Double Standards in Isaiah: Re-Evaluating Prophetic Ethics and Divine Justice (Biblical Interpretation Series)

241 Pages·2000·30.514 MB·English

by  Andrew Davies

DOUBLE STANDARDS IN ISAIAH
BIBLICAL
INTERPRETATION
SERIES
Editors
R.ALAN CULPEPPER
ROLF RENDTORFF
AssociateEditor
DAVID E. ORTON
EditorialAdvisory Board
Janice CapelAnderson . Mieke Bal
PhyllisA. Bird . Erhard Blum . Robert P. Carroll
Werner H. Kelber . Ekkehard Stegemann
Anthony C.Thiselton . Vincent L. Wimbush . Jean Zumstein
VOLUME 46
DOUBLE STANDARDS
IN ISAIAH
Re-evaluating PropheticEthicsandDivineJustice
BY
ANDREW DAVIES
BRILL
LEIDEN' BOSTON' KOLN
2000
Thisbookisprintedonacid-free paper.
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
Davies,Andrew, 1970-
Doublestandardsin Isaiah:re-evaluatingpropheticethics anddivine
justice / byAndrew Davies.
p. cm.- (Biblicalinterpretation series,ISSN0928-0731 ;
v.46)
Includesbibliographicalreferences and index.
ISBN 9004115811 (hardcover: alk.paper)
I. Ethicsin theBible. 2.Bible.0.1'.Isaiah- Criticism,inter
pretation,etc. I.Title. II.Series.
BSI515.6.E8D38 2000
224'.107-dc21 99-086720
CIP
Die DeutscheBibliothek- CIP-Einheitsaufnalune
Davies,Andrew:
DoublestandardsinIsaiah :re-evaluatingpropheticethicsand divine
justice/ byAndrewDavies. ~Leiden ;Boston ;Koln:Brill,2000
(Biblicalinterpretation series;Vol. 46)
ISBN90-04-11581-1
ISSN 0928-0731
ISBN 900411581 1
©Copyright2000byKoninklijkeBrillsv,Leiden, TheNetherlands
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CONTENTS
Preface IX
Abbreviations Xl
Chapter One Introduction and Methodology I
I.I Introduction-Why Prophecy and Ethics? I
1.2 Ethics and the Book of Isaiah 3
1.3 Approaching the Book of Isaiah as Literature 5
1.3.1 The Formation of the Book of Isaiah 5
1.3.2 God as a Character: Literary Approaches to
Scripture 8
1.3.3 Ideological Criticism and 'Reading against the
Grain' 12
1.4 Categorising Biblical Ethics: A Methodology 19
1.4.1 The Referential Construct 19
1.4.2 The Appropriative Construct 21
1.4.3 The Sociohistorical Construct 23
1.4.4 The Literary Construct 25
1.5 Ethics and Rhetorical Strategy 27
Chapter Two Social Ethics 34
2.1 Differentiating between Right and Wrong 34
2.2 Oppression 38
2.2.1 Means of Oppression 44
2.2.2 Results of Oppression 45
2.2.3 Treatment of the Oppressed 46
2.2.4 Oppression and the Servant of Yahweh 47
2.3 Maladministration 48
2.4 Excess 51
2.5 Evildoing in General.................................................... 56
Chapter Three Political Ethics 59
3.1 Political-Ethical Material Concerning the Nations .... 60
3.1.1 Assyria 61
3.1.2 Babylon 65
3.1.3 Egypt 67
VI CONTENrs
3.1.4 Additional Nations 70
3.1.5 The Northern Kingdom 7I
3.1.6 The Nations at Large 73
3.2 Political-Ethical Material Concerning Israel ................ 77
Chapter Four Religious Ethics 85
4.I Abuse of the Israelite Religion 85
4.1.1 The Abuse of Prophetic Ministry 85
4.1.2 The Abuse of the Cult 87
4.2 Idolatry and the Worship of Foreign Deities 93
4.2.I Idolatrous Practices in Isaiah 93
4.2.2 The Foolishness of Idolatry 100
4.3 The Importance of the Sabbath 104
4.4 Conclusion 105
Chapter Five Motivation 106
5.1 Culpable Attitudes 107
5.1.1 Pride 107
5.1.2 Folly I12
5.2 Recognition of Yahweh I14
5.2.1 Obedience and Rebellion 117
5.3 Conclusion 118
Chapter Six The Conduct of Yahweh 120
6.I Divine Justice? 122
6.I.I Forensic Imagery in Isaiah 122
6.1.2 Yahweh as Prosecutor andJudge 128
6.1.3 Who should be punished? 131
6.1.4 Does the Punishment Fit the Crime? 136
6.1.5 Making Repentance Impossible 141
6.1.6 Second Thoughts? 144
6.2 Yahweh's Relationship to the Nations 146
6.3 General Evildoing 151
6.4 Conclusion 154
Chapter Seven Explaining the Conduct of Yahweh 156
7.I Isaiah's Response to the Conduct of Yahweh 158
7.1.1 The Strange Work of God 158
7.1.2 The Hiddenness of Yahweh 164
7.1.3 Yahweh as Israel's Opponent 166
CONTENTS Vll
7.2 God and the Origin of Evil ........................................ 168
7.3 Conclusion 171
Chapter Eight Metacommentary 173
8.1 Refutation of the Difficulty 174
8.1.1 John F.A. Sawyer, Isaiah 1-39, DSB 175
8.1.2 J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah 177
8.2 Reduction of the Difficulty 179
8.2.1 R.E. Clements, Isaiah 1-39, NCBC 179
8.2.2 John W. Watts, Isaiah 1-33, WBC 181
8.3 Redemption of the Deity 182
8.3.1 Otto Kaiser, Isaiah 1-12, OTL 182
Chapter Nine Towards a Conclusion 187
9.1 Motivation 187
9.2 Extratextual Explanations 189
9.2.1 The Philosophical Explanation 189
9.2.2 The Theological Explanation 191
9.3 Can this kind of God be 'God'? 193
Bibliography . 200
Index of Biblical References 217
Index of Authors 224

