The Theme of Hardening in the Book of Isaiah PDF Download

Author: Torsten Uhlig
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161501432
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 448

View

Book Description
Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their hearts and turn and be healed. This call of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6 has perplexed readers of all times. Torsten Uhlig reconsiders this text and other related passages. Applying a communicative approach and engaging with recent studies on righteousness, the author presents a new interpretation of the theme of hardening in the Book of Isaiah. He argues that hardening is to be understood in the context of the communicative aspect of righteousness and elucidates the communicative acts involved in the hardening of the people. Describing the role of these passages within the communicative strategy of larger units, this monograph offers a distinctive contribution to the interpretation of the Book of Isaiah as a whole.

Author: Richard M. Blaylock
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1666752398
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 241

View

Book Description
Hardening hearts. Blinding eyes. Sending deceitful spirits. Crafting vessels of wrath. Few will deny that certain biblical passages make claims about God that are difficult to accept. But perhaps the most troubling are the verses that describe God as influencing individuals or groups towards wicked behavior for the purpose of condemning them. What are readers to do with these texts? In Vessels of Wrath, Richard M. Blaylock tackles the thorny subject of divine reprobating activity (DRA). Through an exhaustive, biblical-theological study of the Old and New Testaments, Blaylock argues that the Bible does not present DRA as an insignificant or monolithic concept; instead, the biblical authors showcase both the significance and the complexity of DRA in a variety of ways. The book aims to help readers of the Bible to wrestle with the Scriptures so that they might come to better understand its testimony to this mysterious and awesome divine activity.

Author: Sunny Kuan-Hui Wang
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
ISBN: 9783161547355
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

View

Book Description
In this book, Sunny Kuan-Hui Wang explores the relationship between sense perception and testimony in the Gospel of John. While Johannine scholars tend to focus on one or the other, she shows that sense perception and testimony are both significant and are used together with the intention of drawing readers into the narrative so that they become witnesses in an emotionally engaged way. It is argued that John's use of sense perception together with testimony is rooted in Jewish literature. Yet John also employs a Graeco-Roman rhetorical technique, enargeia , which appeals to the persuasive power of sense perception to make his narrative vivid. John does not downplay sense perception. Rather, he uses it in the context of testimony as a means of persuasion to draw the readers, in their imagination, into the experience of the first disciples and thus deeper into faith and witness.

Author: Joseph M. Spencer
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252055152
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 453

View

Book Description
A groundbreaking look at the relationship between two sacred texts The Book of Mormon’s narrative privileges Isaiah over other sources, provocatively interpreting and at times inventively reworking the biblical text. Joseph M. Spencer sees within the Book of Mormon a programmatic investigation regarding the meaning and relevance of the Book of Isaiah in a world increasingly removed from the context of the times that produced it. Working from the crossroads of reception studies and Mormon studies, Spencer investigates and clarifies the Book of Mormon’s questions about the vitality of Isaiah’s prophetic project. Spencer’s analysis focuses on the Book of Mormon’s three interactions with the prophet: the character of Abinadi; the resurrected Jesus Christ; and the nation-founding figure of Nephi. Working from the Book of Mormon as it was dictated, Spencer details its vital and overlooked place in Isaiah’s reception while recognizing the interpretation of Isaiah as an organizing force behind the Book of Mormon.

Author: John Day
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0567601889
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 481

View

Book Description
This major work re-examines prophecy and the prophets in ancient Israel, with essays ranging all the way from Israel's ancient Near Eastern background right up to the New Testament. The majority of essays concentrate on prophecy and the prophets in the Old Testament, which are approached from a remarkable number of different angles. Particular attention is paid to the following subjects: Prophecy amongst Israel's ancient Near East neighbours; female prophets in both Israel and the ancient Near East; Israelite prophecy in the light of sociological, anthropological and psychological approaches; Deuteronomy 18.9-22, the Prophets and Scripture; Elijah, Elisha and prophetic succession; the theology of Amos; Hosea and the Baal cult; the sign of Immanuel; the rewriting of Isaiah in Isaiah 28-31; Deutero-Isaiah and monotheism; Jeremiah and God; Aniconism and anthropomorphism in Ezekiel; Habakkuk's dialogue with God and the language of legal disputation; Zephaniah and the 'Book of the Twelve' hypothesis; Structure and meaning in Malachi; Prophecy and Psalmody; Prophecy in Chronicles; Prophecy in the New Testament.

Author: Stephen L. Herring
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
ISBN: 3647536121
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

View

Book Description
Divine Substitution is an investigation of ancient conceptualizations of divine presence. Specifically, this thesis investigates the possibility that the ancient Mesopotamian conceptualization of cultic and royal statues, thought to actually manifest the presence of gods and kings, can likewise be found in ancient Israel. Despite the overly pessimistic view of the later biblical authors, material objects were almost certainly believed to extend and manifest the presence of God in pre-exilic Israel (e.g., standing stones). Likewise, the later polemics against such cultic concepts demonstrate Israel's familiarity with this type of conceptualization. These polemics engaged in the rhetoric of mutilation and destruction of cultic representations, the erasure and re-inscription of divine names, and the rhetorical deconstruction of the specific Mesopotamian rituals thought to transform the dead statue into a living god. Though the biblical reflection of these concepts is more often found in the negative commentary regarding "foreign" cultic practices, S. Herring demonstrates that these opinions were not universally held. At least three biblical texts (Gen 1:26f.; Ex 34:29-34; and Ezek 36-37) portray the conceptualization that material images could manifest the divine presence in positive terms. Yet, these positive attestations were limited to a certain type of material image – humans.

