed finds himself in Isa. 52:7 which, I maintained above, may have been programmatic for Jesus.55 It is not my goal here to explore any further Paul’s self-conception. My only point is to offer a parallel. We have in Paul, which means in the writings of a first-century Jew, someone who was able to read himself into biblical texts, including lines from Second Isaiah. This then gives us an analogy for what, I have argued, is the truth about the Baptist and Jesus. The interpretation of their ministries as the fulfillment of prophecy was not solely the work of later interpreters. Rather, they understood themselves to be realizing, in their own experiences, oracles of Isaiah. His Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. G. W. E. Nickelsburgh and G. MacRae (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986), 198–205. For Isa. 42 as part of Paul’s self-conception, see Seyoon Kim, Paul and the New Perspective: Second Thoughts on the Origin of Paul’s Gospel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 101–27. 55.  See further J. Ross Wagner, Heralds of the Good News: Isaiah and Paul “In Concert” in the Letter to the Romans, NovTSup 101 (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 170–6.

T he I nfl u en c e of I s a i a h on P aul ’ s R omans a nd t h e I n t r a -C a n on ical G ospe ls

James H. Charlesworth

Introduction To what extent was the book of Isaiah foundational for the kerygmatic theology of Paul and the intra-canonical Evangelists?1 In attempting to answer this question, one should begin with what has been shown in the preceding chapters. The book of Isaiah shaped reflections within the history of Israel ranging from the eighth century BCE in Jerusalem, through the sixth century among Babylonian Jews, perhaps also within fourth-century Jerusalem,2 and then exceptionally within the documents composed by the Qumranites, as well as other non-Qumran documents found in the eleven Qumran caves, and also in the teachings of John the Baptizer and Jesus from Nazareth. One example must suffice for now. It is the Self-Glorification Hymn that was known by the Qumranites as an independent (?) text, an excerpt in the War Scroll, and in two copies of the Thanksgiving Hymns. Isaiah’s poetry helped shape the author who imagined someone anonymous, “the beloved of the King” (God), who is seated among the Elim “in the congregation of holiness.” Obviously, Isa. 14:13-14 must have stimulated the poet’s imagination:

1.  By “intra-canonical” I mean the gospels eventually collected into the canon. 2.  As clarified in my earlier chapter, the book of Isaiah represents the work of three authors: clearly First Isaiah (1–39), probably Second Isaiah (40–55), and conceivably Third Isaiah (56–66 and 24–27). I assume the reader will know the reflections and bibliographical information provided earlier in this volume in my chapter, “The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah.”

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah I will ascend (to) heaven; Above the stars of god I will raise my throne. And I will sit on the mount of assembly On the heights of Zaphon. I will ascend unto the tops of the cloud, I will resemble the Most High.

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the consensus among scholars that all sixty-six chapters of Isaiah were influential on Paul and, likewise, exceedingly important for each of the Evangelists. Like all early Jews, Paul and the Evangelists assumed Isaiah was an inspired book composed by the eighth-century prophet.3 The flood of publications on the use of Scripture by Paul and the Evangelists is like a tsunami that can disorient a New Testament specialist; hence, this chapter is primarily a succinct review of what I imagine to be a consensus.4 The authors of the New Testament documents were Jews who read the Scriptures in a variety of ways that are bewildering to most modern thinkers. Often, texts were altered to make a theological point and the followers of the Righteous Teacher (according to the Dead Sea Scrolls) and of Jesus (according to the New Testament) used a fulfillment hermeneutic that was guided, they all claimed, by the Holy Spirit. That is, what had been prophesied about the future in prior times was perceived to have been accomplished in the history of their own group or sect. Preliminary reflections bring to mind how important the book of Isaiah was for Paul and the Evangelists. Four passages in particular seem to have been especially significant, and they are well known to most Christian ministers and teachers, and also to many laypersons. First of all, Paul quotes Isaiah to make clear that Gentiles who were once perceived as not 3.  Paul and other early Jews could not carry large scrolls with them. They probably used collections of favorite passages and a collection of testimonies to bolster a special exegesis. Long ago, Edwin Hatch and J. Rendel Harris argued for anthologies or a “testimony book.” See Edwin Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek (Oxford: Clarendon, 1889); J. Rendel Harris, Testimonies, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916, 1920). See also the reflections by Robert A. Kraft, “Barnabas’ Isaiah Text and the ‘Testimony Book’ Hypothesis,” JBL 79 (1960): 336–50; and the informative discussion by J. Ross Wagner, “Reading Isaiah in the First Century,” in Heralds of the Good News: Isaiah and Paul “in Concert” in the Letter to the Romans, SNT 101 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002), 19–28. 4.  For a short and succinct study of how the Scriptures shaped New Testament thought, see Dale C. Allison, Scriptural Allusions in the New Testament: Light from the Dead Sea Scrolls (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 2000).



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the people of God are now recognized as the remnant that will be saved (Rom. 1–5). Second, all Evangelists record that John the Baptizer was in the wilderness preparing for the last days because of the words in Isa. 40:3. Third, according to Luke, Jesus opens his ministry in a synagogue in Nazareth and reads from a scroll of Isaiah (Luke 4). Fourth, Jesus’ suffering was placarded as messianic and expected due to prophecy; the major prophet was Isaiah (see the Passion narrative in all four Gospels). Each of these examples will be examined when we come to the respective authors. To what extent was the book of Isaiah chosen by Paul and the Evangelists to make key proclamations? The aforementioned passages are memorable to those who read the New Testament. Now, let us explore, in chronological order, one question of each of these documents: How, in what ways, and with what importance, was Isaiah used, if at all, either in quotations or clear allusions, in Romans, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John? Isaiah in Paul’s Romans Paul was born in Tarsus, in today’s southeast Turkey, around 7 BCE and was martyred in Rome around 67 CE because of his claims about Jesus from Nazareth. It is commonly assumed he was born a Pharisee, and that he was of the tribe of Benjamin (Acts 23:6; Phil. 3:5). He is hailed as the apostle to the Gentiles. His importance lies in the recognition that he wrote the earliest works in the New Testament and lowered the barriers so that Gentiles could enter into a type of Judaism defined by “the Messiah, Jesus.” He is celebrated because he removed the Jewish demands of circumcision and the dietary laws. Without trying to synthesize his often conflicting claims, there is wide agreement that Paul’s major claims are that Jesus is the Messiah promised by God, that he died for the sins of all humans, that God raised him from the dead, and that he will return to judge all people. Paul’s theology and Christology have been too often miscast and misinterpreted in terms of Greek and Roman thought. Let me focus now on only three points. First, most scholars now understand that Paul was theocentric. The passages that suggest he was Christocentric are because he was continuously asked about Jesus, the proclaimed Christ and not about the existence of God. Second, Paul inherited from Palestinian Judaism an apocalyptic perspective that allowed him to write about the “fullness of time” and God sending his son, Jesus at the end of history (teleological eschatology).5 Third, Paul was not a chaotic thinker (though 5.  For more of my reflections, see Charlesworth, “How Do These Jewish Texts Help Us Comprehend Paul and the Evangelists?” in The Dead Sea Scrolls, Bible & Covenant: Understanding the Early Christian Texts (Biblical

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he could make contradictory statements) and his creative reflections, which targeted various different contexts, should not be reduced to an allencompassing system. As J. Christiaan Beker showed, Paul’s consistency was shaped by contingencies.6 Scholars do not agree how and in what ways we may distinguish between Paul’s quotations of the Hebrew Scriptures and his allusions to them. Likewise, an explicit quotation may be misleading in discerning Paul’s insight, while an allusion may convey his deep dependence on the Bible and scriptural-symbolic language. Moisés Silva lists four passages in which Paul cites Isaiah according to the MT and the LXX alike, eight places in which he follows the LXX and not the MT, and eleven texts in which he follows neither the MT nor LXX. Of these twenty-three quotations of Isaiah, fifteen are in Romans.7 Mark A. Seifrid discerns many allusions and about sixty citations of Scripture in Romans. This amount is exceptional in comparison to his other letters.8 Seifrid is convinced that Paul in Romans has one main purpose: “[H]is message to the church at Rome is nothing more than a proclamation of the Scriptures that have been fulfilled in the incarnate,9 crucified, and risen Christ.” The influence of Isaiah on Paul is evident to all Pauline scholars. Richard B. Hays grounded and enlivened studies of scriptural quotations in Paul, and gave us a new concept that is used frequently without proper attribution. Hays showed that there are “echoes” and not only quotations of Isaiah in Paul.10

Archaeology Society Lecture Series DVD, 2006); and idem, “Paul, the Jewish Apocalypses, and Apocalyptic Eschatology,” in Paul the Jew, ed. Carlos Segovia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2015). 6.  J. Christiaan Beker, Paul the Apostle (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980). 7.  Moisés Silva, “Old Testament in Paul,” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. G. F. Hawthorne et al. (Downers Grove; Leicester: IVP, 1993), 630–42 (plus a good bibliography). 8.  Mark A. Seifrid, “Romans,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 607. 9.  Seifrid, “Romans.” 10.  Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989). See also Hays’s important work: “The Conversion of the Imagination: Scripture and Eschatology in 1 Corinthians,” NTS 45 (1999): 391–412. Hays is correct that some aesthetic sensitivity is demanded and we should agree to disagree on allusions and echoes.



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At the outset we mentioned the importance Isaiah had for Paul. He quotes from Isa. 10:22-23, 28:22, and 1:9 (in that order) in Rom. 9:27-29. Paul explicitly begins this string of citations by stating: “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel” (9:27). Paul’s purpose is clear. Formerly, the Gentiles were categorized as “not my people” (Hos. 1:10; Rom. 9:25). Now, Paul claims that in light of the “good news,” often seen with Isaiah in mind, they are “sons of the living God” (Hos. 1:10; Rom. 9:26). To fit his theology, Paul followed the Greek (perhaps the Old Greek), which reads “a remnant will return” in place of “a remnant will be saved.”11 In his massive tome, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, N. T. Wright points out that Paul radically redraws Israel’s covenant with God through the proclamation that “the Messiah has come” (Wright points to Rom. 9:4-5). Alluding to Isa. 50:1 and 54:5-8, Wright, perceiving Paul’s concept of “the divorce of exile” and the “remarriage of return,” assumes Paul claimed the covenant had been renewed “through the Messiah, the ‘new husband’, the last Adam.”12 Wright is convinced that the very heart of Paul’s “Gospel” is the proclamation of “God’s righteousness” that “has been revealed in the faithful death of Israel’s Messiah.”13 Wright notes that one of Paul’s “own favorite texts” in this regard is Isaiah 40–66. He turns to Isaiah to prove God’s righteousness and covenant loyalty to bring “worldwide salvation in the form of the promised new creation, the restored Eden.”14 J. Christiaan Beker also states that Isaiah 2 and 66:23 helped Paul imagine an eschatological pilgrimage of Gentiles to Jerusalem and focus the locus of the Parousia in Jerusalem.15 Paul appears to have known many verses of Isaiah by heart. Numerous scholars, notably Wayne Meeks,16 have claimed that in Rom. 9:33 Paul combines Isa. 8:14 and 28:16 to enunciate: “and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

11.  This valid claim should be attempted in light of the textual fluidity in biblical texts, proved by the Dead Sea Scrolls (and the publications of E. Tov, E. C. Ulrich, and L. Greenspoon). See also Timothy H. Lim, Holy Scripture in the Qumran Commentaries and Pauline Letters (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997). 12.  N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013), 1010. 13.  Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 815 (italics his). 14.  Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 893. 15.  Beker, Paul the Apostle, 90. 16.  Wayne A. Meeks, The Writings of St. Paul (New York: Norton & Co., 1972), 84.

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The Colosseum in Rome; it Postdates Paul’s Romans by only Two Decades [photo: Charlesworth]

It is understandable why the earliest biographer of Paul, the author of Luke–Acts, has him quote Isaiah 6:9–10 (from the LXX, but with likely alterations17) as he expounds “the Good News” to some Jews in Rome.18 Recall Acts 28:26-28: Go to this people and say, “You will indeed listen, but never understand, And you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, And their ears are hard of hearing, And they have shut their eyes; So that they might not look with their eyes, And listen with their ears,

17.  For a good discussion, see Paweł Rytel-Adrianik, The Use of Isaiah in the Fourth Gospel in Comparison to the Synoptics and Other Places in the New Testament (D.Phil. diss.; Oriental Institute and Mansfield College, Oxford University, 2013), 213–15. 18.  Also see Craig A. Evans, “The Function of Is 6:9-10 in Mark and John,” NovT 24 (1982): 124–38; and idem, To See and not Perceive: Isaiah 6:9-10 in Early Jewish and Christian Interpretation, JSOTSup 64 (Sheffield: JSOT, 1989).



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And understand with their heart and turn— And I would heal them.” Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen. (NRSV)19

Obviously, the last verse is Paul’s exegetical conclusion; after two more verses the book of Acts concludes. Thus, the final biblical quotation in Luke–Acts is a key for understanding the two volume set, Luke–Acts. As F. Bovon states: “Just like a Russian doll, the word of Isaiah is inserted inside the word of Paul.”20 Perhaps the quotation of Isaiah in Acts 28 (from Isa. 6) is an echo of Simeon’s prophecy in Luke 3:6 (an echo of Isa. 40), forming a grand inclusio for Luke–Acts. That is, the expression “the salvation of God” is found only in these two passages in the New Testament and both times it is an echo from Isaiah. It is beyond question, therefore, that Paul’s thought was shaped by the book of Isaiah; the same reflection also pertains to the way the author of Luke–Acts remembered Paul. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor was convinced that Paul perceived himself “to be prefigured in the Servant Song” of Isaiah 49; that is, Paul thought he was a light for the nations so that he might carry God’s salvation to the end of the earth (Isa. 49:6).21 As we leave Paul and his indebtedness to the book of Isaiah, let us hear from one who has devoted his life to the study of Paul and his use of Isaiah. J. Ross Wagner is convinced that: Paul’s citations and allusions to Isaiah…are the product of sustained and careful attention to the rhythms and cadences of individual passages as well as to larger themes and motifs that run throughout the prophet’s oracles. Paul finds in Isaiah a fellow preacher of the gospel, the message that reveals God’s righteousness for all who believe, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.22

19.  The use of this scriptural proof text is not anti-Jewish. The emphasis is on those who listen and accept the message. Paul never ceased preaching to Jews. 20.  F. Bovon, “How Well the Holy Spirit Spoke Through the Prophet Isaiah to Your Ancestors?” in New Testament Traditions and Apocryphal Narratives, trans. J. Haapiseva-Hunter, PTMS 36 (Alison Park, NJ: Pickwick, 1995), 43–50; the quotation is on p. 44. 21.  J. Murphy-O’Connor, Paul: A Critical Life (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 330. 22.  Wagner, Heralds, 356.

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Before leaving Paul, we should observe the early appropriation of Isaiah by Jesus’ earliest followers (most likely in Jerusalem during the time of Paul), and in liturgical contexts. Larry Hurtado has recently examined Psalm 110 and Isa. 45:22-25.23 He discovered that “the earliest Christian interpretation of these texts is novel and noteworthy.”24 Hurtado contends that the exegesis of these passages is “the product of profound and distinctive christological convictions.”25 He continues: “[T]he earliest and initial Christian use of these and other OT texts was likely as a key part of the process of trying to understand for themselves the meaning of events and experiences. The biblical texts were scoured in the confidence that the divine plan could be discovered in the Scriptures.”26 The earliest use of Isa. 45:22-25 may be in the “Christ Hymn” written by a follower of Jesus (perhaps in Jerusalem before 50 CE) and quoted by Paul in Phil. 2:6-11. This early hymn incorporates phrases from Isaiah and even alludes to other words in Isa. 45:22-25. Paul himself quotes Isa. 45:23 in Rom. 14:11. Early Jews chose many passages from Isaiah for exegetical purposes, but only Jesus’ earliest followers deemed Isa. 45:22-25 theologically important. Why? Hurtado rightly judges that this early “Christian” reading of “the Isaiah passage is utterly novel and even astonishing.”27 He rejects the interpretation that God has bequeathed his ineffable name to Jesus. Note Hurtado’s stunning exegesis: “Instead, it seems to me that the text reflects God’s sharing of the divine name with the exalted Jesus, and an accompanying inclusion of Jesus with God as rightful recipient of the universal obeisance depicted. Likewise, and of great importance, the risen Jesus was included with God programmatically in the devotional pattern of early Christian circles as rightful co-recipient of their cultic devotion.”28

23.  Larry W. Hurtado, “Two Case Studies in Earliest Christological Readings of Biblical Texts,” in All That the Prophets Have Declared: The Appropriation of Scripture in the Emergence of Christianity, ed. Matthew R. Malcolm (London: Authentic Media, 2015), 3–23. 24.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 4. 25.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 4. 26.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 4. 27.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 15. 28.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 16. See further: Hurtado, One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism, 3rd ed. (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015). The most important addition to the third edition is the 53 page epilogue that explains the debates.



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If the author of the Christ hymn has worked from the text we know as the Septuagint, at least three major differences are evident. First of all, the word order is altered such that future forms, like “will bend,” are shifted to subjunctive forms: “may bend.” In Semitics, both the future and subjunctive are conveyed by the exact same form (the imperfect). In Rom. 14:11, by contrast, the future forms of Isaiah are preserved on account of the differing context. Second, as Hurtado claims, “the universal submission represented in the Isaiah statement that ‘every knee’ will bow is expanded radically and cosmically to include all spheres of reality,”29 so that even the fallen angels of Genesis 6 and 1 Enoch 1–36 are to bow to the Lordship of Jesus, the Christ. Third, and perhaps most remarkably, in Phil. 2:9-11 the explicit monotheism and uniqueness of YHWH” in Isa. 45:18-25 “is interpreted radically anew so that two figures are seen, God and Jesus (as Lord).”30 The poet incorporates Jesus into the obeisance previously accorded only to God. We are now perceiving that very early, probably in the fifties and conceivably in the temple, some of Jesus’ followers who coined the Aramaic declaration maranatha (1 Cor. 16:22; and Did. 10:6), “our Lord come,” invoked Jesus as Lord in a cultic setting. My insight is shared by Hurtado, who reflects as follows: I propose that the remarkable and novel readings of Psalm 110:1 and Isaiah 45:22-25, and other biblical texts as well, likely emerged early, quickly, and typically in settings of group prayer and worship where the sense of the Spirit’s presence and power was strong. Early believers came to their Scriptures with convictions shaped by powerful religious experiences that opened the sacred texts for them in new ways, particularly experiences of the risen and exalted Jesus, and continuing revelations from the Spirit.31

Such reflections take us back before Paul’s first writing. Do we not enter Jerusalem and into synagogues and even the temple to observe Jesus’ Jewish followers (including those who claimed Jesus appeared to them after his crucifixion) trying to understand Jesus’ death as an aspect of God’s grace,32 gathering to worship, and expecting his return at any moment? Moreover, the Self-Glorification Hymn with the apocalyptic 29.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 16. 30.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 17. 31.  Hurtado, “Two Case Studies,” 23. 32.  John M. G. Barclay (Paul and the Gift [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015]) argues that Paul understood grace as a gift.

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view of one seated with the gods helps us grasp the culture in which some of Jesus’ earliest followers imagined him sitting with God on the heavenly throne. The Significance of Isaiah in Mark How, in what ways, and to what degree of importance was Isaiah used, either in quotations or clear allusions, by the canonical Evangelists? We shall review this issue, presenting each evangelist in chronological order of their probable recognizable form. How the book of Isaiah shaped the Gospels is made clear in Paweł Rytel-Adrianik’s The Use of Isaiah in the Fourth Gospel in Comparison to the Synoptics and Other Places in the New Testament. This unpublished dissertation was completed at St. Cross College, Oxford in 2013.33 Scholars worldwide agree that the earliest Gospel in the New Testament is Mark. Very little is known about his life. Most historians are reticent to assume that Mark the Evangelist is identical to a “Mark” mentioned in the New Testament.34 According to early Christian tradition, Mark was a companion and scribe to Peter.35 Later legends add that Mark was one of the servants who poured out wine when Jesus performed the miracle in Cana, was one of the Seventy, and was responsible for bringing Christianity to Alexandria.36 Mark’s work, the earliest narrative of Jesus’ life and words, was written with an eschatological urgency and ends abruptly. His major claim, clarified at the baptism of Jesus by John and in the Transfiguration, is that God announced Jesus as his “beloved Son.” Mark wrote around 70 CE, in Rome or southern Syria; he felt no need to add to his Gospel a narrative of Jesus’ birth, youth, or resurrection. At the outset, we mentioned the importance Isaiah had for Mark. All the canonical Gospels report that John the Baptizer was directing an eschatological mission in the wilderness because of the prophecy found in Isa. 40:3. Mark, opens his composition with an explicit quotation, which he attributes to Isaiah:

33.  Rytel-Adrianik is Associate Professor of the Holy Scripture at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. 34.  See especially Acts 12:12, 25; 15:37; Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11; Phlm 24; 1 Pet. 5:13. 35.  Papius apud Eusebius, Church History 3.39. 36.  Eusebius, Church History 2.1624; Jerome, De Vir. Illust. 8; Apostolic Constitutions 7.46; Epiphanius, Haer. 51.6. See the legends recorded by Severus, Bishop of Al-Ushmunain who flourished from about 955 to 987.



