The Production of Prophecy

Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud

Diana Vikander Edelman, Ehud Ben Zvi

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781845534998
• eBook ISBN: 9781317490302
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The Persian and Hellenistic periods saw the production and use of a variety of authoritative texts in Israel. 'The Production of Prophecy' brings together a range of influential biblical scholars to examine the construction of prophecy and prophetic books during the Persian period. Drawing on methodological and comparative research and studies of particular biblical texts, the volume explores biblical prophecy as a written phenomenon, examining the prophets of the past, setting this within the general history of Yehud. The relationship between prophetic and other authoritative, written texts is explored, as well as the general social and ideological setting in which the prophetic books emerged.

Public Recitation of Prophetical Books? The Case of the First Edition of Deutero-Isaiah (Isa. 40:1–52:12*)

Rainer Albertz

To answer the question why the biblical books could gain so much authority that they were finally provided with canonical status, it is of crucial importance to clarify for whom they were written. Were they composed and copied only for the interests of small circles of literati? If so, when and why could they have gained any authority in the public sphere? Do we have to suppose a break in the tradition history of biblical books, which were primarily conceived for a small scribal elite but afterwards, for some reason, suddenly were put in use for public purposes like worship and jurisdiction? Should we suggest instead that biblical books were originally conceived and written for the purpose of being read and used in the public? Or, do we have to distinguish different possibilities between these extreme alternatives?

We have some evidence that the legal material was composed for public recitation. According to the Deuteronomistic scribes, Moses himself wrote down his public proclamation of Deuteronomic law so that it could be read aloud publicly by priests during the autumn festival every seventh year (Deut. 31:9-13). According to late post-exilic scribes, a similar public reading was enacted when Ezra read all the Torah of Moses to the Judean community over seven days (Neh. 8:18). Here, the authority of the law book, whatever its shape may have been, is already presupposed. However, with the prophetical books it is a different case. We know that the prophets of doom were mostly ignored by society; the first collection of their oracles was probably made by a small circle of their pupils. In this case, there might have endured a longer or shorter period when small groups of learned and inspired literati created prophetic books for their own theological discussions. The question remains: when and why were the prophetic books nevertheless accepted by the wider public?

I am not able to give here a general solution to this vast and complicated problem. Instead, I will present my view of the origin and purpose of one prophetical sub-unit, the book of Deutero-Isaiah.

The First Edition of Deutero-Isaiah (Isa. 40:1–52:12*)

The rhetorical structure of the book of Deutero-Isaiah, consisting of 16 chapters in its present form (Isaiah 40-55), is a little bit complicated. Beginning with a prologue (40:1-11), it ended with two competing epilogues, one in 52:7-12 and the other in 55:6-13. After the first epilogue has brought to an end nearly all the topics raised in the prologue (40:1-5*, 9-11), the book starts once again with the long fourth Servant Song (Isa. 52:13-53:12), which constitutes a rhetorical unit of its own. Thus, the old thesis of Karl Elliger, put forward in 1933,¹ is still valid; the book originally consisted only of 40:1-52:12* and was secondarily enlarged by the fourth Servant Song and chs 54-55. More recent redaction-historical investigations by R. G. Kratz,² J. van Oorschott,³ and U. Berges,⁴ although they differ in many details, conclude that, apart from some earlier collections that may date from the last years of the Babylonian empire,⁵ the first important edition of the book was composed during the early Persian period (around 520 bce) in Judah. Moreover, J. Werlitz, who has methodically combined redaction-historical and compositional criticism, has reconstructed the structural and thematic outlines of this first book. It contained not only a slightly shorter form of the prologue (40:1-5*, 9—11) and the epilogue (52:7-12) but also the first three Servant Songs and the complete sequence of the so-called "eschatological hymns"⁶

In my volume, Israel in Exile, I elaborated this thesis, pointing out that the two main parts of the book, the Jacob/Israel unit (Isaiah 41-48) and the Zion/Jerusalem unit (Isaiah 49-52*), are bridged by the second Servant Song (Isaiah 49) and subdivided into five sections by the "eschatological hymns"⁷ Moreover, I tried to demonstrate that the entire book can be read continuously from its prologue to its epilogue as a meaningful sequence of thoughts and events.⁸ In my view, the reconstruction of the first edition of Deutero-Isaiah is established.⁹ I have dated this edition to 521 bce, when the rebellions that inflamed Babylonia and most parts of the eastern Persian empire after the murder of Gaumata and the usurpation of Darius opened a new opportunity for the Judean exiles. During the turmoil of civil war they proved themselves loyal subjects of the contested Persian king; in return, Darius was ready to appoint the Davidide Zerubbabel as governor, to grant a resettlement of exiles, and to support a new beginning in Yehud.¹⁰

So our question must be: What was the function of the first edition of Deutero-Isaiah during these dramatic events?

Literary Discourse or Public Performance?

