Isaiah Through the Centuries

John F. A. Sawyer

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781119673910, 9780631219637
• eBook ISBN: 9781119441168
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The first systematic and comprehensive attempt to identify and analyze the role of Isaianic language and imagery in literature, art, and music

Using reception history as its basis for study, Isaiah Through the Centuries is an unprecedented exploration of the afterlife of the Book of Isaiah, specifically in art, literature, and music. This is a commentary that guides the reader through the Book of Isaiah, examining the differing interpretations of each phrase or passage from a variety of cultural and religious perspectives, Jewish, Christian and Muslim. Clearly structured and accessible, and richly illustrated, the book functions as a complete and comprehensive educational reference work.

Isaiah Through the Centuries encourages readers to learn with an open mind and to understand how different interpretations have helped in the teaching and comprehension of the Bible and Isaiah's place in it. As part of the Wiley-Blackwell Bible Commentaries series, which is primarily concerned with reception history, the book emphasizes that how people interpret the prophet—and how they've been influenced by him—is often just as important as the sacred text's original meaning.

• Uses reception history to study the renowned prophet
• Provides a historical context for every use or interpretation discussed
• Offers essential background information on authors, artists, musicians, etc. in its glossary and biographies
• Minimizes historical details in order to focus as much as possible on exegetical matters
• Presents the role of Isaiah and the Bible in the creative arts
• Will be useful to multiple disciplines including theology and religion, English literature, art history and the history of music, not just Biblical Studies

Comprehensive in scope, Isaiah Through the Centuries is a much-needed resource for all those interested in the influence of the Bible on Western culture, and presents unique perspectives for anyone interested in the Bible to discuss and debate for many years to come.

Isaiah 1

The Title (Isa 1:1)

Verse 1 implies that the whole book of Isaiah is a single prophecy, described as a ‘vision’ seen by the prophet during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. In this way the human element in the process is minimized: the prophets’ ‘words are divine oracles and their writings have come down from heaven’ (Chrysostom)¹. Jewish tradition compares Isaiah’s vision to that of Abraham (Mann 1971: 1, 112–113). Prophets are called ‘seers’ (1 Sam 9:9), a word denoting weakness and humility: the prophet sees; the people hear (cf. John 3:11) (Luther). In the ‘vision’ we confront not Isaiah but the speech of God (Seitz 1988: 117–118).

The use of the word ‘vision’ (Heb. ḥazon) to refer to a collection of visions, however, is without parallel, and it may be that it originally referred only to chapter 1 (Lowth) or chapters 1–12 (Duhm; cf. Rev 1:1), with the more usual title reserved for the beginning of chapter 2 (cf. Hos 1:1; Joel 1:1; Mic 1:1; Zeph 1:1). Some traditions have ‘against Judah and Jerusalem’ (LXX, Eusebius), and there is a rabbinic tradition that of all the Hebrew words for ‘prophecy’, ḥazon is the harshest (cf. Isa 21:2) (Rashi); and this certainly applies particularly to chapter 1. The book includes prophecies about Babylon, Moab, Damascus and other places (13–19), not only Jerusalem and Judah (Rashi), but Ibn Ezra points out that the greater part of Isaiah’s prophecies do refer to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. Indeed one of the most distinctive themes running through the whole book is ‘the larger sweep of God’s dealing with Zion in both judgement and mercy’ (Williamson 1994: 242).

Since Ibn Ezra, major stylistic and historical differences between 1–39 and 40–66 have been noted (U. Simon 1985). Aquinas divides the book into two parts, and since the late eighteenth century there has been widespread agreement that the whole book cannot be by the same author. Large sections were probably composed during and after the Babylonian exile. But the literary fiction implied by verse 1 that the whole book is made up of Isaiah’s prophecies reflects numerous signs of continuity evident throughout the book and has increasingly been appreciated by modern scholars (Jones 1955; Rendtorff 1984; Vermeylen 1989; Tull 2006: 279–314). References to the deaths of Uzziah (Isa 6:1) and Ahaz (Isa 14:28) imply that most of the prophecies were delivered in Jerusalem during the ‘Golden Age’ of Hezekiah (2 Chron 29–32), after which the prophet was put to death by the evil king Manasseh (see commentary on Isa 1:10; 50:4–9) (Rashi).

The Ox and the Ass Have More Sense (Isa 1:2–9)

Isaiah’s first prophecy is one of his bitterest attacks on the people of Judah. In Jewish tradition, part of this chapter (vv. 1–27) is the haftarah read on the Sabbath before the Ninth of Ab, the fast commemorating the destruction of the Temple. Known as ‘the Sabbath of (Isaiah’s) vision’ (shabbat ḥazon), it is intended as a day to reflect on why the Jewish people lost their land and the holy city of Jerusalem and is followed by the seven ‘Sabbaths of consolation’ when the haftarot neḥamah (readings of consolation) from chapters 40–66 are read, beginning with Isaiah 40:1–26 (Elbogen 1993: 145, 425–426). In Christian tradition too verses from chapter 1 are read in churches at the beginning of Lent (ORM, RCL), supplemented in Orthodox tradition in the following weeks with some equally bitter judgement oracles from chapters 2–14 (OSB).

