A follow-up on yesterday’s brief comment on 2 Chronicles 26 and Uzziah’s pride: Isaiah 1:1 says that Isaiah prophesied during the reign of Uzziah, but the only other reference to Uzziah in the book is a death notice in 6:1. I’ve argued in an earlier post that the first five . . . . Continue Reading »
According to 2 Chronicles 26, Uzziah was a powerful and successful king, but his power went to his head and he became proud. The Hebrew word behind “become proud” is gabah , related to gibeah , “high place.” Uzziah’s attempt to offer incense in the temple treated the . . . . Continue Reading »
One of the cruxes of the structure of Isaiah is the question of why Isaiah’s call and commission occurs in chapter 6 rather than, as in most of the prophets, at the beginning of the book. There is some resemblance between Isaiah and John in this respect, but John is commissioned as a prophet . . . . Continue Reading »
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 »
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 »
Leclerc challenges Young and Motyer’s resort to systematic theological categories in their interpretation of Isaiah 5:16: “the holy God will sanctify Himself in righteousness.” Bringing in notions of holy-as-separate or holy-as-transcendent or even holy-as-divine-attribute misses . . . . Continue Reading »
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