535 research outputs found
Double standards in the Book of Isaiah : re-evaluating prophetic ethics and divine justice.
No full textThis thesis investigates the ethical system of the book of Isaiah, treating the book as a single literary work from a broadly reader-oriented critical perspective. It begins with a study of ethics and literature which examines how the Old Testament prophetic books communicate their moral teaching, with particular reference to the performative force of their rhetoric. The second section of the thesis presents a descriptive analysis of the ethical ideologies in the book of Isaiah. It is concluded that the root of sin for Isaiah is the failure to acknowledge God. The thesis then proceeds to consider the conduct of the deity with regard to the ethical demands he makes of Israel, and finds that, while he is not evil or immoral, he fails to attain the standard he establishes for his people. There is a distinct double standard in operation. The inevitable result of such failure is the undermining of either the ethical system, the status of Yahweh, or both. The final chapters seeksome explanation for Yahweh's conduct. Evidence to suggest the book is conscious of the difficult moral position of the deity is presented and analysed, and it is concluded that the double standard demonstrably in operation is a deliberate rhetorical device and even a necessary result of Isaiah's religious beliefs. Isaiah's monotheism demands that God cannot be bound or restricted in any way, and righteousness for Yahweh is defined simply by what he does. Isaiah's God could never adhere to Isaianic ethics, because his actions continually redefine them. This has the unfortunate but necessary side-effect of destabilising Isaiah's ethical system. The thesis concludes with a short autobiographic-critical study of the place of the Bible in the Christian faith and the problems it poses
A dialogic reimagining of a servant's suffering: understanding second Isaiah's servant of Yahweh as a polyphonic hero
No full textA definitive identification of the Servant figure of Second Isaiah is notoriously difficult, as attested by centuries of conjecture and debate. The interpretive obstacles are profuse: the Servant is addressed as Israel-Jacob, but then spoken of in terms that are not consistent with the nation's experience; in some texts he seems to represent a community, while in others he speaks as an individual; he seems to suffer extreme hardship and persecution, but then is said to experience new life; some of his experiences appear to be historical, while others are best described as idealistic. Further hampering objective interpretations are the pervasive traditional approaches among Christian and Jewish readers, which associate the Servant, equally emphatically, with Jesus or Israel.
But a primary reason the Servant is so difficult to pin down is rarely considered, and that is that there exists no objective image of the Servant anywhere in Second Isaiah. As a literary character he is constituted entirely by dialogue; that is, by discourse addressed to him, spoken by him, and spoken about him by others in the form of a confession. His actions are never described, and his person is never defined. Scholars have referred to this as his 'fluid' nature, but have lacked the methodological tools for a fuller study of this literary curiosity.
The ideas of literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin speak to this type of characterisation. His 'polyphonic hero' is a fictional character who is constituted by what is spoken to him or her, by what they overhear said concerning them, and by how they make that discourse, and the discourse of the wider world, an aspect of their own self-knowledge. They become known only by the discourse that converges on them, much as the Servant of Second Isaiah is constituted. This thesis develops a reading strategy based on Bakhtin's theory of the polyphonic hero, as well as his broader theories of dialogism. It reimagines the inner discourse of the Servant in order to comprehend him according to the dialogue by which he knows himself, and not according to conventional reading strategies that seek for a fixed, opaque image. In the process it discovers that there are not multiple Servants, which is often posited as a solution to the problem of his fluid nature, but one Servant, Israel-Jacob, whose self-knowledge as the faithful Servant of Yahweh calls empirical Israel to faith in a time of national distress. It concludes that the Servant is present in the collection of Second Isaiah as a 'voice-idea', the embodiment of a theologically critical position that calls many of Israel's theological and ideological presuppositions into question, in order to liberate her for a renewed history as a faithful 'witness' to Yahweh her redeemer
Theological Interpretation and Isaiah 53: A Study of Bernhard Duhm, Brevard Childs, and Alec Motyer
No full textThis dissertation brings together the hermeneutical approaches of three Old Testament scholars, specifically as they pertain to the interpretation of Isaiah 52.13-53.12 in the framework of Christian theology. Contemporary discourse and hermeneutical discussions have led to the development of a point of confusion in theological hermeneutics, focusing on what relationship older frames of reference may have with those more recent.
