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Daughter of Zion and Servant of the Lord in Isaiah: a Comparison
The use of the term "strange" as here applied to Jerusalem personified as YHWH's wife, covers several meanings. It first implies that she is of foreign and pagan origin, as stated in Ezek 16:3.45. It also means that she is an estranged wife and mother whose behavior is criminally guilty, since she is doing things contrary to the usual course of things; instead of nurturing her children she kills them, turning murder into a religious sacrifice thus perverting the essence of the bond with YHWH: nurturing a progeny and ensuring a future for the people. As a brothel boss, instead of fostering life, she is spreading death; even as a matron prostitute she inverts the usual behavior by paying her clients instead of being paid. The article tries to spell out the different aspects of her strange behavior, arguing that as the backdrop of the metaphor one could detect the reminiscence of the grandiose, orgiastic and aberrant Ishtar cult that the prophet and the golah people might have seen in the Babylonian exile. The prophet and his redactional epigones drew freely on various aspects of the Ishtar festival with its radical inversion of values in the elaboration of their metaphorical description of religious infidelity and apostasy of the people called to be a nation of priests. Instead of focusing unilaterally on Jerusalem the adulteress as an abused woman harassed by an abusive God, as most modern studies tend to do, in the perspective of the Hebrew Bible the marriage metaphor places the emphasis on the progeny. Therefore, the reading here proposed calls for a systemic approach. The real victims of the toxic mother are the children, symbol of the nation, killed, mislead and offered up to aberrant and murderous pagan cults. Moreover, Jerusalem as YHWH's estranged wife should be seen in conjunction with texts dealing with "Mother Zion."
This chapter is an extended acrostic based on the twenty-two letters of the alef-bet (Hebrew alphabet). The book of Lamentations has attracted the attention of many composers. One explanation for their interest is the demand for liturgical settings of Lamentations, but another is that composers are drawn to material that can help them to address present-day catastrophes, such as the events of 9/11 or the continuing turmoil in the Middle East. The book of Lamentations is almost always read against a specific historical background. Treves favored the second-century Maccabean crisis as a context, and Morgenstern the early fifth century, but overwhelmingly the most common view is that these laments emerged from the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in c.587 BCE. The great majority of Hebrew Bible texts in the work are from Isaiah and the Psalms, but there is one aria based on Lamentations.
"Rethinking Biblical Scholarship" brings together seminal essays to provide readers with an assessment of the archaeological and exegetical research which has transformed the discipline of biblical studies over the last two decades. The essays focus on history and historiography, exploring how scholarly constructs and ideologies mould historical, literary and cultural data and shape scholarly discourse. Most of the essays illustrate the development of what has been called a "minimalist" methodology. Among the many central topics examined are the formation of the Jewish scriptural canon and how the concepts of "prophecy" and "apocalypse" illuminate the emergence of Judaism in the late Persian and Hellenistic periods.
This book considers the often unrecognised impact of different approaches to metaphor on readings of the prophtic sexual and marital metaphorical language. It outlines a practical and consciously simplified approach to metaphor, placing strong emphasis on the influence of literary context on metaphorical meaning. Drawing on this approach, Hosea 4-14, Jeremiah 2:1-4:4, Isaiah, Ezekiel 16 and 23, and Hosea 1-3 are examined with fresh eyes. The book reveals the way in which scholarship has repeatedly stifled the prophetic metaphorical language by reading it within the 'default contexts' of 'the marriage metaphor' and 'cultic prostitution', which for so many years have been simply assumed. Readers are encouraged instead to read these diverse metaphors and similes within their distinctive literary contexts in which they have the potential to rise vividly to life, provoking the question: how are we to respond to these disquieting, powerful texts in the midst of the Hebrew Bible?.
A definitive stage in the formation of Isaiah came with the return from exile, and the subsequent efforts at restoration. In this new context, how were older Isaianic oracles to be heard? This book illuminates the textual hermeneutics embedded in the post-exilic shape of Isaiah, contributing to our understanding of the dynamics of scriptural formation in this influential period of Jewish history. This book argues that the author of Third Isaiah edited the book in line with his reading of it to project the old prophecy into the new post-exilic situation. The argument unfolds in three parts. The first defines Third Isaiah's final form, finding the work of its author especially in its 'frame' (56:1-8; 65-66). The second part analyzes this 'frame' for references to earlier Isaianic oracles, uncovering allusions to older material from throughout the book. A portrait emerges of the author of Third Isaiah as a reader of the book, providing an important key to unlock the door on his work as a redactor - the premise being that his hermeneutics as a reader would inevitably reflect his hermeneutics as a redactor. Working in the light of this portrait, the third part examines the author of Third Isaiah as a redactor of the book, uncovering several examples throughout Isaiah where probability seems to favor this hand at work.
The Book of Isaiah is one of the longest in the Bible. Isaiah played a major role in the literature and theology of the Qumran community, and in the NT he is far more frequently alluded to or quoted, often by name, than any other prophet. It is no exaggeration to say that for 2,000 years there is hardly any aspect of western culture to which the language and imagery of Isaiah has not contributed something significant. What was it about Isaiah that produced this unique phenomenon? What are the Isaianic themes and images that played so prominent a role in the history of Christianity that he was to become known as the 'fifth evangelist'? In seeking answers to these questions, this article looks first at Jewish and Christian perceptions of Isaiah, and then at some of the results of modern research.
