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  • Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary by Shalom M. Paul
  • Christine Mitchell
ISAIAH 40–66: TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY. By Shalom M. Paul. Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Pp. xiii + 714. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. Paper, $68.00.

This commentary is the latest entry in the Eerdmans Critical Commentary series, a series that seeks “to give modern readers clear insight into the biblical text” by providing “detailed systematic explanation of the biblical text… based on the original and cognate languages,” as well as an original translation (p. i). The work is the culmination of a lifetime of study and scholarship by Shalom Paul, and it is both comprehensive in scope and detailed in execution. Paul is clear that he does not engage with all the modern scholarship on Isaiah 40–66—a wise decision, as the volume already runs to over 700 pages. Instead, he focuses on explication of the text, especially on what I would term its aesthetics: the beauty and delight of its language, style, and form. This focus makes the commentary distinctive among the plethora of Isaianic commentaries available, and thus a welcome addition.

In the introduction, Paul quickly runs through the standard material on Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah. He also considers chapters 34–35 in the redaction of the book, and concludes that chapter 35 may have served as the original introduction to Deutero-Isaiah before the prose historical chapters 36–39 were inserted (p. 5). He considers that the arguments for a Trito-Isaiah can all be refuted, and does so: he considers chapters 40–66 to be the work of a single [End Page 455] author. He acknowledges that there are some shifts in focus and theme between the beginning and end of Deutero-Isaiah, but locates the shift at chapter 49, with chapters 40–48 being set in Babylon and chapters 49–66 in Jerusalem. He attributes the shift to a move in geographical location for the historical author: the author was a Judaean living in Babylon shortly before 539 b.c.e., foreseeing the conquest by Cyrus, and this Judaean subsequently moved to Jerusalem with the restored community and prophesied to them there (pp. 6–12). In forming this position, Paul relies rather uncritically on the Cyrus Cylinder (even presenting the whole text) and the various Nabonidus texts from Babylon. He repeats the standard claim that Cyrus “followed a policy of religious tolerance” (p. 14), although recent scholarship suggests that we should be more careful when reading the cuneiform texts. Paul presents no compelling reason as to why chapters 40–48 should be situated pre-539 b.c.e.; indeed, there are many cogent arguments that can be made for it being prophecy ex eventu.

All that said, Paul’s assumptions for the historical setting of Deutero-Isaiah are not crucial for the commentary. An excellent part of his commentary is the detailed description and analysis of the many textual and thematic links between Deutero-Isaiah and other texts (including Proto-Isaiah). These are helpfully summarized in sections on: links with the patriarchal and exodus traditions; Deuteronomic influence; First Isaiah’s influence; Jeremiah’s influence; influence of other prophetic texts; Psalmic influence; and links with Lamentations (pp. 44–59). Many are presented with detailed tables showing the parallels in Hebrew. (A minor problem is that only the Hebrew is presented, meaning that a non-Hebrew reader like many of my students would have difficulty accessing these analyses; perhaps this was an editorial decision.) Similar presentations are given for the influence of “Ugaritic literature” (perhaps better, “Canaanite literature”), and Mesopotamian influence, both of which tend to be under-analyzed in other commentaries, making this section truly excellent for setting Deutero-Isaiah in its broader cultural context. Perhaps greater attention to the recent scholarship on textual production would have strengthened these analyses, showing not only the links and influence, but also the reasons for the density of allusions and influence.

In terms of the textual tradition of Isaiah, in the introduction Paul presents some examples of patterns found in the versions (e.g., substitutions of common words for rarer ones in the Qumran manuscripts; updating in the Septuagint; theologizing in the Targum), while providing for...

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