Isaiah and the Twelve: Parallels, Similarities and Differences

288 Pages·2020·0.899 MB·English

by  Bautch, Richard, Eck, Joachim, Zapff, Burkard M.

Isaiah and the Twelve
Beihefte zur Zeitschrift
für die alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft
Edited by
John Barton, Reinhard G. Kratz, Nathan MacDonald,
Sara Milstein, and Markus Witte
Volume 527
Richard J. Bautch, Joachim Eck,
Burkard M. Zapff (eds.)
Isaiah
and the Twelve
Parallels, Similarities and Differences
ISBN 978-3-11-070573-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-070579-9
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-070588-1
ISSN 0934-2575
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020939267
Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliografic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Typesetting: Dörlemann Satz, Lemförde
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Contents
Introduction   1
I  Analyses Concerning the Relationships between the Book of
Isaiah and Books Associated with Pre-exilic Prophets
Franz Sedlmeier
Hosea and Isaiah: Aspects of Convergence and Difference   9
Uwe Becker
Sozialkritik in Jes 1–39 und im Amos-Buch   33
James Nogalski
The Role of Lady Zion in the Concluding Section of Zephaniah
and Isaiah 40–66   55
II  Analyses Concerning the Relationships between Later
Layers of Isaiah and Later Layers of the Book of the Twelve
Burkard M. Zapff
Second Isaiah and the Twelve   77
Richard J. Bautch
Isaiah 10 as an Intertext that Informs a Unified Reading of Zechariah 11
(Zech 11:1–3 and 11:4–17)   97
J. Todd Hibbard
Zechariah 14 and the final section of Isaiah   117
Christopher B. Hays
Isa 24–27 and Zephaniah Amid the Terrors and Hopes of the Seventh Century:
An Intertextual Analysis   131
VI   Contents
III  Thematic Threads in the Book of Isaiah and the Book of the
Twelve
Joachim Eck
The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
(Isa 5:1–7): Its Position in the Book of Isaiah and Its Reception in Late Layers of
Isaiah and the Twelve   159
Carol J. Dempsey, OP
Divine and Human Kingships in the Books of Isaiah and the Twelve:
A Kaleidoscope of Conflicting Yet Unifying Images   185
Archibald L. H. M. van Wieringen
The Oracles Against the Nations in Isaiah, Amos and Zephaniah.
A Text-Immanent Reader’s Perspective   205
Hugh G. M. Williamson
The Day of the Lord in the Book of Isaiah and the Book of the Twelve   223
IV  Festvortrag: Exegesis of the Prophets from the Perspective
of Systematic Theology
Rudolf Voderholzer
Welche Exegese braucht die Kirche?   245
V  Synthesis
Joachim Eck
Converging and Diverging Lines in the Relationships between Isaiah and the
Twelve   267
List of Contributors   277
Index   279
Introduction
Theological research has repeatedly noted similarities and intersections between
the book of the prophet Isaiah and specific passages of Scripture within the Book
of the Twelve (the Twelve Minor Prophets), or the Book as a whole. The various
attempts to explain these parallels culminated – for the time being – in the sug-
gestion by Odil-Hannes Steck and his student Erich Bosshard-Nepustil that inter-
related theological circles carried out one or multiple revisions to Isaiah and the
Book of the Twelve, or to particular parts of the same, with the aim of making
these corpora more closely analogous in their structure and content. From 31 May
to 3 June 2018 and sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG),
an international conference held at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
considered, first, whether particular writings within the Book of the Twelve, or the
complete corpus, do indeed share features with Isaiah or parts of it, and second, if
this is the case, how we might describe and seek to explain these commonalities.
A previous event, held in November 2016 at St. Edward’s University (the Catholic
University in Austin, Texas), had explored ‘Voices of Israel – Isaiah and Micah:
Intersections in Judean Prophecy during the Eighth Century BCE’ in the context of
the relationship between Isaiah and Micah.1 The conference in Eichstätt sought to
expand this specific focus to include the entire Book of the Twelve. Its organisers,
in bringing together eminent experts on these Biblical writings from Germany
and around the world, hoped to initiate methodological dialogue, countering the
tendency occasionally witnessed among Old Testament scholars to talk about one
another rather than to one another and providing optimum conditions for illumi-
nating the process of growth and theological depth of the scriptures under study.
