B. A Political
Intervention of a Prophet
Outline of Lecture
Sources:
Read the text in Isaiah 7:1-17; also the account in 2 Kings 16 esp. v. 5
Read Ceresko and Bandstra.
For a detailed analysis, see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (AB; NY: Doubleday, 2000), pp. 227-234.
For a good article on Bible and politics, see Paul D. Hanson, “In Search for Biblically-based Political Theology,” in The Scripture and the Quest for A New Society: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual CBAP Convention (Quezon City: CBAP, 2006). See also idem, Bible and Politics: (Mis)Interpreting the Bible (Quezon City: CBAP, 2006).
Introduction:
--The historical context: the Syro-Ephraimitic War in 734 BC. Read the circumstances of this war, see Ceresko pp. 215-218. The Assyrian king, Tigalth Pileser III kept on advancing and capturing the towns of Syria-Palestine. Rezin, the king of Syria and Pekah, ruler of Samaria (=Ephraim) formed an alliance to attack Jerusalem to force the king there, Ahaz, to join their anti-Assyrian coalition. Isaiah was sent to deliver a prophetic oracle in a form of political advice.
Exegesis of the
Text:
Structure:
II. vv. 3-9 Isaiah’s mission of re-assuring Ahaz of the failure of Syro-Ephraimitic coalition
III. vv. 10-17 Isaiah gives a sign to persuade Ahaz
In conclusion, the figure is open. It is for this reason that the early Christian community, in appropriating this text in Isaiah, had identified Immanuel with Jesus and the young woman with the Virgin Mary (Mat 1:23).* This was facilitated by the LXX translation of the text in Isaiah as “he parthenos” , “the virgin” instead of “the young woman”, and perpetuated through the Vulgate translation of virgo. Here is an example of the interpretation of the book of Isaiah as shaping the self-understanding, identity, and mission of early Christian communities (Blenkinsopp, p. 234). We see more of this in Second Isaiah.
* Read how NAB explains Isaiah 7:14 in view of its Christian use:
The sign proposed by Isaiah was concerned with the preservation of Judah in the midst of distress (cf. Isaiah 7:15, 17), but more especially with the fulfillment of God's earlier promise to David (2 Sam 7:12-16) in the coming of Immanuel (meaning, "With us is God") as the ideal king (cf. Isaiah 9:5-6; 11:1-5). The Church has always followed St. Matthew in seeing the transcendent fulfillment of this verse in Christ and his Virgin Mother. The prophet need not have known the full force latent in his own words; and some Catholic writers have sought a preliminary and partial fulfillment in the conception and birth of the future King Hezekiah, whose mother, at the time Isaiah spoke, would have been a young, unmarried woman (Hebrew, almah). The Holy Spirit was preparing, however, for another Nativity which alone could fulfill the divinely given terms of Immanuel's mission, and in which the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God was to fulfill also the words of this prophecy in the integral sense intended by the divine Wisdom.
