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3 - The Book of Isaiah and the Neo-Babylonian Period

from Part I - The Book of Isaiah Through History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2024

By
Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer
Edited by
Christopher B. Hays
Christopher B. Hays
Affiliation:
Fuller Theological Seminary, California
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Summary

“The Book of Isaiah and the Neo-Babylonian Period” by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer investigates the “black hole” in the book that is the Babylonian Exile from three perspectives. First, it analyzes how the Book of Isaiah conceptualizes Babylon. It demonstrates how the Isaianic authors sought to underscore Babylon’s weakness and transitory existence, and aimed to assert that its demise was the result of Yhwh’s supremacy over Babylon’s own deities. Second, it challenges the dating of those texts in Isaiah that are traditionally assigned to the Neo-Babylonian period. References to Babylonian customs and religious traditions, polemic against Babylon, and support of Cyrus should not be used without reflection as dating criteria. Third, it argues that the material in Isa 40–55, traditionally assumed to have been written in Babylon because of its familiarity with Babylonian matters, rather reflects the kind of general knowledge that the people living in the shadow of the Neo-Babylonian Empire would be expected to have.

Keywords

IsaiahJerusalemJudahNeo-Babylonian Empireexilecultural memoryCyrusNabonidusOracles Against the NationsMarduk
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to the Book of Isaiah , pp. 33 - 48
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

Anthonioz, Stéphanie. “La polémique contre l’idolâtrie (Is. 40–48) à la lumière du cylindre de Cyrus.” Revue des Sciences Religieuses 84 (2010): 19–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berges, Ulrich. The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition and Final Form. Translated by Millard C. Lind. HBM 46. Sheffield: Phoenix Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Beuken, Willem A. M. Jesaja 28–39. Translated by Andrea Spans. HThKAT. Freiburg: Herder, 2010.Google Scholar
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. “Isaiah and the Neo-Babylonian Background.” Pages 159–75 in The Oxford Handbook of Isaiah. Edited by Tiemeyer, Lena-Sofia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.Google Scholar
Franke, Chris A. “The Function of the Satiric Lament over Babylon in Second Isaiah (xlvii).” VT 41 (1991): 408–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hägglund, Fredrik. Isaiah 53 in the Light of Homecoming after Exile. FAT II/31. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermisson, Hans-Jürgen. “Einheit und Komplexität Deuterojesajas: Probleme der Redaktionsgeschichte von Jes 40–55.” Pages 287–312 in The Book of Isaiah / Le livre d’Isaïe: Les oracles et leurs relectures unité et complexité de l’ouvrage. BETL 81. Edited by Vermeylen, Jacques. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Kratz, Reinhard G. Kyros im Deuterojesaja-Buch: Redaktionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu Entstehung und Theologie von Jes 40–55. FAT 1. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1991.Google Scholar
Lee, Jongkyung. A Redactional Study of the Book of Isaiah 13–23. OTRM. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poulsen, Frederik. The Black Hole in Isaiah: A Study of Exile as a Literary Theme. FAT 125. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019.Google Scholar
Stromberg, Jacob. Isaiah After Exile: The Author of Third Isaiah as Reader and Redactor. OTM. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiemeyer, Lena-Sofia. For the Comfort of Zion: The Geographical and Theological Location of Isaiah 40–55. VTSup 139. Leiden: Brill, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waerzeggers, Caroline. “Locating Contact in the Babylonian Exile: Some Reflections on Tracing Judean-Babylonian Encounters in Cuneiform Texts.” Pages 131–46 in Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity. TSAJ 160. Edited by Gabbay, Uri and Secunda, Shai. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014.Google Scholar
Williamson, H. G. M. The Book Called Isaiah: Deutero-Isaiah’s Role in Composition and Redaction. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Ian Douglas. “Yahweh’s Anointed: Cyrus, Deuteronomy’s Law of the King, and Yehudite Identity.” Pages 325–61 in Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire. ANEM 13. Edited by Silverman, Jason M. and Waerzeggers, Caroline. Atlanta, GA: SBL, 2015.Google Scholar

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