Isaiah 40-66

Walter Brueggemann

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 1998
• Print ISBN: 9780664257910
• eBook ISBN: 9781611644869
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

In this volume, Walter Brueggemann focuses on Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), believed to be written by a second exilic poet, and Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66), a third group of texts that rearticulate Isaianic theology in yet another faith situation. Brueggemann discusses both the distinctiveness of the texts and their canonical relatedness.

Books in the Westminster Bible Companion series assist laity in their study of the Bible as a guide to Christian faith and practice. Each volume explains the biblical book in its original historical context and explores its significance for faithful living today. These books are ideal for individual study and for Bible study classes and groups.

8. “Maintain Justice, and Do What Is Right”

Isaiah 56:1–66:24

For over a century, these chapters have been treated by scholars as a distinct literary section in the book of Isaiah. With the scholarly judgment that Isaiah, the prophet of the eighth century B.C.E., is linked to chapters 1—39 and a subsequent exilic poet is responsible for chapters 40—55, scholars have designated these present chapters “Third Isaiah,” naming a third wave of texts that rearticulate the core of Isaianic theology in yet another situation of faith.

It is the common assumption of scholars that this material, although it has close connections to chapters 40—55, is to be dated somewhat later and reflects subsequent theological concerns. The literature seems to reflect the theological crisis of the formative years of Judaism, just after the return to and restoration of the community in Jerusalem after the Exile. It may well be that there was no void of a worshiping community in Jerusalem during the Exile, and no dramatic return from exile; but that is the telling of the tale of Judaism by the dominant voices of the reconstructed community. That is, this “canonical” account of emerging Judaism is in some part “social construction.” That social construction, in any case, is the assumption of this literature. This literature is likely situated somewhere between (a) the rebuilding of the temple and the revival of temple worship in the years 520–516, a crisis to which Haggai and Zechariah are related, and (b) the restoration of the torah community under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah (444 B.C.E.). It is more likely, according to current scholarly opinion, that these chapters are to be located in the earlier part of this period, thus soon after 520.

We may identify two principal accents dominating this literature, accents that reflect an advocacy position in emerging Judaism. First, this literature comes in the wake of the visioning promises of chapters 40—55, with their exultant notion of a triumphant return of the Jews to Jerusalem under the protection of the Persians. That literature envisioned a triumph in which the glad power of Yahweh would make everything wondrous for the returning exiles. Third Isaiah is much influenced by this vision, particularly in the eloquent anticipations of chapters 60—62 and 65:17–5. That is, this literature, which continues to affirm the most sweeping promises of Yahweh, believes that Yahweh’s faithful intention will override every debilitating circumstance.

Second, the returnees from exile did not find Jerusalem to be “empty space.” Therefore major disputes arose about how to shape and order the refounding of Jewish faith. Otto Plöger, in Theocracy and Eschatology, and Paul D. Hanson, in The Dawn of Apocalyptic: The Historical and Sociological Roots of Jewish Apocalyptic Eschatology, have made a strong case for viewing this literature as emerging to represent a partisan position in the midst of sectarian conflict. In Third Isaiah, then, we have one side of the quarrel that dominated emerging Judaism, one advocacy in the face of which other advocacies must be imagined or reconstructed, perhaps from Haggai and Zechariah or perhaps from Ezekiel. In any case, these materials are profoundly disputatious, much more so than in Isaiah 40—55.

For purposes of convenience, it will be useful to see this material in three distinct units, though it is surely more complex than such an ordering may suggest. At the center of the material, there can be no doubt, are chapters 60–62. These poems have most in common with Isaiah 40–55 and issue sweeping, glorious promises about those happy intentions that Yahweh will soon work in behalf of the needful community of emerging Judaism.

The chapters before these, that is, chapters 56—59, give evidence for the emerging disputes that will dominate the shaping of Judaism. In these chapters, we may identify remarkable ethical claims, an insistence that Judaism must practice a torah obedience that transcends self-protective punctiliousness. Specifically, 56:3–8 seeks to enact the imperative for justice in 56:1–2 by an insistence on a large inclusiveness in the community, presumably an attempt to counter and resist any narrow exclusivism. And in 58:6–8, the text makes an argument for faith that is focused on neighborly needs in a generous and concrete way, clearly an advocacy to counter self-indulgent worship. The advocacy of both inclusiveness and neighborly needs is an important ethical passion in emerging Judaism. Along with these specific issues, we notice the general affirmation of the “humble and contrite” (57:15; see 66:2) and the urging of justice (57:8, 11, 14, 15), echoing the mandate of 56:1–2. This accent anticipates a faithful community fully engaged in the large human questions of the day.

Along with ambitious ethical mandates, these chapters also reflect the partisan terms of dispute that will subsequently grow more shrill. In 57:1–13, 20, and 59:1–8, it is clear that there are adversaries in the community who hold a very different vision of the community, seemingly not passionately engaged in covenantal requirements that are indispensable for Yahwistic faith.