Exegesis should not be an end unto itself, but should rather serve to inspire
and vivify the way the Church views itself and the life it leads. That life energizes
the practice of exegesis and raises new questions to explore, opening up paths
to a fresh understanding of Biblical texts. This tenet shines forth clearly in this
volume’s concluding essay by His Excellency Bishop Rudolph Voderholzer, a spe-
cialist in Biblical hermeneutics whose work takes a systematic approach to the
subject. Since his Festvortrag reflects upon and responds to our exegetical work
during our time together, he receives the last word in this volume. We are pro-
1 The published main papers of this conference are: Burkard Maria Zapff, “Why is Micah similar
to Isaiah?” ZAW 129 (2017): 536–554; Richard J. Bautch, “In Vino Veritas? Critiquing Drunken-
ness and Deceit in Micah and Isaiah,” ZAW 129 (2017): 555–567; Joachim Eck, “Divine Strategies
against Abuse of Power in the Opening of the Book of Isaiah and the Exodus Story. Some Aspects
where Micah is not Similar to Isaiah,” ZAW 130 (2018): 4–25; Todd Hibbard, “To Err is Human,
Unless You’re a Prophet: Isaiah and Micah on Prophetic Opposition,” ZAW 130 (2018): 26–39.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110705799-001
2   Introduction
foundly grateful to him for having taken the time out of his demanding schedule
as a diocesan bishop to attend our conference and help build a bridge between
exegesis and systematic theology.
In this volume, the chapters progress in line with the two central questions
outlined above. In parts one and two, the authors examine the interrelationships
between Isaiah and specific writings from the Book of the Twelve. The order of
these chapters is chronological, beginning with writings attributed to prophets of
the eighth century BCE and their connections to Isaiah, particularly its opening
part, and proceeding to texts – or groups of texts – from both corpora which prob-
ably date from the period of the exile or thereafter. Along with identifying and
seeking to validate similarities and parallels between the various writings, the
chapters examine the history of their redaction and revision. After establishing
whether a relationship of any kind exists, our authors aim to find potential expla-
nations for their findings, an endeavour in which they apply a range of recent
insights on the hermeneutics of the Prophets.
In the volume’s opening chapter, Franz Sedlmeier takes on the relatively
neglected issue of the relationship between Isaiah and the book of Hosea. His
findings present a nuanced picture. The indications are that the historical figure
of Hosea is unlikely to relate directly to that of Isaiah. Further, the occasionally
occurring common themes and the conspicuous parallels between the headings
found in Isaiah and in Hosea in terms of the chronology of the prophets’ public
activity appear to be attributable to later revisions, at least some of which require
interpretation in the context of Hosea’s incorporation into the Book of the Twelve.
Uwe Becker, the author of chapter two, examines the prophecies about social
justice found in the book of Amos as potential sources for the passages in Isaiah
that herald social justice. Becker demonstrates that Isaiah’s castigation of injus-
tices is not an authentic part of his prophecy, but rather was drawn from both
the original text of Amos and from secondary additions. His chapter points to the
process of alignment or approximation that took place between various prophetic
books of the Bible and their key messages.
James Nogalski, analysing the final verses of Zephaniah, lays bare the
numerous parallels they contain to the content and language of Isaiah and sug-
gests that they might point to commonalities in the circles of their authorship.
Conversely, contrasts in the parallels highlight the substantial differences in the
depiction of Zion in evidence in the two writings.
The chapter by Burkard M. Zapff on the relationship between the Book of the
Twelve and what is known as Deutero-Isaiah asserts that the Book as a whole both
pays virtually no attention to themes at the heart of Deutero-Isaiah and places
quotations from it in a new context requiring an altered theological and political
setting. In Zapff’s view, any distinct intersections between themes in the Book of
Introduction   3
the Twelve and those in what is termed Trito-Isaiah might point to the revisions
to the Book which aligned it more closely with Isaiah in the post-exilic period.
The contribution by Richard Bautch centres on the much-discussed, highly
intertextual passage Zechariah 11 with its multiplicity of intertextual references,
particularly to Isaiah 10:33–34. Bautch succeeds in demonstrating that Isaiah
10:33–34, one of the central passages on which the text draws, creates new possi-
bilities for interpreting Zechariah 11 by effectively serving as a form of bridge for
its opening and closing oracles.
The similarities remarked upon repeatedly in more recent research on the
Twelve Minor Prophets between the concluding chapter of Zechariah and Isaiah’s
final section is the subject of Todd Hibbard’s essay. The assumption hitherto has
been that theologically aligned groups of authors worked on these writings. Hib-
bard’s examination of the texts, by contrast, uncovers within the texts a distinctly
different treatment and development of similar theological interests and motifs.
