bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Latin American Liberation Theology as a Response to Deuteronomy
Authors: Garcia Bachmann Mercedes
Published: October 2020

A conversation leading to a mutual conversion between Deuteronomy and its readers in Latin America is no more than fifty years old. Most scholars in South America—and from these, an overwhelming majority of males—have looked at certain texts in search of answers for their concerns—poverty, tithing, resident aliens, migrants, ecology, or interreligious relationships—rather than at Deuteronomy in its own right: Both Deuteronomy and Latin American biblical scholars have conversed with each other and have undergone conversion because of such conversations. That Deuteronomy has the potential to convert us does not need much explanation within churchgoers or theological people. That Latin American scholars make Deuteronomy’s conversion possible might not be self-evident. I mean it in two ways. First, in order to have a conversation, both partners must listen to each other, and such listening brings in possible changes or, at least, respect for the dialogue partner. Secondly, Deuteronomy becomes the object of multiple readings and in that sense, when read from Latin America, it becomes a different Deuteronomy, so to speak, from an African, European, queer, or any other Deuteronomy.
Ezekiel and Gender
Authors: Kalmanofsky Amy
Published: October 2020

This chapter identifies a gender instability manifest by the three major characters in Ezekiel—Israel, the prophet, and God—and shows the ways in which these characters exhibit a compromised masculinity, and the ways in which their gender identities are interconnected. Ezekiel and Israel become less male when they encounter God, the ultimate male; and God becomes less male when encountering sinful Israel. Recognizing gender instability in Ezekiel provides insight into Ezekiel’s gender rhetoric, and the ways in which the text privileges masculinity. Maleness is the preferred gender identity for God, the prophet, and Israel. Compromised masculinity and femaleness indicate weakness—and perhaps ironically, they function together to protect and privilege masculinity. Perceiving gender instability also reveals the ways in which gender is not fixed, but fluid. Gender identity is relational in Ezekiel. God, the prophet, and Israel are in a dynamic relationship with one another that impacts their gender identity.
Embodiment in Ezekiel
Authors: Graybill Rhiannon
Published: October 2020

This chapter shows how embodiment plays an important role in constructing meaning in the book of Ezekiel. The text contains a number of bodies, including human bodies (Ezekiel, the people of Judah), supernatural or divine bodies (Yahweh, the cherubim, various divine messengers), metaphorical bodies (the female bodies in Ezekiel 16 and 23), foreign bodies (various foreign nations), and animate “dry bones” in Ezekiel 37. The body is central to the practice of prophecy in the book. It is likewise fundamental to performances of gender and to the negotiation of the relationship between Yahweh and the people, including Ezekiel himself. Focusing on the body also highlights the significance of masculinity in the text, as well as its instability.
The Developing Brain in Down Syndrome
Authors: Lee Nancy Raitano , Udhnani Manisha D. , Hamner Taralee
Published: October 2020

Research on the developing brain in persons with Down syndrome has grown in recent years thanks to advances in neuroimaging approaches that are safe for pediatric populations. This literature documents global reductions in total brain volume as well as specific alterations in both cortical and subcortical structures. These include reductions in hippocampal and cerebellar volumes (that are in excess of reduced total brain volume) as well as abnormalities in frontal and temporal lobe anatomy. Recent neuroimaging research has highlighted the importance of using fine-grained approaches to characterizing cortical and subcortical anatomy in persons with Down syndrome as well as interpreting these findings within the context of research on typical brain development. In the current review, we attempt to synthesize this literature from a developmental perspective. Our hope is that this developmental focus will lead to discoveries about the biological underpinnings and unfolding of the learning difficulties associated with Down syndrome.
Social-Emotional Competence in Down Syndrome
Authors: Dimachkie Amanda , Kasari Connie L.
Published: October 2020

