Isaiah’s Visions Are Mystical
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Hi Friends —
Both Isaiah and Micah describe the vision that one day swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. We’re all familiar with it and we typically love its message that one day nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
This passage has been interpreted by academic scholars as “eschatological”—something that may happen one day, but is not happening right now. I challenge that notion in his paper. Metaphysical Bible study is a form of mystical exploration—a recognition that what played out in history continues to play out in the minds of human beings today.
It just may be that if we can comprehend the visions of Isaiah and Micah as mystical then we can have them too. And, maybe, if we try really hard, we will find pathways to peace in Ukraine, Israel and Sudan.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Mark Hicks
BS621 Short Exegetical Paper 2 - Mark Hicks
November 16, 2024
Introduction and Thesis
The pericope of Isaiah 2:2-4 is named “The Future House of God” in The New Interpreters Study Bible, and The Jewish Study Bible notes refer to it as “An eschatological poem.” One who reads these commentaries will conclude that this passage describes Isaiah’s vision of Zion in the future. Such would be expected if one limits academic study and conclusions to what is contained in the text, what can be gleaned from literary comparison and historical evidence. I acknowledge that it is likely an accurate interpretation. However, it is not the only one an academic study might uncover.
Why is it that Isaiah “saw” the word in 2:1? Why did he not “hear” the word? If this raises curiosity, why would it not be possible to translate the Hebrew הָזָח, ḥâzâ, as “a primitive root; to gaze at; mentally, to perceive, contemplate (with pleasure); specifically, to have a vision of” (my emphasis).1 Further, if one were to translate ḥâzâ as “to gaze at,” then would that not support translating the last phrase of Isaiah 2:2, “all the nations shall stream to it” (NRSV) as it is translated in the Jewish Study Bible: “all the nations shall gaze upon it with joy” (again, my emphasis)?
There is no reason this alternative translation precludes the passage from being eschatological. However, the alternative also allows the entire passage to be located in the human imagination instead of in a time and space reality. If so, we have a passage that could be construed as mystical instead of eschatological or as a new form of eschatology, as found in Christian interpretations of “realized” eschatology. Such translations also support Kabbalistic interpretations of Hebrew scripture as is found in the “The Vision of the Chariot” of Ezekiel 1.
Literary Context:
This passage follows Isaiah 1:2-20, which describes a courtroom proceeding in which the Lord accuses the people of Judah of rebellion, injustice, and unrighteous behavior. The New Interpreters Study Bible commentary for 1:2-20 says, “Underlying this suit is the notion that Jerusalem is the seat of God’s universal dominion, and thus all who are unrighteous must be expunged from its midst.” The commentary on the first verse, 1:2, says, “Because the heavens and earth served as witnesses when God’s covenant with Israel was originally made, they are called to hear the deity’s suit against the people.” This implies that the literary context is cosmic or not local. A cosmic location implies universality, a feature of mystical experience.
The judgment of the Lord follows this passage. The Jewish Study Bible for 2:5-22:
“This passage seems to be a warning regarding the future. Alternatively, it may be an attempt to explain the reason for an event that has already occurred, namely the devastating earthquake during the reign of King Uzziah early in Isaiah’s career (cf. Amos 1.1 and Zech. 14.5); or it may be both: by alluding back to the events of the earthquake, Isaiah intimates that the future punishment will be on a similar scale. The tense of the verbs in v. 17 is ambiguous; what NJPS renders as the future tense could, linguistically, be the past.”
This is another case of ambiguity, indicating academic study may question whether the passage refers to the past or the present. This also is a feature of mystical experience.
The passage is also found in Micah 4:1 but with an additional verse: “but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken” (NRSV). This additional verse is clearly inwardly oriented and filled with mystical implications.
Historical Context:
Jacobson and Chan state, “Four massive events shook Jerusalem to its core during Isaiah’s life. Many of Isaiah’s datable prophetic messages can be linked to one of these crises.”2 The reference to the “house of Jacob” in verse 2:5 indicates that Isaiah refers to an existing northern Kingdom. That suggests this passage predates the fall of Israel (the northern kingdom), and so must be concerned with the first crisis, the Syro-Epbraimite crisis (735—732 BCE).
This was a complicated crisis between Israel and Judah. According to the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, “As the times of crisis came more frequently and were more serious, the prophets took on a greater prominence in the Biblical record. Beginning in the eighth century BC, prophecies were recorded and preserved, and they sooner or later found their way into the Biblical canon.”3 Without any supporting academic study, I sense that this represents a shift in the role of a prophet from a political advisor who speaks for God to a more inwardly focused spiritual sage who comforts and/or provokes people. The shift is subtle but substantiated in this NIV remark, and it also implies that this passage by Isaiah could have mystical characteristics.
Form, Structure, Movement
Form. This passage is powerful poetic literature. The New Interpreters Study Bible commentary on verse 2:1-4 says, “Today, it is frequently cited in conjunction with international peacekeeping efforts; it is even the subject of a sculpture at the United Nations Building.”
Structure. The structure describes a process of human transformation from a war-like nature to a nature where they no longer learn war. The same passage in Micah 4:4 extends this process by adding “they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and no one shall make them afraid.” Would it not be possible that Isaiah and Micah had envisioned a humanity so transformed by mystical experience that they relinquished war?
Movement. As a poem, the passage has three stanzas:
- The Lord raises up Zion.
- All humanity finds itself gazing at its wonder and desiring to learn its instruction.
- Humanity is transformed in some (mystical?) way that causes them to no longer have need for war.
Synthesis/Conclusion
Mysticism has always been a problem for theologians. Where is the authority of mystical vision? That is a valid concern, but no one denies that such a phenomenon occurs. We simply question its authority. I want to point out that mystical phenomena can be implied and should be assumed to function in nearly all of what we read in Hebrew scripture. It is too often overlooked in our study.
My mystical interpretation of Isaiah 2:2-5 may wander away from contemporary academic boundaries. But those boundaries will falter as we proceed through post-modernism. The commentary in The Jewish Study Bible references Mishna, Talmud, and even a bit of Kabbalah. Yet, it is considered a valid academic resource in contemporary Biblical research.
Why study the Talmud when we can go directly to the source? My answer is that the rabbis have been processing these texts for much longer than the scholastics. They see things we Christians and scholars do not see.
E.P. Sanders went to the rabbis and learned from them what first-century Palestinian Jews believed and taught. He returned with more than a deeper, more accurate understanding of Judaism. He came back with a new understanding of Paul. This new understanding has profoundly challenged 500 years of Christian theology. A modern-day curriculum in Christian theology should have a significant component in Judaic studies.
Footnotes
- Strongs h2372.
- Jacobson and Chan, 428.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds commentary on Isaiah. Accessed electronically, page number unknown.
Bibliography
- Harrelson, Walter J. The New Interpreter’s Study Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003
- Jewish publication society. 2014. The Jewish Study Bible. Edited by Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. Second edition. Oxford: New York, New York : Oxford University Press.
- Keener, Craig S., and John H. Walton. 2016. NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.
- Strong, James. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Nashville: T. Nelson, 1990. Retrieved through Olive Tree Bible Study App.
