{"id":64644,"date":"2019-10-22T23:28:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T20:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64644"},"modified":"2023-05-17T08:12:46","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T05:12:46","slug":"a-prophet-in-turbulent-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-prophet-in-turbulent-times\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prophet In Turbulent Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[624,898,444,940],"acf":{"old_id":"64644","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38102,"related_cahpter":"335","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A complex work, spanning centuries\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The book of Isaiah takes its name from the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, who lived in Jerusalem in the second half of the eighth century BCE. Not much is known of Isaiah\u2019s background, and nothing is known of his birth or death. It is clear from some of the stories within the book that he traveled in elite circles, including regular conversations with kings, most importantly Hezekiah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isaiah lived through a turbulent era in the history of Israel. The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727) explicitly wanted to create an Assyrian empire throughout the Near East and set out to do so by military means. In 722-720 the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. This \u201cexile of the Ten Tribes\u201d had both long-term and short-term implications for Jewish history. In the long term, the idea of finding the lost tribes has occupied thinkers from then until now. In the short term, it left the small country of Judah relatively isolated within the expanding Assyrian empire. When a new king, Sennacherib, ascended the Assyrian throne in 705, Hezekiah took the opportunity to rebel, along with a number of neighbors. The resulting Assyrian military campaign of 701 was a climactic episode in Isaiah\u2019s career and in the history of Judah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isaiah played a formidable role in that story, and prophecies related to those events take up a lot of space in the book. The narrative of the planned Assyrian assault itself is narrated in great detail in chapters 36-39 (chapters found also in much the same form in the book of Kings). Jerusalem and Hezekiah survived that assault, and this may well have solidified Isaiah\u2019s reputation as a prophet; it certainly solidified the notions of a holy city, protected by God, and the sanctity of the Davidic line of kings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has long been noted that the second part of the book, beginning immediately after that narrative, in chapter 40, has nothing to do with the events of the first part of the book. Here the historical background is entirely different: the empires mentioned are the Babylonians and (up-and-coming) Persians; Cyrus the Great (reigned 539-530) is mentioned by name as the imminent savior of the Jews (chapters 44 and 45). The prophet Isaiah is not mentioned beginning in chapter 40, and the prophecies presuppose that the Jews are already in exile. All this has suggested to interpreters (starting with Moshe Ibn Chiquitilla, in the 11<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> century in Spain) that the second half of the book is not in fact the work of Isaiah son of Amoz, but rather comes from the pen of an anonymous prophet during the time of the Babylonian Exile, in the 6<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> century BCE.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some scholars have further divided the book, finding signs of an \u201cThird Isaiah\u201d in chapters 55-56. Still, it is clear from all sorts of textual and ideological connections that the book as we have it is a unified, consciously edited work, which is meant to be read as an organic whole even though its origins span centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>image:\u00a0Dead Sea Scroll &#8211; part of Isaiah Scroll (Isa 57:17 &#8211; 59:9), 1QIsa<sup>b<\/sup><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":64645,"id":64645,"title":"is1-Is in DSS-1QIsa","filename":"is1-Is-in-DSS-1QIsa.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is1-Is-in-DSS-1QIsa.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-prophet-in-turbulent-times\/is1-is-in-dss-1qisa\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is1-is-in-dss-1qisa","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":64644,"date":"2019-10-22 20:27:52","modified":"2019-10-23 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