This chapter aims to synthesize historical and contemporary literature to provide an overarching understanding of social-emotional competence in individuals with Down syndrome, where social-emotional competence refers to the skills necessary to allow for successful social relationships, as well as the ability to regulate the experience and expression of emotions. Using the framework of Rose-Krasnor’s prism model, this chapter addresses each of the four components that underlie the development of social-emotional competence: self-regulation, social awareness, prosocial orientation, and social problem-solving. The development of each of these components is described for individuals with Down syndrome, and a description of the typical developmental trajectory is given for reference. The short-term and long-term implications of each component are also discussed, as they relate to the individual’s overall social-emotional competence. This overview aims to highlight what is known regarding social-emotional competence in individuals with Down syndrome, as well as to identify areas in which knowledge is lacking.
Jesus in the Book of Revelation
Authors: Johns Loren L.
Published: October 2020

The portrayal of Jesus as an executed lamb is both pervasive and central to the book of Revelation. This chapter presents the book’s high Christology as distinctive in the New Testament. Understanding the rhetorical force of the lamb in the Apocalypse is crucial to understanding the book as a whole, particularly images of violence elsewhere in the book, which are in any case muted and transformed. Apparent ambiguities and inconsistencies are partially resolved if the lamb Christology serves as the primary lens through which to interpret the rest of the narrative. Revelation’s anti-imperial Christology is designed to inform and empower the Asian believers’ own faithful witness in the form of consistent nonviolent resistance to local pressures in Asia to participate in the emperor cult. Instead, believers in Asia are to conquer by worshiping God alone, and the lamb.
The Spirit in the Book of Revelation
Authors: Thomas John Christopher
Published: October 2020

This piece offers a review and assessment of scholarly trends in the study of the role of the Spirit in the book of Revelation focusing on five major sections. The identity of “the seven Spirits” of God as either angelic beings or the singular Spirit of God is explored. The phrase “I was in the Spirit” is examined as a literary structural marker and as a description of John’s experience of the Spirit, which has been explained as an ecstatic or trance like state, as spirit possession, as denoting a prophetic revelatory experience, and/or as indicating a context of worship. The “in the Spirit” phrase is also explored in relationship to John’s activity of writing “in the Spirit” to determine if such writing should to be understood as a literary fiction or as an actual expression of the church’s spiritual experience. An examination of “the Spirit of Prophecy” explores the issue via the identification of the book’s literary genre and its relationship to: the witness or testimony of Jesus, the phenomenon of prophecy in the church, pneumatic witness, and pneumatic discernment. A final section focuses upon the way in which Jesus and the Spirit are both interconnected and distinct characters within the book.
Perspectives on Evil in the Book of Revelation
Authors: Stevenson Gregory
Published: October 2020

This chapter argues that the concept of evil in the book of Revelation is defined in terms of opposition to the kingdom of God and is, therefore, closely tied to the book’s social situation. Some scholars argue that the oppression of faithful Christians by Rome is the underlying context; this has led to a view that evil is primarily external to the church. Other scholars argue that compromise and accommodation with Roman culture is the underlying context, which has led to a view that evil is both internal and external to the church, but it does not involve overt oppression. This chapter suggests that Revelation addresses both the oppressed and the compromised through the use of a warfare metaphor. Revelation posits that victory over evil occurs through faithful witness, both of Christ and of his followers, and the faithfulness of God to his creation.
The People of God in the Book of Revelation
Authors: Perry Peter S.
Published: October 2020

This chapter analyzes how John describes and transforms the people of God as audiences, assemblies, slaves of God, saints, those who are clothed in white, and witnesses. John moves them from being audiences of a reader to audiences in the divine court, where they are transformed from ignorance to knowledge of Rome’s violence and idolatrous economy. As assemblies, they receive messages from their true ruler asking them to deliberate on disengaging from the imperial economy and becoming an alternate society. As slaves of God, they are freed to publicly identify as God’s people, protected for service, and separate from those who serve the empire. As saints, God gives new status to the people of God and they move from passivity to activity on behalf of others who suffer at the hands of imperial consumption. As those who are metaphorically clothed in white, they exchange literal luxury for status in God’s court. As witnesses, they are moved to speak the truth about the One-Who-Sits-on-the-Throne and expose the lies that deceive people to participate in the imperial economy.
The Greek Text of Revelation
Authors: Hernández Juan
Published: October 2020

