Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry on Isaiah 7:15-16

  

What is the Meaning of Eating “curds and honey” in VV. 15-16a?

 

Insufficient thought has been given by interpreters to the statement that the child born to the virgin will “eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.” First, refusing evil and choosing good is connected to the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2:9, 16. It refers to making moral choices on one’s own and hence refers to the age of accountability. In biblical culture, this is around 13 years old, the time of one’s Bar Mitzvah in later Judaism.

 

Nogah Hareuveni has best explained “eating curds and honey.” (Nogah Hareuveni, Nature in Our Biblical Heritage [Kiryat Ono, Israel: Neot Kedummim, 1980], 11-22) Curds are a product of pastoralists, those who herd flocks of goats or sheep and cattle. Honey comes from bees and refers to the forests as opposed to cultivated land because honey bees flourished in the wild. In the land of Canaan there was always a struggle over the use of land. Pastoralists, those who grazed animals, would look for uncultivated areas for pasturage. Famers, on the other hand, were terracing the hillsides and turning areas that grew wild into cultivated fields and vineyards. What Isaiah is saying is that the region will be so devastated by the Assyrians that there will be few farmers and the cultivated fields will return to regions left to grow wild. This would allow bees and pastoralists more territory. So, eating curds and honey is not a statement of blessing, but rather a sign of devastation and judgment in the land. The fact that the child will eat curds and honey means that the land will be dominated by pastoralists and not farmers. This is an indication of the devastation and destruction resulting in exile and the conquest by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Therefore, a person reduced to eating curds and honey is a person in exile, not a person enjoying the good life. In the case of Jesus of Nazareth, this is fulfilled in the fact that the country was dominated by foreign overlords and in exile before the boy reached the age of accountability. (Christophe Rico and Peter J. Gentry, The Mother of the Infant King, Isaiah 7:14: ‘almâ and parthenos in the World of the Bible, a Linguistic Perspective [trans. Peter J. Gentry; Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2020], 214-15)

 

This may also help answer an objection concerning the use of KJV Isa 7:15 (cf.2 Nephi 17:15):

 

Isa. 7:15//2 Ne. 17:15: “Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.” The logical relation of the second clause to the first is not clear. It is as if eating butter and honey leads to moral knowledge. Clarification is needed. Compare the NJB: “On curds and honey will he feed until he knows how to refuse the bad and choose the good.” (David P. Wright, “Isaiah in the Book of Mormon: Or Joseph Smith in Isaiah,” in American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, ed. Dan Vogel and Brent Lee Metcalfe [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2002], 170)

 




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