The Isaianic Denkschrift and a socio-cultural crisis in Yehud

About this book

The foundational question that provided an entry point for the present work was whether Isaiah 6:1-9:6 is, minor exceptions notwithstanding, an inherently integral, single-layer text. Some influential exegetes of the early twentieth century maintained that such indeed was the case, while their later colleagues generally discarded that view. Based on a fresh reading of the material, the present author asserts that the continuity within it extends significantly farther than was previously thought. The rich, multi-faceted coherence of the discourse presents ample grounds to reject the theory of a composite origin of the Isaianic Denkschrift. Approaching the text with the help of several socio-anthropological models, the present author outlines the pragmatic structure of the discourse. That structure, combined with the analysis of linguistic and thematic correspondences between the target text and some other Isaianic and non-Isaianic materials, allows the present author to propose a historical setting for Isaiah 6:1-9:6 that ties in with recent studies of the trajectories of development of Judaean literature in the Persian period. The present work calls for a rethinking of the literary history of Isaiah 1-39 and entails possible repercussions for the historiography of the Israelite religion.