Author: Carmen Joy Imes
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1646022661
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 233

View

Book Description
The Name Command (NC) is usually interpreted as a prohibition against speaking Yhwh’s name in a particular context: false oaths, wrongful pronunciation, irreverent worship, magical practices, cursing, false teaching, and the like. However, the NC lacks the contextual specification needed to support the command as speech related. Taking seriously the narrative context at Sinai and the closest lexical parallels, a different picture emerges—one animated by concrete rituals and their associated metaphorical concepts. The unique phrase ns' shm is one of several expressions arising from the conceptual metaphor, election as branding, that finds analogies in high-priest regalia as well as in various ways of claiming ownership in the Ancient Near East, such as inscribed monuments, the use of seals, and the branding of slaves. The NC presupposes that Yhwh has claimed Israel by placing Yhwh’s own name on her. In this light, the first two commands of the Decalogue reinforce the two sides of the covenant declaration: “I will be your God; you will be my people.” The first expresses the demand for exclusive worship and the second calls for proper representation. As a consequence, the NC invites a richer exploration of what it means to be a people in covenant with Yhwh—a people bearing his name among the nations. It also points to what is at stake when Israel carries that name “in vain.” The image of bearing Yhwh’s name offers a rich source for theological and ethical reflection that cannot be conveyed nonmetaphorically without distortion or loss of meaning.

Author: Craig G. Bartholomew
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802865615
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 494

View

Book Description
In Hearing the Old Testament world-class scholars discuss how contemporary Christians can better hear and appropriate God's address in the Old Testament. This volume is part of a growing interest in theological interpretation of the Old Testament. Editors Craig G. Bartholomew and David J. H. Beldman offer a coherent and carefully planned volume, a truly dialogical collaboration full of up-to-date research and innovative ideas. While sharing a desire to integrate their Old Testament scholarship with their love for God - and, thus, a commitment to listening for God's voice within the text - the contributors display a variety of methods and interpretations as they apply a Trinitarian hermeneutic to the text. The breadth, expertise, and care evidenced here make this book an ideal choice for upper-level undergraduate and seminary courses. Contributors: Craig G. Bartholomew David J. H. Beldman Mark J. Boda M. Daniel Carroll R. Stephen G. Dempster Tremper Longman III J. Clinton McCann Jr. Iain Provan Richard Schultz Aubrey Spears Heath Thomas Gordon J. Wenham Al Wolters Christopher J. H. Wright

Author: Matthew Barrett
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433555441
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 880

View

Book Description
Many factors contributed to the Protestant Reformation, but one of the most significant was the debate over the doctrine of justification by faith alone. In fact, Martin Luther argued that justification is the doctrine on which the church stands or falls. This comprehensive volume of 26 essays from a host of scholars explores the doctrine of justification from the lenses of history, the Bible, theology, and pastoral practice—revealing the enduring significance of this pillar of Protestant theology.

Author: G MCCONVILLE
Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press
ISBN: 178974038X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1542

View

Book Description
The writings of the prophets make up over a quarter of the Old Testament. But perhaps no other portion of the Old Testament is more misunderstood by readers today. For some, prophecy conjures up knotted enigmas, opaque oracles and terrifying visions of the future. For others it raises expectations of a plotted-out future to be reconstructed from disparate texts. And yet the prophets have imprinted the language of faith and imagination with some of its most sublime visions of the future - nations streaming to Zion, a lion lying with a lamb, and endlessly fruiting trees on the banks of a flowing river. We might view the prophets as stage directors for Israel's unfolding drama of redemption. Drawing inspiration from past acts in that drama and invoking fresh words from its divine author, these prophets speak a language of sinewed poetry, their words and images arresting the ear and detonating in the mind. For when Yahweh roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem, the pastures of the shepherds dry up, the crest of Carmel withers, and the prophetic word buffets those selling the needy for a pair of sandals. The Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets is the only reference book of its kind. Not only does it focus exclusively on the prophetic books; it also plumbs their imagery of mountains and wilderness, flora and fauna, temple and Zion. It maps and guides us through topics such as covenant and law, exile and deliverance, forgiveness and repentance, and the Day of the Lord. Here the nature of prophecy is searched out in its social, historical, literary and psychological dimensions as well as its synchronic spread of textual links and associations. And the formation of the prophetic books into their canonical collection, including the Book of the Twelve, is explored and weighed for its significance. Then too, contemporary approaches such as canonical criticism, conversation analysis, editorial/redaction criticism, feminist interpretation, literary approaches and rhetorical criticism are summed up and assayed. Even the afterlife of these great texts is explored in articles on the history of interpretation as well as on their impact in the New Testament.