Isaiah 56-66: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2004 by Oswalt, John N

Isaiah 56-66: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. By Joseph Blenkinsopp. Anchor Bible series, vol. 19B. New York: Doubleday, 2003, xvi 348 pp., $45.00.

This volume is the third in Blenkinsopp's series on Isaiah in the Anchor Bible series. It follows the format of the first two volumes (1-39, 40-55) and indeed that of the series as a whole. There is a lengthy introduction (126 pp.), and then the material is treated according to units ranging from two verses (59:1-2) to 25 verses (63:7-64:111121) in length. The treatment includes a translation, textual and grammatical notes, and comments.

The introduction addresses the place of Isaiah 56-66 in the book as a whole, including the question of their distinctness as a unit and their relationship to chapters 40-55 and chapters 1-39. he concludes that there is a close relationship with the former, and almost none with the latter, leading him to believe the material was written after 40-55 and was combined with those chapters before they were together united with what is now 1-39.

With regard to the literary character of Isaiah 56-66, Blenkinsopp agrees with the present consensus that it is a composite. However, he urges caution concerning the ability of form- and redaction-critical methods to distinguish exactly what the original components and their history may have been prior to the present combination. he sees evidence of deliberate structuring into three "panels," 56-59, 60-62, and 63-66, and in a later introductory section on the formation of the material, notes with apparent approval that it is possible to discern a chiastic structure climaxing in 61:1-3. However, his comments seem to take little account of this phenomenon and its possible significance for the interpretation of the material.

A bulk of the introduction is given over to the attempt to discern the historical, sociological, and theological settings in which these materials first emerged and to which they were supposedly addressed. Blenkinsopp's erudition and his grasp of the scholarly investigations in these areas are evident. His work provides a concise and judicious survey of the various opinions and conclusions that have been put forward in the last 100 years. His conclusion reflects the general consensus at present that these chapters are a compilation of the speeches and writings of a group that had become marginalized from the cultic mainstream in judah during the middle of the fifth century BC. But he rejects the idea that this group would have necessarily been opposing the work of Ezra and Nehemiah, or that it is possible to discern in these chapters the origins of apocalypticism in judah. The amount of attention given to this reconstruction of the hypothetical setting seems a bit odd when the text itself is at pains to disassociate itself from all but the most general of historical and sociological settings.

The most disappointing part of the introduction, and indeed of the entire volume, is the discussion of the theology of this part of the book of Isaiah. One looks in vain for any treatment of abiding theological themes, or of the theological structuring of the material. In fact, there is no sustained discussion anywhere of the central topic of theology-God! Instead, one finds in the introduction a lengthy discussion of the ways in which some of the theological ideas are an outgrowth of the (supposed) deuteronomistic concepts and ideas in the "post-disaster" period. In other words, it is clear that the governing principle is simply historical theology, a study of how certain rather narrowly proscribed concepts developed in a certain time frame (whose characteristics in this case are almost wholly hypothetical). Someone who looks to this discussion to discover enduring theological ideas that should be considered today will be gravely disappointed.

As has been said, this theological vacuum is the primary deficiency in the commentary section. If one wishes to find a careful and thoughtful discussion of Hebrew terms, textual issues, historical usages, probable settings, and connections with other parts of the OT, this part of the book is very helpful. It is helpful both because of the wide range of coverage Blenkinsopp gives, but also because he eschews the more radical theories that are in vogue in some circles today, whether it be in historical reconstruction, textual history, or atomization of the text.

At the same time, it is hard to escape the conclusion that for Blenkinsopp, the Bible is anything more than a historical artifact. Almost nowhere in this volume does he suggest an explanation as to why there is still a market for commentaries on this material 2700 years after it was written. That fact is, of course, that while the Bible is a historical artifact, it is much more than that. It is the Word of God, and unless it is finally looked at from that perspective, there really is no need to write 348 pages of closely reasoned argument on what only amounts to 13 pages of text. If the Bible is the Word of God, containing final truth about ultimate reality, then it deserves the most extensive and intensive study. But if so, the study must have as its ultimate goal the uncovering and exposition of that perennial truth. To study the Bible as only a relic from the past is to miss the real reason for studying it in the first place.