This chapter offers a comprehensive assessment of the most significant developments related to the reconstruction of the Greek text of Revelation and its textual history. The various installments of Revelation’s reconstructed Greek text, as well as the multiple material, methodological, and theoretical advances that facilitated its reconstruction over the last five hundred years, are explored in detail. Major trends, major players, and seminal discoveries related to the manuscript tradition and use—from the Textus Receptus of the sixteenth century to the Text und Textwert study of the twenty-first—are carefully examined and explained for both the lay reader and specialist. The chapter also offers the most up-to-date treatment of the historical development, use, and disuse of text type/text form categories to define Revelation’s manuscript tradition and reconstruct its Greek text and textual history.”
Forms of Futuristic Interpretation of Revelation in the Modern Period
Authors: Searle Joshua T. , Newport Kenneth G. C.
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines futuristic interpretations of Revelation in the modern period, highlighting how specific interpretations have had a real-world impact on society and geopolitics. It begins with an overview of the diverse cultural applications of futuristic readings of Revelation to the modern world, and then the focus shifts to an examination of how apocalyptic rhetoric confers meaning and coherence on the world in the minds of futuristic interpreters. This is followed by a discussion of the origins of premillennial dispensationalism and its role in shaping American foreign policy toward the Middle East. The chapter concludes with an assessment of whether futurism will retain its influence further into the twenty-first century and beyond.
Interpreting Revelation through African American Cultural Studies
Authors: Slater Thomas B.
Published: October 2020

African American scholarship on Revelation makes fruitful use of cultural studies as a discipline. This approach draws on the field of sociology, social history, literature, anthropology, linguistics, and other cultural markers. As a method for biblical interpretation it values both the ancient context and the current cultural contexts of readers, and is open to multiple interpretations. This essay considers the various ways Revelation has functioned in African American congregations, the impact of Liberation theology, womanist and postcolonial perspectives, and the notion that Revelation is subversive or resistance literature. Attention is given to similarities and differences between African American scholars concerning Revelation’s political perspective, its approach to identity construction, and the way in which the book might engage current readers.
Post-Colonial Interpretation of the Book of Revelation
Authors: Maier Harry O.
Published: October 2020

After a providing a general orientation to the post-colonial interpretation of the book of Revelation, this chapter treats the term post-colonial as a chronological and hermeneutical description. The chapter defines the terms postmillennialism and premillennialism, and then uses them to describe the uses of Revelation to celebrate the reach of imperial dominion in the Constantinian era, to chart the uses of the Apocalypse in interpreting the discovery and settlement of America, and its deployment by Indigenous peoples in the South Pacific and North America to resist colonization. It identifies uses of imperial language in the book of Revelation and describes the book’s relationship to the Roman Empire as one of entanglement rather than opposition. This leads to an exploration of Revelation using the post-colonial hermeneutical concepts of catachresis, mimicry, and hybridity. The Apocalypse reflects a hybrid Roman colonial location that imitates imperial discourse in paradoxical ways to promote political resistance and to exhort its audience to faithfulness.
Reports From the Field: The Multiple Affordances of Social Media for Classical Music Composers
Authors: Partti Heidi
Published: October 2020

This field report examines what opportunities or affordances social media provides for the professional development of classical music composers. While social media offers significant prospects for artists to find and connect with audiences more directly and instantaneously than ever before, engaging with changes fueled by transformations in the music industry requires both the openness and ability to systematically acquire new competencies. Based on an ongoing qualitative study of multiple cases conducted with the participation of Finnish professional composers in the field of contemporary art music, this report shows how the composers’ relationship with the use of social media varies from enthusiastic efforts, on the one hand, to the utmost reluctance, on the other. The composers generate web content for various professional and personal purposes, ranging from marketing to networking and advocacy. The report also provides an example of the Lentoon! project, which offers vital opportunities for music professionals to learn how to use social media to one’s benefit. Finally, the report suggests that while music education stakeholders have a responsibility to equip music graduates with the professional capacity to build and maintain sustainable careers online and offline in a rapidly changing world, stakeholders should also critically examine the possibilities, limits, and power structures of social media.
Feminist Cyber-Artivism, Musicing, and Music Teaching and Learning
Authors: Silverman Marissa
Published: October 2020