PREFACE
This monograph, like so many others, began life as a PhD thesis,
which was finally presented to the Department of Biblical Studies of
the University of Sheffield in December 1998. I distinctly remember
sitting in the office of my supervisor, Professor Cheryl Exum, at the
start ofmy research and being told by her, 'Do something that realty
matters to you'. I was fortunately sensible enough to take that advice,
and it has often sustained me through the peaks and troughs all
researchers have to endure. For the issues raised in this book have
truly mattered to me-biblical ethics is a subject in which I have a
deep, and somewhat vested, interest-and I hope, if nothing else,
that this study manages to communicate something of my enthusiasm
for the book of Isaiah and its ethical teaching.
Plenty of people, in various ways, have aided and abetted my
research. I have always found the work of the Old Testament fac
ulty at Sheffield, Professors Clines, Davies, Exum and Rogerson, an
inspiration and a challenge to think more creatively, and the influence
of their writings will be clear in the Bibliography. In particular I am
extremely grateful to Professor Exum for her excellent and incisive
supervision over the course of my research, which resulted in my
thesis being so much more effective and, I hope, convincing than it
would otherwise have been. Any errors that remain are, of course,
my own. I also appreciated the comments of Professor David Clines
and of Professor Robert P. Carroll of the University of Glasgow,
who examined the thesis, and I have incorporated a number of
changes at their suggestion. I would like to express my gratitude to
the University of Sheffield and the Humanities Research Board
of the British Academy for making my research possible by funding
it, and to Professor Rolf Rendtorff and Dr David Orton, Biblical
Interpretation series editors, and Mattie Kuiper and Pim Rietbroek at
Brill for their help and guidance.
I would also like to thank my colleagues and students at Mattersey
Hall Bible College, and my family, especially my parents, who taught
me from my childhood to find such pleasure in reading and writing,
to seek to excel whenever I could, and to love the Bible and the
God it introduces us to, and my parents-in-law, whose support and