In older research on Deutero-Isaiah, following the lines of H. Gunkefs form-criticism, small oral units were isolated and assigned to different Gattungen like "salvation oracles" "promises of salvation" "disputations" "judgment discourses against the nations", "judgment discourses against Israel" "royal oracles" and "eschatological hymns".¹¹ Sometimes they were connected with speculations about a cultic Sitz im Leben of parts of the book¹² or of the entire composition.¹³ R. Melugin was the first to observe that all these units have an intentional place in the literary structure of the book, which is based on the "eschatological hymns"¹⁴ His position was elaborated and confirmed by T. N. D. Mettinger¹⁵ and E. Matheus.¹⁶

Signs of Literary Composition

This divergence in the history of research points to a problem in the book of Deutero-Isaiah that has not yet been fully examined. On the one hand, the first edition of the book, even if it included older oracles and smaller collections, shows clear signs of being a written work that was well thought-out. It is framed by a prologue (40:1-5*, 9-11) and an epilogue (52:7-10, 11-12) that are connected by many keywords and a similar setting.¹⁷ Moreover, the movement set in motion by the prologue is realized in the epilogue. The divine message of comforting Jerusalem given to the prophetic group (Isa. 40:1-2), the preparation of a highway for the returning God (40:3-5*), and the description of his wonderful return together with the exiles (40:9-11), which anticipates the entire book, is accomplished: in the epilogue, YHWH has returned home to Jerusalem (Isa. 52:7-8), the people and the city are comforted and redeemed (52:9), and the exiles are emphatically invited to follow their God home (52:11-12).

The first edition is structured in a longer Jacob/Israel unit (Isa. 40: 12-49:13) and a shorter Zion/Jerusalem unit (49:14-52:2), both of which are introduced by disputations (40:12-27 and 49:14-21; 50:1-2) and are bridged by the second Servant Song (49:1-6). At this important turning point, not by chance, the Deutero-Isaianic prophets reflect over their own destiny, over their former failure to bring Judah home, their bitter disappointments, and God's new order for them to carry out helpful work under the nations instead. But then, "at the time of grace", God has given them a new order: to bring his people home (49:8-12). The prophetic group was called to flee (ma) from Babylonia (48:20) which, according to my reconstruction, was inflamed by rebellion at that time, and bring Gods comforting message now also to Jerusalem. In Isa. 49:12 at the latest, the perspective turns from Babylonia to Jerusalem; the prophetic group has arrived back home. Thus, between the two structural units of the book, the prophetic group reflects over how, after a long delay, it was driven back home by God. This organization clearly reflects an overarching literary and theological concept.

The book follows a rough historical outline.¹⁸ It starts with the announcement of the victories of Cyrus (41:1-4) and then deals with the problem that the community of exiles did not want to believe the salvific message (42:14-16,18-25*; 43:8-13). It reaches a climax with the Cyrus oracle (44:24-45:7), the fall of the Babylonian deities (46), and the fall of the Babylonian capital (47). Finally, it moves to fulfilment with the call of king Darius (48:l-16a*), the escape from Babylon (48:20-21), and the proclamation of the salvific message to those who remained in Judah (49:14-21). Thus, reading through the book, one becomes convinced that the divine message of the prophet group triumphs over all inner and outer resistance and in spite of all delay.

As already mentioned, apart from its prologue and epilogue and the longer Israel/Jacob unit and the shorter Zion/Jerusalem unit, the book is structured by the so-called "eschatological hymns" into five meaningfully constructed portions (Isa. 41:1-42:13; 42:14-44:23; 44:24-48:21; 49:1-13; 49:14-52:2*). Two texts, the Cyrus oracle and the second Servant Song, are framed with two "eschatological hymns" (44:23+45:8 and 48:20+49:13),¹⁹ emphasizing their central significance within the book. All these observations support the view that the first edition of Deutero-Isaiah is not simply a collection of smaller rhetorical units but a written composition that was well thought out.

Signs of Oral Communication

On the other hand, the book of Deutero-Isaiah shows many signs of oral communication. Apart from its poetical form, which supports recitation, we have two types of deliberate repetition: the repetition of words in a single verse (for example, [illegible text] and [illegible text] in Isa. 40:9), emphatically doubled words ([illegible text] [illegible text] [illegible text]a "Comfort, comfort my people!" in 40:1; [illegible text] [illegible text] [illegible text], "I am YHWH, I myself, and none but I can deliver" in 43:11; [illegible text]

"For my sake, for my sake 1 did it" in 48:11;

"Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion!" in 52:1) and the repetition of the same sequence of Gattungen in parallelism in the first and the second sections of the book (41:1 -42:13; 42:14-44:23*).²⁰

In addition, there are many imperatives in the singular and plural meant to involve listeners in the dramatic events happening between YHWH, his prophets, his people, and the nations. Sometimes they are directly addressed at the audience; for example, in Isa. 40:26: "Lift up the eyes to the heavens!"; "Repo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Abbreviations
• The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud. An Introduction and an Invitation
• Towards an Integrative Study of the Production of Authoritative Books in Ancient Israel
• From Prophets to Prophetic Books: The Fixing of the Divine Word
• Why Do We Know About Amos?
• The Concept of Prophetic Books and Its Historical Setting
• Public Recitation of Prophetical Books? The Case of the First Edition of Deutero-Isaiah (Isa. 40:1-52:12*)
• Persian-Empire Spirituality and the Genesis of Prophetic Books
• Kings among the Prophets
• Jonah Among the Twelve in the MT: The Triumph of Torah over Prophecy
• The Formation of the Book of Jeremiah as a Supplement to the So-called Deuteronomistic History
• Jeremiah MT: Reflections of a Discourse on Prophecy in the Persian Period
• Scripture Index
• Subject Index
• Author Index