Covering a rich landscape of literary, theological and cultural creativity, the authors explore the astonishing variety of interpretations inspired by Lamentations, one of the shortest books in the Bible.Features a wealth of reactions - covering two and a half millennia - to this ancient text's influential and unflinching account of the devastation wreaked by war Explores a kaleidoscope of examples ranging from the Dead Sea Scrolls; Yehudah Halevy; John Calvin; and composer, Thomas Tallis; through to the startling interpretations of Marc Chagall; contemporary novelist, Cynthia Ozick; and Zimbabwean junk sculpture Deploys "reception exegesis", a new genre of commentary that creatively blends reception history and biblical exegesis Offers sensitive treatment of challenging theological and psychological responses to one of the most disturbing books of the Hebrew Bible Widely relevant, with nuanced reflections - both religious and secular - on human suffering and the disasters of war.
Six Minor Prophets Through the Centuries is the work of highly respected biblical scholars, Richard Coggins and Jin H. Han. The volume explores the rich and complex reception history of the last six Minor Prophets in Jewish and Christian exegesis, theology, worship, and arts. This text is the work of two highly respected biblical scholars. It explores the rich and complex reception history of the last six Minor Prophets in Jewish and Christian theology and exegesis.
In the Book of Genesis, the first words God speaks to humanity are "Be fruitful and multiply." From ancient times to today, these words have been understood as a divine command to procreate. Fertility is viewed as a sign of blessedness and moral uprightness, while infertility is associated with sin and moral failing. Reconceiving Infertility explores traditional interpretations such as these, providing a more complete picture of how procreation and childlessness are depicted in the Bible. Closely examining texts and themes from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, Candida Moss and Joel Baden offer vital new perspectives on infertility and the social experiences of the infertile in the biblical tradition. They begin with perhaps the most famous stories of infertility in the Bible-those of the matriarchs Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel-and show how the divine injunction in Genesis is both a blessing and a curse. Moss and Baden go on to discuss the metaphorical treatments of Israel as a "barren mother," the conception of Jesus, Paul's writings on family and reproduction, and more. They reveal how biblical views on procreation and infertility, and the ancient contexts from which they emerged, were more diverse than we think. Reconceiving Infertility demonstrates that the Bible speaks in many voices about infertility, and lays a biblical foundation for a more supportive religious environment for those suffering from infertility today.
In the process of compiling sources, hundreds were entered into our data base (many of which were annotated), but in the end they could not be included in the final selection for the printed edition of the bibliography. Furthermore, since having completed collecting sources for the printed edition, hundreds more books and articles have been published. Hence, this web bibliography expands and updates the printed edition, entailing approximately 1,500 additional sources. The sources in this web bibliography are listed by date of publication within the same categories as in the printed bibliography. Note that citations generally appear once, though many of them could have been assigned to more than one category. One advantage of this digital version of the bibliography is that you may search for specific words pertinent to your research. It would be incorrect to assume that this web bibliography, if combined with the printed version, is exhaustive. From the outset of the project, strict criteria for inclusion were followed, meaning that generally only essays and books that appeared to be exceptionally significant were considered. Please refer to the authors' preface in the printed edition for more information.
Although most exegetes consider God or Lady Wisdom to be the speaker in Isa. 55.1-3, the one who speaks in v. 1 is the personified Lady Zion. She is present in this first scene of the chapter, as an analysis of the enclitic personal pronoun (&illegible; (v. 5) makes clear. She answers her God after being addressed several times in ch. 54 and therefore begins a dialogue which is continued by YHWH himself and closed by a commentator.
Examining three of Ezekiel's most troubling texts, ch. 20, and chs. 16 and 23, leads to the question of how such texts should be taught in classrooms. Following sugges tions by Jonathan Z. Smith, the author identifies problems (and presuppositions) that led Ezekiel to speak as he did. Beyond this task, however, lies a responsibility to place the Ezekielian texts in ?conversation? with other, conflicting texts, so that students learn to negotiate differences of opinion and make judgments of their own. Teachers, too, must model the decision-making process when confronted by troubling texts. Such arguments with tradition are, the author concludes, very much in the spirit of Ezekiel's own prophetic career.
This essay’s semiotic and feminist approach proposes a re-reading of the ‘daughters of Zion’ poem (Isa. 3.16-4.1) as a rape text. Analysis of such a text (including intertextuality with Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock) with deleterious effects for a rape culture reveals the interplay of satire with its poetics of rape, the misogynist biases actuating the sexual violence of its rape rhetoric, and the necessity to re-inscribe valuation of the feminine in such a text of terror vis-à-vis a rape culture. This poetic satire possesses no ideological neutrality as its androcentric nature (en)genders the (male) poet and Yhwh to (circum)(in)scribe the ultimate fate of these women as rape victims after having mocked them with sexist stereotypes. Nonresistance to this textual marginalization of Woman as ‘other’ tacitly succumbs to this text’s power to interpellate female readers as immasculated victims and male readers as salacious voyeurs, thus coopting readers in the perpetual ethos of violence against the feminine. The resistant act of re-reading such a textual act of violence, however, empowers by unveiling it as an abuse of power and liberates by voicing advocacy for the suffering silent demeaned, devalued, and dehumanized.
On the basis of the demarcation of the book of Isaiah into three distinct literary units, scholarly opinion has ruled out the possibility that Isaiah 61:1-4 (5-9) 10-11 (as part of Trito-Isaiah) might be given the status of a so-called Servant Song along with the other group of “genuine” Servant Songs (Isa 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-1; 52:13-53:12, as part of Deutero-Isaiah). The paper argues that Isaiah 61 should be integrated with the other four Songs, bringing the number of the Songs of the Servant to five. Arguments to support the case include a profile of the figure in chapter 61 in relation to the one described in the first four Songs; the application of what may be called a “democratization” concept; the mediating function of the figure referred to in Isaiah 61, and the role of the literary structure of the eleven chapters of Isaiah 56-66.
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