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As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send my messenger (or angel) before your face, (The one) who shall prepare your way. (The) voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the Way of the Lord, Make straight his paths.” [Mark 1:2-3]

Matthew repeats much of this quotation and also attributes it to “the prophet Isaiah” (Matt. 3:3). He places the episode after the beginning of his Gospel. Luke also places the quotation later in his Gospel, in ch. 3, and attributes it as follows: “As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet” (3:4). John places the episode, like Mark, at the beginning of his Gospel and, like Mark, attributes the citation to “the prophet Isaiah” (1:23). The central importance of Isaiah for Mark is certain, even though he does not quote extensively from Scripture and uses it in broad ways, and not (as Matthew does) to prove that particular events in Jesus’ life were predicted.37 Mark quotes Isaiah numerous times. First, he opens his Gospel with a specific reference to the prophet Isaiah and quotes his scroll: The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in (the scroll of) Isaiah the prophet: “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare the way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (1:1-3)

As Morna D. Hooker states, this citation, the first reference to Isaiah in Mark, is “the only ‘editorial’ quotation in the whole gospel,” and it establishes immediately “that the Gospel proclaimed here was ‘announced beforehand in sacred scriptures through his prophets.’ ” She adds: “[T]his opening quotation is understood by Mark to be programmatic: the key to understanding what this ‘Gospel’—or ‘Good News’—might be is to be found in the book of Isaiah.”38 Quite startlingly, as Hooker points out,

37.  See esp. Hugh Anderson, “The Use of the Old Testament in Mark’s Gospel,” in The Use of the Old Testament in the New and Other Essays: Studies in Honor of William Franklin Stinespring, ed. James M. Efird (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1972), 280–306. See also Joel Marcus, The Way of the Lord: Christological Exegesis of the Old Testament in the Gospel of Mark (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1993). 38.  Morna D. Hooker, “Isaiah in Mark’s Gospel,” in Isaiah in the New Testament, ed. Steve Moyise and Maarten J. J. Menken, The New Testament and Scriptures of Israel (London: T&T Clark International, 2005), 35–49.

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after purporting to quote Isaiah, Mark actually cites a pastiche of passages taken from Exod. 23:20 and Mal. 3:1, along with Isa. 40:3. Why does Mark make such an obvious mistake? We are left with two possibilities. Were the set of biblical quotations already joined in kerygmatic settings in the pre-Marcan period to refer to John the Baptizer? Or, did Mark creatively join these biblical citations? In favor of a pre-Marcan date for the combination of proof texts is a section in Q (usually understood as Quelle, or “Source” in German).39 This early source of Jesus’ sayings most likely antedates 50 CE and seldom contains biblical citations. In Q 7:27, however, a composite quotation appears,40 which combines Exod. 23:20 and Mal. 3:1: “This (scripture) concerns him of whom it is written, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you’ ” (Luke 7:27 and Matt. 3:1). These words, attributed to Jesus by Luke, describe John the Baptizer as the forerunner and one more than a prophet. Thus composite quotations, attributed to Isaiah by Matthew, antedate the Gospel of Mark. I side with those scholars who see this so-called goof by Mark as “deliberate” and not as an unintentional slip. Mark knew how important Isaiah was for the proclamation of the “Good News.” Isaiah had been the first herald of the “Good News,” since in the final chapters of Isaiah a verb that denotes the good news of God’s rule is used numerous times.41 In the Hebrew text of so-called Third Isaiah,42 the speaker reports that he has been anointed “to bring good news to the oppressed” (61:1 NRSV): ‫רּוח ֲאד ֹנָ י יְ הוִ ה ָע ָלי‬ ַ ‫יַ ַען ָמ ַשח יְ הוָ ה א ִֹתי‬ ‫ְל ַב ֵשר ֲענָ וִ ים ְש ָל ַחנִ י‬ ‫י־לב‬ ֵ ‫ַל ֲחבֹׁש ְלנִ ְש ְב ֵר‬ ‫ִל ְקרֹא ִל ְשבּויִם ְדרֹור‬ ‫ח־קֹוח׃‬ ַ ‫סּורים ְפ ַק‬ ִ ‫וְ ַל ֲא‬

The Hebrew (‫)ל ַב ֵשר‬ ְ and Septuagint have a verb: “to bring (proclaim) good news”:43 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me to 39.  For reflections on Jesus’ traditions in the putative Q, see Dale C. Allison, The Jesus Tradition in Q (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1997). 40.  See Christopher Tuckett, “Isaiah in Q,” in Moyise and Menken, eds., Isaiah in the New Testament, 51. 41.  See the discussion by Hooker, in “Isaiah in Mark’s Gospel,” 36–7. 42.  See Walter Brueggemann, “Unity and Diversity in Isaiah,” JSOT 29 (1984): 89–107; and Paul Hanson, Isaiah 40–66, IBC (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1995). 43.  The Hebrew verb is a Piel infinitive. The Greek verb form is an Aorist middle infinitive.



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proclaim good news to the poor ones” (Πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπʼ ἐμέ, οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν με, εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς). Mark, or his source, knew that Isaiah had much earlier proclaimed “the good news.”44 Six observations help us comprehend how Mark shaped his narrative and rhetoric with Isaiah in mind. First, focusing on how Mark mixes the quotations from Isaiah, Exodus, and Malachi, Morna Hooker shows that Mark used all three quotations to clarify that John the Baptizer’s role was simply to announce the appearance of Jesus from Nazareth.45 John is reported to say that he is unworthy to “untie the thong” of Jesus’ sandals, and cannot baptize with “the Holy Spirit.” Only Jesus from Nazareth has that ability and he alone has been chosen to proclaim “the good news from God.” Second, although Isaiah is not mentioned specifically, it is well known that in Mark 4:12 Jesus cites Isa. 6:9-11 to explain that he speaks in parables so that his hearers would perceive nothing and know nothing. This exegesis of First Isaiah is difficult theologically, even if we remember the report that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It also clashes with Mark’s statement in 4:33-34 that Jesus spoke in parables so that all were able to “hear” or understand him. Perhaps the interpretation of Isa. 6:9-11 derives from pre-Marcan circles. The purpose is apparent: Jews misunderstood Jesus not because he was a confused speaker, but because God did not want them to understand him. Third, after a long interlude, in 7:6-7 Mark excerpts a clear quotation from Isa. 29:13, probably from the Septuagint. The quotation from First Isaiah is specially attributed to the scroll of Isaiah and to the prophet “Isaiah,” who prophesied of the hypocrites who castigate Jesus’ disciples for not living according “to the tradition of the elders.” Here is the Isaianic quotation: This people with their lips honors me, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrinal-teachings the precepts of men. (my arrangement)

The major geographical area from which opposition to Jesus increased is clear; it is from Judea and Jerusalem (7:1). That city, ironically, was the home of Isaiah. The use of Isaiah in Mark in this passage is not sophisticated and appears clumsy. Perhaps Mark wanted to bring forward the 44.  See the research of Rikki E. Watts, Isaiah’s New Exodus and Mark, WUNT 88 [2nd series] (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997); and Marcus, The Way of the Lord. 45.  Hooker, “Isaiah in Mark’s Gospel,” 37.

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claim that Isaiah was important because he perceived Israel’s failures and these reoccur during Jesus’ ministry. Fourth, in 9:48 Mark excerpts, without attribution, the last verse in Isaiah (from Third Isaiah). Thus, he has Jesus warn his disciples that they could be thrown into Gehenna where “the worm does not die and the thirst is not quenched.” The Greek is similar but not identical to the LXX. Given the various text types represented by the LXX, it is no longer clear that the Evangelist is working only from the LXX. Fifth, in 11:17 Mark quotes Third Isaiah but uses the generic phrase, “it is written.” Jesus enters Jerusalem, goes up to the temple, and drives out “those who sold and those who bought in the temple” (11:15). He then quotes Isa. 56:7, shifting the words to a question: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?” Isaiah’s positive words and optimistic prophecy are transformed by Mark into a cause for condemnation. Mark then annexes to these words from Isaiah an apt quotation from Jeremiah: “But you have made it a den of robbers” (Jer. 7:11 in Mark 11:17). We cannot discern Mark’s text type; the words are a good translation of the Hebrew and also precisely what is found in the LXX.46 Sixth, the final quotation by Mark of Isaiah appears in ch. 13, “the Apocalyptic Discourse,” and is three chapters from the conclusion of his Gospel. When Mark wrote this discourse he knew that Titus and the Roman legions had or would soon conquer Jerusalem.47 In 13:24-25 Mark quotes from Isa. 13:10 and then Isa. 34:4, both from First Isaiah, but he may have also known similar words in Joel 2:10: But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, And the moon will not give its light, And the stars will be falling from heaven, And the powers in the heavens will be shaken. (my arrangement)

Mark thus emphasizes the cosmic events that will announce the coming of the Son of Man; but they did not occur. It is obvious that in chs. 4, 7, 9, 11, and 13 Mark used Isaiah to express judgment, condemnation, and punishment.

46.  See the good discussion in Hooker, “Isaiah in Mark’s Gospel,” 41. 47.  See the discussion in Joel Marcus, Mark 1–8: A New Translation with Commentary, ABC (New York: Doubleday, 2000).



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The Arch of Titus in Rome, which Commemorates the Defeat of the Jewish Nation in 70 CE [image: Charlesworth]

At least a few allusions to and echoes of Isaiah in Mark can also be perceived. In 6:48, Mark seems to echo Isa. 43:16 (“Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters”); note Mark’s words: And he (Jesus) saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

In 12:10, Mark quotes Psalm 118 (LXX 117):22, but he may have memorized Isa. 28:16 and 8:14: Have you not read this (following) scripture? “The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.” (my arrangement)

These excursions into Mark’s use of Isaiah do not indicate that he had memorized the scroll. He may be far more indebted to pre-Marcan traditions that we can now know, and perhaps, if he had spent years with Peter, he could have learned how Jesus’ message was remembered. He also could have been enriched from oral traditions that would come to him from the early preachers within the Palestinian Jesus Movement.

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This summary of Mark’s use of Isaiah helps us comprehend that Isaiah was exceptionally important for him. Mark is more influenced by the book of Isaiah than by any other biblical text. Or in Morna Hooker’s words: “Isaiah was of particular importance to Mark.”48 The Significance of Isaiah in Matthew Historians can claim little bibliographical information about the First Evangelist. Early Christians assumed he was the “Matthew” listed among the Twelve. It is intriguing to imagine that “Mattiya,” which in Hebrew means “the gift of YHWH,” is the name Jesus gave to Levi the tax collector noted in Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27. We have no information regarding the First Evangelist’s birth or early life. Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria recorded that Matthew focused on “the Hebrews.” Eusebius claims that Matthew composed his first edition in Hebrew. These unverifiable claims are not far from the modern consensus that Matthew is one of our most Jewish Gospels and was composed between 80 and 90 CE. Matthew is distinguished by his collection of Jesus sayings in the “Sermon on the Mount,” the portrayal of Jesus as a new Moses, the horrific condemnations of Jesus put into the mouth of Jews during Jesus’ passion, the lengthy description of Jesus’ resurrection, and the Great Commission by the resurrected Jesus to preach the Good News throughout the world. Matthew seeks to prove that Jesus is the Messiah promised by the prophets. How, in what ways, and to what degree of importance was Isaiah used, either in quotations or clear allusions, by the author of Matthew? From the outset, we should acknowledge how Matthew’s rhetorical narrative is permeated with scriptural quotations. He cites the Scriptures fifty-five times; in contrast, the other three Gospels—Mark, Luke, and John—cite Scripture a total of sixty-five times.49 With this fact in mind, we will give more attention to Matthew’s rhetoric in our study of his use of Isaiah. Matthew’s narrative evolves with abundant quotations from and allusions to the Jewish Scriptures.50 My focus now will be on obvious citations or echoes of Isaiah in Matthew; otherwise we would need to 48.  Hooker, “Isaiah in Mark’s Gospel,” 40. 49.  See Craig L. Blomberg, “Matthew,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old, 1. 50.  For the most recent books on this subject, see M. J. J. Menken, Matthew’s Bible: The Old Testament Text of the Evangelist, BETL 173 (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2004); R. C. Beaton, Isaiah’s Christ in Matthew’s Gospel, SNTSMS 123 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).



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include many allusions to Isaiah, such as the dependence on Isa. 1:15–17 in Matt. 6:7 and 23:23. The first clear quotation of Isaiah in Matthew is from the LXX version of Isaiah 7. In Matt. 1:23, Isaiah is chosen to prove Jesus’ birth from a virgin and according to God’s plan: “[A]ll this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (1:22). The prophet is obviously Isaiah and the emphasis is that God spoke through Isaiah to Matthew’s day and community. Matthew seems to be the first Jew to use Isa. 7:14 to proclaim the arrival of the Messiah (cf. the latter use in Luke 1:31 and Acts 12:1, 5).51 The rest of the quotation from Isaiah in 1:23—“and they shall name him Emmanuel”—is explained by Matthew. Emmanuel means “God is with us.” In 1:23, Matthew shifts from a putative LXX text to a Masoretic text type; in so doing, he brings out the perspective and hope that “they,” all who believe in Jesus as the Christ, shall “name him Emmanuel.”52 This exegesis makes little sense, because the child to be born is called Jesus. The meaning becomes clear, however, when the epithet is seen as honorific and a grand inclusio for Matthew. At the beginning and end of the Gospel, Jesus is hailed as “God is with us.” Recall the last words of Matthew: “And remember, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (28:20). The second use of Isaiah occurs in ch. 3 and after Matthew has cited Micah 5, 2 Samuel 5, Jeremiah 31, and other Scriptures. Attributing his excerpt to “the prophet Isaiah,” Matthew quotes Isaiah to explain that John the Baptizer, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” is portrayed as the one to prepare “the way of the Lord” (Matt. 3:3; Isa. 40:3). The use is clearly christological, since “the Lord” now means not God, but Jesus. It also denotes no longer the return from exile, but rather the arrival of the messianic age.

51.  As James Sanders showed, in 2:23 Matthew meant “Nazareth” by Ναζωραῖος but a double entendre is also possible. If so, Matthew is declaring Jesus’ messianic and Davidic identity; and thus we have an echo of Isa. 11:1. See James Sanders, The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, ed. C. A. Evans and W. R. Stegner, JSNTSup 104 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1994), 116–28. Also see W. D. Davies and Dale C. Allison, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, 3 vols. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988–1997), 1:280; see also Rudolf Pesch (“He Will Be Called a Nazorean,” in The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, 129–78), who explains the failure to find a biblical text for Matthew’s claim in 2:23; he appeals to the faith-experience of the Matthean messianic community. 52.  See R. C. Beaton “Isaiah in Matthew’s Gospel,” in Moyise and Menken, eds., Isaiah in the New Testament, 65–6.

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The third Isaianic quotation, in 4:15-16, is from Isa. 8:23b–9:1. Attributing the text to “the prophet Isaiah,” Matthew chooses this verse to establish Jesus’ ministry so that “the people who sat in darkness” might see “a great light” because “light has dawned.” The text is obviously intended to refer to Jesus as the great light. In an earlier passage Matthew had reported that his star had been seen rising by wise men (2:1-2). The fourth Isaianic quotation, in 8:17, is also attributed to “the prophet Isaiah.” It is explicitly christological. Matthew attempts to reveal that Isa. 53:4 shows how Jesus became the Suffering Servant: “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases” (8:17). The context is a report of how Jesus healed “all who were sick,” including Peter’s mother-in-law (8:14-17). The fifth quotation from Isaiah is very long, employing the well-known introductory formula: “This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah.” In 12:18-21 Matthew cites Isa. 42:1-4. The text form, however, differs from both the LXX and the MT. The quotation seems odd in the context, which is ambiguous. Perhaps Matthew chose the text to indicate that Jesus did not seek to be confrontational, but came to give Gentiles hope. The sixth Isaianic quotation, in 13:14-15, is from Isa. 6:9-10. Matthew claims that the “people’s heart has gown dull” and they do not understand his teaching so that “the prophecy of Isaiah” may be fulfilled. As in other Gospels, First Isaiah is used to explain why so many Jews failed to believe Jesus’ message. The seventh quotation, attributed to Isaiah by Jesus, according to 15:8-9, is from Isa. 29:13 and seems to represent the LXX text. Pharisees and scribes “from Jerusalem” accost Jesus because his disciples “transgress the tradition of the elders” (15:2). The quotation allows Jesus to call the Pharisees hypocrites. Matthew joins with the prophets in criticizing the Jewish nation, since some Jewish laws exceeded Torah requirements and burdened the average Jew. The eighth quotation occurs six chapters later in 21:5. (Third) Isaiah 62:11 is mined to explain how Jesus entered Jerusalem. The text is taken literally. Somewhat humorously, if absurdly, Jesus’ disciples put their garments on two animals and Jesus sat “on them” (21:7). Matthew strove to prove that Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled as Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem from the east, where his star had been seen rising, and as “the King” of Daughter Zion. The ninth quotation, introduced only by “it is written,” is found in 21:13. (Third) Isaiah 56:7 is used by Matthew to clarify Jesus’ actions in the temple. By omitting “for the nations” Matthew highlights the parallelism between “a house of prayer” and “a den of robbers.” Thus,



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Matthew joins with many other Jews and Jewish texts in condemning the corruption present in some aspects of the temple cult. The tenth explicit quotation from Isaiah is in Matt. 24:29. It has no attribution and is not identified as a section of Scripture. The Evangelist uses Isa. 13:10 and 34 to clarify that Isaiah is referring to Matthew’s time and the eschaton. Matthew adds to Isaiah’s prediction that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Matthew also adds the claim that “all the tribes of the earth” will “see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (24:30). The prophecies of First Isaiah and Matthew remain unfilled; the Evangelist probably imagined that they would be soon fulfilled in the Parousia. Matthew’s formulaic quotations and the repetitive preface to them, “this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet,” represent a fulfillment hermeneutic that is possible through an exegesis that is revelatory. As Krister Stendahl showed long ago, Matthew’s use of scriptural quotations is like the fulfillment hermeneutic of the Qumran Pesharim; and it may open our eyes to something like a School of Matthew.53 That is, all portions of Isaiah are assumed to be speaking to Matthew’s own time, which is for him the End-time, and interpretation is possible only with the aid of the Holy Spirit. We have seen how important the book of Isaiah and the prophet Isaiah was for Matthew as he wrote his Gospel. Matthew chose Isaiah, and other prophets, to prove that they had accurately predicted episodes from Jesus’ birth to his passion, demonstrating that Jesus fulfilled the predictions about the Messiah. We have seen, using the words of Richard Beaton, that “Isaiah plays a profound role in the message of the gospel of Matthew.”54 Matthew used Isaiah with creative license and in a complex, christological way that, as we have seen, often shifts the focus from the Lord God to the Lord Jesus. The Significance of Isaiah in Luke Many Christians tend to assume that Luke is the physician who followed Paul on his missionary journeys. They sometimes cite Acts (16; 20; 27–28); Col. 4:14; and 2 Tim. 4:11 to support that conclusion. By contrast, historians conclude that we have only legends about Luke. While most experts presuppose that Luke was a Greek, there are other specialists who contend he was a Diasporic (or Hellenized) Jew (Ellis, McCall). Luke 53.  Krister Stendahl, The School of Matthew and its Use of the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968). 54.  Beaton, “Isaiah in Matthew’s Gospel,” 63–78; the quotations are from p. 63.

