Daniel Evokes Isaiah: Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew-Aramaic Book of Daniel
Lester argues here that the book of Daniel contains a complex but poetically unified narrative. This can be identified through certain narrative qualities, including the allusion to Isaiah throughout, which uniquely contributes to the narrative arc. The narrative begins with the inauguration of foreign rule over Israel, and concludes with that rule's end. Each stage of the book's composition casts that foreign rule in terms ever-more-reminiscent of Isaiah's depiction of Assyria. That enemy is first conscripted by God to punish Israel, but then arrogates punitive authority to itself until ultimately punished in its turban and destroyed. Each apocalypse in the book of Daniel carries forward, in its own way, that allusive characterization.

Lester thus argues that an allusive poetics can be investigated as an intentional rhetorical trope in a work for which the concept of “author” is complex; that a narrative criticism can incorporate a critical understanding of composition history. The “Daniel” resulting from this inquiry depicts Daniel's 2nd-century Jewish reader not as suffering punishment for breaking covenant with God, but as enduring in covenant faithfulness the last days of the “Assyrian” arrogator's violent excesses. This narrative problematizes any simplistic narrative conceptions of biblical Israel as ceaselessly rebellious, lending a unique note to conversations about suffering and theodicy in the Hebrew Bible, and about anti-Judaic habits in Christian reading of the Hebrew Bible.

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Daniel Evokes Isaiah: Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew-Aramaic Book of Daniel
Lester argues here that the book of Daniel contains a complex but poetically unified narrative. This can be identified through certain narrative qualities, including the allusion to Isaiah throughout, which uniquely contributes to the narrative arc. The narrative begins with the inauguration of foreign rule over Israel, and concludes with that rule's end. Each stage of the book's composition casts that foreign rule in terms ever-more-reminiscent of Isaiah's depiction of Assyria. That enemy is first conscripted by God to punish Israel, but then arrogates punitive authority to itself until ultimately punished in its turban and destroyed. Each apocalypse in the book of Daniel carries forward, in its own way, that allusive characterization.

Lester thus argues that an allusive poetics can be investigated as an intentional rhetorical trope in a work for which the concept of “author” is complex; that a narrative criticism can incorporate a critical understanding of composition history. The “Daniel” resulting from this inquiry depicts Daniel's 2nd-century Jewish reader not as suffering punishment for breaking covenant with God, but as enduring in covenant faithfulness the last days of the “Assyrian” arrogator's violent excesses. This narrative problematizes any simplistic narrative conceptions of biblical Israel as ceaselessly rebellious, lending a unique note to conversations about suffering and theodicy in the Hebrew Bible, and about anti-Judaic habits in Christian reading of the Hebrew Bible.

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Daniel Evokes Isaiah: Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew-Aramaic Book of Daniel

Daniel Evokes Isaiah: Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew-Aramaic Book of Daniel

Daniel Evokes Isaiah: Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew-Aramaic Book of Daniel

Daniel Evokes Isaiah: Allusive Characterization of Foreign Rule in the Hebrew-Aramaic Book of Daniel

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Overview

Lester argues here that the book of Daniel contains a complex but poetically unified narrative. This can be identified through certain narrative qualities, including the allusion to Isaiah throughout, which uniquely contributes to the narrative arc. The narrative begins with the inauguration of foreign rule over Israel, and concludes with that rule's end. Each stage of the book's composition casts that foreign rule in terms ever-more-reminiscent of Isaiah's depiction of Assyria. That enemy is first conscripted by God to punish Israel, but then arrogates punitive authority to itself until ultimately punished in its turban and destroyed. Each apocalypse in the book of Daniel carries forward, in its own way, that allusive characterization.

Lester thus argues that an allusive poetics can be investigated as an intentional rhetorical trope in a work for which the concept of “author” is complex; that a narrative criticism can incorporate a critical understanding of composition history. The “Daniel” resulting from this inquiry depicts Daniel's 2nd-century Jewish reader not as suffering punishment for breaking covenant with God, but as enduring in covenant faithfulness the last days of the “Assyrian” arrogator's violent excesses. This narrative problematizes any simplistic narrative conceptions of biblical Israel as ceaselessly rebellious, lending a unique note to conversations about suffering and theodicy in the Hebrew Bible, and about anti-Judaic habits in Christian reading of the Hebrew Bible.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780567658579
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 10/22/2015
Series: The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies , #606
Pages: 248
Product dimensions: 6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

G. Brooke Lester is Assistant Professor in Hebrew Scriptures and Director of Digital Learning at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, USA.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Chapter 1. Daniel Evokes Isaiah
Chapter 2. Intertextuality and Allusion in Daniel
Chapter 3. Allusions to Isaiah in the Apocalypses
Chapter 4. Allusions to Isaiah int he Court Legends, with conclusions
Chapter 5. Isaiah and the Rule of the Nations
Chapter 6. Texts and Translations
Bibliography
Index

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