Many of these verses were cited by Justin, Chrysostom, Isidore of Seville and others as scriptural authority for the use of all manner of anti‐Jewish rhetoric hurled at a ‘sinful nation’ (v. 4): they did not recognize the Messiah in the manger (v. 3), their beloved city had been left by alien invaders ‘like a booth in a vineyard’ (vv. 7–9) and they have blood on their hands (v. 15; cf. Matt 27:25) (Sawyer 1996: 109–115). Of course Isaiah was addressing the people of ancient Judah, not the Jews of Christian Europe, and in modern times the Churches have made strenuous efforts to disown such anti‐Semitic interpretations of scripture (cf. Rom 11:11–32; Flannery 1975: 741).

Isaiah’s preface is in the form of a trial‐scene (Smith). Heaven and earth are summoned as witnesses (v. 2), recalling Moses’ words when he prophesied that his people would ‘soon utterly perish from the land’ (Deut 4:26; cf. 32:1) (Ibn Ezra; cf. Luther, Calvin). The story of how God brought up his people like children, freeing them from slavery in Egypt and leading them to safety through the wilderness (v. 2b), is cited to condemn their ungrateful, rebellious behaviour: ‘the fuller and more abundant the grace of God which has been poured out on us, the higher will be the ingratitude of which it shall convict us … and the severer the punishment we shall deserve’ (Calvin). Recent commentators with ecological concerns find in the involvement of heaven and earth here, a reference to the divinely ordained world order which Israel had chosen to ignore (Marlow and Barton 2009:210).

Even the ox and the ass have more sense (v. 3): John Chrysostom compares this with Jeremiah’s ‘even the stork in the heavens knows her times’ (Jer 8:7) and Solomon’s ‘Go to the ant, thou sluggard’ (Prov 6:6). The ox and the ass are valued domestic animals who, in recognizing the hand that feeds them, show more sense than the people (Jerome). But it is also uncannily appropriate that the ‘Fifth Gospel’ should begin, like Matthew and Luke, with a reference to the Nativity of Christ: the ox and the ass ‘at their master’s crib’ have been present in Christian representations of the nativity scene from patristic times down to the present day, despite the scornful comments of Calvin (‘an absurd fable … by which they have shown themselves to be egregious asses’) and the consensus of modern historical‐critical scholarship.

Isaiah’s reference to the ox and the ass adoring the baby Jesus, along with a prophecy of Habakkuk (Hab 3:2 LXX) (Coggins and Han 2011: 75–76), appears in the eighth‐century apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo‐Matthew (14:2), and in the thirteenth century, St Francis of Assisi invented the popular custom of recreating the humble nativity scene at Christmas time, showing the child in a manger, complete with hay and an ox and an ass standing by (Bonaventure 2010: 86). But the tradition goes back much earlier. From the fourth century the ox and the ass appear in Christian iconography, sometimes standing alone by the manger without any human figures in the scene (Schiller 1971: 59) (Plate 1). Some identify the ox as the Jews, bearing the burden of the law, and the ass as the gentiles tainted by idolatry (Jerome): thus all humanity, Jews and gentiles, ‘all came to the one manger and found the fodder of the Word’ (Augustine, Sermon 375.1). Augustine calls upon Christians to identify with the ass: ‘Don’t be ashamed of being the Lord’s donkey. If you carry Christ, you won’t go astray’ (Augustine Sermon 189.4). Sometimes the ox represents Christian faith and obedience, while stubbornness, disobedience and materialism, usually Jewish, are represented by the ass. Botticelli’s Mystic Nativity (c.1500) in the National Gallery, London, is a good example, where the quiet obedience of the kneeling ox is contrasted with the behaviour of the ass who is standing up and disrespectfully chewing a mouthful of straw.

Plate 1 ‘The ox knows its owner and the ass its master’s crib’ (Isa 1:3). Fourth‐century sarcophagus in Milan.

The two animals, without any ethical or political associations, are frequent in Christmas literature. Christina Rossetti’s ‘Before the Paling of the Stars’ (Rossetti 1904: 217) contains a typical nineteenth‐century English example:

Let us kneel with Mary maid,

With Joseph bent and hoary,

With saint and angel, ox and ass,

To hail the King of Glory.

