Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Johan Lust on the Names/Titles in Isaiah 9:6-7 (Hebrews 9:5-6)

  

The Hebrew Text. The form of these verses is quite different from what precedes? The earlier verses were addressed to YHWH, but these are not. Here the text says “For to us a child is born.” The child takes the centre stage as saviour, not YHWH. The passage is not a song of thanksgiving to YHWH, but a song of enthronement. All attention is drawn to the new prince on the day of his birth or the day of his enthronement. On that day, he receives various honorific names (v. 5).

 

Basically what we have here is an enthronement of a prince with honorific titles. With regard to the titles, it is usually noted in Egypt five titles are given to new rulers. Here, however, we seem only to have four. For this reason, some exegetes like to split the four titles to make five out of them. Support for this endeavour can be found in the final ם in למרבה at the beginning of the MT v. 6, which may conceal an original fifth title.

 

Contents. Most important in this section is the announcement concerning a prince or king who will rule with justice and righteousness. If we read this in conjunction with 9,1-4, the suggestion is that he will bring salvation to Israel. Who is the announced one? He sits on the Davidic throne (9,6). The reference can hardly be to Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz. Israel happened to be defeated in its war with Syria against Judah. It is highly unlikely that Judah’s king Hezekiah would have been viewed as a saviour for the defeated northern kingdom. Most probably, the prince referred to is Josiah (c. 640). His reign began almost 100 years after the Syro-Ephraimitic war. By that time the wounds of the war may have been healed. Josiah seems to have been successful in once again reunifying the Norther and the South for a short period of time and may thus have returned Israel to its old Davidic boundaries. This appears to be confirmed by the historical narrative in 2 Kings 22-23. The passage in Isa 9,5-6 may have been his enthronement song. In that case the song would not have been written by Isaiah, but by someone living much alter. It is not strictly messianic, but it refers to a Josiah who was on the throne shortly before the exile.

 

The Greek Text. The names given to the child in v. 5 (LXX v. 6) seem to be reduced to one item: Messenger (αγγελος) of Greek Counsel. The child is no longer called “Great Counsel”, but “Messenger” of Great Counsel. In fact, through the insert of “Messenger”, the single name is given to the Lord who sent the “messenger”, or it may have lost its character of a personal name and been reduced to the common name “counsel” and the adjective “great”. Seeligmann is most impressed by the peaceful character of the Child-Messiah in the Greek text. With reference to Jer 32(39),19 he interpreters his title μεηαλης βουλης αγγελος as “the Delegate who carries out the Divine Dispensation of the age-old plan”. Hanhart follows him on this.

 

The other names are given a completely new interpretation. The term αγγελος itself is probably a rendition of the second name אל-נבור. The first part of the third name אבי (father) is read as a verb אביא: αξω “I shall bring”. The second part עד is interpreted as the preposition עד and consequently rendered by επι. The two components of the fourth name are also treated separately. The noun שׂר “prince” is read as a plural αρχοντας and is seen as the indirect object (destination) of the verb, whereas the noun שׁלום ειρηνην “peace” is interpreted as its direct object.

 

The Greek text has a “plus” which may be a doublet of the phrase we have just discussed, or a free rendition of a fifth name missing in the MT. Also, the Greek translation underlines the first person pronoun intervention by the translator is that the emphasis is taken away from the child and placed on the Lord. Moreover, the importance of a final peace is strongly emphasised.

 

The immediate motive behind these features in the LXX may have been the divine character of the names. The translator may not have liked the name “Mighty God” being applied to any human person, king or not. Therefore, he inserted the words “messenger of” or αγγελος before the names. Through this insertion, the first name refers to YHWH and not to the child. (Johan Lust, “Messianism in the Septuagint Isaiah 8,23b-9,6 (9,1-7),” in Messianism and the Septuagint: Collected Essays by J. Lust, ed. K. Hauspie [Bibliotheca Ephemeridium Theologicarum Lovaniensium CLXXVIII; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2004], 166-67, emphasis added)