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extends the life of Jesus with the ascension and in Acts so that it flows into the life of the early church. No consensus exists regarding the date of Luke, though most experts conclude it was composed after 85 CE and some suggest it was much later. In 1:1-4, Luke implies he was not an eyewitness to Jesus. Despite confessional claims few scholars today assume that the “we” sections of Acts prove that Luke was personally present. According to early traditions, Luke was a native of Antioch. For example, the “Anti-Marcionite Prologue to the Gospel of Luke” claims Luke was born in Antioch, a physician, a disciple and companion of Paul, and that he died at the age of eighty-four. Epiphanius (Panarion 51.11) reports that Luke was one of the Seventy. Luke seems to address his Gospel to Greeks and Romans and exhibits a mastery of Greek. He may well have known Polybius’ works, since the opening of his gospel uses termini technici found in Polybius’s Book XII. Reflecting his universalism, Luke traces Jesus’ lineage back to Adam, the father of all humans. Luke claims to present in an accurate and orderly method Jesus’ traditions and life. Luke is important for many reasons. He places an emphasis on Jesus’ compassion and inclusion of Samaritans, women, lepers, soldiers, sinners, and the poor. Only Luke reports Jesus’ stories of the sinful woman, the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, Lazarus and the rich man, the good thief, and the Good Samaritan. Before key moments in Jesus’ life, Luke portrays Jesus preoccupied by prayer; and he claims that Jesus sometimes spent all night praying to God (6:12). Only Luke reports Jesus’ ascension (24:50-53). It is certain that Luke wants his readers to understand that he is a careful historian who has examined the facts and presented an orderly account of Jesus’ life and teachings (Luke 1:1-4). It is widely accepted that the same author composed both the Third Gospel and Acts. The language and perspective are similar and both are addressed to “Theophilus” (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1). How, in what ways, and to what degree of importance was Isaiah used, either in quotations or clear allusions, in Luke? Before concluding with a review of the most exciting and challenging issues and questions raised by the use of Isaiah in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), due to information provided by one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we must explore how Luke chose to use Isaiah in order to proclaim Jesus’ messiahship.55 55.  See the insightful work of Donald Juel, Messianic Exegesis: Christological Interpretation of the Old Testament in Early Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988).



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At the beginning of this chapter, we suggested how influential the book of Isaiah was on the author of Luke–Acts. According to a passage found only in Luke, Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee in Nazareth, his home town, and in a synagogue. The building has not yet been discovered (whether in Nazareth or a location those in Nazareth frequented). Jesus rises and reads to those around him: And he [Jesus] came to Nazareth…and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read: and there was given to him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled56 the scroll and found the place where it is written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those whom are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” And he rolled up57 the scroll, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. (Luke 4:16-20)

Thus, according to Luke, and in a passage that millions of Christians have memorized, Jesus begins his ministry in a synagogue reading from a scroll that is unrolled all the way to Isaiah 61. Luke shares with Mark and Matthew two quotations from Isaiah (Luke 3:4-5 cites Isa. 40:3-5 and Luke 19:46 cites Isa. 56:7). He also adds two others (Luke 4:18-19 cites Isa. 61:1-2a [with 58:6] and Luke 22:37 cites Isa. 53:12). In Acts, Luke includes five more quotations: 7:49-50 cites Isa. 66:1-2; 8:32-33 draws from Isa. 53:7-8; 13:34 draws from Isa. 55:3; 13:47 is from Isa. 49:6; and 28:26-27 draws from Isa. 6:9-11. Though Luke does not quote Scripture as often as Matthew, he chooses to enable Isaiah to make evident how important his drammatis personae are in the history of salvation. Luke introduces John the Baptizer, Jesus, and Stephen by quoting Isaiah, and in the final scene in Acts he depicts Paul quoting Isaiah, through whom “the Holy Spirit” had spoken (28:2527).58 Thus, Bart J. Koet rightly states, “Isaiah is a key to the understanding of Luke-Acts as a whole.”59 56.  Luke is not referring to “a book” as in so many translations (as the NRSV); the Greek verb means “to unroll.” 57.  The verb is similar to the previous one that means “to unroll.” The meaning is not to roll up to the beginning; it means to roll up tight again. 58.  Bart Koet “Isaiah in Luke–Acts,” in Moyise and Menken, eds., Isaiah in the New Testament, 79–80. 59.  Koet “Isaiah in Luke–Acts,” 80.

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Now, in conclusion to this review of the use of Isaiah by Paul and the Synoptic Evangelists, we may examine an especially significant passage in Luke. Jesus is reported to have answered a riveting question delivered by the disciples of John the Baptizer, his cousin and his own teacher: Is he indeed “the one-who-is-to-come? After curing many individuals of their diseases, plagues, evil spirits, and blindness, according to Luke, Jesus is reported to have replied: Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. (Luke 7:22; cf. Matt. 11:4-5)

These words are taken from numerous sections of Isaiah—specifically, 29:18; 35:5, 6; 42:18; 26:19; and 61:1. Note the following impressive parallels [Luke in italics]: The blind receive their sight. “The eyes of the blind will see” (Isa. 29:18) “The eyes of the bind will be opened” (Isa. 35:5) The lame walk. “The lame shall leap like a deer.” (Isa. 35:6) The deaf hear. “The deaf shall hear.” (Isa. 29:18) “The ears of the deaf (will be) unstopped.” (Isa. 35:5) The dead are raised up. Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.” (Isa. 26:19) The poor have good news preached to them. (The one anointed with the Spirit) will bring good news to the poor. (Isa. 61:1)

The quotation is taken by Luke and Matthew from a common sayings source, most likely Q. As Christopher Tuckett claims, Q, along with Luke and Matthew, is affirming: “[T]he hoped for events of the Isaianic expectations are being fulfilled in Jesus’ present ministry.”60 It has become clear that Jesus’ claims are framed by the attempt to show that Jesus fulfilled what was prophesied by Isaiah. Can we find an 60.  Christopher Tuckett, “Isaiah in Q,” in Moyise and Menken, eds., Isaiah in the New Testament, 54.



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early Jewish text that combines all of Isaiah’s prophetic announcements and attributes them to the Messiah? The answer was “no” until fairly recently. Now we have an astounding claim in 4Q521 (4QOn Resurrection). Note how “the Messiah” is depicted in this text (4Q521 Frag 2, col. 2; my literal translation):61 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 12

[For the heav]ens and the earth shall obey his Messiah. [and all that] (is) within them. He shall not turn back from the commandments of the Holy Ones. Persist, you who seek the Lord, in his service. Will you not find the Lord in this, all who wait in their hearts? For the Lord shall seek out the pious ones, and shall call the righteous ones by name. And over the poor ones his spirit shall hover. And he shall give his power (to) those who are faithful. For he shall glorify the pious ones with the throne of the eternal kingdom. He shall liberate the captives, open the eyes of the blind ones, straighten those b[ent down]. And for[eve]r I shall cling [to those who] wait, and in his loving kindnesss […] 10 … 11 … For he shall heal the slain ones, bring life (to) the dead ones,62 announce (to) the poor ones …

When one compares the two accounts, the one in Luke and the one in the Qumran text, many questions easily come to mind that are not so easily answered. It is impressive to recognize, as we begin to reflect, that the order is the same: curing the blind, healing the lame or those b[ent down], resurrecting the dead, and proclaiming something salubrious to the poor ones. How do we explain the similarity between two Jewish texts from approximately the same time (each predates 70 CE)? Had Jews, perhaps Qumran Essenes, informed John the Baptizer about a text or tradition that contained all these claims?63 Had John taught Jesus these proofs 61.  I present this text in smaller script so that lines of the fragment are clear. 62.  Recall Amidah, Second Benediction: ‫ברוך אתה י י י מהיה המתים‬. 63.  See James Tabor and Michael Wise (“The Messiah at Qumran,” in Qumran Questions, ed. J. H. Charlesworth [Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1995], who suggest that Jesus may have known this text and conceivably imagined that he was the Messiah.

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regarding the one-who-was-to-come? When John sent his disciples to query Jesus, did Jesus answer them by quoting a text that would indicate to John that he was indeed destined to be declared the Messiah? Was this a passing whimsy by Jesus or a deep conviction that defined his later life? These fascinating questions take us deep into Second Temple Judaism and the Palestinian Jesus Movement. Before we leave Luke, it is helpful to perceive Luke’s challenge from Theophilus, most likely a Gentile who had been one of the “God Fearers” in a Diasporic synagogue. Darrell L. Bock helps us imagine the questions that Luke might have thought Theophilus was raising: “ ‘What is a Gentile doing in what was essentially a Jewish movement, especially when Jews around the world are reacting negatively to it?’; ‘Is God really in this work?’; ‘Do I really need to be prepared to suffer for this belief?’ ”64 With such a focused question and the preceding review, we have obtained a clearer glimpse into why Luke excerpted Isaiah to answer Theophilus. Luke’s methodology makes eminent sense when we realize that Justin (Dial. Tryph. 3:1), Tatian (Orat. Ad Graec. 29.2) and Theophilus of Antioch (Ad Autolycum 1.141-15), as Martin Hengel reminded us, became Christians by studying the “prophetic Scriptures.”65 The Significance of Isaiah in John I have chosen to present the Fourth Evangelist last, primarily because of the date customarily assigned to the final edition of John (after 90 CE) and secondly because of the usual canonical order. In fact, however, the Gospel of John preserves some of the earliest Jesus traditions and appeared successively in more than three editions. The present edition, minus 7:53–8:11, is usually dated near the end of the first century CE. I have dated the first edition to sometime before 70 CE, because of the clear Essene influences, as well as the precise architectural and topographical descriptions of Jerusalem before 70, when the Roman armies burned Jerusalem and left a thick conflagration level that continues to define excavations within Jerusalem.66 64.  Darrell L. Bock, “Proclamation from Prophecy and Pattern: Luke’s Use of the Old Testament for Christology and Mission,” in The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, 306. 65.  Martin Hengel, “The Old Testament in the Fourth Gospel,” in The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, 380. 66.  See James H. Charlesworth (ed.), John and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Christian Origins Library (New York: Crossroad, 1990); idem, “Reinterpreting John: How



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For about 2,000 years scholars and virtually all Christians assumed the Fourth Evangelist was “John,” one of the sons of Zebedee chosen for discipleship by Jesus. Many also contended that he wrote the Johannine Epistles and Revelation. Two leading Roman-Catholic experts on the Gospel of John—Schnackenburg and R. E. Brown—assumed in their multivolume commentaries that the Apostle John was the author of John. After independently focusing on this question, however, each one later concluded that the hypothesis is virtually impossible. Neither of the sons of Zebedee appears in John, nor are they named in the appendix (ch. 21). Many of the pericopes in the Synoptics in which James and John, the Sons of Zebedee, appear are missing in John. How can this be explained if the Gospel of John was composed by a son of Zebedee? Therefore, the author of John remains unknown. Early traditions place the Apostle and Evangelist John in Ephesus. In his Dialogue with Trypho (81), Justin Martyr reported that the Apostle John lived at Ephesus. Irenaeus also states that the Apostle John wrote his Gospel in Ephesus (Against Heresies 3.1.1). The accounts of the Apostle John in the apocryphal acts, however, are devoid of historical accuracy. The importance of the Gospel of John resides in the christological claim that Jesus is from above, became “flesh,” was completely obedient to God, and announced from the cross that all had been accomplished. No New Testament author so clearly writes about Jesus’ preexistence, or seeks to explain that no distinction should be posited between God and Jesus, while concomitantly displaying a clear tension that portrays Jesus as an embodiment of God and, yet, one who can do nothing on his own authority, was fully flesh, collapsed exhausted and thirsty by Jacob’s well in Samaria, and cries at Lazarus’s death. Both full humanity and naïve Docetism reside together in John; perhaps the first edition was more Docetic.

the Dead Sea Scrolls Have Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Gospel of John,” BR 9, no. 1 (1993): 19–25, 54; idem, “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel According to John,” in Exploring the Gospel of John: In Honor of D. Moody Smith, ed. R. A. Culpepper and C. C. Black (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996), 65–97; idem, “The Priority of John? Reflections on the Essenes and the First Edition of John,” in Für und wider die Priorität des Johannesevangeliums: Symposium in Salzburg am 10. März 2000, ed. P. L. Hofrichter, Theologische Texte und Studien 9 (Hildesheim; Zürich; New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2002), 73–114.

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John contains seventeen scriptural quotation formulae,67 one quotation is attributed to a celebrating “crowd” (12:13). Three appeals to Scripture are presented without a quotation formula: 1:45 (“the prophets wrote”); 5:39 (a generic appeal to “the scriptures”); 5:46 (“Moses…that one wrote of me”). What is the rhetorical function of Scripture for John? In The Quotation of Scripture and Unbelief in John 12:36b–43, John Painter offers this sage advice: “In this way a profound interpretation is given to what otherwise could be understood as very ordinary events.”68 How, in what ways, and to what degree of importance was Isaiah used, either in quotations, echoes, or clear allusions in John? In contrast to Matthew, the systematic exploration of John’s use of the Scriptures has not been impressive.69 Now, the influence of Isaiah on John is the focus of Professor Michael Daise’s forthcoming monograph, Quotations in Context: Studies in the Johannine Use of Jewish Scripture. Daise begins with the methodological conviction that much work can still be done on the quotations in John from historical-critical and theological vantage points. He pursues this conviction by exploring sets of quotations that are bound together by linguistic and thematic features: • •

Three quotations are explicitly ascribed to Isaiah (John 1:23 cites Isa. 40:3; John 12:38 cites Isa. 53:1; John 12:40 cites Isa. 6:10). Three quotations are introduced with “remembrance” formulae (John 2:17 cites Ps. 69:10; John 12:13 cites Ps. 118:25-26; John 12:15 cites Zech. 9:9).

John the Baptizer’s testimony in John 1:23 contains a quotation of Isa. 40:3, which ends with an attribution to “the prophet Isaiah.” John 12:38 begins the quotation of Isa. 53:1 with the citation formula “the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah.” The Fourth Evangelist wishes to stress that 67.  John 1:23; 2:17; 6:31, 45; 7:38, 42; 10:34; 12:14-15, 38, 39-41; 13:18; 15:25; 17:12; 19:24, 28, 36, 37. I am indebted to John Painter for this list—see John Painter, “The Quotation of Scripture and Unbelief in John 12:36b-43,” in The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, 429. 68.  Painter, “Quotation,” 429. 69.  Stanley E. Porter (“Can Traditional Exegesis Enlighten Literary Analysis of the Fourth Gospel? An Examination of the Old Testament Fulfillment Motif and the Passover Theme,” in The Gospels and the Scriptures of Israel, 401) reports: “Little systematic attention has been given to the use of the Old Testament in the Fourth Gospel…”



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Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled by the “Judeans’ ” unbelief, even though Jesus performed many signs. Almost immediately, John quotes Isa. 6:10 and again attributes it to “Isaiah.” The passages that report that the disciples “remembered that it was written” (2:17) or later remembered what had been written (12:13-16) are not excerpts from Isaiah. They are from the Davidic Psalms and Zechariah. All of the quotations of Isaiah in John are in the section which Brown rightly labeled “The Book of Signs” or John 1:19–12:50.70 I am impressed that all the clear citations of Isaiah are in the chapters that are widely recognized as the first edition of John.71 The Fourth Evangelist quotes from three biblical books: the Psalms, Zechariah, and Isaiah. In his 2013 dissertation, Paweł Rytel-Andrianik provides the first major monograph on the use of Isaiah in John. He observes four aspects of John’s use of Isaiah. First, a biblical citation is used with different meanings in different contexts. Second, defective hearing or memory should not explain deviations; they are due to exegetical techniques. Third, the Fourth Evangelist, who is freer in composing citations than are the Synoptics, chooses Isaiah to establish prophetic authority. Fourth, as we have seen with other Evangelists, John shifts references from God to Jesus Christ in his quotations of Isaiah. In 6:45, the Fourth Evangelist also alludes to Isa. 54:13, but it is not attributed to Isaiah. Why? It is most likely because the citation is an allusion not only to Isa. 54:13 but also to other biblical passages including Jer. 31:33-34. Appropriately then, the citation “And they shall all be taught by God” is introduced with these words: “It is written in the prophets.” The Fourth Evangelist chooses this verse to prove Jesus’ claim: “Each who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (6:45). In summation, as Catrin H. Williams points out, although Isaiah is not quoted by the Fourth Evangelist as much as the Psalms, the prophetic book provides impressive parallels to John’s symbolic language; hence: “Isaiah and the Psalms are undoubtedly equal partners.” One needs to comprehend that Isaiah, especially Second Isaiah, has shaped John’s Christology far more than explicit citations or allusions alone would suggest. Williams’s 70.  Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John I–XII, AB 9 (Garden City: Doubleday; London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966). 71.  Daise also highlights citations of “Scripture” that the Fourth Evangelist thought were fulfilled during Jesus’ crucifixion. These four are John 19:23-24, which cites Ps. 22:19; John 19:36 which cites Exod. 12:10, 46 and Num. 9:12; John 19:2830, which may allude to Pss. 43:3; 63:2; and 69:22; and John 19:37, which cites Zech. 12:10.

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insight is apt: “Such allusive modes of verbal and thematic scriptural reference attest the deeply embedded and thoroughly absorbed character of John’s use of Isaiah, and reflect the extensive process of Christological reflection on scripture from which this gospel emerged.”72 Hengel concluded that the Fourth Evangelist used scriptural proofs with “a greater significance than has generally been recognized.” Note his final remarks: “One thing remains certain: phenomenologically…the Fourth Gospel is to be understood primarily from the Jewish sources of its period and it is at the same time the climax of the new, extremely bold, Christological thought at the very end of the apostolic age.”73 The Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 53 In the introduction to this essay it was mentioned that most Christians knew that the Suffering Servant concept in Isaiah 53 played a major role in the development of Christology. In the Self-Glorification Hymn the author portrays one among “the Elim,” or “gods,” and reports that he has suffered as Isaiah had prophesied: Who was reckoned contemptible with me? And who has been despised lik[e] me? [And who] like me was rejected [by men]?74 [And who bears]75 evil compared with m[e]?

The author of the Self-Glorification Hymn composes his masterpiece with concepts and terms he has remembered from Isaiah 53. This new evidence is impressive, but the Hymn is neither eschatological nor messianic. No Jewish text prior to Jesus clearly presents a Messiah who will suffer. According to the author of 4 Ezra, the Messiah comes and dies, but he does not suffer and his death is not efficacious. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah appears as a messianic figure for the first time in the proclamations of Jesus’ earliest Jewish followers, whose claims were shaped by their experience of Jesus’ passion and Easter 72.  For the quotations from Williams see Catrin H. Williams, “Isaiah in John’s Gospel,” in Moyise and Menken, Isaiah in the New Testament, 101. 73.  Hengel, “The Old Testament,” 380–95 (quotation on 390). 74.  This is an echo and a quotation from Isa. 53:3: ‫נבזה וחדל אישׁים‬. “He is despised and rejected by men (meaning “incompetent men).” Note the echoes from Isaiah 53, “the servant song,” are obvious throughout this hymn. 75.  See Isa. 53:4: “And he bears (‫ )סבלם‬our sorrows.” The same verb appears restored in our text [my editing].



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faith. The profound importance of Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant” for both the Early Jewish thought and the Christology of Earliest Christianity is highlighted in a recent book (note the title): The Gospel According to Isaiah 53: Encountering the Suffering Servant in Jewish and Christian Theology.76

A Modern Mosaic Near Jacob’s Well in Samaria [image: Charlesworth]

76.  D. L. Bock and M. Glaser (eds.), The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2012); see also The Messiah in Isaiah 53: The Commentaries of Sa‘adia Gaon, Salmon ben Yeruham, and Yefet ben Eli on Is 52:13–53:12, ed. and trans. J. Alobaidi, La Bible dans l’histoire 2 (New York: Peter Lang, 1998). These scholars lived in the ninth and tenth centuries CE.

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Summary Reflecting on our examinations of how and in what ways the book of Isaiah inspired Paul and the Evangelists leads us to some surprising insights. Among them the following seem most important: 1. Only the sacra scriptura that were later included in the canon were chosen for explicit citation by Paul and the Evangelists, even though it is certain they each knew and were shaped by more contemporaneous compositions, probably deemed “sacred,” which we now categorize as the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and Dead Sea Scrolls. 2. The interpretation may be adumbrated within the quotation itself. Sometimes the biblical excerpt is identical to the well-known versions of the Hebrew or Greek Bible. Sometimes it does not correspond to any known text type. Thus, we should be open to the possibility that, like the authors of the Pesharim, the New Testament authors deliberately altered the biblical text to emphasize that it proved Jesus’ incomparable status. Most likely performance and oral traditions also altered citations, echoes, and allusions. 3. Isaiah was probably the major source for mining prophecies used to prove Jesus’ uniqueness and messiahship. 4. Early in the first century CE, believing Jews found proof of Jesus’ messiahship in his life and teachings and not in Jewish texts that mention God’s Messiah. Their method was to shine light on Jesus’ life, passion, and resurrection from prophecies found notably in Isaiah. 5. Proclamations about Jesus were supported by Scripture, especially Isaiah, and read with the assistance of “the Holy Spirit,” as in the Pesharim. 6. As with the Pesharim, a hermeneutic of fulfillment shaped exegesis and the dominant presupposition was that the sacred prophecies referred to Jesus, the Palestinian Jesus Movement, and to the End-time. 7. In the Pesharim, prophecies were shifted so that they clearly referred to the incomparable “Righteous Teacher.” Likewise, prophecies were chosen and adapted so that they more obviously referred to Jesus as the proclaimed Christ. Some of the aspects of Jesus’ life were mined from prophecy and not from secular history.



