The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture

by Brevard Childs

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2004

Overview

A key emphasis of Brevard Childs’ distinguished career has been to show not only that the canon of Scripture comprises both Old and New Testaments but also that the concept of “canon” includes the way the Christian church continues to wrestle in every age with the meaning of its sacred texts. In this new volume Childs uses the book of Isaiah as a case study of the church’s endeavor throughout history to understand its Scriptures.

In each chapter Childs focuses on a different Christian age, using the work of key figures to illustrate the church’s changing views of Isaiah. After looking at the Septuagint translation, Childs examines commentaries and tractates from the patristic, Reformation, and modern periods. His review shows that despite an enormous diversity in time, culture, nationality, and audience, these works nevertheless display a “family resemblance” in their theological understandings of this central Old Testament text. Childs also reveals how the church struggled to adapt to changing social and historical conditions, often by correcting or refining traditional methodologies, while at the same time maintaining a theological stance measured by faithfulness to Jesus Christ. In an important final chapter Childs draws out some implications of his work for modern debates over the role of Scripture in the life of the church.

Of great value to scholars, ministers, and students, this book will also draw general readers into the exciting theological debate currently raging in the Christian church about the faithful interpretation of Scripture.

In the Logos edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

• Presents Isaiah as a case study of the church’s endeavor throughout history to understand its Scriptures
• Explores key figures from different Christian ages to illustrate the church’s changing views of Isaiah
• Discusses the “family resemblance” found in the book of Isaiah

Contents

• The Early Reception of the Hebrew Bible: The Septuagint and the New Testament
• Justin Martyr
• Irenaeus
• Clement of Alexandria
• Origen
• Eusebius of Caesarea
• Jerome
• John Chrysostom
• Cyril of Alexandria
• Theodoret of Cyrus
• Thomas Aquinas
• Nicholas of Lyra
• Martin Luther
• John Calvin
• Seventeenth–and Eighteenth–Century Interpreters
• The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
• Postmodern Interpretation
• Hermeneutical Implications

Top Highlights

“Of greatest importance for this study has been Skarsaune’s evidence that Justin’s exegesis was shaped by the conviction of his transmitting a received apostolic tradition from his predecessors.” (Page 33)

“Rather, I have chosen to trace through the centuries the different ways in which great Christian theologians have struggled to understand the book of Isaiah as the church’s sacred scripture, that is, as a vehicle for communicating the Christian gospel.” (Page xi)

“The United Bible Society’s Greek New Testament estimates that there are more than four hundred quotations, paraphrases, or allusions to the book of Isaiah in the New Testament.” (Page 5)

“First, it is crucial to understand that for Justin, as for the authors of the New Testament, the Jewish scriptures were the sacred writings of the church.” (Page 39)

“For Chrysostom a proper use of allegory is to recognize the figurative dimension implied by the text itself” (Page 106)

Praise for the Print Edition

Childs has presented a work of great erudition, careful analysis, and remarkable clarity of expression. We owe him a debt of sincere gratitude.

—Catholic Biblical Quarterly

Probably no one but Brevard Childs could have written this lucid, fascinating, and vastly learned account of Christian hermeneutics and exegesis of Isaiah—an account best understood as a nonreductionistic ‘family history.’ Without glossing over tensions and failures, Childs shows how complex is the process of reading the Bible in faith from generation to generation in the church.

—Ellen F. Davis, professor of Bible and practical theology, Duke Divinty School

This is a magisterial volume—learned, exhaustive, accessible. Brevard Childs gets to the hermeneutical problem that is ours, in our ‘postmodern’ instincts, yet whose resolution will come only from attending carefully to the history of interpretation. It risks understatement to say that this book is a towering, timely, unparalleled contribution from a man who has single-handedly held the lantern showing us the way ahead in our difficult days, now by turning his attention to the crucial history of reception of the book of Isaiah. Brilliant and full of insight.

—Christopher Seitz, professor, Toronto School of Theology

Once again Brevard Childs has put us in his debt with a splendid and thought-provoking book that is much more than just a history of interpretation. Childs’ analytical description of how Isaiah has been handled over two millennia is both a major contribution to our understanding of the many faces of Christian hermeneutics and a timely reminder that all those who use scripture should be keenly aware of their own methods and presuppositions.

—George J. Brooke, professor of biblical studies, University of Manchester

Product Details

• Title: The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture
• Author: Brevard Childs
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2004
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 344
• Era: era:Contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Bible. O.T. Isaiah › Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History
• ISBNs: 9780802827616, 0802827616, 9780802873804, 0802873804
• Resource ID: LLS:STRGGLNDRSCRPTR
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:12:27Z

About Brevard Childs

Brevard S. Childs (1923–2007), Old Testament professor at Yale University from 1958 until he retired in 1999. Childs had a significant positive influence in biblical theology by insisting that interpreters should be Christians who view the text as Scripture and regard the final form of the canon as the norm for interpretation. However, he held to many liberal views about Scripture, denying that Moses wrote the Pentateuch and seeing elements of pagan mythology in the Bible.