Sunday, December 24, 2023

Are the Comments about the Destruction of Judah in Isaiah 40-55 Evidence of Multiple Authorship?

  

References in Isa 40-55 to destruction in Judah are often automatically connected to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, even though there were several other occasion when Judah or Jerusalem suffered serious ruin and the deportation of its citizens. Since Isa 40-55 does not identify who put Judah in ruins, it is difficult to know whether the perpetrator was, for example, Shishak/Egypt, Hazael/Aram, Israel, Assyria, or Babylon. Without firm evidence regarding which defeat is in view, many commentators simply assume that the text addresses the Babylonian exiles about Jerusalem’s being destroyed in 586 BCE. The references to ruin or destruction in chapters 40-55 fall into three general groups: (a) references to past or present plunder, desolation, and war (41;11-12; 44:22-25; 51:13-14, 17-19; 52:3-5); (b) references to Cyrus rebuilding the ruins of Jerusalem (49:8, 17-19, 24-26; 52:9; 54:3). If this understanding is correct, only two references (44:26; 45:130 refer to the fall of Jerusalem, and these two appear in the context of a future rebuilding of the city. The examples listed above do not offer much support for assuming that the fall of Jerusalem has already taken place.

 

Isaiah 40-55 presents the big picture of Israel’s past, present, and future According to this panoramic perspective, Israel was sinful and blind (41:19-20; 43:8), performed useless worship (43:22-24), made idols (44:9-20), argued with God (45:9), was stubborn (48:4, 8), and falsely accused God (49;14). The prophet recognized that the people in Judah were attacked in war (41:11-12; 42:22-25) and predicted a future judgment of Judah (43:28; 48:9-11). This yields and overarching metanarrative of (a) cycles of past/present sins and past/present judgments, (b) future judgment (43:28), (c) restoration by Cyrus (44:26-28), and (d) a final, marvelous eschatological restoration. Although some believe that the wars mentioned in Isa 40-55 refer to Babylon’s defeat and ruin of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, this does not fit some texts. In Isa 41:8-14 YHWH promises that Israel’s enemies will “become nothing and perish, you will look for them but you will not find them” (41:11-12). This promise matches only one Israelite experience—YHWH’s miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib when an angel defeated the Assyrian army. (Gary V. Smith, “Cyrus or Sennacherib? Historical Issues Involved in the Interpretation of Isaiah 40-55,” in Bind Up the Testimony: Explorations in the Genesis of the Book of Isaiah, ed. Daniel I. Block and Richard L. Schultz [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2015], 182-83)