Peter Ackroyd notes that the poem of Isaiah 12 uses the noun yeshuah three times (vv. 2-3). This is especially significant when we consider the distribution of the yasha root in Isaiah, which is “entirely absent from i-xii apart from xii 2-3 and the prophet’s name.” Isaiah 1 . . . . Continue Reading »
In an essay on the beginning and end of Isaiah, David Carr points out a series of significant shifts. In chapter 1, Yahweh charges Israel with unnaturally rebelling against his father (1:2), and in the “communal supplication” of chapters 63-64, Israel appeals to Yahweh on the basis of . . . . Continue Reading »
It is often said that silent reading was virtually unknown in antiquity. Not quite true argued Bernard Knox. According to another scholar’s summary of his argument: “Knox adduced two examples from fifth-century Attic drama in which silent reading actually takes place on stage before the . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1988 VT article, Craig Evans summarizes and assesses the work of WH Brownlee on the parallel structure of Isaiah. The book consists of two volumes, chs. 1-33 and 34-66, and the overall parallels are as follows: “In vol. 1 (1) chs. i-v (ruin and restoration of Judah) parallel chs. . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1988 article in JSOT , Edgar Conrad points to the two royal narratives of Isaiah (chs. 7, 36-39) as the structural keys to the book. Drawing on his earlier study of “fear not” passages, he summarizes his thesis thus: “The close relationship between these two narratives . . . . Continue Reading »
Edgar Conrad’s monograph on the “fear not” passages of the Old Testament concludes that they “represented stereotypical language used to encourage a warrior before battle.” In Isaiah, there are two such “War Oracles” addressed to kings: Ahaz in chapter 7 . . . . Continue Reading »
In a 1993 essay in JSOT , David Carr summarizes some of the recent work on the unity of Isaiah. In contrast to the scholarship of the last couple of centuries, contemporary scholars are focusing on the signs of compositional and literary unity in the book. He points, for instance, to the very . . . . Continue Reading »
Some ruminations on Sarah Palin, politics, and celebrity at www.firstthings.com. . . . . Continue Reading »
Mead again: “Jefferson’s dispatch to Tripoli and Algiers of a punitive mission against the Barbary pirates was the first but by no means the last such expedition sent out by American presidents. The village of Quallah Battooo on the coast of Sumatra was shelled and burned by an American . . . . Continue Reading »
Mead again ( Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World ): “As early as 1832, the United States sent a fleet to the Falkland Islands to reduce an Argentine garrison that had harassed American shipping. The Mexican War was, of course, the greatest example of . . . . Continue Reading »
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