In the latter days, the mountain of Yahweh’s house becomes the head mountain, and the nations come to it. They say “Let us ascend the mountain of Yahweh” (Isaiah 2:3). They are the great ascension offering of the nations arising in smoke to the Lord. Hence Paul: His ministry to the Gentiles is a priestly task. offering the Gentiles up in smoke to the God of Israel. Read more
In an earlier post, I noted the connection between Isaiah 1:29 and Genesis 3: As Adam became ashamed by eating the fruit and being defeated by the serpent, so Judah will become shamed by the oak trees where she worships idols, where she spreads her legs to every passing john. There’s another link with Genesis too: The oak trees are trees that are desirable, just like the tree of knowledge (Genesis 3:6). And they become trees of shame when Yahweh... Read more
“I will turn My hand against you,” Yahweh says (Isaiah 1:25). Then, “I will turn your judges as at the first” (Isaiah 1:26). Despite the difference in English translation, the Hebrew verb is the same in both verses ( shub ). Then, Zion’s “turned ones” will be redeemed with righteousness. Same verb again. Yahweh turns hand to turn judges to turn people. Turn is repentance; turn is return, restoration from exile, restoration from alienation from Yahweh. And the turn, turn,... Read more
As a consuming fire, Yahweh “eats” the bread of His sacrifices As a consuming fire, He also purges and smelts His people, burning away the dross so that the gold can become more pure and glorious. These two processes are one. In consuming His food on the altar, Yahweh is glorifying the worshiper’s substitute into smoke, and at the same time purging away the dross, left on the altar as ash. And this is why the word of the Lord... Read more
Jerusalem, Isaiah charges, is full of “murderers.” That is to say, it is like a city of refuge – the same word is used some 20 times in Number 35 to describe both the “manslayer” who finds refuge, and the murderer who is put to death. Isaiah uses the image of a city of refuge ironically. Cities of refuge were to be places of refuge from avenges; Jerusalem has become a place where violence is rampant. Cities of refuge were... Read more
Maybe better: What did he say? Mary Beard’s review of Simon Hornblower’s final volume of commentary on Thucydides, and Robert Kagan’s recent book on the same, complicates matters. Thucydides wrote in sometimes incomprehensible Greek, and some of the most memorable and historically important lines come not from Thucydides himself but from the 19th-century translation by Richard Crawley, who tended to transform Thucydides Finnegans Wake -ish prose into Jane Austen. One example: Beard writes: “Take, for example, perhaps the most favorite... Read more
Stephen Greenblatt has an interesting piece on Merchant of Venice in the latest New York Review of Books . His most important insight is the isolation of the comic moment in the play. Merchant is all about Shylock’s hatred, and in the court scene “Portia . . . has devised a test to see how much Shylock hates Antonio, and the answer is: not enough. Not enough to go ahead and plunge the knife into his enemies heart, which he... Read more
Alan Jacobs gave a brilliant lecture at NSA yesterday afternoon – beautifully written and constructed, enormously informative, exploding with insight. Everything you’d expect from Jacobs. The thrust of the lecture was an exploration of the reading habits that are encouraged by the development of the book. He started with the scroll cabinet of the ancient Jewish synagogue. Given the nature of scrolls and cabinets, the books of the Bible did not have a fixed order or sequence. Quite late in... Read more
Latvus, in the aforementioned article, interestingly notes the parallel between Gedaliah’s instructions to the people to submit to and not fear Babylon, so that “it shall be well with you” and the Deuteronomic exhortation to obey Yahweh so that it will be well (Deuteronomy 4:40; 5:16, 26; 6:3, 18; 12:25, 28; 22:7). The point is “Contrary to the main line of deuteronomistic history, in this passage it is the foreign nation, not Yahweh, which should be served.” This is evidence... Read more
In an article on 2 Kings 24-25 in The Postcolonial Biblical Reader , Kari Latvus notes tyhe two lists of deportees in 2 Kings 24:12a-14/15-17: “The writer’s interest is focused on those who are somehow connected to the royal court or have wealth or status in society based on certain professional skills. Besides these mentioned groups a large part of the nation which is left in Judah is labelled just ‘poor people of the land’ (24:14).” The second time the... Read more
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