The third element of this material, chapters 63—66, is somewhat more miscellaneous and randomly ordered. But we can see the themes of vision and dispute being more sharply focused in these later texts. The hymn and complaint of chapters 63—64 may not yet be partisan, but there is an awareness of an adversary (63:18). It is not clear yet that the adversaries are members of the community. The dispute is more clearly evident in the polemic of 65:1–7; 66:3–4, 14c–17, and the division of the community into distinct contrasting elements is unmistakable in 65:13–14. This conflictual pattern is matched in 65:17–25 by a vision of newness that contextualizes and perhaps overrides the conflict. The concluding verses of the book of Isaiah indicate an unresolved dispute that is already rooted in the advocacy of 56:1–2. The problem of a community of discipline that is open and accepting of outsiders is a vexation to the Jewish community. Subsequently, the same trouble emerged in the early church and was settled on Pauline terms in Acts 15. It takes no great imagination, however, to see that this vexing issue has continued to haunt and disturb the church even until our own day.

It is clear in current scholarship that chapters 56—66 are not simply late, “Judaic” add-ons to the book of Isaiah. Rather, they reflect an integral engagement with the central themes of the Isaiah tradition, of which I mention two.

First, we have seen in 9:1 and much thereafter in exilic Isaiah a reflection on former things and latter things. I have suggested, following others, that the dialectic of former-latter pertains to early Isaiah and later Isaiah, to judgment and grace, to exile and homecoming. The theme shows up in Isaiah 56—66 in a pivotal way in 65:16–17:

because the former troubles are forgotten

and are hidden from my sight.

For I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth;

the former things shall not be remembered

or come to mind.

The former things—judgment and exile—are now over and done. The focus now is completely upon new things about to be wrought by Yahweh. That theme of course generates both buoyant hope and sharp dispute. The trust and the passion of the community are engaged in rightly receiving the newness that Yahweh will now give.

Second, like the rest of the book, Isaiah 56–66 is primally concerned with the future of Jerusalem. It is urgent to determine if the new Jerusalem, which epitomizes new heaven and new earth, will or will not be a place of inclusion, will or will not be a practice of neighbor ethic, will or will not manifest a passion for justice. Yahweh will create a new Jerusalem, will send his glory there (60), will enact jubilee there (61), will break the silence so that the city can be renamed and recharacterized (62). This is the very city that had to be terminated in the earlier traditions, but now is to be the focus of Yahweh’s positive zeal.

But the city cannot just be received from Yahweh. It must be ordered, administered, and managed, and therein lies the trouble. It is clear in the conclusion to Isaiah 56–66 that this beloved city, which is the pivotal point of Yahweh on earth, is both a wondrous gift of all of Yahweh’s possibilities and a place of deep dispute wherein profound fears, angers, and hates are to be evoked in the name of the God of Zion.

Nothing really has changed. A current study of Jerusalem—of Israelis and Palestinians—yields the same great hope and deep conflict. In our own way, of course, it is not different with Christians. Current shapes for these family disputes are now fumblingly termed “conservative” and “liberal.” But only the labels have changed to keep matters contemporary. The disputants about the shape of “Zion” are, without exception, serious in faith, eager to receive God’s gift rightly. The text, for all its visionary power, may suggest that there is no way around the dispute. As in the book of Isaiah, a last word has not yet been spoken.

LIFE WITH THE GOD
WHO GATHERS
56:1–12

Isaiah 55:12–13 has promised a glorious, wondrous, exuberant homecoming on the royal road of triumph anticipated in 40:3–5. The move from 55:12–13 (the conclusion of exilic Isaiah) to 56:1–2 is a major leap in imagination. For now, by 56:1–2, the initial venture of homecoming has already been undertaken. If 55:12–13 is spoken with reference to 540 B.C.E. and the anticipated emancipation of exiles by Cyrus the Persian, 56:1–2 begins a new literature, perhaps dated to 520 B.C.E. The gap between 55:12–13 and 56:1–2 is perhaps only twenty years in the life of Israel. Ten years after 55:12–13, however, the circumstance of the community is abruptly changed. Now the text places us back in Jerusalem, in the shambles of the still ruined city.

In the context that the text invites us to imagine, severe questions and heavy demands awaited the faithful. It was a time for rebuilding the city. It was a time for reshaping the faith of Israel that was now to become Judaism. As is characteristic in emerging Judaism, a time of rebuilding and reshaping calls for disputation among competing visions of the future.

This text is one voice that m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Series Foreword
• Introduction
• 7. The God of All Comfort Isaiah 40—55
• 8. “Maintain Justice, and Do What Is Right” Isaiah 56:1–66:24
• For Further Reading