Isaiah 14: The Birth of a Zombie Apocalypse?

Abstract

Isaiah 14, a text about the infamous fall into the netherworld of a proud celestial being, has played a key role in the history of biblical understanding. In particular, the netherworld eschatology shaped Israelite end-time beliefs, or apocalyptic eschatology. In Isaiah 14, before readers’ eyes, a transcendent archetype, the ill-fated “Shining One,” materializes on earth as an historical figure, King Sargon II of Assyria. Later, the idea of an “incarnation” of the Shining One as an earthly entity evolves as a key catalyst of a radical new religious imagination. In Ezekiel 38–39, the Shining One becomes “incarnate” as Gog of Magog, a monstrous, but real, apocalyptic “zombie.” Editors first reworked Isaiah 14 as a prophecy of Babylon’s fall and later redeployed the text to depict a final, end-time reversal of Babylon’s hubris.