Context and Content in the Interpretation of Isaiah 7:14

Abstract

It is a problem common to the study of all prophetic texts how to make a legitimate appeal to the work of editors and insertionists in order to understand the meaning of a passage or section. Regarding the passage in hand, for example, Duhm proposes that verse 17 is a glossator's clumsy attempt to link Isaiah 7:1-16 with 18-25, and considers verses 18-25 to be the work of 'a collector of Isaianic fragments'. 1 Kissane, however, urges that 'the problem here is really one of inter-pretation' and further comments: 'Various critics omit 15 or 16 or 16b or 17; but the sole reason for the omission is the diffi-culty of interpretation.' 2 The matter may be put thus: it is not that the concept of the editing of a prophetic text or book is itself at fault, but that it appears not to be taken with sufficient seriousness by those who appeal most frequently to it. The 'editor' must not be made a scapegoat. Rather than treat him as one who juxta-posed two passages which seemed to him to be coherent but are easily seen by us not to be so, we should and must assume him to be an intelligent publicist of the mind and matter of his subject. And if, as seems to be the case, there is increasing readiness to allow that the prophets could and did act as their own editors, then all the more must we seek to implement the principle of the priority of exegetical considerations. It is not unrelated to our present task to pursue this principle briefly in connection with the 'Servant passages'. It is no-torious that they have suffered through detachment from their contexts, their similarity of style and content and their alleged non-relatedness to foregoing and following sections being held