King and Eunuch: Isaiah 56:1–8 in Light of Honorific Royal Burial Practices

To H. G. M. Williamson

I. Isaiah 56:1–8 as a Response to Pentateuchal Law?

Isaiah 56:1–8 is a divine oracle that addresses the concerns of foreigners and eunuchs. With respect to the former group, Yhwh promises that he will bring them to his sacred mountain and accept their offerings and sacrifices if they meet his obligations (vv. 6–7). To the despairing eunuch, on the other hand, Yhwh promises a “monument and a name” (יד ושם) that are superior to sons or daughters (vv. 3–5):

Let not¹ the eunuch say, “I am just a dried-up tree!” (4) For thus spoke Yhwh: “Concerning the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me, and who cling to my covenant, (5) I will give to them within my house and my walls a monument and a name [יד ושם], one that is better than sons or daughters. I will give him an everlasting name [שם עולם] that will not be cut off.”²

Often commentators identify the passage as a form of “prophetic Torah” that responds to and revises pentateuchal law.³ The new ruling is thought to lift the ban on eunuchs’ membership in the assembly in texts such as Lev 21:16–23 and especially Deut 23:2.⁴ Thus, Joachim Schaper asserts:

The Isaianic ruling flies in the face of the Deuteronomic one. As Herbert Donner has demonstrated, we have in Isa 56:1–8 the only biblical example of an abrogation in the strict sense of the word, “abrogation” being a technical term coined in Roman law that indicates the public, authoritative abolition of a law or custom.⁵

This popular approach to our text poses many problems. To begin with, the term סריס does not even occur in Deut 23:2.⁶ This is a significant lacuna, especially in light of the fact that genital mutilation could occur for religious reasons, accidentally/congenitally, or as a punitive measure.⁷ Hence, mutilated genitalia are not eo ipso a sign of a person’s status as a eunuch. What is more, the eunuchs in Isa 56:3–5 are not concerned with entrance into the community or even participation in the cult, which is at the heart of Deut 23:2.⁸ The eunuchs themselves do not enter the temple; rather, the deity grants them a monument there. What troubles this group is instead the perennial problem posed by their impotence. Their cry, “I am but a dried-up tree” (v. 3b), uses an arboreal metaphor to express their inability to sire children and produce a namesake (cf. Jer 11:19; see also Ps 1:3; Jer 17:7–8).⁹

Zion’s glorious future is the theme of this chapter (Isa 56:1, 7–8).¹⁰ In response to the anxiety of certain eunuchs that they would not be able to participate (through progeny) in this coming era, the oracle announces that those who keep Yhwh’s Sabbaths, choose what pleases the deity, and remain faithful to the divine covenant will receive an “everlasting name” that “will not be cut off” (the double entendre is obvious). The issue addressed in our text is, hence, not whether a person with mutilated genitals may enter “the assembly of Yhwh,” as in Deut 23:2. Although later readers may have interpreted Deut 23:2 in light of Isa 56:3–5, the authors of the latter likely did not have the former in view.¹¹

Yhwh’s promise to the eunuchs falls within the realm of Totenpflege (“care for the dead”). This claim is supported by the striking similarities between our text and 2 Sam 18:18, a notice about Absalom’s establishment of his own funerary stele:

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken the pillar, which is in the Valley of the King, and set it up for himself; for he said, “I have no son to keep my name alive” [הזכיר שמי]. He had named the pillar after himself, and it has been called...