Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) Written in Hebrew, Qumran, Cave 1. Ca. 120 BCE Parchment

© Photo The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV.- On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, the Israel Museum presents two major sections of the Great Isaiah Scroll – the most complete biblical Dead Sea Scroll document ever found and one of the world’s greatest archaelogical treasures – in a special installation in the Shrine of the Book.

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Focusing on the phenomenon of prophecy in the ancient Near East, this study offers a comparison between parts of First Isaiah and the Assyrian prophecies. In the first part, the material from First Isaiah and from seventh-century Assyria is investigated in its own right. The second part is a comparison of the Isaiah tradition in its earliest shape with the prophetic material from seventh-century Assyria. The topics dealt with in the comparison are the interrelation of prophetic oracles and historical events, the functions of the prophets, and the literary development of prophecy. The study shows that ancient Israelite prophecy, of which the historical Isaiah was an exponent, was much in conformity with ancient Near Eastern prophecy in general.

This book offers a fresh understanding of how Isaiah was translated into Greek, by considering the impact of the translator’s Alexandrian milieu on his work. Whereas most studies over the past fifty years have regarded the book’s free translation style as betraying the translator’s conviction that Isaiah’s oracles were being fulfilled in his day, this study argues that he was primarily interested in offering his Greek-speaking co-religionists a cohesive representation of Isaiah’s ideas. Comparison of the translator’s interpretative tacks with those employed by the grammatikoi in their study of Homer offers a convincing picture of his work as an Alexandrian Jew and clarifies how this translation should be assessed in reconstructing early textual forms of Hebrew Isaiah.

Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, 124

Øystein Lund gives a new approach to texts in Isaiah 40-55 that deal with ways and desert transformation. Earlier exegesis has mainly read these texts in a literal way. In recent years, exegetes have pointed out that the so-called ‘exodus texts’ should rather be interpreted metaphorically. The author supports this, and accordingly seeks to continue this discourse by systematizing, intensifying, and deepening the argumentation for a metaphorical reading. He argues that most of the way-texts in Isaiah 40-55 are interrelated, and gradually contribute to explore questions regarding the way-situation of the people. The way-theme appears in the prologue, and in 40:27 a problem approach is established when the people is addressed: “How can you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right passes by my God’”? Several subsequent way-texts are related to this text, and together these draw a coherent picture in which the problematic way-situation of the people in the past and present is transformed. JHWH establishes new ways in which he leads his people through their difficult landscape. Øystein Lund argues that such a coherent reading of the way-texts gives good meaning, which is consistent with the over all message of Isaiah 40-55.