Bernhard Duhm is presented as a history-of-religions scholar who does not easily abide by popular understandings of that school. This results in a theologically attuned reading of Isa 53. Brevard Childs moves outward from particular historical judgments regarding the nature of redaction and form criticism, attempting to arrive at a proximately theological reading of the poem. Alec Motyer’s evangelical commitments represent a large constituency of contemporary theological readership, and a popular understanding of Isa 53.
Following a summary and critical engagement of each interpreter on his own terms, the study proceeds to analyze the use of rhetoric behind the readings of Isa 53 outlined here. As each interpreter positions his hermeneutical location in opposition to perceived opponents, it bears revisiting to see in what ways these moves of rhetorical distanciation are, and are not, appropriate. Whilst commonality is found between the three in substantial ways, certain irresolvable problems arise. An outcome of this commonality-problematic relationship is that contemporary rhetorical categorizations of ‘pre-critical’, ‘critical’, and ‘post-critical’ do not accurately represent the highly involved nature of the task of interpreting the Old Testament – and Isaiah 53 – as Christian Scripture
Merging and diverging : the Chronicler's integration of material from Kings, Isaiah, and Jeremiah in the narratives of Hezekiah and the Fall of Judah
No full textThe phenomenon of inner-biblical interpretation and inter-textual replication of scriptural material within the Old Testament is receiving significant attention in current scholarship. Two narratives which are repeated three times in the Hebrew Bible provide a particularly fruitful case study for this type of research: the Hezekiah narrative (2 Kgs 18-20; Isa 36-39; 2 Chr 29-32) and the account of the fall of Judah (2 Kgs 24-25; Jer 52; 2 Chr 36). This study extends the contributions of redaction-critical, literary-critical, and text-critical studies examining the narratives of 2 Kings 18-20//Isaiah 36-39 and 2 Kings 24:18-25:30//Jeremiah 52 and emphasizes their subsequent reception in Chronicles. In addition, this investigation advances the discussion of the Chronicler's reliance upon and method of incorporating material from the Latter Prophets. It is the conclusion of this thesis that the Chronicler was familiar with the versions of the Hezekiah narrative and the account of the fall of Judah in both 2 Kings and the Latter Prophets. His method of handling these alternative accounts reflects both direct quotation (particularly in the case of 2 Kings) and indirect allusion to themes and idioms (with regard to the Latter Prophets). The result is a re-telling of Judah's history which is infused with hope for restoration as articulated by the Latter Prophets. By portraying an idealized account of Israel's past history which corresponds to prophetic descriptions of the nation's restoration, Chronicles illustrates the accessible, utopic potential held out to every generation of faithful Israel
Digital Photos, Embedded Metadata and Personal Privacy
No full textThe topic of personal privacy concerns of how corporations utilize personal data are examined in the context of personal digital archiving. Most modern devices that capture audio, video and still images automatically embed a significant amount of personally identifiable information. There are constructive uses for this embedded metadata. However, individuals who use online services to curate their collections may not be aware this data exists, and thus may not able to give informed consent about its use.This is the Accepted Manuscript (AM), post-peer review
The eBethArké Syriac digital library: a case study
No full textThe eBetharké Syriac Digital Library Portal is a collaborative effort between the libraries at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; and the Beth Mardutho Syriac Institute, a traditional library of texts; to create a specialized digital library collection online. This digital library features content in and relating to Syriac, an Aramaic dialect spoken in the 1st century A.D. and for which a great deal of historically significant documents were written during the period. This task required effort and research on multiple fronts, including software development; collaboration on technical, interpersonal, and policy-based levels; and in overcoming challenges related to the predominant computing platforms installed and in use by potential users of this digital library. This collaboration provided significant new challenges and learning experiences among the staff who worked on this project and provides a base upon which our digital library platforms can diversify and be more culturally aware.Peer reviewe