Rudyard Kipling in his poem ‘Eddi’s Service’ imagines a midnight service in seventh‐century pagan England attended only by a priest and the two animals (Kipling 2013: Vol.2, 689f). They also figure in a good many Christmas carols from the anonymous thirteenth‐century French ‘Entre le boeuf et l’âne gris’ (SNOBC 289) to ‘Good Christians All Rejoice’ where ‘ox and ass before Him bow’ (CH4 322, AM 65; cf. CH2 58; GtG 132), and ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ (1941), popularized in the film The Sound of Music (1955), where they keep time to the drumbeat.

The prophet angrily describes the people as ‘sinful … laden with iniquity … they have forsaken the Lord … they are utterly estranged’ (v. 4). ‘Seed of evil‐doers’ (v. 4 AV) is taken literally by some to refer to Israel’s pagan ancestry condemned by Ezekiel (cf. Ezek 16:23) (Ibn Ezra), and by others to imply that they have been disowned by their ancestors and can no longer claim to be the ‘seed of Abraham’ (Isa 41:8; cf. 61:9) (Eusebius; cf. Calvin). The term ‘Holy One of Israel’, which occurs very frequently in the Book of Isaiah, is especially appropriate in this attack on God’s ‘holy people’ (Deut 7:6) (Rashi): their rebelliousness against the source of their holiness is all the more ungrateful and ‘barbarous’ (Calvin). Patristic commentators take the ‘Holy One’ in this context to be referring to Jesus (Chrysostom, Jerome), and in the fourteenth‐century Biblia Pauperum the words ‘they have blasphemed against the holy one of Israel’ (v. 4 Vg) accompany illustrations of the crowd mocking Christ (Matt 27:27–31; 26:67) (BP 94).

Verses 5 and 6 envisage a disobedient slave beaten repeatedly by his owner (Childs) or a rebellious son disciplined by his father (Blenkinsopp; cf. Prov 10:13; 13:24). Applied to the ‘sinful nation’, the words ‘from the sole of the foot even to the head’ may be interpreted as referring to the whole people, from the poorest at the very bottom of the social scale to those with wealth and authority at the top, all equally deserving punishment (Rashi, Cyril). The image of an unnamed individual, bruised, wounded and bleeding, is developed later in the book, notably in the ‘Man of Sorrows’ poem in 53 (Duhm), and was used by Christian interpreters to add some gruesome details to representations of Christ’s Passion. In one example from late mediaeval iconography, verse 6, coupled with Job 2:7, is illustrated by a scene of Christ’s tormentors working ‘from the sole of the foot even to the head’, so that they could see that every inch of his body had been beaten before it was covered with blood (Marrow 1979: 48).

Some commentators see a glimmer of hope in verses 7–9. Paul finds prophetic authority here for his teaching on ‘the remnant’ of the Jewish people, saved by the grace of God (Rom 9:29; cf. Isa 11:10–11). On the size of the remnant (‘few survivors’ RSV), Calvin cites the words of Christ (Luke 12:32) and admits that the number of the godly may be small: it is only hypocrites that are ‘proud of their numbers’ (cf. Henry). Of course the bare survival of Jerusalem in 701 BCE is interpreted as a miracle later in the book (Isa 36–37). In the present context, however, there is little sign of hope, and most commentators take it as a description of the situation referred to in Sennacherib’s Annals where Hezekiah was shut up ‘like a bird in a cage’ (Childs), and Judah was utterly devastated like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Illustrations
• Introduction
• Isaiah 1
• Isaiah 2
• Isaiah 3
• Isaiah 4
• Isaiah 5
• Isaiah 6
• Isaiah 7
• Isaiah 8
• Isaiah 9
• Isaiah 10
• Isaiah 11
• Isaiah 12
• Isaiah 13
• Isaiah 14
• Isaiah 15
• Isaiah 16
• Isaiah 17
• Isaiah 18
• Isaiah 19
• Isaiah 20
• Isaiah 21
• Isaiah 22
• Isaiah 23
• Isaiah 24
• Isaiah 25
• Isaiah 26
• Isaiah 27
• Isaiah 28
• Isaiah 29
• Isaiah 30
• Isaiah 31
• Isaiah 32
• Isaiah 33
• Isaiah 34
• Isaiah 35
• Isaiah 36
• Isaiah 37
• Isaiah 38
• Isaiah 39
• Isaiah 40
• Isaiah 41
• Isaiah 42
• Isaiah 43
• Isaiah 44
• Isaiah 45
• Isaiah 46
• Isaiah 47
• Isaiah 48
• Isaiah 49
• Isaiah 50
• Isaiah 51
• Isaiah 52
• Isaiah 53
• Isaiah 54
• Isaiah 55
• Isaiah 56
• Isaiah 57
• Isaiah 58
• Isaiah 59
• Isaiah 60
• Isaiah 61
• Isaiah 62
• Isaiah 63
• Isaiah 64
• Isaiah 65
• Isaiah 66
• Glossary
• Brief Biographies
• Abbreviations
• Bibliography
• Index of Biblical and Other Ancient References
• General Index
• End User License Agreement