Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Pages: 565-586

Journal: Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

Volume number: 127

Issue number: 4

ISSN: 0044-2526

eISSN: 1613-0103

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1515/zaw-2015-0032

Publisher: De Gruyter

Abstract: 
The article poses the question, in what ways the Persians appear in Isa 40-48. In search of answers to this question, a combination of linguistic pragmatics and literary history is applied. The concept of "framing" ("contextualization") is employed to evaluate these answers considering the fact, that the Persians are hardly named in the book of Isaiah. The pragmatic approach shows that all statements about Cyrus' military and political success are embedded in the rhetorical efforts to proof YHWH's power over creation and history. This leads to a strategy of upholding Cyrus and playing him down at the same time. The discussion of the texts in the historical context of their formation brings to light the development of independent theological concepts in dealing with the Persians, which is exemplified in the comparison of the Cyrus-cylinder and the Cyrus-oracle (Isa 45,1-7).

Harvard Citation style: Schmidt, U. (2015) The Persians in the Book of Isaiah Observations on "the Persians" in Isaiah 40-48, Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 127(4), pp. 565-586. https://doi.org/10.1515/zaw-2015-0032

APA Citation style: Schmidt, U. (2015). The Persians in the Book of Isaiah Observations on "the Persians" in Isaiah 40-48. Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. 127(4), 565-586. https://doi.org/10.1515/zaw-2015-0032