Interpreting old testament prohetic literature in Mathhew: Double fulfillment

Trinity Journal, Spring 2002 by Blomberg, Graig L

VI. ISA 6:9-10 IN MATT 13:14-15

Here appears the second quotation of Isaiah that Matthew has taken over from Mark (cf. Mark 4:11-12). It is also the first of Matthew's Isaiah quotations in which the fulfillment centers primarily on the opponents of Jesus rather than on Jesus himself. While Jesus reenacts Isaiah's mission of preaching to his countrymen, the focus is on the obdurate nature of his audience: "ever hearing but never understanding," "ever seeing, but never perceiving" (Isa 6:9). At first glance, it seems that here we have typology pure and simple: Jesus speaks in parables to confirm his opponents in their freely chosen rebellion just as Isaiah had been sent to prophesy to reinforce his contemporaries' calloused hardheartedness.51

But a reading of the larger context of Isaiah 6 suggests something more. Immediately after receiving this commissioning, Isaiah asks God, "For how long 0 Lord?" (v. 11a). God's answer is until there is utter desolation of the land (vv. 11b-12). Even then a tenth remains, only to be laid waste again (v. 13a). But the chapter ends with a message of hope: "But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land" (v. 13b). Taken as a whole, vv. 9-13 suggest that the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy occurs over a continuous, prolonged period of time-beginning with the judgment that will befall his contemporaries until such time as a righteous people once again populate the land.52 Given Jesus' and the first Christians' convictions that such a situation had not yet been obtained even in the first century (a view not unique to Christian Jews!), it would be legitimate for them to see the obdurate rejection of Messiah as part of the ongoing fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.53

Here for the first time, we have something more like the generic prophecy advocated by Kaiser, following Willis Beecher.54 Does Matthew recognize this distinction when he uses here, and only here, the compound verb anapliro--so that the text literally reads, "in them is completely fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy" (Matt 13:14)?55 Whether or not that is the case, we have at least another example of double fulfillment-a referent in Isaiah's day and one in Jesus' time, both at least implicitly part of Isaiah's original meaning, even if the latter could only be explicated in detail when it finally occurred.

VII. ISA 29:13 IN MATT 15:8-9

Matthew's next quotation of Isaiah, also following Mark (cf. Mark 7:6-7), likewise describes those within Israel who do not truly know Yahweh, the God of their people. Again Isaiah is mentioned by name, as prophesying, though here no verb for fulfillment appears. Without the framework of Isaiah 6, we would probably identify Matthew's hermeneutic here as simple typology: the inconsistency between outward profession and inward heart faith that Isaiah berated is recurring again in many of the Jewish leaders' response to Jesus.56 Nothing in the context of Isaiah 29 explicitly suggests anything beyond this, as chap. 6 did with its reference to an unbroken, prolonged period of time of disobedience until the complete fulfillment of the prophecy would occur. Nevertheless, chap. 6 is programmatic for all of Isaiah in several respects.57 Not only does it begin with its famous picture of God in all his holiness revealing himself to Isaiah (vv. 1-4) and commissioning him for his ministry of prophecy (vv. 5-8), but it sets the stage for a pervasive theme in the book-God is punishing his people because of their prolonged and severe disobedience and things will get worse before they get better. Adding the details as we can now after the events, Assyrian judgment will merely give way to Babylonian judgment. Return from exile will not restore God's people to their former grandeur, much less come anywhere close to perfectly fulfilling his ideal for them. This will take place only in a coming messianic age that is described in ever more glorious language, so that the closing chapters of the book can speak even of God creating a new heavens and a new earth (65:17-66:24).