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The Book of Isaiah*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2010

Klaus Baltzer
Klaus Baltzer*
Affiliation:
University of Munich
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Extract

The Book of Isaiah is a wonderful work that is preserved from antiquity both in its Hebrew and its Greek version. It is a history written and reworked by many generations, covering the following periods: the Assyrian period (ca. 911–605 B.C.E.), the Neo-Babylonian period (ca. 625–539 B.C.E.), and the Persian period (ca. 550–333 B.C.E.).1

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 103 , Issue 3 , July 2010 , pp. 261 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 2010

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References

1 See my commentary, Deutero-Isaiah: A Commentary on Isaiah 40–55 (ed. Peter Machinist; trans. Margaret Kohl; Hermeneia Series; Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress Press, 2001; German edition: Deutero-Jesaja, Gütersloh: Gütersloher, 1999). Other selected secondary literature includes: Peter Calmeyer, “Die ‘Statistische Landcharte’ des Perserreiches I und II,” Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran (Berlin: D. Reimer, 1982) 109–87, and AMI 16 (1983) 141–222; Melody D. Knowles, Centrality Practiced: Jerusalem in the Religious Practice of Yehud and the Diaspora in the Persian Period (SBL Archaeology and Biblical Studies 16; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2006); Dieter Georgi, The City in the Valley: Biblical Interpretation and Urban Theology (SBL Studies in Biblical Literature 7; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005): “Legal Dimensions of Money and Theological Consequences,” 103–34, and “Is There Justification in Money: A Historical and Theological Meditation on the Financial Aspects of Justification by Christ,” 283–307.

2 Charles Cutler Torrey, The Second Isaiah. A New Interpretation (New York: Scribner, 1928). In his Einleitung ins Alte Testament (3d ed.; Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck 1964) 460–61, Otto Eissfeldt points out that Torrey entered intensively into the discussion about Duhm's theses, and contributed further to the literary criticism, differentiation of sources, and genre definition (see, e.g., Charles C. Torrey, “Isaiah 41,” HTR 44 [1951] 121–36). In doing so he repeatedly raised the question about the interrelation and continuity of the text material in the book of Isaiah.

3 Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892; repr., 4th ed.; 1922).

4 My reflections here were initiated by the late Professor Diez Edzard of the University of Munich. I have also learned a great deal from the recently published work of Karel van der Toorn, Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007).

5 See Taschentutor Altes Testament (“Hochschuldidaktische Arbeitshilfe”) (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974–1975 [1st ed.]; repr., 1993 [6th rev. ed.]).

6 Stefan Ark Nitsche, Jesaja 24–27, ein dramatischer Text. Die Frage nach den Genres der prophetischen Literatur des Alten Testaments und die Textgraphik der großen Jesaja-Rolle aus Qumran (BWANT 166; Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2006).

7 One of the most pleasurable visiting lectures I have ever given was in Amsterdam, where, at the occasion of Wim Beuken's 70th birthday, I lectured on Deutero-Isaiah's theology. He and Norbert Lohfink have accompanied me ever since I developed my theses. On that particular occasion, Ulrich Berges asked me how I saw the connections to the Book of Isaiah as a whole. This gave me the decisive impetus for this paper. See Willem A. M. Beuken, Jesaja. Deel II, A and B, De Prediking van het Oude Testament 21/1 and 2 (Nijkerk: Callenbach, 1979 and 1983); Ulrich Berges Jesaja 40–48 (Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Alten Testament; vol. 37, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder 2008).

8 See Klaus Baltzer and Peter Marinkovic, “Größe und Grenze des Menschen. Zum Verhältnis Gott—Welt—Erde—Mensch in Jes. 45, 19–13,” in Schriftprophetie. Festschrift Jörg Jeremias (ed. Friedhelm Hartenstein, Jutta Krispenz and Aaron Schart; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2004) 369–79.

9 The reason for this neglect is above all the humanistic tradition in the academic world, which was oriented primarily towards the Athenian point of view.

10 Calmeyer, “Die ‘Statistische Landcharte’ des Perserreiches I und II.”

11 Knowles, Centrality Practiced.

12 Out of this tradition the medieval political-legal doctrine of the translatio imperiiis developed. See Reinhard G. Kratz, Untersuchungen zu den aramäischen Danielerzählungen und ihrem theologiegeschichtlichen Umfeld (WMANT 63; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukircher Verlag, 1991) and Piet A. van den Baar, Die kirchliche Lehre derTranslatio imperii romani bis zur Mitte des 13. Jahrhunderts (Rome, Italy: Univ. Gregoriana, 1956).

13 See Ps 51:1. 17; Ps 22, esp. v. 32 (31); Ps 38, esp. v. 19 (18); Ps 40, esp. v. 6 (5); Ps 64, esp. v. 10 (9); Ps 142, esp. v. 3 (2); Ps 145, esp. vv. 4–7. See my commentary on these passages, 597–98.

14 See Ps 69:29 (Engl. 28); Dan 12:1; Luke 10:20; Rom 9:3; Phil 4:3; Rev 3:5; 17:8; 20:5. Also 1 Sam 25:29: “the bundle of the living” ().

15 See the Book of Nehemiah, where the name of Moses is mentioned seven times: Neh 1:7, 8; 8:1, 14; 9:14; 10:29; 13:1.

16 See Baltzer, Deutero-Isaiah.

17 Conflicts with the party loyal to the king can be seen from texts such as Jer 40-41; cf. 2 Kgs 25, with the murder of the governor Gedalia.

18 Cf. Baltzer, Deutero-Isaiah, 469–73. Note also especially Isa 55:11: “So [also] shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (see ibid. 482 [480]–484). That is, in a single sentence, Deutero-Isaiah's theological concept.

19 Jan Assmann, Das kulturelle Gedächtnis. Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen (Beck‘sche Reihe, vol. 1307, 6th edition; München: Beck Verlag 2007). See especially “Repristination von Tradition als persische Kulturpolitik,” 207-212.

20 Gary Stansell, “Isahiah 60-62 as the ‘Kernel’ of Isaiah 56-66 in Light of Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives,” unpublished SBL conference paper, San Diego 2007.

21 See also the introduction of Ezra into Nehemiah 8. Only the priest and scribe Ezra (Neh 8.1-18) was permitted to read the Scripture, not the “governor”—and hence layman—Nehemiah.