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8. Most astoundingly, very early, perhaps already in the 30s, Jews quoted the biblical text so that references to God were transferred to Jesus, the proclaimed Christ. A stepping stone in that direction may be the concept that there are two powers in heaven and the exaltation of an anonymous one seated among the “gods,” as found especially in the Self-Glorification Hymn. The “LORD God” within Second Temple Judaism became identified with “Jesus, the Lord” within a Palestinian sect of Jews that was once small and insignificant. 9. Citations and echoes of Scripture sometimes evolve into a portrayal of the divinity or humanity of Jesus. In some places, citations or allusions are used to argue for the identity of Jesus with God. In other places, the Scripture is chosen to prove that Jesus is the Messiah because he has physically descended from David. Thus, from the earliest decades of the movement that will be called “Christian,” there is a tension involved in affirming Jesus’ unity with God and his distinction from God. 10. Finally, as a mirror of the diversity, and conceivably the factionalism, within Second Temple Judaism, we see a variety of exegetical methods that should not be systematized but appreciated for their creativity. In retrospect, we may better imagine how each of the three alleged authors of Isaiah 1–66 has been hailed as inspired and prophetic by Christian leaders for almost 2,000 years, following the lead of authors in the New Testament. These prophets were perceived as geniuses inspired by God who prophesied concerning not only the Anointed One, but also Jesus, the Messiah. The following excerpts from the book of Isaiah were chosen by the earliest followers of the Palestinian Jesus Movement to explain Jesus’ life, his Passion, and salvation (L. C. L. Benton’s old translation of the Septuagint is quoted): Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. (7:14) Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulder: and his name is called the Messenger of great counsel: for I will bring peace upon the princes, and health to him. His

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah government shall be great, and of his peace there is no end: it shall be upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to support it with judgment and with righteousness, from henceforth and for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform this. (9:6-7) And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from his root: and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness shall fill him; the spirit of the fear of God. He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to report: but he shall judge the cause of the lowly, and shall reprove the lowly of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the word of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he destroy the ungodly one. And he shall have his loins girt with righteousness, and his sides clothed with truth. And the wolf shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the young calf and bull and lion shall feed together; and a little child shall lead them. And the ox and bear shall feed together; and their young shall be together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And an infant shall put his hand on the holes of asps, and on the nest of young asps. And they shall not hurt, nor shall they at all be able to destroy any one on my holy mountain: for the whole world is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the seas. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall arise to rule over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust, and his rest shall be glorious (11:1-10). Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor shall his voice be heard without. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench; but he shall bring forth judgment to truth. He shall shine out, and shall not be discouraged, until he shall set judgment on the earth: and in his name shall the Gentiles trust. (42:1-4) Behold, my servant shall understand, and be exalted, and glorified exceedingly. As many shall be amazed at thee, so shall thy face be without glory from men, and thy glory shall not be honoured by the sons of men. Thus shall many nations wonder at him; and kings shall keep their mouths shut: for they to whom no report was brought concerning him, shall see; and they who have not heard, shall consider. (52:13-15) O Lord, who has believed our report [cit. John 12:28; Rom. 10:16] and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We brought a report as of a child before him; he is as a root in a thirsty land: he has no form nor comeliness; and we saw him, but he had no form nor beauty. But



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his form was ignoble, and inferior to that of the children of men; he was a man in suffering, and acquainted with the bearing of sickness, for his face is turned from us: he was dishonoured, and not esteemed. He bears our sins, and is pained for us: yet we accounted him to be in trouble, and in suffering, and in affliction [cit. Matt. 8:17]. But he was wounded on account of our sins, and was bruised because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his bruises we were healed [cit. 1 Pet. 2:24]. All we as sheep have gone astray; every one has gone astray in his way; and the Lord gave him up for our sins. And he, because of his affliction, opens not his mouth: he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth [cit. Acts 8:32-33]. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken away from the earth: because of the iniquities of my people he was led to death. And I will give the wicked for his burial, and the rich for his death; for he practised no iniquity, nor craft with his mouth [cit. 1 Pet. 2:22]. The Lord also is pleased to purge him from his stroke. If ye can give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed: the Lord also is pleased to take away from the travail of his soul, to shew him light, and to form him with understanding; to justify the just one who serves many well; and he shall bear their sins. Therefore he shall inherit many, and he shall divide the spoils of the mighty; because his soul was delivered to death: and he was numbered among the transgressors; and he bore the sins of many, and was delivered because of their iniquities. (53:1-12)

The early members of the Palestinian Jesus Movement imagined that many of these images helped them explain the life of Jesus, why he was crucified, and why God raised him from the dead. Conclusion Once again, we are impressed by the symbolic language, sophisticated creativity, and faithful devotion to God’s Word on the part of Jews who lived before the end of Ancient Israel with the defeat of the false messiah, Simon Bar Kokhba, in 135/6 CE. It is clear that Isaiah, through citations, allusions, echoes, and inspirations, has influenced Paul and more notably each Evangelist. In many ways, Isaiah may be the most important biblical book for Paul and each of the canonical Evangelists. Biblical citations, echoes, and allusions equally serve to convey the proclamations in the New Testament since the authors were almost always living and thinking in the languages of the Bible: Hebrew, Aramaic, and also Greek.

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Second Isaiah invites us to imagine that “the trees” will be able to “clap their hands” (55:12). The symbolic language of those in the putative “Isaiah School” from the eighth century to the third century BCE bequeathed to our culture an enduring poetic imagination that allows us to see not only rainbows, but eloquent rainbows; not only brooks, but laughing brooks; not only waterfalls, but symphonic waterfalls. Raise high your eyes and look: Who created these things? (Isa. 40:26)

Upper Galilee as Seen During the Rainy Season: Waterfalls [image: Charlesworth]

In compiling the following chart, I am indebted to Steve Moyise and Maarten J. J. Menken, as well as J. Ross Wagner.



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Isaiah: Index of Quotations and Main Allusions in Paul and the Gospels Matthew [11 times] 1:23 (Isa. 7:14) 3:3 (Isa. 40:3) 4:15-16 (Isa. 8:23b–9:1) 5:1-11 (Isa. 61:1-2) 8:17 (Isa. 53:4) 11:5 (Isa. 26:19; 29:18-19; 35:5-6; 61:1) 12:18-21 (Isa. 42:1-4) 13:13-15 (Isa. 6:9-10) 15:8-9 (Isa. 29:13) 21:13 (Isa. 56:7) 24:29 (Isa. 13:10, 34) Mark [7 times] 1:3 (Isa. 40:3) 4:12 (Isa. 6:9-10) 7:6-7 (Isa. 29:13) 9:48 (Isa. 66:24) 11:17 (Isa. 56:7) 12:1-12 (Isa. 5:1-2) 13:24-25 (Isa. 13:10; 34:4) Luke [14 times] 2:29-32 (Isa. 49:6) 3:4-6 (Isa. 40:3-5) 3:8 (Isa. 51:2) 4:18-19 (Isa. 61:1-2) 6:20-23 (Isa. 61:1-2) 6:24-26 (Isa. 61) 6:29-30 (Isa. 50:6) 7:18-29 (Isa. 61) 7:22 (Isa. 26:19; 29:18-19; 35:5-6; 49:6; 61:1-2) 8:4-15 (Isa. 6) 10:15 (Isa. 14:13, 15) 10:23-24 (Isa. 6:9-10) 19:46 (Isa. 56:7) 22:37 (Isa. 53:12) John [4 times] 1:23 (Isa. 40:3) 6:45 (Isa. 54:13) 12:38 (Isa. 53:1) 12:40 (Isa. 6:10)

Romans [16 times] 2:24 (Isa. 52:5) 3:15-17 (Isa. 59:7-8) 9:20 (Isa. 29:16; 45:9) 9:27-28 (Isa. 10:22-23; 28:22) 9:29 (Isa. 1:9) 9:33 (Isa. 8:14; 28:16) 10:11 (Isa. 28:16) 10:15 (Isa. 52:7) 10:16 (Isa. 53:1) 10:20-21 (Isa. 65:1, 2) 11:7-10 (Isa. 6.9-10) 11:8 (Isa. 29:10) 11:26-27 (Isa. 27:9; 59:20-21) 14:11 (Isa. 45:23) 15:12 (Isa. 11:10) 15:21 (Isa. 52:15) 1 Corinthians [8 times] 1:17 (Isa. 61:1) 1:19 (Isa. 29:14) 1:20 (Isa. 19:11-12; 33:18; 44:25) 2:16 (Isa. 40:13) 14:21 (Isa. 28:11-12) 14:25 (Isa. 45:14) 15:32 (Isa. 22:13) 15:54 (Isa. 25:8) 2 Corinthians [6 times] 4:6 (Isa. 9:1[2]) 4:11 (Isa. 53:12) 5:17 (Isa. 42:9; 43:18-19; 48:3, 6-7) 6:2 (Isa. 49:8) 7:6 (Isa. 49:13) 9:10 (Isa. 55:10) Galatians [2 times] 1:15-2:10 (Isa. 49:1-6) 4:27 (Isa. 54:1)

T he I n f l u en c e of I s a i a h on J e wi sh a n d C h r i s t i a n L i tur gi e s*

Mirosław S. Wróbel

The book of Isaiah, with its deeply spiritual message, is used abundantly in Jewish and Christian liturgies.1 In liturgy the present time is connected with eternity, and heaven and earth are able to touch one another. In liturgy the human heart with all of its deepest longings is opened up to God, the source of life and fulfillment. Human suffering is met by God’s compassion; human questions are met by God’s answers; human prayer is met by God’s presence. The text of Isaiah, having been written during the course of the long history of Israel wherein the pain and suffering of the nation were met by God’s gift of freedom and salvation, can serve as a wonderful bridge connecting heaven and earth. The visions of Isaiah are full of symbolism, and contain a timeless message of peace, love, and * I would like to express my gratitude to Professor James Charlesworth for his visit at John Paul II Catholic University in Poland during our International Conference, “The Inspiration and Truth of the Holy Scripture” (October 2014), and for his invitation to the Congress, “The Continuity of the Prophetic Genius of Isaiah,” in Jerusalem (August 2015). I am very grateful to my friends Rabbi Tomasz Krakowski from Warsaw and Rabbi Boaz Pash, former chief Rabbi from Cracow, who helped me to discover the beauty of Jewish liturgy enriched with the texts of the prophet Isaiah. 1.  See Robert Hayward, “The Chant of the Seraphim and the Worship of the Second Temple,” Proceedings of the Irish Biblical Association 20 (1997): 62–80; H. Seidel, “Gottesvolk und Gottesdienst: Lobgesänge im Himmel und auf Erden, in Gottesvolk. Beiträge zu einem Thema Biblischer Theologie, ed. A. Meinhold and R. Lux (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstal, 1991), 114–24; Niek Schuman, “Jesaja in de liturgie”, Schrift 39 (2007): 103–7; Frère Benoît-Marie, “Isaïe et liturgie chrétienne,” Lumiere et Vie 57 (2008): 95–8.



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hope, which overcome war, hatred, and distress. The main subject to be addressed in this chapter is the use of the book of Isaiah in Jewish and Christian liturgies. I. Jewish Liturgy The text of the prophet Isaiah appears frequently in Jewish liturgy. I will pay special attention to the use of Isaiah in daily Jewish prayers, in synagogue liturgy, and during the feasts—especially, Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av. One of the most important fragments of Jewish daily prayers is Kedushah, which is repeated three times: once in the blessings before the reading of Shema Israel, again in the prayer Shemoneh Esrei (Eighteen Blessings), and finally in the fragments after the prayer of Shemoneh Esrei. It contains the words of the Seraphim before the majesty of God, taken from the context of the call of Isa. 6:3: ‫ָקדֹוׁש ָקדֹוׁש ָקדֹוׁש יְ הוָ ה ְצ ָבאֹות‬ ‫ל־ה ָא ֶרץ ְּכבֹודֹו‬ ָ ‫“( ְמלֹא ָכ‬Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory”). Before the third Kedushah, after the prayer Shemoneh Esrei, we find the text of Isa. 59:20-21, which contains the prophecy that God will come to Zion as Redeemer and His words will last forever in the eternal covenant between Him and His beloved Chosen One: “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the LORD. “And as for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.”

Additionally, the first blessings in the morning prayers contain the text of Isa. 40:15 from the second book of the consolation of Israel, which contrasts the impressive majesty and power of God with the weakness of nations and islands: “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.” The blessing which begins the prayer Shema Israel also contains the text of Isa. 45:7, in which God reveals His majesty as the Creator of all things: “The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.” This text appears also before the prayer of Shemoneh Esrei in the blessing called

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Cur Israel, which also contains the text of Isa. 47:4. In the context of lamentation over Babylon God is shown as the Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts, and the Holy One of Israel: “Our Redeemer, the LORD of Hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel.” The text of Isaiah appears in the blessings of the prayer Shemoneh Esrei. The blessing Teka BeShofar contains the text of Isa. 11:12, which describes a messianic descendant of David gathering and unifying the dispersed inhabitants of Israel and Judah: “And He will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” The blessing Hashivah Shofteinu contains the text of Isa. 1:26, which, in the context of lamentation over Jerusalem, announces the Holy City as the “City of Justice” and the “Faithful City”: “Then I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning; after that you will be called the City of Justice, A Faithful City.” After the prayer Shemoneh Esrei (Eighteen Blessings) there are three quotations from the book of Isaiah. The first one is Isa. 65:23, describing the blessing of Israel forever: “They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, and their descendants with them.” The second one, Isa. 26:4, encourages trust in the LORD, who is likened to an everlasting Rock: “Trust in the LORD forever, for in God the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.” The third quotation, from Isa. 42:21, describes the law as great and glorious: “The LORD was pleased for His righteousness’ sake to make the law great and glorious.” In the ending prayer Aleinu we find two quotations from the book of Isaiah. The first one is Isa. 45:20, 23, the context of which is a polemic against pagan idols. God is the Lord of universe and every knee shall bow before Him. This fragment was the object of censorship by the rabbis. It reads: “Gather yourselves and come; draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; they have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idol, and pray to a god who cannot save… I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.” The second quotation is from Isa. 51:13, which describes the consequences of forgetting the LORD, the true Master, and fear in the presence of the fury of the oppressor: “That you have forgotten the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; that you fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, as he makes ready to destroy? But where is the fury of the oppressor?”



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In the prayer Al Tira there are two quotations from the prophet Isaiah. The first one is Isa. 8:10, which depicts God with His people against all enemies: “Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not stand, for God is with us.” The second quotation is from Isa. 46:4 and it describes the faithfulness of God toward the people He has chosen: “Even to your old age, I shall be the same, and even to your graying years I shall bear you! I have done it, and I shall carry you; and I shall bear you, and I shall deliver you.” At the end of the prayers there is the fragment from the Talmud, Masechet Berakhot 64a, which offers an explanation of the text of Isa. 54:13. It appears in the context of a description of the New Jerusalem. This text stresses that the sons of the New Jerusalem will experience happiness and they will be disciples of the LORD: “And all your sons will be taught of the LORD; and the well-being of your sons will be great.” The ceremonial reading of the biblical text in the synagogue takes place on Saturdays as well as holidays (in the ancient Palestinian tradition, the liturgy of the Word used to be celebrated also on Mondays and on Thursdays). The synagogue liturgy is made up of strictly defined elements.2 The reading of the Word of God is first preceded by the recitation of the formula Shema Israel—Israel’s confession of faith in the Only True God (Deut. 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Num. 15:37-41). The prayer of Shema Israel is surrounded by four blessings (Berakoth), two preceding it, and two following it. After the Shema Israel, while standing, the prayer of Shmoneh Esreh (Amidah) is said.3 Before starting the reading and after finishing it, a blessing is pronounced for all the participants (b. Megilla 21b; y. Megilla 3:7). The text of the Torah is divided into smaller sections (sedarim) comprising at least ten verses each. In the course of a three-year cycle, the whole of the Torah is read in synagogues. The reading from the Torah is then followed by a reading from the second part of the Hebrew Bible: the Haftarah, that is, the Prophets (Nebi’im). The text of the book of Isaiah is an important part of this second reading. The third part of the Hebrew Bible, the Writings (Ketubim), except for sporadic cases, is not used in the synagogue liturgy. The reading is done while standing, and only from a scroll containing the complete text of the Torah or Haftarah. The text may not be recited from memory. 2.  Avigdor Shinan, “Sermons, Targums, and the Reading of the Scriptures in the Ancient Synagogue,” in The Synagogue in Late Antiquity, ed. Lee Levine (Baltimore: Eisenbrauns, 1987), 97–110. 3.  Lee I. Levine, The Ancient Synagogue (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).

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Two millennia ago, when the Torah was being read in Hebrew, it was being translated concurrently into Aramaic, since the majority of participants in the synagogues did not understand Hebrew. Aramaic served as the colloquial language in everyday life. The translation was done according to recommendations given by the Sages of Israel and the rabbis.4 It was not just a literal translation of the Hebrew text; it also constituted a paraphrase and commentary explaining the sense of the holy text. The Targum of Isaiah reveals how the text of Isaiah was being explained in ancient Judaism. Before taking out Torah from Aron Hakodesh (the Holy Ark) Jewish believers recite the text of Isa. 2:3. This text encourages them to go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the House of God, in order to walk in His paths. They are able to recognize that the Torah will go forth from Zion: “And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us concerning His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.’ For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” During the elevation of the Torah, Isa. 42:21 is read. This text glorifies the greatness and beauty of the Torah: “The LORD was pleased for His righteousness’ sake to make the law great and glorious.” The Synagogue service includes a wide range of readings from Isaiah during the second reading (from the Haftarah) in the following perashim: Bereshit Noach Lech Lecha Shemot Yitro Vayikra Devarim Vaetchanan Re’eh Shoftim Ki Tetze Ki Tawo

Isa. 42.5–43.10—The first song of Servant of the LORD. God as Protector and Redeemer of Israel Isa. 54:1–55:5—New Jerusalem Isa. 40:27–41:16—Israel as faithful servant of the LORD Isa. 27:6–28:13; 29:22-23—Call to conversion. LORD against Samaria and false prophets Isa. 6:1–7:6; 9:5-6—Vocation and mission of Isaiah. Messianic prophecy Isa. 43:21–44:23—Call of God to Israel. Conversion and faithfulness Isa. 1:1-27—Lamentation over Israel and Jerusalem Isa. 40:1-26—Deliverance of Israel by God full of majesty Isa. 54:11–55:5—New Jerusalem and call to living in the presence of the LORD Isa. 51:12–52:12—God as consolation of Israel and Jerusalem Isa. 54:1-10—The joy of Jerusalem Isa. 60:1-22—The splendor of Jerusalem

4.  See m. Megilla IV, 9–10.



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The texts from Isaiah are read during two Jewish feasts. In the feast of Yom Kippur, the text of Isa. 57:14–58:14 is read. In this portion God reveals the type of fast that he desires: Is this not the fast which I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. (Isa. 58:6-8)

Second, in the feast Tisha B’Av the text of Isa. 55:6–56:8 is read. In this text God is described as the Universal Redeemer of humanity. The text from Isaiah underlines the efficacy of Word of God in this Haftara: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, or without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:10-11)

Between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah there are seven “haftarot of consolation.” The first one, read on the Sabbath following Tisha B’Av, is called “Nahamu, nahamu ami” (Isa. 40). It presents a prophetic vision calling upon the nation of Judah to provide solace to the suffering city of Jerusalem. God announces his imminent arrival, whereupon he will raise the valleys, lower the hills, smooth the rough places, and straighten the crooked places—in short, a full and final restoration of justice: A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.” (Isa. 40:3-5)

On the last day of Pesah the text Isa. 10:32–12:6 is read. This Haftara contains a prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah, the King of Justice (Isa. 11:1-5) and also a Hymn of gratitude (Isa. 12:1-6):

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist. (Isa. 11:1-5) Then you will say on that day, “I will give thanks to You, O LORD; for although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.” Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. And in that day you will say, “Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted. Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things; let this be known throughout the earth.” (Isa. 12:1-6)

During Sabbath Rosh Chodesh the text of Isa. 66:1-24 is read. In this Haftara Jerusalem underlines the true worship of God as well as the full expression of a call to joy: “Be joyful with Jerusalem and rejoice for her, all you who love her; be exceedingly glad with her, all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts, that you may suck and be delighted with her bountiful bosom” (Isa. 66:10-11). II. Christian Liturgy The Bible serves as the main source for Christian liturgy. In the Bible the Word of God is revealed by the prophets and the apostles. In the Christian tradition St. Jerome called the prophet Isaiah the “Evangelist among the prophets.” Many of the texts from the book of Isaiah find vivid reception in Christian liturgy (including celebrations of the Eucharist and Christian feasts such as Advent, Christmas, the Liturgy of the Passion, and Paschal Eve). Pope Francis, in his Bull for the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy entitled “Misericordiae Vultus” (April 2015), encouraged Christians in this time of prayer, fasting and charity to meditate on this specific passage from Isaiah:



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Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry, and He will say, “Here I am.” If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. (Isa. 58:6-11)

The Eucharist is at the very heart of Christian liturgy. It was instituted by Jesus himself in the Upper Room (or Caenaculum) during the Last Supper—the Thursday evening before His passion on Friday.5 In every Eucharist, at the end of Preface and before the Eucharistic Prayer, there is a solemn acclamation from the text of Isa. 6:3, which contains the words of the Seraphim before God: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.” In the Christian liturgy this formula is used with additions of “God” and “heavens” in order to stress the connection between earth and heaven; thus: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD God of Hosts. The whole heaven and earth are full of Your glory.”6 This text was already an essential part of the Eucharistic prayer in Eastern liturgy by the fourth century, and afterwards in Western liturgy as well. The Christian community glorifies God during Eucharist with the words taken from the prophet Isaiah—the same words that were earlier used in the Temple and synagogue liturgy.7 The Church uses these words in order to enter deeper into the mystery of God’s glory. Christians proclaiming these words believe that their voices on the earth are joined with those of the angels and the saints in the heaven.8 They find in the message of Isaiah “the Holy One of Israel,” who enriches His people with power, peace, joy, liberty, and salvation. The Holy One is not a God far from people, but He is near to every human being, and full of life 5.  The Upper Room is also called “Mater omnium Ecclesiarum” (the mother of all churches). 6.  See Ps. 117:25-26 and Matt. 21:9. 7.  Seidel, “Gottesvolk und Gottesdienst.” 8.  Hayward, “The Chant of the Seraphim.”