This chapter asks an important, yet seemingly illusive, question: In what ways does the internet provide (or not) activist—or, for present purposes “artivist”—opportunities and engagements for musicing, music sharing, and music teaching and learning? According to Asante (2008), an “artivist (artist + activist) uses her artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression—by any medium necessary. The artivist merges commitment to freedom and justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body, and the imagination. The artivist knows that to make an observation is to have an obligation” (p. 6). Given this view, can (and should) social media be a means to achieve artivism through online musicing and music sharing, and, therefore, music teaching and learning? Taking a feminist perspective, this chapter interrogates the nature of cyber musical artivism as a potential means to a necessary end: positive transformation. In what ways can social media be a conduit (or hindrance) for cyber musical artivism? What might musicing and music sharing gain (or lose) from engaging with online artivist practices? In addition to a philosophical investigation, this chapter will examine select case studies of online artivist music making and music sharing communities with the above concerns in mind, specifically as they relate to music education.
Musical (Dis)Empowerment in the Digital Age?
Authors: Thorgersen Ketil
Published: October 2020

Can the use of social media help music education empower students? This chapter takes a critical view of common myths regarding social media and discusses their implications for music education. The chapter argues that great caution should be taken in formal music education to avoid paying for access to this technology with students’ privacy. In an age where everyone with a smartphone who does not take precautions is monitored 24/7 by app makers and makers of operating systems, it is important that music education takes an ethical stand regarding how such tools should be used. The chapter ends on a hopeful tone, recommending that we employ the Swedish concept of lagom to make wise choices in the matter and let students learn and share while, at the same time, be empowered by technology.
Fanception and Musical Fan Activity on YouTube
Authors: Cayari Christopher
Published: October 2020

Everyone is a fan of something, whether it be musicians, sports teams, popular culture icons, or social media stars. This chapter adapts a concept from a blockbuster movie called Inception to develop the theory of fanception, a phenomenon in which a person develops their own fandom within an already established group of fans. It provides examples of how fans’ musical user-generated content on the popular video streaming site YouTube contribute to musical learning and virtual communities. YouTube has provided a site for people to create musical Harry Potter puppet shows, one-person a cappella homages to popular commercial artists, and massive virtual choirs organized by contemporary composers. By understanding the practices within fandoms that affect the way people create content through social media, educators may be able to develop curricula and projects that help students create within the classroom, thus equipping them with the skills to be lifelong music makers and content creators.
“Tradition,” Vernacularism, and Learning to Be a Folk Musician With Social Media
Authors: Keegan-Phipps Simon , Wright Lucy
Published: October 2020

This chapter considers the role of social media (broadly conceived) in the learning experiences of folk musicians in the Anglophone West. The chapter draws on the findings of the Digital Folk project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), and begins by summarizing and problematizing the nature of learning as a concept in the folk music context. It briefly explicates the instructive, appropriative, and locative impacts of digital media for folk music learning before exploring in detail two case studies of folk-oriented social media: (1) the phenomenon of abc notation as a transmissive media and (2) the Mudcat Café website as an example of the folk-oriented discussion forum. These case studies are shown to exemplify and illuminate the constructs of traditional transmission and vernacularism as significant influences on the social shaping and deployment of folk-related media technologies. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the need to understand the musical learning process as a culturally performative act and to recognize online learning mechanisms as sites for the (re)negotiation of musical, cultural, local, and personal identities.
Ethnomusicology, Music Education, and the Power and Limitations of Social Media
Authors: Hebert David G. , Williams Sean
Published: October 2020