Following Hibbard’s analysis, there is no straightforward answer to the question
of whether later writings of Isaiah had a direct influence on Zechariah 14; topical
resemblances between the two texts stand against a striking contrast in these
themes’ specific treatment.
A different conclusion emerges from Christopher Hays’ analysis of the rela-
tionship between Zephaniah and Isaiah 24–27, often termed the Isaiah Apoca-
lypse, which reveals close interconnections in both language and content. While
the conclusions Hays draws from his findings may surprise some, the rationale
he presents has a high degree of plausibility: The broad consensus dating a sub-
stantial core of Zephaniah to the seventh century BCE justifies, in Hays’ view,
the attribution of an equivalent date to the rather misleadingly named ‘Isaiah
Apocalypse’, notwithstanding its frequent interpretation as a later text. A further
assertion Hays bases on his findings is that those responsible for penning Zepha-
niah’s original version also created the substance of Isaiah 24–27.
Turning from the previous chapters’ dominant theme of literary connections
and interdependencies between Isaiah and writings from the Twelve Minor Proph-
ets, the authors of the chapters collected in the volume’s third part make motifs in
both corpora, and responses to them, their principal concern.
In this context, Joachim Eck examines the role of Isaiah 5:1–7, the Song of
the Unfruitful Vineyard, in the thematic thrust of Isaiah 1–12. His essay then pro-
ceeds to explore, via selected examples, the resonance of this motif within Isaiah
as a whole and its reprise in Micah; this reappraisal of passages such as Micah
7:1–20 points to the way in which these presuppose knowledge of the Song of the
Vineyard on the part of their reader. Thus, light is cast on the creative work by the
writers responsible for the latter such passages, which thereby impart their own
distinct message.
4   Introduction
The motif of the kingship of YHWH is at the core of Carol Dempsey’s chapter
and of her distinctive approach to the subjects of this volume. Dempsey retraces
developments in conceptions of this metaphorical imagery covering a range of
associations – from oppression to liberation. She shows that the kingship motif is
occasionally susceptible to abuse in the service of human power, yet it carries as
well the potential to inspire visions of global leadership for our day.
Archibald van Wieringen analyses the role of the Oracles against the Nations
in Isaiah and the Book of the Twelve. Notwithstanding a series of differences,
relating not least to the names of the nations addressed, the author concludes that
these passages are not so much oracles against other nations as documents pro-
duced in a context of self-critical reflection undertaken by Israel and Jerusalem.
The motif of the Day of YHWH in both corpora is at the heart of Hugh Wil-
liamson’s chapter, which delineates three – or four – iterations of the concept.
The original concept, widespread among the contemporary populace, regarded
the Day of YHWH as YHWH’s intervention against Israel’s foes. There followed,
secondarily, a creative transformation of this notion into a day of judgement
upon Israel, and, thirdly, an interpretation linking the Day of YHWH to historical
events – to the extent that it was directed against communities such as Babel.
Finally, Williamson outlines an eschatological view which cast the Day as one of
liberation from all oppression by hostile powers. Williamson’s essay illuminates
the parallels between the development of the concept in Isaiah and in the Twelve
Minor Prophets.
Thus far, the volume’s chapters have illustrated a range of methodological
approaches to the core question of the relationship between the Book of the
Twelve and Isaiah, taking account of both synchronic and diachronic manners of
proceeding. Bringing the volume to its conclusion, the Festvortrag by the Regens-
burg-based Bishop Rudolph Voderholzer points beyond its horizons towards the
matter of what exegesis, done today, means – and has the potential to mean – for
and within the life of the Church. Voderholzer succeeds in illuminating the vital
importance of referencing the historical context and the literal sense of the Bib-
lical text as the foundations of a faith resting on a historical bedrock. Further, he
reminds us of the potential of these texts to direct the attention of their readers
and hearers to the salvific action of God, to the necessity of building a life around
an ethical compass, and to the hope we are justified in holding. In this context,
Voderholzer’s contribution urges us to pursue our studies fully informed by the
tradition of the fourfold sense of Scripture, whose roots stretch back to the early
Church.
The rich diversity of research questions and methodological responses to them
manifest in this volume are indicative of great exploration and debate around the
interconnections between Isaiah and the Book of the Twelve. A Synthesis at the