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and love. For Christians, “the Sanctus” at the heart of the Eucharist is connected with the person of Jesus of Nazareth, who comes in the sign of broken bread. In His face Christians are able to see with the eyes of faith the sanctity and love of God. The text of Isaiah is also used abundantly in the main Christian liturgical periods and feasts, such as Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. The time of Advent is the beginning of liturgical year. The term “advent” derives from the Latin word adventus, which refers to the “coming” or “arrival” of an important person. In ancient Rome this word was used in conjunction with the solemn arrival of the emperor to Roman temples for the feasts. In the Christian tradition Advent is a time of expectation, anticipating the arrival of Jesus simultaneously in two dimensions: both in the mystery of Christmas and at the end of the time. There are more than one hundred uses of Isaiah associated with Advent in the Liturgy of the Roman-Catholic Church (including the Eucharistic liturgy and the Liturgy of the Hours). In the liturgy of Advent, the Messianic texts from Isaiah are read during the Holy Mass. For example: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. The LORD will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria. (Isa. 7:14-17) Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, and He will not judge by what His eyes see, nor make a decision by what His ears hear; but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist. And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. (Isa. 11:1-6)

In the Liturgy of the Hours (Breviary) during the time of Advent, the whole text of prophet Isaiah is read in the course of daily readings.



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Again, the text Isa. 45:8 is the basis for the Advent hymn “Rorate caeli desuper.” The Rorate Mass is a Votive Mass in honor of the Blessed Mother. It has a long tradition in the Catholic Church, especially in German-speaking countries. The masses begin relatively early in the morning, when it is still dark in the winter time, and thus are said by candlelight. The text from Isaiah reads: “Drop down, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds pour down righteousness; let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, and righteousness spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it” (Isa. 45:8). The hymn “Rorate caeli desuper” reads very similarly: Drop down ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity forever: the holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation: our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee (inspired by Isa. 64:8-10) We have sinned, and are as an unclean thing, and we all do fade as a leaf: and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away; thou hast hid thy face from us: and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. (inspired by Isa. 64:1–5) Behold, O Lord, the affliction of thy people and send forth Him who is to come, send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Zion that He may take away the yoke of our captivity. (inspired by Isa. 61:1) Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, my salvation shall not tarry: why wilt thou waste away in sadness? why hath sorrow seized thee? Fear not, for I will save thee: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer. (inspired by Isa. 40:1; 43:1-3)

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Finally, the last week of Advent in Christian liturgy includes antiphons related to the coming of Jesus Christ, which are inspired by the text of Isaiah. For example, on December 19, “O Radix Jesse” (The Root of Jesse) draws from Isa. 11:10: “Then it will come about in that day that the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious.” On the following day, December 20, “O Clavis David” (The Key of David) similarly draws upon Isa. 22:22: “Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, when he opens no one will shut, when he shuts no one will open.” Lastly, on December 24 “O Emmanuel” (God is with us) is inspired by Isa. 7:14: “Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” During the time of Advent, the Christian liturgy underlines the special role of Mary, the Mother of God. Isaiah 61:10 is used in reference to Mary: “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” The text of Isaiah is also used throughout the Christmas liturgy. The first reading during the Mass celebrated at midnight is taken from Isa. 9:1-3, 5-6. This text connects the symbolism of a light shining in darkness with the prophecy about a newborn child: The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation, you shall increase their gladness; they will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil… For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Then, in the Mass that follows early the next morning, the first reading is again from Isaiah, specifically 62:11–12, which underscores the coming of the Savior: “Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Lo, your salvation comes; behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.’ And they will call them, ‘The holy people, the redeemed of the LORD’; and you will be called, ‘Sought out, a city not forsaken.’ ” Lastly, the Mass during the day also contains a reading from Isa. 52:7-10. In this text the LORD announces the salvation and brings good news, peace, and happiness to his people:



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How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together; for they will see with their own eyes when the LORD restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God.

The liturgy of Holy Week focuses on the passion, death and resurrection of Christ; thus, in this period the figure of the Suffering Servant of the LORD from the book of Isaiah receives special attention. There are four texts in Isaiah that describe this figure: Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; and 52:13–53:12.9 Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. The first reading on this day is from Isa. 50:4-7, which is the third song about Suffering Servant of the LORD: The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple. The LORD God has opened My ear; and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back. I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the LORD God helps Me; therefore, I am not disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

During the Mass on the Holy Monday, the first song of the Suffering Servant (Isa. 42:1-4) of the LORD is read: Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be

9.  See Raymond Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave. A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels, 2 vols. (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1994), 2:1448–9; W. Pikor, “Postać Mesjasza w świetle Izajaszowych proroctw,” in Jezus jako Syn Boży w Nowym Testamencie i we wczesnej literaturze chrześcijańskiej, ed. H. Drawnel (Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 2007), 9–29.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah disheartened or crushed, until He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.

On Holy Tuesday the second song of the Suffering Servant of the LORD (Isa. 49:1-6) is used for the first reading of the Holy Mass: Listen to Me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me. And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me, and He has also made Me a select arrow; He has hidden Me in His quiver. And He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory.” But I said, “I have toiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice due to Me is with the LORD, and My reward with My God.” And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him. He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Since the seventh century Isa. 53:1-12 has been read on the Wednesday of Holy Week. The text reads: Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the



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LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

After the liturgical reforms made by the Second Vatican Council, the fourth song of the Suffering Servant of the LORD (Isa. 52:13–53:12) is read on Holy Friday and is directly connected with the celebration of the death of Jesus. Many of the motifs in this passage are taken up by the New Testament authors. For instance, Matthew emphasizes that what was spoken of the Suffering Servant of the LORD comes to fulfillment in the person of Jesus: “…in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘He Himself took our infirmities, and carried away our diseases’ ” (Matt. 8:17). In Acts 8:32-35 Philip also explains to the Ethiopian eunuch the text of Isaiah about the Suffering Servant of the LORD as referring to Jesus, the Crucified Messiah: Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He does not open His mouth. In humiliation His judgment was taken away; who shall relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.” And the officer answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of someone else?” And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.

In the liturgy of Paschal Eve there are two texts of prophet Isaiah. The first one describes Love of the Lord—Isa. 54:4-14: Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; Neither feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; But you will forget the shame of your youth, And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth. For the LORD has called you, Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected, Says your God. For a brief moment I

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah forsook you, But with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you, Says the LORD your Redeemer. For this is like the days of Noah to Me; When I swore that the waters of Noah Should not flood the earth again, So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, Nor will I rebuke you. For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken, Says the LORD who has compassion on you. O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, And your foundations I will lay in sapphires. Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, And your gates of crystal, And your entire wall of precious stones. And all your sons will be taught of the LORD; And the well-being of your sons will be great. In righteousness you will be established; You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; And from terror, for it will not come near you.

The second text describes New Covenant and efficacy of the Word of God—Isa. 55:1-11: Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, A leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, And a nation which knows you not will run to you, Because of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you. Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.



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III. Conclusion Seeing the abundant use of the text of the prophet Isaiah in Jewish and Christian liturgies we are able to understand that this text is not closed to the past and to the history. The message of Isaiah is still alive in the hearts of Jewish and Christian believers in their liturgies. In the Jewish and Christian prayers, in the Synagogue service, in Eucharist, in Jewish and Christian feasts the voice of prophet Isaiah is not only heard but also experienced in everyday life. The word of God expressed by the prophet Isaiah is still alive as a message of faith, hope and love of God towards His beloved creation. The Jewish believers find in this message the roots and identity of their faith. The Christian believers are able to see the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The reception of the message of the prophet Isaiah in Christian liturgy shows its fidelity to the Jewish tradition and to the theology of the New Testament. The prophet Isaiah, by his universal and timeless thoughts, is a wonderful bridge for Jewish and Christian dialogue. He opens the minds of Jews and Christians to the past, to the present and to the future, showing the effective action of God in the work of salvation. The New Jerusalem described by the prophet Isaiah is alive in the hearts of people—Jews and Christians who are open for the presence of God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the space of Jewish and Christian liturgies the genius of Isaiah expressed in his precious scrolls can be deeply recognized and received by people of the twenty-first century.

C on c l u s i on

Did the members of the Isaiah Congress reach any conclusions? Did the scholars agree that there is a continuity of the book of Isaiah that is not very well perceived, especially by many conservative Jews and Christians? The answer to both questions is “yes.” Few congresses prove to be so fruitful as this one. All experts present emphasized that the book of Isaiah has been expanded over numerous centuries, beginning with the prophet Isaiah who lived from 738 to 701 and even possibly to 686 BCE. They shared comments that showed they would also agree with J. J. M. Roberts who advised that “even if the redactional and editorial process behind the present form of the book of Isaiah is unrecoverable in precise detail,” it is clear that “the growth of the book was complex and took place in stages.”1 Dan’el Kahn pointed out that Isaiah 1–39 preserves not only Isaiah’s words, but also his own editing and the additions by those in Jerusalem in the seventh century BCE. Ronnie Goldstein stressed that, as Isaiah was transmitted, influences from Jeremiah and Ezekiel become apparent. Shalom Paul engagingly explained the monotheism of chs. 40–66 and, inter alia, the correction to the account of creation in Genesis: that is, God created not only the light but also the darkness. He offered his opinion that the final chapters may also reflect life in Palestine after the Babylonian Exile. Jeffrey Chadwick explained the reasons for distinguishing between “Second Isaiah” and “Third Isaiah,” indicating continuity beyond the sixth century BCE. Emanuel Tov explained why Isaiah was exceptionally important at Qumran. Dale Allison demonstrated that Isaiah significantly influenced John the Baptizer and Jesus. James Charlesworth profoundly illustrated how Isaiah shaped the minds of Paul and the Evangelists. Ronnie Goldstein explained how Isaiah continued to shape thoughts within Rabbinic Judaism. Miroslaw Wróbel surprised Jews and Christians by 1.  Roberts’ book appeared after the papers had been prepared for the Jerusalem congress. The dates for the prophet Isaiah are those of Roberts on p. 1 in his commentary; for Roberts’ comment quoted see in his First Isaiah: A Commentary (Hermeneia. Minneapolis; Fortress Press, 2015), p. 3.



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illustrating how deeply the book of Isaiah has shaped liturgy in both the synagogue and the church over the centuries. Numerous issues were left open for discussion. Specialists on Isaiah are almost in unanimous agreement that ch. 40 marks the beginning of a Second Isaiah (“Deutero-Isaiah”) and that the chapters were composed in Babylon during the Exile. Thus, chs. 40–66 either contain the work of Second Isaiah or, beginning with ch. 55, Third Isaiah (“Trito-Isaiah”). Chapters 55–66 were most likely composed in Judea and reflect the problems encountered there by the returnees from Babylon. Clearly, Isa. 1–39 was interpolated and edited from the time of Isaiah to the third century BCE. A School of Isaiah could be possible if we allow, as with the Qumran School, the School of Paul, and the School of John, different authors with unique views living in different areas and influenced by one inspired person.2 The members of the Congress endorsed the proposal that the book of Isaiah reflects a continuity that is not sufficiently appreciated, even by many experts on the book. The book of Isaiah and its reception exceptionally shaped Jewish thought from the eighth century BCE to the end of the first century CE and even until today. Examinations of the origin, editing, and reception of the book of Isaiah reveal an astounding continuity from before the Babylonian Exile to the time of 1QIsaiaha (see Appendix 2). Isaiah shaped Jewish dreams in the Psalms of Solomon and the Odes of Solomon, as well as in 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch. Hopes for a Messiah flamed Jewish expectations, fueled by words in Isaiah during the time of Bar Kokhba (132–136 CE) and beyond. The key word is the adverb “exceptionally”: Isaiah was exceptionally important for the Qumranites, the Baptizer, Jesus, Paul, and the Evangelists. During the concluding discussion, all scholars articulated in fresh ways how the book of Isaiah evolved, and helped to shape the origins of Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity. JHC May 2017

2.  For further comments, see the Appendix.

A f t erword : W h y I sai ah ?

Albert I. Baumgarten

“Prophetic Judaism” The role of the prophetic books of the Bible in inspiring Jews of the Second Temple period, spanning from the return from the Babylonian Exile in the second half of the sixth century BCE until the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, in shaping their view of the present and establishing the contours of their hopes for the future has not always been adequately recognized. A brief summary of the references to the biblical prophets in key texts from that time is sufficient to establish the claim that one way to characterize the Second Temple era is to dub it the era of “Prophetic Judaism.”1 I begin with Ben Sira—a Jerusalem priest who lived in the first quarter of the second century BCE and wrote in Hebrew (later translated into Greek and known as Ecclesiasticus)—who in his praise of famous men, which surveyed the great figures of the Jewish past (chs. 44–50), had several principal groups of notable heroes, one of which was prophets. He mentioned Nathan (Sir. 47:1), Elijah (48:4-11), Elisha (48:12-15), and then the great writing prophets: Isaiah (48:20-25), Jeremiah (49:6-7) and Ezekiel (49:8-9). Even the twelve Minor Prophets were not passed over in silence and deserved mention (49:10). Ben Sira was explicit in stating the reason the prophets were so central: thanks to Isaiah’s inspired power (‫)ברוח גבורה‬, he “saw the future and comforted the mourners of Zion. He revealed things to come before they happened, the secrets of the future to the end of time” (48:24-25). The twelve Minor Prophets “put new heart into Jacob and rescued the people by their confident hope” (49:10). In light of the political/religious troubles 1.  The common expression “Rabbinic Judaism” is the paradigm for the term “Prophetic Judaism” that I wish to propose.



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that characterized so much of Second Temple times from the return from the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE, to the replacement of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great and his successors in the fourth century BCE, through the persecutions of Antiochus IV in the mid-second century BCE, culminating with coping with the implications and consequences of Roman rule (from the mid-first century BCE until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE), made even more problematic as they followed some eighty years of independence under the Maccabean house, Jews sorely needed the comfort in the future and confident hope that the prophets could provide. It often seemed that their fate was being determined by outside powers beyond their control, their existence trampled in the stampede of history. Even worse, it sometimes seemed that circumstances offered no choice but to follow the advice of Antigonus of Socho and serve God like a servant obliged to serve his master even if that master was under no compulsion to feed that servant (m. ’Abot 1:3).2 For all these reasons, the prophets provided consolation that ultimately the God of Israel determined their fate, and loyalty to the God of Israel would be recognized and would not be in vain. It is therefore not surprising that the seer in Daniel 9, a generation or two after Ben Sira, at the time of the persecutions of Antiochus IV, turned to the prophet Jeremiah and his vision that seventy years were to pass while Jerusalem lay in ruins (Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10), searching for some clue when the troubles of his day would end. He found his answer in the interpretation that Jeremiah’s seventy years were seventy weeks of years, four hundred ninety in all (Dan. 9:24). It was now at the end of the sixtyninth week, with “half a week” spent (during which [legitimate] sacrifice and offerings were stopped [Dan. 9:27]), but with the promise of the final judgment to come at the end of that week of years. Jeremiah, who was “a prophet consecrated even before his birth to uproot, to destroy, and to demolish, but also to build and to plant” (Sir. 49:7) foresaw both the current predicament and its ultimate happy ending. Along the same lines, it is no accident that the prophets were the dominant sources on which the Qumran community based their understanding of current events in light of the divine plan for history in the documents we classify under the heading of Qumran pesher. Actualizing interpretations of the prophets, as referring to contemporary events in the 2.  Elias J. Bickerman, “The Maxim of Antigonus of Socho,” in Studies in Jewish and Christian History, Part Two, AGJU 9 (Leiden: Brill, 1980), 270–89; Studies in Jewish and Christian History, A New Edition in English including The God of the Maccabees, AGJU 68/1 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 543–63.

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larger world arena, as well as crucial moments in the history of the Dead Sea Scroll community, were the critical content of pesharim composed on Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, and Habakuk.3 Finally, to complete this survey, I note the role assigned by Josephus (37 CE–ca. 100 CE), the Jerusalem priest who wrote in Greek and whose works are among our principal sources for the history of the Jews in this period, to the prophets as accurate historians of the Jewish past. In contrast to other peoples, the Greeks in particular, whose knowledge of their past was defective and subject to controversy, Josephus insisted that the Jews had accurate knowledge of their past thanks to priestly genealogies, always kept up to date to insure that the service of God at the altars and other aspects of divine worship were entrusted to the descendants of Aaron, who had not married unsuitable women, a particular problem at time of war, when women were taken captive (C. Ap. 1.30-36). In larger (non-priestly) national terms, Josephus insisted that reliable knowledge of the Jewish past was entrusted to the prophets “who wrote the history of events of their own times in thirteen books” (C. Ap. 1.40). The critical role of the prophets in preserving accurate national history was underlined by Josephus when he added that “From Artaxerxes to our own time the complete history has been written, but has not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets” (C. Ap. 1.41). In general, Josephus insisted, with reference to both the major and minor prophets, that “whatever happens to us, whether for good or ill comes about in accordance with their prophecies” (Ant. 10.35). There can be no more explicit statement of what I choose to call “Prophetic Judaism.”4

3.  See the collection of pesharim texts in James H. Charlesworth et al. (eds.), The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations, vol. 6B, Pesharim, Other Commentaries, and Related Documents (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002). 4.  m.’Abot 1:1 could or should have a place in this survey of “Prophetic Judaism” as it assigns a major place to the prophets in the chain of transmission from Moses down to Antigonus of Socho and the Pharisaic pairs, beginning with Yose b. Yoezer of Zeredah and Yose b. Yohanan of Jerusalem. However, I have not included it in this survey, as I want to limit myself to sources that definitely belong to the Second Temple era, while recent discussion of m.’Abot 1:1 has called into question its status as a simple Pharisaic document from the years before the destruction of the Temple. See, for example, Amram Tropper, “The Fate of Jewish Historiography After the Bible: A New Interpretation,” History and Theory 43 (2004): 190–7.



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“Why Isaiah”? It is against this larger background of “Prophetic Judaism” that I want to explore the question “Why Isaiah?” Answering this question will facilitate an understanding of the place of Isaiah, even as opposed to other biblical prophets over such a wide variety of sources, demonstrated over and over again in other chapters of this volume, against the background of sources from the Second Temple period—Ben Sira and Josephus in particular. It will allow us to view Isaiah as this book’s prophecies were seen by Jews of antiquity. It will set the contemporary context and thus enable us to understand better the persistent choice of Isaiah as the source of prophetic inspiration to which Jews of the Second Temple period turned. The place to begin is to acknowledge that ancient Jews did not view Isaiah in the same way as modern critical scholars. Where we see the work of at least two prophets separated by centuries, one in Jerusalem in the eighth century BCE and the other in Babylon in the sixth century BCE, with perhaps a third prophet back in Jerusalem at the end of the same century, ancient Jews considered the book to be the vision of one prophet and one alone. Ben Sira’s testimony, cited above, suffices: Isaiah, who was active at the time of Hezekiah and rescued Jerusalem at the time of the siege of Sennacherib, also “comforted the mourners of Zion. He revealed things to come before they happened” (‫וינחם אבלי ציון עד עולם הגיד נהיות‬ ‫ונסתרות לפני בואן‬, Sir. 48:24-25). That is, Isaiah (in ch. 40 and following) announced the return from the Babylonian exile under the auspices of Cyrus, whom the prophet even mentioned by name (Isa. 44:28), as the one who will carry out the divine purpose, rebuild Jerusalem, and cause the foundations of the Temple to be laid. Cyrus was the anointed of YHWH, taken by the divine hand to subdue nations. Cyrus was called by name and received his title from YHWH (Isa. 45:1-7). The setting of this prophecy in the sixth century BCE could hardly be more explicit, yet all this was credited by ancient Jews to the same prophet who saved Jerusalem two centuries earlier, when threatened by Sennacherib.5 Isaiah’s status as a true prophet was therefore beyond doubt. No other explanation was possible for how he could so accurately foresee events which would only occur two centuries later than his own time. Two considerations, based on the testimony of Josephus, reinforce this conclusion. First, Josephus explained the popularity of Daniel as the result of the fact that Daniel was especially admired because he accurately predicted the future (Ant. 10.267-69). He was one of the greatest prophets, 5.  Morton Smith, “II Isaiah and the Persians,” JAOS 83 (1963): 415–21; The Cult of Yahweh, ed. Shaye J. D. Cohen (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 1:73–83.

