Isaiah 56:1-8 and the Redefining of the Restoration Judean Community

Abstract

This article argues that the prophetic oracle of Isaiah 56:1-8 was intended to redefine the social boundaries of the Judean community in the early second temple period. This prophecy offers an alternative viewpoint to the nationalist and exclusionist views of Ezra and Nehemiah as to who can be a member of the Judean community. The position taken by this passage utilizes the images of the eunuch and the foreigner to reveal conflicts over land possession and the reproduction and socialization of children. It is argued that the exilic principles of community membership revolve around the issues of "purification" (in the exile) and the exclusion of outsiders who did not share this experience, and "loyalty," seen as endogamy and the reproduction and socialization of children to preserve the ethnic purity of the exilic community. The cases of the eunuch and the foreigner (convert) challenge both these principles and offer alternative principles of "loyalty" by relocating the markers of community membership into Sabbath observance and ethical behavior, social markers that do not require any ethnic purity or reproductive ability, and which ease the conversion of non-exiles into the community while allowing the community access to additional land resources.