Prophetenwort und Geschichte: Die Jesajauberlieferung in Jes 6-8 und 28-31

Abstract

Prophetenwort und Geschichte: Die Jesajauberlieferung in Jes 68 und 28-31, by Jorg Barthel. FAT 19. Tibingen: Mohr-Siebeck. Pp. xiv + 522. DM 189.00. This is a historical-critical study of Isaiah 6-8 and 28-31, originally completed as a doctoral dissertation under Hans-Jurgen Hermisson. It defends the basic Isaianic composition of these chapters, distinguishes later supplementations, and attempts to reconcile diachronic and synchronic readings. It is a very traditional work of German scholarship, which, however, is very well-informed about currents in contemporary research and sets itself constantly in sometimes uneasy dialogue with them. It represents, moreover, the very best in traditional German historical-critical scholarship: warm, humane, careful, and sensitive in its reading of the text, and formidably erudite. It has occasional lapses into moralism, and betrays a certain Protestant sensibility; nonetheless, it is always acute in its discussion of poetry and in its reconstruction of the twists and turns of the prophetic message. As a very sympathetic representative of the historical-critical school, it is enlightening to those who belong to other camps and provides an opportunity for critical reflection. Most of the book consists of close readings of the relevant texts, excluding those parts the author regards as secondary (e.g., 7:18-25; 8:19-23). Each chapter is divided into text-critical, analytic, and interpretative sections; the analysis focuses on literary structure, demarcation, and stratification, while the interpretation concerns the polemical thrust and argumentation of the passages that have been thus delineated. Inevitably, there is both a certain circularity and repetitiveness in this arrangement, since the literary structure is determined in part by interpretative considerations and is the basis for them. Analytic and interpretative sections hence are closely integrated. Moreover, as the author forewarns us in his preface, the same exegeses recur throughout, ensuring a certain predictability. The book is a very clear example of how methodological presuppositions guide interpretation, as well as vice versa. Once we learn the formula, it can be applied to the most disparate material. The reading kept me interested, however, in part because of Barthel's sensitivity to detail, and in part because of his common sense and the care with which he constructs his argument. The critical pleasure is convoked perhaps by the ingenuity with which the formula appears to arise naturally from the most recalcitrant text. This is a consolatory process of rationalization and domestication; if the text of Isaiah can be rendered coherent, even at the price of splitting among different literary strata, it can serve to satisfy our own desire for reason and canonical continuity. It may, however, lose its strangeness and its irreducibility. The close readings are preceded by chapters that examine the structure of the sequences as a whole and their place within the wider literary contexts of the book of Isaiah. As Barthel suggests, these chapters may be of most interest to synchronic critics and are excellent in their treatment of the intricate macrostructures of the book. Barthel anticipates Erhard Blum in arguing that the so-called Denkschrift (Isaiah 6-8) forms the original nucleus of, rather than an insertion into, the concentric structure of Isaiah 1-12; likewise, he concurs with Marvin Sweeney that Isaiah 32 concludes the first part of the book, but proposes different, shifting endings, corresponding to different stages in composition (31:4, 32, 33, 34, 35). He has an exceedingly rich introduction on the current crisis in Isaiah research, and a no less thorough summation. There are five main conclusions: 1. The oral stage of composition is detectable, but irrecoverable, in the written text. …