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a prophet of good tidings, and when these prophecies were realized “he gained credit among the multitudes for his truthfulness and at the same time won their esteem for his divine power” (Ant. 10.268). His books are still read by Jews, even now, and we are convinced that Daniel spoke with God.6 Although according to the book of Daniel, Daniel himself supposedly lived at the time of the Babylonian exile, in the sixth century BCE, he predicted good news in the future, especially comforting at a time of troubles, such as the persecutions of Antiochus IV. When these “predictions” turned out to be true, it was a sure key to success, credibility, and reputation as a prophet.7 Daniel also had the advantage of external confirmation. When Alexander conquered the Jews, according to Josephus, he was shown the book of Daniel and found there the prediction that a Greek king would destroy the empire of the Persians. Alexander understood this prediction as referring to himself and in his joy provoked by the fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel granted favors to the Jews, allowing them to observe their own laws (Ant. 11.337-38). The same was true of Isaiah. In his comments on Isaiah, Josephus offered an evaluation in much the same terms as his remarks on Daniel. Isaiah “was acknowledged to be a man of God and marvelously possessed of truth, and he was confident of never having spoken what was false, he wrote down in books all that he had prophesied and left them to be recognized as true from the events by men of future ages” (Ant. 10.35). When Josephus wrote that Isaiah’s prophecies were “left to be recognized as true from the events by men of future ages” he was fully aware of the significance of that statement. He knew that the return under Cyrus took 6.  According to m. Yoma 1:6, Zechariah ben Kavutal testified that he read Daniel to the High Priest “many times” on the night of the Day of Atonement, to make sure that the High Priest did not fall asleep and defile himself by accident due to a nocturnal emission and then be ineligible to perform the rites of the Day of Atonement. This is further testimony to the interest Daniel evoked among ancient Jews, even to someone as elevated on the socio-economic-religious ladder of the time as the High Priest. 7.  Of course, as we moderns are less impressed by Isaiah’s success, since we divide the book into the work of two or three prophets who lived centuries apart, so we moderns are also less impressed by Daniel’s success as a prophet: we are all disciples of Porphyry and follow him in considering Daniel as a prophecy after the event, vaticinium ex eventu, composed at the time of the persecutions of Antiochus IV, making Daniel a virtual eye-witness to the events. Prophecy after the event, vaticinium ex eventu, was a genre of literature well known in the ancient world. See further John J. Collins, Daniel: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 24–5.



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place long after the siege of Sennacherib, explicitly that Isaiah lived 200 years earlier than Cyrus. According to Josephus, Cyrus read the prophecies of Isaiah and was inspired by them to end the Babylonian captivity (Ant. 11.5). Not only did Jews recognize that Isaiah foretold what would happen to them centuries later, but even the Persian king considered Isaiah a true prophet to the extent that his motivation for allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem under the favorable terms he granted was based on reading (and believing) the prophecies of Isaiah. Cyrus “wondered at the divine power (of these prophecies) and was seized by a strong desire and ambition to do what had been written” (Ant. 11.6). What greater proof could there be that Isaiah was a true prophet? Isaiah and the End of Days Millennial hopes are a very risky business.8 The fascination they evoke can be a source of great comfort and inspire action inconceivable in any other (“normal”) context. At the same time these visions are fraught with risk. Believers in the imminent end of the bad old world and the dawn of an entirely new creation are often tempted to “up the ante” to prove that their hopes are well founded and they are committed to the vision of the grand finale soon to unfold. Some instances of “upping the ante” can be downright catastrophic, as in the case of the Samaritan who encouraged his followers to dig to find the hidden vessels of the (Samaritan) temple, where he supposedly knew they were buried. This was not a scientific archaeological expedition, but an action with high millenarian significance. Finding the vessels would signal the dawn of a new age, with important implications for Roman rule. Pontius Pilate was well aware that these actions were a symbolic challenge to Roman sovereignty and reacted accordingly. Pilate met the Samaritan and his followers with a detachment of cavalry and heavy armed infantry. Many were killed in battle, and of the remainder, “Many prisoners were taken, of whom Pilate put to death the principal leaders and those who were most influential among the fugitives” (Ant. 18.88). The Samaritan messianic pretender and his followers paid a heavy price for their conviction that the end was near. It is impossible to disregard this danger. Furthermore, a dismal end could well be taken as proof that the messiah in whom one believed was a false messiah, not really sent or chosen by God. See, for just one example, 8.  Albert I. Baumgarten, “Four Stages in the Life of a Millennial Movement,” in War in Heaven/Heaven on Earth: Theories of the Apocalyptic, ed. S. O’Leary and G. McGhee (London: Equinox, 2005), 61–75.

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The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

R. Gamaliel’s comments on Theudas and Judas the Galilean. Their failure, exemplified by their deaths and that of their disciples, followed by the collapse of their movements, was proof that they were not on a mission from God; their notions were purely human (Acts 5:35-39). For this reason, among others, millennial movements and their leaders are often reluctant to go out on a limb and announce their vision to the wider public. The messianic secret in Mark 8:27-30—where Jesus revealed his messianic status to his disciples but commanded them not to tell anyone else who he was—is far from unique.9 Josephus also knew to demur in his summary of the visions of Daniel when they seemed to come too close to being understood as suggesting that the Roman Empire might not last forever, and the stone-kingdom of God would destroy the fourth kingdom, namely, Rome (Ant. 10.210).10 Thanks to his experience in the Great Revolt of Jews against Rome, Josephus was well aware of the catastrophic consequences of millennial excitement and was indifferent (at best) and reluctant to elaborate on wider Jewish and Christian apocalyptic currents of his time.11 However, the issue is not merely recollection of previous instances in which belief in the imminent end produced a disaster. On a more subtle level, anyone convinced that the end is near, who seeks to persuade others, cannot avoid the recognition that this is not the first time these hopes have been raised, but thus far they have proved disappointing. The end predicted by prophecy has failed time and time again. Some sort of proof is needed both for oneself and others to meet these doubts and show that “this time it is for real.” As I have argued, this gives birth to a desperate search for “signs of the times,” of which one cannot have too many.12 9.  The discussion of this aspect of Jesus’ mission goes back to the ground� breaking work of William Wrede, Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien: zugleich ein Beitrag zum Verständnis des Markusevangeliums (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1901). For a more recent discussion, see Joel Marcus, Mark 1–8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 27 (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 525–7. 10.  Note that a common way of expressing “forever” in antiquity was “so long as the Roman Empire should last.” See Elias J. Bickerman, “La Chaîne de la tradition pharisienne,” in Studies in Jewish and Christian History, Part Two, 258–9; “The Chain of the Pharisaic Tradition,” in Studies in Jewish and Christian History, A New Edition in English, 530–1. 11.  See the classic essay, Arnaldo Momigliano, “What Flavius Josephus Did Not See,” in Essays on Ancient and Modern Judaism, ed. S. Berti, trans. M. Masella-Gayley (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 67–78. 12.  Baumgarten, “Four Stages,” 60–1.



Baumgarten  Afterword: Why Isaiah?

211

It was at this point in the Jewish experience in antiquity that Isaiah came into special play. The concluding chapters of the book—and ch. 66 in particular—contain a vision of the end of days, of a new heaven and new earth to come, of the blessings to be enjoyed by the righteous and of the horrible never-ending punishment endured by the wicked. In these passages, Isaiah did not set a specific date for these events of the end time. Nevertheless, if Isaiah, with his impeccable status as a true prophet, who spoke with inspired power (‫)ברוח גבורה‬, and saw until the end of time (‫עד עולם הגיד נהיות‬, Sir. 48:25), could somehow be hitched to one’s millennial hopes they benefitted from the best of all possible confirmations that they will not disappoint but will be completely fulfilled. One could appeal to passages from any or all the prophets for evidence that the new age with its grand finale was about to dawn and that one’s actions were consistent with that desired result and would help achieve its realization, but in light of Isaiah’s reputation, proven by his success way back in the eighth century BCE as seeing accurately to the very end of time, Isaiah was best.

Appendix: Love in the School of Isaiah and Continuity in 1QIsaiaha

James H. Charlesworth

Isaiah (Yesha‘yahu, “YHWH is salvation”) and Jeremiah (Yirmeyahu; “YHWH is high,” c. 650–c. 570 BCE),1 represent the great prophetic minds in Jerusalem before the end of the Kingdom of Judah.2 Archaeological excavations have revealed evidence from their time and city,3 as well as eighth-century bronze weights with West Semitic inscriptions and zoomorphic shapes (including a frog with a scorpion on its back).4 1.  Jeremiah was born in Anathoth, a village about 3 miles northeast of Jerusalem (see Isa. 10:30 and Jer. 1:1). 2.  See Ronnie Goldstein, Ḥaye Yirmiyahu: Gilguly ha-masoret ʻal nevi ha-ḥurban ʻad shilhe ha-teḳufah ha-miḳra’it [= Life of Jeremiah: Traditions about the Prophet and Their Evolution in Biblical Times] (Jerusalem: Mosad Byaliḳ/The Mendel Institute of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University, 2013). Also see Goldstein, “Jeremiah Between Destruction and Exile: From Biblical to Post-Biblical Traditions,” DSD 20, no. 3 (2013): 433–51. 3.  For a concise report, see Avraham Negev and Shimon Gibson, Archaeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land (New York: Continuum, 2001). For more, see Dan Bahat, Touching the Stones of Our Heritage: The Western Wall Tunnels (Jerusalem: Western Wall Heritage Foundation, 2002). Also see Robert Deutsch, Mesarim min he-ʻavar [Messages from the Past: Hebrew Bullae from the Time of Isaiah Through the Destruction of the First Temple] (Tel Aviv: Archaeological Center, 1999). Also see Jeffrey R. Chadwick and Aren M. Maeir, “Household Archaeology in the Southern Levant: An Example from Iron Age Tell Halif,” in New Perspectives on Household Archaeology, ed. Bradley J. Parker and Catherine P. Foster (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2012). 4.  Conceivably, the bronze frog with an etched scorpion on its back provides the oldest-known evidence of the tale by Aesop of how a scorpion stung a frog ferrying



Charlesworth  Appendix

213

No historical record explains how Isaiah dies, but two early Jewish sources describe his martyrdom. In a legend that may date from the second century BCE and is preserved in the Martyrdom of Isaiah, the prophet was dissevered by a wood saw: “And they seized Isaiah the son of Amoz and sawed him in half with a wood saw.”5 In a first-century CE composition, the Lives of the Prophets, an almost identical story is related: “Isaiah, from Jerusalem, died under Manasseh by being sawn in two, and was buried underneath the Oak of Rogel, near the place where the path crosses the aqueduct whose water Hezekiah shot off by blocking its source.”6 Similar legendary accounts of Isaiah’s death may be found in Yeb. 49b and Sanh. 10). In Western culture, the book of Isaiah is revered for its celebration of “love.” The concept of love in “the School of Isaiah” was developed between the eighth century BCE and the late second century BCE. I have compiled a list of the appearance of “love” within Isaiah (from TANAKH) below. First Isaiah The crises Isaiah, the son of Amoz, faced in eighth-century Judea are reflected in his prose and poetry. They are mirrored in the names he gave to his sons: She’ar-Ya’shuv, “a remnant shall return” (‫ ְׁש ָאר יָ ׁשּוב‬in 7:3); and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, “spoil quickly, plunder speedily” (‫ַמ ֵהר ָׁש ָלל‬ ‫ ָחׁש ַּבז‬in 8:3).7 Composed by him, and possibly edited by him and others up to 586 BCE, are the stirring words of “The Vineyard” (5:1-4 [bold added]):8 Let me sing for my beloved A song of my lover about his vineyard. .My beloved had a vineyard on a fruitful hill. 2 He broke the ground, cleared it of stones, And planted it with choice vines. 1

him across water because of its own nature. See Robert Deutsch and Alan Millard, “Ten Unpublished West Semitic Bronze Weights,” INJ 18 (2011–14): 15–26. For the image of the frog, see p. 20. It weighs 2.8g [courtesy of S. Moussaieff, London]. 5.  Mart. Ascen. Isa. 5:11, trans. M. A. Knibb, in OTP, 2:164. 6.  Liv. Pro. 1:1, trans. D. R. A. Hare, in OTP, 2:385. 7.  For the international crises Judah and Isaiah experienced, see S. Bar, D. Kahn, and J. J. Shirley (eds.), Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature (Leiden;: Brill, 2011). 8.  All translations are mine unless otherwise specified.

214

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah He built a watchtower inside it, He even hewed a wine press in it; For he hoped it would yield grapes. Instead, ·it yielded wild grapes. 3 “Now, then, Dwellers of Jerusalem And men of Judah; You be the judges Between Me and My vineyard: 4 What more could have been done for My vineyard That I failed to do in it?” Why, when I hoped it would yield grapes, Did it yield wild grapes?

A vast amount of documentary evidence indicates that these words were memorized by many early Jews, proving the continuity of Isaiah in Second Temple Judaism. Second Isaiah An anonymous, gifted Jew appended to Isaiah 1–39 the additional chs. 40–55. As is clear in the preceding pages, he probably lived in Babylon and worked during the sixth century BCE. Note, below, how this figure depicts “the LORD” expressing his love for Israel who is in exile and yearns to return to Judah. Chapter 43: For I the LORD am your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as a ransom for you, Ethiopia and Saba in exchange for you. 4 Because you are precious to Me, And honored, and I love you, I give men in exchange for you And peoples in your stead. 5 Fear not, for I am with you: I will bring your folk from the East, Will gather you out of the West; 6 I will say to the North, “Give back!” And to the South, “Do not withhold! Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the end of the Earth. 3



Charlesworth  Appendix Chapter 48: I call unto them, let them stand up. Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among your foretold these things: “He whom the LORD loves Shall work His will against Babylon, And, with His might, against Chaldea”? 15 I, I predicted, and I called him; I have brought him and he shall succeed in his mission. 13b 14

Chapter 49 [The LORD speaks:]: I created you and appointed you a covenant people Restoring the land, Allotting anew the desolate holdings, 9 Saying to the prisoners, “Go free,” To those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.” They shall pasture along the roads, On every bare height shall be their pasture. 10 They shall not hunger or thirst, Hot wind and sun shall not strike them; For He who loves them will lead them, He will guide them to springs of water. 8c

Chapter 49 [continued]: Shout, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth! Break into shouting, O hills! For the LORD has comforted His people, And has taken back His afflicted ones in love. 13

Chapter 54: For a little while I forsook you, But with vast love I will bring you back. 8 In slight anger, for a moment, I hid My face from you; But with kindness everlasting I will take you back in love said the LORD your Redeemer. 9 For this to Me is like the waters of Noah: As I swore that the waters of Noah Nevermore would flood the earth, 7

215

216

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah So I swear that I will not Be angry with you or rebuke you. 10 For the mountains may move And the hills be shaken, But my loyalty shall never move from you, Nor My covenant of friendship be shaken said the LORD, who takes you back in love.

Third Isaiah Though there exists no consensus regarding this view, Third Isaiah (or Trito-Isaiah), chs. 56–66, as well as the interpolation of 24–27 seem to reflect a time when the Babylonian exiles have returned to Zion. Their dreams articulated in chs. 50–54 are shattered. Why? The returnees find broken walls, a burned temple, and harsh treatment from those living in ancient Palestine.9 Third Isaiah knows and interprets Second Isaiah. Note how love is re-defined; in the “Isaiah School”; only Third Isaiah uses the word “love” in a negative sense. Chapter 56: As for the foreigners Who attach themselves to the LORD, To minister to Him, And to love the name of the LORD, To be His servants— who keep the sabbath and do not profane it, And who hold fast to My covenant 7 I will bring them to My sacred mount And let them rejoice in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices Shall be welcome on My altar; For My House shall be called A house of prayer for all peoples. 6

9.  Notably, see the chapters by Ulrich Berges and Joseph Blenkinsopp in Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer and Hans M. Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity: Chronological and Thematic Development in Isaiah 40–66, FRLANT 255 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014). Berges argues that ch. 55 concludes Second Isaiah and also introduces Third Isaiah. Blenkinsopp shows that 40–55 was composed in the Diaspora because of the hope of a return to Zion and the predominance of Jacob who went into exile.



Charlesworth  Appendix Chapter 56 [continued]: The watchmen are blind, all of them, They perceive nothing. They are all dumb dogs That cannot bark; They lie sprawling, They love to drowse. [“love” used in Isaiah as negative] 10

Chapter 57: On a high and lofty hill You have set your couch; There, too, you have gone up To perform sacrifices. 8 Behind the door and doorpost You have directed your thoughts; Abandoning Me, you have gone up On the couch you made so wide. You have made a covenant with them, You have loved bedding with them; You have chosen lust.10 7

[second use of love as negative]

Chapter 61: You shall enjoy the wealth of nations And revel in their riches. 7 Because your shame was double Men cried, “Disgrace is their portion” Assuredly, they shall have a double share in their land, Joy shall be theirs for all time. 8 For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery with a burnt offering. 6c

Chapter 63: He thought: Surely they are My people, Children who will not play false. So He was their Deliverer. 9 In all their troubles He was troubled, And the angel of His Presence delivered them. In His love and pity He Himself redeemed them, Raised them, and exalted them All the days of old. 8

10.  From the root ydd, “to love”; it is like the Ugaritic yd.

217

218

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah Chapter 63 [continued]: Look down from heaven and see, From Your holy and glorious height! Where is Your zeal, Your power? Your yearning and Your love Are being withheld from us! 16 Surely You are our Father: Though Abraham regard us not, And Israel recognize us not, You, O LORD, are our Father; From of old, Your name is “Our Redeemer.” 15

Chapter 66: Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, All you who love her! Join in her jubilation, All you who mourned over her 11 That you may suck from her breast Consolation to the full, That you may draw from her bosom Glory to your delight. 10

Summary The author who added chs. 24–27, The Little Isaiah Canonical Apocalypse, did not mention “love.” In summary, First Isaiah mentions “love” in one passage and chooses three words. Second Isaiah offers five passages on love, supplying seven words. Third Isaiah adds another six passages and uses seven words. The book of Isaiah commences with a poetic vision that derives from the eighth-century prophet. Israel is God’s vineyard. God has planted her on “a fruitful hill.” The LORD calls her “my beloved” (two times). After ch. 5, the prophet Isaiah does not repeat the word “love.” Second Isaiah adds many insights focused on love. He has the LORD God, Israel’s Savior, state to his chosen people: “I love you.” Then, using a metaphor for God, “He who loves them,” the poet declares God is the One who “will lead” his people “to springs of water” and they “will no longer hunger or thirst.” Due to Israel’s unfaithfulness, the LORD forsook them, “but with vast love” he will bring them back: “But my loyalty shall never move from you, nor my covenant of friendship be shaken said the LORD, who takes you back in love.” During the Exile, the two portrayed as loves are reconciled and have a special dream that will come to fruition when God’s people return to their homeland.



