Joseph Blenkinsopp. Essays on the Book of Isaiah. FAT 128.

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Abernethy
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Isaiah

Isaiah 24–27: The So-Called Isaiah Apocalypse

2020 ◽  
pp. 78-94
Author(s):  
J. Todd Hibbard
Keyword(s):  
Diverse Range ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Book Of Isaiah

Isaiah 24–27 has long been recognized as a self-contained section within the larger book of Isaiah. After introducing and summarizing the content of this section, this chapter explores the numerous features and critical questions raised by this material. The issues include the customary questions of date, structure, and redaction, as well as matters raised by these chapters specifically: the identity of the unnamed city, covenant, resurrection, intertextuality, and their alleged apocalyptic character. Scholarship on all of these questions reveals an exceptionally diverse range of views given that the section comprises only four chapters. While this chapter does not seek to resolve most of these interpretive difficulties, it does argue that the designation of these chapter as the “Isaiah Apocalypse” should be dropped.

Use of Metaphors

2020 ◽  
pp. 408-425
Author(s):  
Göran Eidevall
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Feminine Roles

This chapter reviews major trends and trajectories within previous research on metaphors in Isaiah, including rhetorical, structuralist, redaction-critical, ideological, and feminist approaches. In addition, it surveys recurring types of imagery that inform this prophetic book’s perspective on the relationship between Yhwh and his people. Various images of empires are discussed as examples of propagandistic rhetoric. Some metaphors are analyzed in more detail. It is thus demonstrated that the conceptual metaphor “people are plants,” with its emphasis on the transience of human existence, pervades the book of Isaiah. Among metaphors used about Yhwh, special attention is paid to “God is a parent.” The concluding section discusses the various feminine roles ascribed to personified Zion in several passages in chapters 40–66: daughter, wife, and mother.

The Poetic Structures in Isaiah

2020 ◽  
pp. 375-392
Author(s):  
J. Blake Couey
Keyword(s):  
Poetic Structure ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
Large Sections

Because the book of Isaiah consists largely of poetry, understanding its poetic structures is essential for interpretation. The basic poetic unit is the line. Although single lines occur occasionally, most lines are grouped into couplets or triplets by parallelism or enjambment; these couplets or triplets are then connected to form whole poems. Structural devices at every level involve both repetition and variation. Most of the poems in Isaiah are loosely organized by a variety of devices, and no two poems are exactly alike. Large sections of the book are joined by similar kinds of devices, so that the book as a whole displays a poetic structure.

Eschatology in Isaiah

2020 ◽  
pp. 351-374
Author(s):  
Soo J. Kim
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Points ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
Mount Zion ◽  
Eternal Hope

This chapter presupposes that the eschatological language of the book of Isaiah is a working rhetorical device for expressing something else underneath it rather than a straightforward description of one’s visionary experience of the afterlife or the end series of this world. Accordingly, it addresses the eschatologically addressed rhetorical discourses in Isaiah. Using adjectival consultation to define “eschatologically,” it argues that the language of these eschatological texts is strong enough to be universal (spatial fullness), ultimate (temporal fullness), and radical (fullness in degree). This strategy aims to rationalize the national crises, as well as to encourage readers to practice proper ethics during those critical and liminal periods. The book of Isaiah illustrates several dystopias and utopias in the eschatologically addressed discourses with the two fixed points—Jerusalem and the Remnants—to serve as witnesses through the ages. Overall, these discourses seek to reassure readers of all ages to understand the divine transformation plan and to join the Torah-based community on Mount Zion for the eternal hope in this world.

Sin and Punishment in the Book of Isaiah

2020 ◽  
pp. 248-264
Author(s):  
Blaženka Scheuer
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
Recent Scholarship

This chapter explores the themes of sin and punishment through the lens of a theodicy that the authors and redactors of Isaiah offer to justify Yhwh’s actions and to instruct the Israelites to stay loyal to him. The three parts of Isaiah agree that the exile was Yhwh’s punishment for the Israelites’ rebellion demonstrated through social injustice and idolatry. However, because of the different historical realities that they address, they present varied understandings of the identity of the sinners and of the rationale for their punishment. The chapter also surveys the changes in recent scholarship in the study of sin and of the correspondence between sin and punishment in the Hebrew Bible. It draws attention to the fact that amid all the declarations of the Israelites’ sins, Isaiah gives voice to the human experience of unjust punishment.

The Sahidic Tripartite Isaiah: Origins and Transmission within the Coptic Manuscript Culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-406
Author(s):  
Alin Suciu
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
Book Of Isaiah

Abstract This study shows that the book of Isaiah was sometimes divided by Coptic scribes into three parts, each of them being copied individually into a separate manuscript. By surveying the available evidence, the author argues that this practice originated in the 4th century CE and was in use until the 8th century CE. The origins and eventual disappearance of tripartite Isaiah must be connected with the transformations that affected Coptic codices and scribal traditions from late antiquity to the medieval period.

The Book of Isaiah and the Anthological Genre

2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-72
Author(s):  
Nathan Mastnjak
Keyword(s):  
Book Of Isaiah

Did the Syriac Translators of the Old Testament Peshitta Regard ‮ܫܡܝܐ‬‎ as Singular or Plural?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Jerome A. Lund
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
Proper Interpretation

Abstract In recent literature, the noun ‮ܫܡܝܐ‬‎ has been described as a singular in the book of Isaiah, ostensibly on the basis of the lack of syame. I will argue to the contrary, demonstrating that it should be described as a plural in this corpus. The key to proper interpretation of the form is agreement with other clausal and phrasal constituents, not the presence or absence of syame.

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