Intro to “latter prophets” (writing prophets); Isaiah ...

1 1 Intro to latter prophets ( writing prophets); Isaiah , jeremiah Introduction I m going to approach the prophets differently from the way I have in the past, which was in chronological order. There is no one right way to do this, and it s good to interpret the Bible from different perspectives. In the past I ve looked at the prophets chronologically, starting with Amos and Hosea during the last years of the North Kingdom in Israel and continuing through Daniel, one of the latest books in the Hebrew Bible. It s helpful to you for me to teach them that way, because I can provide the historical framework as an interpretive context. For example, I told earlier Adult Ed sessions that first Isaiah prophesied during the late 8th century BC, when Sennacherib defeated the north kingdom of Israel then was held off by Hezekiah in the south, and point out examples of oracles addressing that particular historical situation.

2 Then I could go on with second Isaiah s prophecies at the end of the Exilic period, when Cyrus king of Persia, whom second Isaiah names, permitted the exiled Judahites to return to the ruins of Palestine to rebuild. However, in this historical approach, you d have to wait awhile between first and second Isaiah , because jeremiah and Ezekiel both have had their prophetic ministries at the beginning of the Exilic period, between first and second Isaiah . So you have the historical context, but at the expense of the canonical context, because our discussion of Isaiah would be scattered over several weeks with other prophets intervening. So the chronological approach has a downside and we ve missed some things as a result.

3 This time we re going to consider the prophets from a canonical perspective. By canonical I partly mean their biblical order, but more fully by canonical I mean the order in which the faith community preserved them. Brevard Childs Interpretation of the OT as Scripture is a work of brilliant scholarship that takes seriously the canonical order of the bible as a basis for both authority and inspiration in the church. He observed that the primary difference between scripture as studied by the faith community and the writings of the bible as interpreted by historical-critical scholars is that the canonical ordering, intentionally on the part of the faith community, unmoors scripture from history.

4 This unmooring from history, as Childs puts it, is actually antithetical to the historical-critical approach taken by scholars (and sometimes adult ed teachers!) Scholars work to recreate the historical context as a basis for interpretation. And frankly most of us think like scholars in this regard. The community of faith that 2 passed along the canon of scripture to us looked at time and history differently from this. Rather they saw scripture as the timeless word of God. In key respects, the disciples who preserved a prophet s words, and the community of faith that subsequently used them in worship, both worked directly against an historical interpretation. Not because either group had anything against history per se, but rather because their motivation was to not merely to pass along the divine inspiration that those words had given them as an intellectual construct, but to make that divine presence a present reality for their children, as it had been for them.

5 As an example of this theological anti-historicity, the first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah were indisputably expressed by the Isaiah who lived in Jerusalem at the time of Hezekiah. Why, then are some of his latest oracles, from near the end of his ministry, put in chapter 1? Throughout these first 39 chapters historical sequence simply plays no part in the ordering of material, yet it is carefully organized. The historical order was deliberately set aside in favor of an ordering that had a theological rather than a historical agenda. So this time around our focus is going to be on this canonical level of meaning and its theological agenda. I ll provide some historical context, but for thematic purposes only.

6 We re going through the prophets in canonical order and will be focusing on their internal structure and their ordering overall. Part of my reason for canonical interpretation is that the exposition of scripture in church focuses on short pericopes taken out of canonical context from the Old Testament perspective. This approach is actually quite consistent with the theologically motivated, ahistorical approach behind the ordering of canonical scripture itself. No surprise there, since the motivation is the same in both cases. However, in taking the approach it does, our lectionary fails to convey fully the original theological story preserved in the canonical ordering. We should care about that, because this ahistorical, canonical ordering of material meant something to our spiritual forebears in the community of faith.

7 They were trying to tell us something by it. Think of it as their message in a bottle that has crossed the ocean of time to us. My other reason for going with the canonical approach is practical: we re going through all sixteen writing prophets in four Sundays this year. I ll cover Isaiah and jeremiah today, Ezekiel and Daniel next Sunday, then the twelve minor prophets on two Sundays later in the year. That s not enough time to delve into them in detail, but what we can do is consider their canonical structure and the distinctive theological message conveyed in that order. That s a level of meaning that is hard 3 to get to from a single pericope, and it complements the theological approach taken in the lectionary and preaching.

8 So let s start with Isaiah . Isaiah 1. Overall structure in historical context a. The first 39 chapters contain oracles written in Jerusalem over a long period of time. The superscription indicates that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Uzziah s reign began around 780 BC and Hezekiah s ended around 690 BC. However Uzziah reigned for about 50 years, so we figure Isaiah started working toward the end of Uzziahs reign and by the time of Hezekiah s he was an experienced and trusted elder. So in round numbers Isaiah of Jerusalem prophesied from approximately 750-700 BC. b. Chapters 40-55 were written in Babylon, to the exiles, during the reign of Cyrus of Persia, who is named twice.

9 Isaiah is encouraging the exiles to return and rebuild Zion, describing the opportunity as God acting for his people once again as he had done at the time of Creation, and at the Red Sea. c. Chapters 56-66, the last section of the book, are set in an even later time when the initial hope of restoration has diminished and the prophetic message changes accordingly. d. So, canonically, the book of Isaiah spans nearly the entire time period of Israelite prophecy. Amos, the earliest prophet , also prophesied during Uzziah s reign, and the latest oracles in the book of Isaiah are not too much earlier than the book of Daniel, which is the most recent prophetic work. e. This is similar to how the Psalms, which were credited to King David, span an even longer historical continuum.

10 The Psalms date from the late Bronze age in the early second millennium before Christ to psalm 74, which laments the end of prophecy. f. The community of faith was never so na ve that they thought David and Isaiah lived longer than other people. What they are conveying is a faith in the nature of inspiration. Not just Isaiah , and the Psalms, but the entire canon, every book in it, is inspired by the timeless, living God. The same spirit that inspired the original David and Isaiah continued to inspire them in their own times. They believed that they, too, were the present recipients of the spirit of David s and Isaiah s God. Behind the many 4 voices of those in their community whom they believed were inspired was one God, and one true and timeless spirit.