Charlesworth  Appendix

219

When the Babylonian exiles return to the Land of Israel, so-called Third Isaiah urges “foreigners” to “attach themselves to the LORD,” and “to love the name of the LORD.” They must observe Shabbat and “hold fast to My covenant.” Unfortunately, “the watchmen” are unobservant; “they love to drowse.” Again, God’s people have sacrificed to foreign gods, and “have loved bedding with them,” choosing “lust” (a distortion of “love”). Yet, God is the “Deliverer” of “My people.” In “His love and pity, He Himself redeemed them.” The poet pleads for God, “our Father,” to “look down from heaven,” the place of “Your holy and glorious height,” to receive “Your love” that has been “withheld from us.” The book ends with an exhortation: “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, All you who love her.” Love evolves through the corpus of Isaiah. While God’s people do not keep a loving relationship with God, God’s love for “his people” is constant, so that at the end “all who mourned” over Jerusalem and “love her” will suck consolation to the full from her breast. 1QIsaiaha The continuity of Isaiah is also obvious in the transmission of the text. For example, in the oldest Hebrew copy (1QIsaa), which dates to c. 125–100 BCE,11 the fluidity of the text allows a scribe to change the meaning deliberately so that the needs of his community are served.12 Recall the following well-known passage in Isa. 51:5, according to the MT and the LXX. The MT of Isa. 51:5 (and 1QIsab)13 reads as follows: ‫[ ָקרֹוב ִצ ְד ִקי יָ ָצא יִ ְׁש ִעי ּוזְ ר ַֹעי ַע ִּמים יִ ְׁשּפֹטּו ֵא ַלי ִאּיִ ים יְ ַקּוּו וְ ֶאל־זְ ר ִֹעי יְ יַ ֵחלּון׃‬BHS] I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, My salvation has gone out [= God’s love for his peoples] And my arms will rule the peoples; The coastlands wait for me, And for my arm they hope. [rearranging the NRSV]

11.  See Eugene Ulrich, Peter W. Flint, and Martin G. Abegg, Jr., Qumran Cave 1: II: The Isaiah Scrolls, DJD 32 (Oxford: Clarendon, 2010), II. Part 2, p. 61; also see “Table 2: The Script of 1QIsaa on p. 62. 12.  The Qumran scrolls date palaeographically from 250 BCE to 68 CE. The oldest manuscript of a biblical text is 4QQoha, which dates to ca. 175–150 BCE. See Emanuel Tov, Scribal Practices and Approaches Reflected in the Texts Found in the Judean Desert, STDJ 54 (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 273. 13.  See Ulrich and Flint in DJD 32, II.2, 173 [textual variants].

220

The Unperceived Continuity of Isaiah

A similar thought focused on the LORD God’s deliverance with embellishments is found in the LXX of Isa. 51:5: ἐγγίζει ταχὺ ἡ δικαιοσύνη μου, καὶ ἐξελεύσεται ὡς φῶς καὶ τὸ σωτήριόν μου, καὶ εἰς τὸν βραχίονά μου ἔθνη ἐλπιοῦσιν· ἐμὲ νῆσοι ὑπομενοῦσιν καὶ εἰς τὸν βραχίονά μου ἐλπιοῦσιν.14 My righteousness speedily draws nigh, And even my salvation will go forth as light. And for my arm the peoples (or Gentiles) will hope: For me the islands will wait, And for my arm they will hope.

According to the “canonical” text of Isa. 51:5, all the pronouns are in the first person. They refer to the LORD, who is the speaker (see 51:1-4). Yet, observe how in 1QIsaa someone has changed the meaning of this famous and influential passage. The text from 1QIsaa of Isa. 51:5 (col. 42.19) reads as follows, below. ‫קרוב צדקי יצא ישעי וזרועו עמים ישפוטו אליו איים יקוו ואל זרועו יוחילון‬ Near is my righteousness, My salvation goes out, And his arm will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait for him, And for his arm they will hope.

[the alteration in meaning is deliberate] [in Hebrew, the change requires the addition of a waw] [my editing and translating]

According to the Hebrew text of Isa. 51:5 in 1QIsaa, three of the pronouns are shifted to the third person: “his arm,” “for him,” and “his arm.” The orthography is clear. The appearance of waw and yodh are distinct in this line in 1QIsaa.15 The change is paradigmatically important and revealing. Sometime between the Babylonian Exile and about 100 BCE, the paleographical dating of 1QIsaa, a scribe shifted the thought so that the judge is no longer 14.  H. B. Swete, The Old Testament in Greek: According to the Septuagint (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1909). 15.  A scribe deliberately changed the Hebrew text. Note E. Ulrich and P. Flint in DJD 32 [Part 1], p. 84 and Plate 42; also see DJD 32 [Part 2], p.173.



Charlesworth  Appendix

221

the LORD God, but a messianic or eschatological figure who remains anonymous. Anonymity is important in Early Judaism and Earliest Christianity. This unknown person is like the one who sits among the Elim according to the Self-Glorification Hymn. Moreover, in the Self-Glorification Hymn, Isaiah 52–53 influences thoughts devoted to suffering.16 Conclusion The breaks between chs. 39 and 40, as well as 55 and 56, suggest to many scholars the presence of different and subsequent authors, all united by the powerful images and terms in 1–39. Chapters 40–66 are best understood in terms of a continuity and a flow that picks up new images and relates them to symbols, metaphors, and similes found in 1–39—notably the watchman, the banner, the islands, trees, former things, women, and being God’s servant.17 Perhaps the most imposing and recurring theme is focused on Israel as God’s Chosen, her failure to keep God’s Torah, the subsequent punishment, and the return to being God’s “Beloved.” Perceiving a shared dependence on 1–39 and noting different emphases and fresh images allows us to imagine a school of thinkers who were shaped by 1–39 in Babylon and later 1–55 in Jerusalem. Is it not helpful then to speak about a School of Isaiah in ways similar to how we speak of the Qumran Scribal School,18 the School of Paul, the School of Matthew, and the School of John?19

16.  See my edition of the Self-Glorification Hymn, in press. It will appear in the Princeton Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 17.  See Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer’s contribution to Tiemeyer and Barstad, eds., Continuity and Discontinuity. 18.  See Emmanuel Tov, “Further Evidence for the Existence of a Qumran Scribal School,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years After Their Discovery: Proceedings of the Jerusalem Congress, July 20–33, 1997, ed. L. H. Schiffman et al. (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, 2000), 199–216. Also, see Tov, Scribal Practices, 261. Tov prefers “scribal practice,” but with Isaiah we see more than orthography; thought changes with a focus on Isa. 1–39 (Scribal Practices, 263, 272). 19.  The most important publications are Krister Stendahl, The School of Matthew and Its Use of the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968 [2nd ed., 1991]); R. Alan Culpeper, The Johannine School: An Evaluation of the Johannine-School Hypothesis Based on an Investigation of the Nature of Ancient Schools (Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1975).

I n d ex of R ef er e nce s Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament Genesis 1:2 74 1:26-27 74 1:26 74 2:1-3 74 4:17-18 146 5:18-24 146 6 159 8:4 117 Exodus 6:7 72 12:10 177 12:46 177 13:18 147 17:9 133 17:10 133 17:12 133 19:6 73 23:20 162 29:6 125 31:17 74 39:30 125 Leviticus 8:9 125 19:34 81 26:12 72 26:31 104 Numbers 9:12 177 15:37-41 189

2 Samuel 5 167

18:13–20:19 96 18:13–19:37 42, 43, 47 18:13-16 47 18:13 45 18:14-16 51 18:17–19:37 50 18:33-35 43 18:34 43 19:9 49 19:12-13 65 19:13 42 19:21-28 67 19:21 67 19:23-24 48 19:35 50 19:36 50 19:37 49, 117 20:11 1 20:12-19 69 23:21-23 61 24:18–25:30 96 25:1-4 66 25:8 66

1 Kings 6–7

1 Chronicles 4:40-43 53

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 189 11:13-21 189 12 56 16:22 56 18:15-18 129 18:15 146 18:18 146 32 122 32:18 132 32:30 134 33:15 133 Joshua 4:1-9 132 4:2-24 132 6 146 1 Samuel 2:8 125

4

2 Kings 16:5 37 16:7-9 37 17:4 41 17:24-33 43 17:24 43, 78 17:27 43 17:30 44 17:37 37 18:1 45

2 Chronicles 32:21 49 35:1-19 61 Ezra 9–10

82

Nehemiah 13 82

Psalms 2:9 27 18:5 150 22:19 177 36:10 102 43:3 177 63:2 177 69:10 176 69:22 177 110 158 110:1 159 117:22 lxx 165 117:25-26 193 118:22 165 118:25-26 176 Proverbs 29:8 98 Song of Songs 4:6 133 Isaiah 1–66 1–55 1–39

2, 3, 181 4, 221 3-7, 34, 61, 71, 96, 151, 202, 203, 214, 221 1–35 76, 99 1–33 96 1 78, 79 1:1-27 190 1:1-2 25 1:1 36, 54, 71, 122 1:2 108 1:4-9 47 1:7 78 1:8-9 78 1:8 47, 108 1:9 155, 185 1:15-17 167 1:18 7 1:22 32 1:26 188

223

Index of References 2 7, 79, 155 2:1 2, 72 2:2-4 54 2:2 18 2:3 190 2:4 7 2:13 120 3:4 11 4:2 123 4:33-34 163 5 218 5:1-7 48 5:1-4 213 5:1-2 185 5:1 7 5:3 7 5:4 7 5:5 7, 25, 125 5:6 25 5:7 7 5:11-14 25, 98 5:12 32 5:13 12, 119 5:24-25 25, 98 5:29-30 25 6–9 36 6 31, 157, 185 6:1–7:6 190 6:1-5 7 6:1 36, 54, 118 6:2 8 6:3 31, 187, 193 6:6 8 6:8 18 6:9-11 163, 171 6:9-10 148, 156, 168, 185 6:9 21 6:10 176, 177, 185 7–9 37 7–8 71 7 37, 38, 113, 167

7:1

54, 71, 116, 163 7:2 116 7:3 5, 213 7:4 71 7:5 116 7:7 111 7:8 71, 116 7:10 122 7:14-17 194 7:14 9, 32, 95, 121, 167, 181, 185, 196 7:17 38 7:18-19 63 7:18 59 7:20 65 8 37, 113, 114 8:1–9:6 115 8:1–9:3 112 8:1-4 113 8:3 5, 213 8:4-11 106 8:5-8 38, 113 8:5 38 8:6 71 8:7-8 25 8:9-10 113 8:10 189 8:11-15 113 8:12 113, 114 8:13 9, 113, 114 8:14 155, 185 8:16-18 114 8:18 32 8:19-23 114 8:19-21 114 8:19 114 8:21–9:1 114 8:23–9:1 168, 185 8:23 9, 114, 120 9 10 9:1-3 196 9:1 78, 113, 114, 185

224 Isaiah (cont.) 9:2 9 9:5-6 190, 196 9:5 10, 123 9:6-7 182 9:6 10, 114, 123 9:10 71 9:11 25, 116 9:12 ET 25 9:13-20 25 9:14-21 ET 25 9:18 9 10 52 10:5-19 44 10:5-15 5, 67 10:8-9 45 10:12-13 25 10:12 10 10:19-22 25 10:19 25, 125 10:20-26 59 10:20 10 10:21 10 10:22-26 25 10:22-24 25 10:22-23 25, 155, 185 10:22 10, 125 10:24-27 25, 53, 126 10:24-25 45, 52 10:24 10 10:27–11:9 59 10:28-32 25 10:30 212 10:32–12:6 191 10:32 10 10:33-34 25, 126 11 10 11:1–12:6 61 11:1-10 182 11:1-9 11, 22, 27, 61 11:1-6 194 11:1-5 25, 125, 191, 192 11:1 167

Index of References 11:2-5 25 11:2 26, 125 11:4 26, 27 11:6-9 22, 92 11:10 59, 185, 196 11:11-16 58–61 11:11-12 25, 59 11:11 59–61 11:12 188 11:15-16 60 11:15 59, 164 11:16 59–61 11:17 164 12:1-6 191, 192 12:6 10 13–23 39 13–14 67 13 68 13:6 11 13:9 11, 32 13:10 164, 169, 185 13:34 169, 185 14 46 14:4-21 67 14:8 25 14:12 32 14:13-14 151 14:13 185 14:15 185 14:19 25 14:24-25 64 14:26-30 25 14:26 54 14:28-32 45 14:28 46 14:30 108 15:2 116 15:4-5 25 16:12 104 17 39 17:3 116 18–20 39, 54 18 41 19 39, 58, 64 19:1-25 53

19:1-15 39, 53 19:1-4 39, 41 19:2 40 19:4 40 19:5-10 39 19:9-12 25 19:11-15 39 19:11-12 185 19:16-25 53, 54, 56, 57 19:16-17 53, 54, 57 19:17 53 19:18-25 56 19:18-23 64 19:18 53, 57 19:19-22 53, 57 19:23-25 53, 54 19:23 53, 54, 57, 59 19:24-25 53, 57, 64 19:25 59 20 46, 58, 71 20:1-2 54 20:1 46, 54, 71 20:3-5 58 20:3 32 21 68 21:10 25 21:11-15 25 21:11-12 68 22 47 22:13 185 22:21 10 22:22 196 22:23 125 23:12 185 23:18 18 24–27 4, 18, 19, 69, 151, 216, 218 24:1 18 24:5 120 24:18-20 25 24:18 25 24:21 32 24:23 10 25:8 185

25:9-10 19 25:9 19 26:1 71 26:4 188 26:13 105 26:14 105 26:19-20 19 26:19 19, 138, 172, 185 27:1 19 27:6–28:13 190 27:6 19 27:9 185 27:12 117 27:13 18, 59 28:1-8 39 28:1-6 5 28:1 19 28:11-12 185 28:14 98 28:16 155, 185 28:22 155, 185 29:10-12 25 29:10 121, 185 29:13 163, 168, 185 29:14 185 29:15-16 25 29:15 31 29:16 185 29:18-29 185 29:18-23 25 29:18-19 185 29:18 138, 172 29:22-23 190 30 41 30:1-7 42 30:1-5 25 30:1-4 41 30:1-3 42 30:6 8, 121 30:12 42 30:15-21 25 30:15-18 126 30:15 42, 121 30:16 121 30:19 10

225

Index of References 30:23 25 30:50 25 31 41, 42, 52 31:1-3 42 31:1 25 31:8-9 52 31:8 52 31:9 10 32:5-7 25 33 97 33:9 120, 121 33:18 185 33:20 10 34–66 96 34 71, 96 34:4 164, 185 34:8 32 35 71, 96 35:5-6 138, 185 35:5 172 35:6 172 36–39 77, 87, 94, 97 36–37 38, 42, 47, 50, 65, 71 36:1–39:8 96 36:1 11 36:10 11 36:13-20 42 36:18-20 43 36:18-19 44 36:19 42, 43, 103 37:9 49, 51 37:12-13 65 37:13 103 37:17 71 37:21 71 37:24-25 48 37:28 71 37:36-38 51 37:36 11, 50 37:37 71 37:38 49, 117 38:8 1 38:11-20 69 38:11 119

39

17, 66, 72, 221 39:5-8 12 39:8 12 40–66 3, 4, 20, 72, 76, 77, 79, 80, 96, 155, 202, 203, 221 40–55 3, 4, 1214, 96, 216 40–48 72, 73 40 12, 17, 72, 129, 130, 139, 142, 157, 191, 203, 221 40:1-26 190 40:1-11 14 40:1 72, 123, 195 40:3-5 171, 185, 191 40:3-4 142 40:3 25, 28, 108, 109, 129, 130, 136, 139, 160, 162, 167, 176, 185 40:4-5 129 40:5 119 40:12 25 40:13 185 40:14 74 40:15 187 40:18 14, 74 40:23 14 40:25 74 40:26 184 40:27–41:16 190 40:28-29 74 40:31 14 41:2-3 14 41:8–42:1 13 41:8 73

226 Isaiah (cont.) 41:18-19 14 42 147, 150 42:1-4 141, 168, 182, 185, 197 42:1 148 42:5–43:10 190 42:6-7 148 42:6 82, 148 42:7 138 42:9 185 42:15 73 42:16 73, 148 42:18 138, 172 42:21 188, 190 43 214 43:1-3 195 43:6-7 86 43:10 13, 15 43:16 165 43:17 73 43:18-19 185 43:20 13 43:21–44:23 190 44 80 44:4 73 44:6 15 44:9-20 73 44:21 73 44:25 185 44:26-27 14 44:27 73 44:28 68, 72, 73, 79, 96, 142, 207 45 80 45:1-7 207 45:1-6 14 45:1 68, 72, 73, 79, 96 45:4 13, 15 45:7 74, 106, 187 45:8 195 45:9 185

Index of References 45:14-15 75 45:14 15, 185 45:18-25 15, 159 45:20 188 45:22-25 158, 159 45:23 15, 158, 185, 188 46:1-2 72 46:1 116 46:4 189 46:5 14, 74 46:9 15 46:11 72, 73, 108 47 72 47:1 96 47:4 188 47:10 15 47:14 15 48 215 48:3 185 48:6-7 185 48:14 96 48:19 73 48:20-25 96 48:20 16 49 72, 215 49:1-7 197 49:1-6 149, 185, 198 49:3 149 49:4 149 49:5 149 49:6 15, 82, 148, 149, 157, 171, 185 49:8 185 49:12 121 49:13 185 50–54 216 50 88 50:1-11 110 50:1 88, 155 50:2-3 73 50:2 110 50:4-11 197

50:4-7 197 50:4 110 50:5 110 50:6 110, 185 50:7 110 50:8 110 50:9 110 51 24 51:1-4 220 51:1-2 131–4, 136 51:2 73, 185 51:3 32, 73 51:5 22, 23, 107, 219, 220 51:9-10 73 51:12–52:12 190 51:13 188 52–53 23, 221 52 144 52:3 73 52:5 185 52:7-10 196 52:7-9 143 52:7-8 143 52:7 142–5, 150, 185 52:9 143 52:13–53:12 197, 199 52:13-15 182 52:15 185 53 24, 178 53:1-12 183, 198 53:1 150, 176, 185 53:3-7 16 53:4 168, 178, 185 53:7-8 171 53:10 123 53:11-12 102 53:11 16, 101, 102 53:12 171, 185 54 88, 215 54:1–55:5 190

54:1-10 190 54:1-7 88 54:1 185 54:4-14 199 54:5-8 155 54:5 15 54:9 73 54:11–55:5 190 54:11 25 54:12 25 54:13 141, 177, 185, 189 55–66 203 55 4, 17, 203, 216 55:1-11 200 55:3-4 73 55:3 171 55:6-9 17 55:8-9 80 55:10-11 191 55:10 185 55:12-13 17 55:12 184 55:13 32 56–66 3, 4, 71, 76, 80, 96, 151, 216 56 4, 17, 81, 82, 92, 216, 217 56:1-2 18 56:3 82 56:4-6 18 56:5 82, 83 56:6-7 81 56:7 18, 82, 140, 164, 168, 171, 185 56:8 81 56:11 32 57 83, 217 57:4 83, 120 57:6-7 75 57:7 18

Index of References 57:12 104 57:13 18, 73, 104 57:14–58:14 191 57:18-19 83 57:20-21 83 58 84 58:3 84 58:6-11 193 58:6-8 191 58:6 171 58:7 84 58:9 18 58:13 84 58:14 73, 85 59 85, 86 59:1-2 85 59:7-8 185 59:16-17 85 59:20-21 185, 187 59:20 86 60 28, 86 60:1-22 190 60:1 86 60:2-3 86 60:3 75 60:4-9 19 60:4 86 60:5 86 60:8-9 87 60:14 19, 87 60:16 32, 33 60:19-21 20 61 87, 143, 171, 185, 217 61:1-4 20 61:1-3 144 61:1-2 140, 143, 171, 185 61:1 87, 138, 143–5, 162, 172, 185, 195 61:2-3 2, 72, 144 61:2 140, 143 61:3 87, 143

227 61:6 73, 88 61:8 21, 88 62 88, 89 62:4 88 62:5 88 62:6 88 62:11-12 196 62:11 89, 168 63 89, 90, 217, 218 63:3 89, 178 63:4 89 63:11-12 73 63:15-19 21 63:16 32, 89 63:17 21 64 90 64:1-5 195 64:4 90 64:6 90 64:7 32 64:8-10 195 64:8 90 64:9 91 64:10-11 90 65 21, 91 65:1 185 65:2 185 65:3-4 91 65:3 21 65:9 91 65:10 91 65:17 11, 21 65:18 21 65:25 21, 22, 73, 92 66 92, 218 66:1-24 192 66:1-2 171 66:8 92 66:9 92 66:10-11 192 66:11 33 66:14 92, 141 66:19-21 92 66:21 75

228 Isaiah (cont.) 66:22 21 66:23 22, 75, 93 66:24 140 Jeremiah 1–51 96 1:1 212 1:2 63 1:4-5 149 1:5 148, 149 1:7-8 147 1:10 147 1:18 148 2:18 59, 63 2:36 63 7:11 164 7:23 72 11:4 72 13:22 118 13:26 118 14:21 125 17:12 125 18:6 90 25:11-12 205 29:10 205 31 167 31:33-34 177 31:33 72 39:1-2 66 51 117 52 96 52:4-7 66 Lamentations 1:9 118 Ezekiel 16:18 125 20:35 126 26:16 125 29:10 121 30:6 121 30:15 121 30:16 121 38–39 125

