Ézsaiás emlékirata

In studies on the composition of prophetic literature, the larger textual layers reinterpreting earlier texts, the so-called Fortschreibungen, received much attention. It is well-known that beside these larger literary elaborations prophetic books also contain shorter explanatory interpolations, often called glosses, which intend to clarify a particular imagery of the prophecy (e.g., Isa 9:14). A systematic reading of these short annotations has been neglected, however, in studying the formation of prophetic books. The present article reconsiders the Isaiah-Memoir from this perspective.

It is well-known that the book of Isaiah contains clarifying interpolations. Shorter phrases or even entire verses with problematic readings are of-ten identified by exegetes as loose “glosses”. However, this study suggests that editorial interpolations are not merely unrelated annotations from various periods. Typical explicatory phrases from Isa 8:2, 8:6-7a and 8:23b analysed in this study tend to expose recognisable patterns, a coherent scope and a common hermeneutical principle.

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