As for the foreigners Who attach themselves to the Lord,
To minister to Him, And to love the name of the Kird, To be His servants -- All
who keep the sabbath and do not profane it, And who hold fast to My covenant--I
will bring them to My sacred mount And let them rejoice in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices Shall be welcome on My altar; For My House
shall be called A house of prayer for all peoples." Thus declares the Lord
God, Who gathers the dispersed of Israel: "I will gather still more to
those already gathered." (Isa 56:6-8 | 1985 JPS Tanakh)
Thus said the Lord of Hosts: Peoples and the inhabitants
of many cities shall yet come--the inhabitants of one shall go to the other and
say, "Let us go and entreat the favor of the Lord, let us seek the Lord of
Hosts; I will go, too." The many peoples and the multitude of nations
shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of
the Lord. Thus said the Lord of Hosts: In those days, ten men from nations of
every tongue will take hold -- they will take hold of every Jew by a corner of
his cloak and say, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with
you."(Zech 8:20-23 | 1985 JPS Tanakh)
What these representative oracles suggest is that the
post-exilic prophetic tradition could envisage a future for the temple that was
universal, attended to not just by Israel but by the entire world community.
According to the Gospel writers, Jesus was influenced by this strand in the
prophetic tradition, as his citations of Isa 61 in Luke 4:16-21 and Isa 56:7 in
his attack upon temple customs demonstrate. Key moments in Paul’s letter to the
Romans give further purchase to the influence these prophets had upon his
vision of a mission to the nations. At a climactic moment, Paul cites LXX Isa
65:1-2: “Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I
have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who
did not ask for me.’ But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my
hands to a disobedient and contrary people” (Rom 10:20-21). (John
R. Levison, In Search of the Spirit, 2 vols. [Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade
Books, 2023], 1:267)
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