Index of References Daniel 9 205 9:24 205 9:25 144 9:27 205 11–12 24 Hosea 1:10 155 7:11 59 9:3 59 11:5 59 11:11 59 12:1-2 59 Joel 2:10 164 3:5 150 Micah 5 167 6:2 134 7:12 59 Nahum 3:5 118 Zechariah 9–14 19 9:9 176 10:11-16 60 12:10 177 Malachi 3:1 162 New Testament Q 7:27 162 Matthew 1:22-23 9 1:22 167 1:23 167, 185 2:1-2 168

2:23 167 3 135, 167 3:1 109, 162 3:3 109, 129, 161, 167, 185 3:7-10 128, 131 3:9 132 3:11-12 128 4:15-16 114, 168, 185 4:15 78 5:1-11 185 6:1-18 84 6:7 167 6:9 90 7:16-18 84 8:14-17 168 8:17 168, 183, 185, 199 11:2-6 138, 140 11:4-5 172 11:5 185 11:7-19 140 11:11 140 11:14-15 140 11:27-33 140 12:12 84 12:18-21 141, 168, 185 12:28 141 13:13-15 185 13:14-15 168 13:16-17 142 15:2 168 15:8-9 168, 185 21:5 168 21:7 168 21:9 193 21:13 83, 168, 185 21:28-32 140 23:23 167 24:29 169, 185 24:30 169 28:20 167

Mark 1:1-3 161 1:2-3 161 1:3 109, 129, 185 2:14 166 2:19 142 2:21-22 142 3:27 142 4 164 4:12 163, 185 6:48 165 7 164 7:6-7 163, 185 8:27-30 210 9 164 9:48 185 10:45 141 11 164 11:17 83, 140, 185 12:1-12 185 12:10 165 13 164 13:24-25 164, 185 14:24 141 Luke 1 129 1:1-4 170 1:3 170 1:17 129 1:26-38 9 1:31 167 1:76 129 2:29-32 185 3 135, 161 3:3 109 3:4-6 129, 185 3:4-5 171 3:4 109, 161 3:6 157 3:7-9 128 3:8 185 3:9-10 131 3:16-17 128

229

Index of References 4 153 4:1-30 140 4:16-30 140 4:16-20 171 4:18-19 87, 171, 185 5:27 166 6:12 170 6:20-23 185 6:24-26 185 6:29-30 185 7:18-29 185 7:18-23 138, 140 7:22 172, 185 7:24-35 140 7:27 162 7:28 140 7:49-50 171 8:4-15 185 8:32-33 171 10:15 185 10:18 142 10:23-24 142, 185 11:20 141 13:34 171 13:47 171 16:16 140 17:21 141 19:46 171, 185 22:37 171, 185 24:50-53 170 28:26-27 171 John 1:19–12:50 177 1:19-23 129 1:23 109, 161, 176, 185 1:45 176 2:17 176, 177 3:22 140 5:39 176 5:46 176 6:31 176 6:45 141, 176, 177, 185

7:38 176 7:42 176 7:53–8:11 174 8:44 28 10:34 176 12:13-16 177 12:13 176 12:14-15 176 12:15 176 12:28 182 12:38 176, 185 12:39-41 176 12:40 176, 185 13:18 176 15:25 176 16:22 141 17:12 176 19:23-24 177 19:24 176 19:28-30 177 19:28 176 19:36 176, 177 19:37 176, 177 21 175 Acts 1:1 170 5:35-39 210 8:32-35 199 8:32-33 183 9:1-19 147 12:1 167 12:5 167 12:12 160 12:25 160 13:46-47 148 15:37 160 16 169 20 169 22:6-16 147 23:6 153 26 147 26:12-18 147 26:15-20 147 26:17-18 147 26:17 148

230 Acts (cont.) 26:18 147 27–28 169 28 157 28:25-27 171 28:26-28 148, 156 Romans 1–5 153 2:24 185 3:15-17 185 9:4-5 155 9:20 185 9:25 155 9:26 155 9:27-29 155 9:27-28 185 9:27 155 9:29 185 9:33 155, 185 10:11 185 10:13-18 150 10:13 150 10:15 185 10:16 182, 185 10:18 150 10:20-21 185 11:7-10 185 11:8 185 11:26-27 185 14:11 158, 159, 185 15:12 185 1 Corinthians 1:17 185 1:19 185 1:20 185 2:9 90 2:16 185 14:21 185 14:25 185 15:32 185 15:54 185 16:22 159

Index of References 2 Corinthians 4:6 185 4:11 185 5:17 185 6:2 185 7:6 185 9:10 185 Galatians 1:15–2:10 185 1:15-16 148 1:15 149 1:24 149 2:2 149 4:27 185 Ephesians 6:11-17 85 Philippians 2:6-11 158 2:9-11 159 3:5 153 Colossians 4:10 160 4:14 169 2 Thessalonians 2:8 27 2 Timothy 4:11

160, 169

Philemon 24 160 1 Peter 2:22 183 2:24 183 5:13 160 Revelation 6:14 11 19:15 27 21:1 11

Apocrypha Wisdom of Solomon 5:17-20 85 Ecclesiasticus 44–50 204 47:1 204 48:4-11 204 48:12-15 204 48:20-25 137, 204 48:24-25 204 48:24 2 48:25-24 207 48:25 211 49:6-7 204 49:6 137 49:7 205 49:8-9 204 49:8 137 49:10 204 Pseudepigrapha 1 Enoch 1–36 159 62:2 26 2 Enoch 19:3 7 3 Enoch 4 146 4 Ezra 13 27 13:9-10 27 Apocalypse of Abraham 8:1 23 Lives of the Prophets 1:1 213 Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah 5:11 213

Odes of Solomon 1 21 13 21 19 9, 33 Psalms of Solomon 17–18 27 17:35 26 Testament of Benjamin 3:8 24 Qumran 1QH 22(18):12-14 144 1QIsaa 42:19 220 51:4-6 107 51:5 107 VI 21 111 XLI 29-XLII 13 110 col. 41:19 23 1QM 1:3 126 5:1 126 11:16 125 1QS 8:12-16 139 9:19-20 139 VIII 13 109 1QSb 5:20 126 4Q266 frg. 2:18

231

Index of References

4Q521 frg. 2, col. 2 173

98

4QIsab col. ii, 10 col. ii, 6-7 col. ii, 6

98 98 98

4QpIsaa 8–10 26 frgs. 2–4:4 125 frgs. 5–6:2–4 126 frgs. 8–10:1–2 line 5 126 frgs. 8–10:1–2 line 3 126 frgs. 8–10:1–2 126 frgs. 8–10:11 line 18 125 frgs. 8–10:11 125

25

Ps.-Jonathan Deut. 33:14-15 135 Deut. 33:15 134 Mishnah ‘Abot 1:1 206 1:3 205 Megillah IV, 9-10

190

Sanhedrin 10

6, 213

Soṭah 10b 31 Yebamot 49b

6, 213

4QpIsab 1:2 125

Yoma 1:6 208

4Qpap pIsac frg. 23 ii 126 frgs. 4–7 ii 8 125

Babylonian Talmud Megillah 21b 189

11QMelch 2:15-20 143

Roš Haššanah 11a 134

CD 1:14 98 7:20 126 XX:11 98

Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 3:7 189

Targums Fragmentary Targum P V on Gen. 49:26 134

98

4Q370 col. 1, lines 3-5

4Q525 frg. 23:8

Neofiti Num. 23:9

134

Neofiti 1 Deut. 33:15 134, 135

Sanhedrin 27b 134 Midrash Exodus Rabbah 15:4 134 15:7 134 15:26 134 28:2 134

232 Leviticus Rabbah 10 31 Numbers Rabbah 20:12 134 Midrash Psalms 52:8 134 53:2 134 Sifre 353 133 Tanḥuma Buber Wayyera 4:23 134 Josephus Antiquities 1.3.6 §93 117 10.2 2 10.210 210 10.267-69 207 10.268 208 10.35 208 11.5 209 11.6 209 11.337-38 208 18.116-19 128 18.88 209 20.169-72 146 Apion 1.30-36 206 1.40 206 1.41 206 War 2.261-63 146 Other Rabbinic Works Mekilta of Rabbi Ishmael Amalek 1 133

Index of References

Pequde 11:5 134

Irenaeus Adversus Haereses 5.15 19 4.33.11 19 4.4.1 19 4.9.2 19 5.34.1 19

Apostolic Fathers 1 Clement 50 31

Jerome De viris illustribus 8 160

Didache 10:6 159

Justin Dialogue with Tryphon 3.1 174 81 175 112 19

Mekilta of Rabbi Simeon ben Yoḥai 44.3 on Exod. 17:12 134

Nag Hammadi Codices Gospel of Thomas 46 140 Classical and Ancient Christian Literature Apostolic Constitutions 7.46 160 Clement of Alexandria Paedagogus 2.10 31 Ephesus Against Heresies 3.1.1 175 Epiphanius Panarion (Adversus haereses) 51.3 160 51.11 170 Eusebius Church History 2.1624 160 3.39 160 Herodotus Histories II.151-52 40

Radbertus Exposition of Matthew 2.3 132 Tatian Oratio ad Graecos (Pros Hellēnas) 29.2 174 Theophilus Ad Autolycum 1.141-15 174 John Chrysostom Homilies on Matthew 11:3 131 Thanksgiving Hymns 11.34-35 25 16-17 24 col. 16 21 Inscriptions Babylonian Chronicle 1, iv, 16 52

I n d ex of A ut hor s

Abegg, M. G., Jr. 219 Ackroyd, P. R. 39 Al-Said, S. F. 68 Albertz, R. 66 Allison, D. C. 9, 19, 29, 138, 141, 145, 152, 162, 167 Alobaidi, J. 179 Anderson, H. 161 Aster, S. Z. 42, 53 Bahat, D. 6, 7, 29, 212 Bailey, D. P. 24 Balogh, C. 40, 53, 56, 58 Baltzer, K. 4 Bar, S. 5, 213 Barclay, J. M. G. 159 Barré, M. L. 69 Barrett, C. K. 148 Barstad, H. 17, 216 Barth, H. 35, 56 Barthélemy, D. 100, 102, 103, 106 Baruchi-Unna, A. 43, 66 Baumgarten, A. I. 8, 209, 210 Baur, F. C. 5 Beaton, R. C. 166, 167, 169 Becking, B. 44 Beers, H. 148 Beker, J. C. 154, 155 Bellinger, W. H. 145 Ben Zvi, E. 35, 43, 47, 66 Benoit-Marie, F. 186 Berges, U. 3, 5, 17, 35, 47, 52, 56, 67, 216 Betz, O. 145 Beuken, W. A. M. 39, 143, 144 Bickerman, E. J. 205, 210 Blakely, J. A. 48 Bleibtrau, E. 58 Blenkinsopp, J. 5, 17, 55, 60, 67, 76, 79, 216 Blomberg, C. L. 166 Bock, D. L. 2, 174, 179

Bonard, P. 132 Borger, R. 62 Bosshardt-Nepustil, E. 68 Bovon, F. 129, 157 Brettler, M. Z. 43 Brockington, L. H. 118 Brooke, G. J. 98, 124 Brown, R. E. 177, 197 Bruce, F. F. 148 Brueggemann, W. 162 Buber, S. 109 Buchanan, G. W. 132 Bultmann, R. 130 Caminos, R. A. 40 Carter, W. 132 Chadwick, J. R. 6, 212 Chamberlain, J. V. 107 Charlesworth, J. H. 2, 8, 14, 25, 27, 33, 139, 153, 154, 174, 175, 206 Chauveau, M. 63 Cheyne, T. K. 55, 57 Childs, B. S. 3, 30, 67, 68 Chilton, B. D. 27, 122, 141 Christensen, D. L. 59 Clements, R. E. 37, 38, 51, 64, 66, 67 Cogan, M. 15, 37, 50 Collins, A. Y. 130 Collins, J. J. 15, 19, 208 Cook, P. M. 40, 46 Crenshaw, J. L. 19 Cross, F. M. 60 Crowell, B. L. 68 Culpepper, R. A. 5, 132, 221 Currid, J. D. 39 Danby, H. 137 Davies, W. D. 9, 167 Deissler, A. 55 Delamarter, S. 137 Deutsch, R. 6, 212, 213 Dibelius, M. 16

234 Dodd, W. 132 Duhm, B. 3, 55, 57, 60 Dunn, J. D. G. 129, 139, 149 Edel, E. 40 Egger, P. 133 Eidevall, G. 40, 67 Emerton, J. A. 47 Eph’al, I. 48 Epstein, I. 137 Eriksson, L. O. 3 Erlandson, S. 35 Erlandsson, S. 53 Evans, C. A. 43, 67, 132, 156 Everson, A. J. 24 Fales, M. 57 Fantalkin, A. 63 Farmer, W. R. 145 Faust, A. 48 Feldman, A. 25 Ferda, T. S. 130 Ferreira, J. 30 Figueras, P. 117 Finkelstein, I. 48 Flashar, M. 119 Flint, P. 23, 219, 220 Flint, P. W. 96 Fouts, D. M. 51 Frahm, E. 46 Friedman, R. E. 77 Fuchs, A. 46, 53 Funk, R. 142 Funk, R. W. 145 Galil, G. 66 Gallagher, W. R. 42 Gesenius, W. 3 Geyer, J. B. 68 Gibson, S. 6, 212 Ginsberg, H. L. 47 Ginzberg, L. 27 Glaser, M. 179 Glassner, J.-J. 49, 50 Gnilka, J. 130 Goldstein, R. 6, 212 Gonçalves, F. J. 51, 67 Grayson, A. K. 50, 52, 64 Green, J. B. 132 Greenfield, J. C. 139

Index of Authors Grimal, N.-C. 40 Grimm, W. 141 Gruenwald, I. 30 Gruntfest, Y. 68 Haag, E. 55 Hannah, D. D. 26, 27 Hanson, P. D. 4, 162 Haran, M. 70 Hardin, J. W. 48 Hare, D. R. A. 213 Harris, J. R. 152 Harvey, A. E. 141 Hasel, G. F. 60 Hatch, E. 152 Hausmann, J. 56 Hayes, E. R. 20, 39, 40, 42, 53, 59, 67, 68 Hayes, J. H. 35 Hays, C. B. 39, 40, 69 Hays, R. B. 154 Hayward, R. 186, 193 Heltzer, M. 68 Hengel, M. 24, 174, 178 Hibbard, J. T. 33 Hoffmann, P. 130 Hoffmeier, J. K. 42 Høgenhaven, J. 106 Hooker, M. D. 161–4, 166 Hoover, R. W. 145 Hornung, E. 49 Hurtado, L. W. 158, 159 Hurwitz, M. S. 115 Janowski, B. 24 Jenkins, A. K. 44 Jeremias, J. 24, 132 Jong, M. J. de 35, 37, 45, 52, 53, 59 Juel, D. 170 Kahn, D. 5, 18, 41, 45, 56, 57, 61, 62, 65, 213 Kaiser, O. 36, 39, 40, 55, 60, 67, 69 Kessler, R. 55 Keulen, P. van 47 Kim, H.-C. P. 24, 33 Kim, S. 150 Kitchen, K. A. 41 Kloppenborg, J. S. 130 Knibb, M. A. 95, 213 Koenig, E. 59



Index of Authors

Koenig, J. 100, 107, 144 Koet, B. 171 Kooij, A. van der 100, 106, 107, 118 Kraeling, C. H. 129 Kraft, R. A. 152 Kramer, S. N. 22 Krašovec, J. 55, 57 Kratz, R. 132 Krauss, R. 49 Kutscher, E. Y. 1, 105, 108 Laato, A. 67 Ladymin, I. 40 Lagrange, M.-J. 132 Lambert, W. G. 68 Lange, A. 137 Lauber, S. 56 Leahy, A. 40 Leene, H. 142 Levine, L. I. 189 Lier, G. E. 122 Lindars, B. 149 Lipschits, O. 63 Loewe, H. 137 Lohfink, G. 148 Longacre, D. 101 Lust, J. 121 Lyon, J. D. 25 Machinist, P. 6, 38, 67 Maeir, A. M. 6, 212 Malamat, A. 66 Marcus, J. 128, 130, 141, 161, 163, 164, 210 Marlow, H. 39 Marmorstein, A. 133 Marti, K. 55 Martinez, F. G. 144 Martyn, J. L. 149 McEntire, M. 2 McKenzie, J. L. 76–8, 80 Meeks, W. A. 155 Melugin, R. F. 24 Menahem, R. 133 Menken, M. J. J. 166 Milgrom, J. 63 Milik, J. T. 97, 99 Millard, A. 6, 213 Momigliano, A. 210 Montefiore, C. G. 137

235

Morse, M. 33 Moyise, S. 141 Müller, M. 132 Müller, R. 7, 47 Munck, J. 148, 149 Murphy-O’Connor, J. 157 Na’aman, N. 37, 42–4, 48, 62, 66 Nadali, D. 58 Negev, A. 6, 212 Nelson, R. 56 Newsom, C. A. 25 Niccacci, A. 35, 40, 54, 58, 59 Nickelsburg, G. W. E. 149, 150 Notley, R. S. 78 Novotny, J. 50 O’Toole, R. F. 148 Oded, B. 37 Olley, J. W. 111 Onasch, H.-U. 58 Painter, J. 176 Parpola, S. 49 Paul, S. M. 2, 4, 12, 13, 43, 71, 96, 102, 121 Pesch, R. 167 Peters, D. M. 25 Pikor, W. 197 Plummer, A. 132 Porter, S. E. 176 Prokhorov, A. V. 37 Pulikottil, J. 103, 104 Raabe, P. R. 39 Rainey, A. F. 78 Roberts, J. J. M. 1, 3–5, 18, 19, 22, 35, 38, 40, 44, 46, 54, 59, 98, 202 Robinson, J. M. 130 Rubinstein, A. 105, 106 Rytel-Adrianik, P. 156, 160 Sanders, J. 167 Sawyer, J. F. A. 56 Schaudig, H.-P. 50 Schenker, A. 57, 58, 95 Scheuer, B. 21 Schiffman, L. H. 136 Schipper, B. U. 65 Schmid, E. 132

236

Index of Authors

Schnackenburg, R. 145 Schuman, N. 186 Scobie, C. H. H. 132 Sedlmeier, F. 55, 56, 58 Seeligman, I. L. 101, 102, 115–18, 120, 121 Seidel, H. 186, 193 Seifrid, M. A. 154 Seitz, C. R. 67 Seitz, O. J. F. 132 Shanks, H. 29 Shinan, A. 189 Shirley, J. J. 5, 213 Shum, S.-L. 144 Silva, M. 154 Skinner, J. 56 Slotki, J. J. 137 Smelik, K. A. D. 51, 67 Smith, G. V. 3 Smith, M. 207 Snodgrass K. R. 129 Soden, W. von 51 Sommer, B. D. 34, 54 Sparks, H. F. D. 136 Stade, B. 43 Steck, O. 69 Steck, O. H. 111 Stendahl, K. 4, 5, 169, 221 Stone, M. E. 27, 139 Stromberg, J. 17, 59, 64, 69 Stuart, A. I. 35, 39, 40, 42, 53, 59, 67, 68 Stuhlmacher, P. 24 Sweeney, M. A. 4, 24, 35, 39, 44, 56, 59, 61, 68, 69 Swete, H. B. 22, 220 Tabbor, J. 173 Tadmor, H. 37, 51, 52, 66 Talmon, S. 23, 106 Tammuz, O. 49 Taylor, J. E. 130, 133 Tiemeyer, L.-S. 4, 17, 216, 221 Tigchelaar, E. J. C. 144 Tomes, R. 37 Tov, E. 8, 96, 97, 110, 219, 221

Tropper, A. 206 Troxel, R. L. 100, 116, 118, 120, 122 Tuckett, C. 162, 171 Uchelen, N. A. van 134 Uffenheimer, B. 68 Ulrich, E. 23, 60, 96, 101, 106, 155, 219, 220 Ussishkin, D. 48 VanderKam, J. C. 136 Vanderhooft, D. S. 63 Vaughn, A. G. 48 Vermeylen, J. 55, 60 Vogels, W. 57 Von Beckerath, J. 49 Vorm-Croughs, M. van der 28 Wagner, J. R. 118, 150, 152, 157 Warburton, D. A. 49 Waters, M. 67 Watts, R. E. 163 Weber, R. 110 Weigold, M. 137 Weinfeld, M. 74 Weissert, E. 48 Westermann, C. 142 Wildberger, H. 35, 39, 40, 56, 57, 60, 67, 68 Williams, C. H. 178 Williamson, H. G. M. 35, 56, 60, 61, 64, 69 Wise, M. 173 Wodecki, B. 57 Wrede, W. 210 Wright, N. T. 155 Wróbel, M. S. 28 Young, E. J. 78, 79 Younger, K. L. 44 Zawadzki, S. 50 Zehnder, M. 16 Ziegler, J. 117 Zimmermann, J. 144