The levitical authorship of Ezra Nehemiah
No full textThe study of Ezra-Nehemiah has been revolutionised in recent years by a growing rejection of the long-established belief that it was composed as part of the Chronicler's work. That shift in scholarly paradigms has re-opened many questions of origin and purpose, and this thesis attempts to establish an answer to the most important of these: the question of authorship. The first part deals with preliminary questions, reviewing the relationship with Chronicles and the unity of the work, and investigating current theories of origin. It affirms that Ezra-Nehemiah should be considered a single, independent composition, to be dated to the late fifth century B.C., and establishes that the author most probably belonged to one of the clerical groups of priests or Levites. The second part examines the attitude toward Levites in Ezra-Nehemiah, and compares it to the treatment of Levites in other, more or less contemporary literature. This comparison shows that the work is unlikely to have been a priestly composition, since priestly texts of the period show a consistent determination to portray the Levites as clerus minor, subordinate to the priests. On the other hand, the portrayal in Ezra-Nehemiah is quite compatible with that of the Levitical stratum in Chronicles. The third part explores the ideology of Ezra-Nehemiah in the context of Persian rule. It establishes that the author was pro-Persian, despite good reasons for Jewish discontent with Achaemenid policies, and shows that this would not have been inappropriate for a Levitical author by the time the work was written. It also explores the socio-political ideology of the book, concluding that its concerns with decentralisation, cooperation and reform are unlikely to have been voiced by a priestly writer. The dissertation concludes, therefore, that the most probable origin for Ezia-Nehemiah lies in Levitical circles, and that it was composed at a time when Levites had established an improvement in their status and authority, following Persian disenchantment with the priesthood. The implications of this conclusion, literary and historical, are explored briefly in the final chapter
Isaiah after the exile: The author of Isaiah 56-66 as reader and redactor of the book
No full textSince Duhm's commentary, scholars have treated Isaiah as three distinct books, thereby raising the question of how they came to be the one book now before us. Through an analysis of relevant portions of Isaiah, I define the editorial contribution lade to this process by the anonymous author associated with chapters 56-66, an author who lived after the exile and who inherited much that is now in 1-55.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Visualizing Isaiah
No full textVisualizing Isaiah is a full- color book filled with beautiful photographs, maps, and charts that illuminate the words of the prophet Isaiah. Author Donald W. Parry, an expert on Isaiah and Old Testament texts, complements the book’s gorgeous graphic elements with insight into Isaiah’s world.https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi/1096/thumbnail.jp
Isaiah\u27s Damascus Oracle: Responding to International Threats
No full textI propose the following theses: (1) since Isaiah 17-18 fit under the same superscription we therefore should and can interpret them as one unit;(2) and that Isaiah 1-16 supplies the reader with the necessary information to interpret Isaiah 17-18 sufficiently. I believe we will find a unity supported by the composition of Isaiah 17-18, by the themes and metaphors in Isaiah 17-18, and through the events that Isaiah 17-18 describe.
The method that I will use to prove this thesis will be to study the information both external to the text and internal to it. First, I will seek to clarify what the author of Isaiah 17-18 says in the two chapters by carefully examining the text grammatically and lexically. There will be a priority given to the grammatical and lexical usage in Isaiah. Second, I will review what we know about the historical periods that the author refers to in Isaiah. I will give special attention to the events that the oracles against the nations section records. Third, I will examine what the words and phrases, themes and metaphors of Isaiah 17-18 would mean to the one who first reads Isaiah 1-16.I will use the material in the rest of Isaiah 1-39 to clarify and test what we find in Isaiah 1-16. I will test the compatibility of Isaiah 17-18\u27s words and phrases with the rest of Isaiah.
The goal of my efforts is to give a coherent interpretation of Isaiah17-18 within its context
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