This chapter looks at the field of ethnomusicology and its unique contributions to music education, with specific attention to how both fields are impacted by social media. It explores relationships between them and demonstrates both how social media have transformed musical experience and the ways that “glocalization” theory helps shed light on the diverse impacts of social media on music production and consumption. In addition, the chapter explores how the popularization of social media has changed notions of ethnomusicological fieldwork, access to music for teaching and learning, and popular representations of musical knowledge and performance.
New Materiality and Young People’s Connectedness Across Online and Offline Life Spaces
Authors: O’Neill Susan
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines new materiality perspectives to explore the influence of social media on young people’s music learning lives—their sense of identity, community and connection as they engage in and through music across online and offline life spaces. The aim is to provide an interface between activity, materiality, networks, human agency, and the construction of identities within the social media contexts that render young people’s music learning experiences meaningful. The chapter also emphasizes what nomadic pedagogy looks like at a time of transcultural cosmopolitanism and the positioning of youth-as-musical-resources who “make up” new musical opportunities collaboratively with people/materials/time/space. This involves moving beyond the notion of music learning as an educational outcome to embrace, instead, a nomadic pedagogical framework that values and supports the process of young people deciphering and making meaningful connections with the world around them. It is hoped that implications stemming from this discussion will provide insights for researchers, educators, and policymakers with interests in innovative pedagogical approaches and the creation of new learning and digital cultures in music education.
Learning From Japanese Vocaloid Hatsune Miku
Authors: Thibeault Matthew D. , Matsunobu Koji
Published: October 2020

This chapter explores the educational importance of Hatsune Miku, a Japanese Vocaloid, or singing vocal android, whose name translates as “first sound from the future.” Drawing on a theoretical framework from sound studies, we characterize Vocaloids such as Miku as a medium for musical development and experience in which people, practices, institutions, and technologies create recurrent patterns of social interaction from which the recognizable medium of “Miku” emerges. A vignette from one of the author’s experiences creating with Miku leads to an exploration of educational issues within Miku. Also examined are recent efforts by Yamaha to introduce Vocaloid to schools. The discussion explores continuing challenges and issues for the profession going forward, including speculation on potential challenges and outstanding issues.
Children’s Musical Play in a Digital Era
Authors: Veblen Kari K. , Kruse Nathan B.
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines the vibrant communities of practice found in online children’s musical play. Many of the children who play, share, and post their musical traditions through social media came into this world after YouTube was introduced in 2005. Children’s clapping games serve as an example of traditional transmission, although this research may not be fully generalizable to other instances of enduring cultural practices or vernacular genres. In this chapter we consider these matters of ethics in online research and the nature of participatory cultures as well as expressive play in childhood. Following this, we survey current research in music learning through YouTube and online children’s clapping games to explore the question of what remains and what changes when such games are shared through social media.
Resonating Bodies Online: Social Justice, Social Media, and Music Learning
Authors: Abramo Joseph Michael
Published: October 2020

This chapter examines issues surrounding social justice in social media and music making. The first part of the chapter frames social media as holding the potential to enact democratic practice. Using the work of Jean-Luc Nancy’s concept of “listening” and Peter Szendy’s concept of “arrangement,” the author explores how viral videos and their user-generated covers might be a form of communication and sharing of ideas. This is investigated particularly through the different iterations of the 2012 hit song and video “Call Me Maybe” and the ways users created and circulated parodies. The second part of the chapter undoes this sanguine reading of democracy through social media. It does this, first, by exploring how market forces of profit seeking work to intervene in this process. Through this exploration, the author notes how market forces form the desires and subjectivity of users so that practices that feel like expression of desires are urged on by market forces for the benefit of the market. Then, the chapter looks at how viral videos are constrained by identity politics, and it explores this through covers of Beyoncé’s “Formation,” particularly what happens when this song and video—which is an articulation of black feminist identity—were (mis)appropriated and covered by a white male. Finally, the author addresses the implications for music learning both in and out of school by borrowing from media literacy to develop what he deems “musical social media literacy.”
Nurturing Vulnerability to Develop Pedagogical Change Through MOOC Participation and Public Blogging
Authors: Humberstone James , Zhao Catherine , Liu Danny
Published: October 2020

Despite several decades of ground-breaking achievements in music education research and practice, the discipline’s status continues to stagnate, especially among our children and our governments. To address this stagnation, in 2016 the University of Sydney launched an internationally available Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled “The Place of Music in 21st-Century Education.” The intent of offering this course was to provoke critical thinking among music educators in order to break the cultural cycle that centers curricular music education around teachers’ (most likely Western art music) experience, and ask them to grapple with social and technological changes in education more broadly. To address concerns with authenticity in learning and the MOOC model, the MOOC integrated social media use into every main assessment. Participants—over 1,600 educators, students, artists, and the general public—were asked to publicly blog their responses to provocations on these topics and then to read each other’s posts and respond. In this study, we analyze funneled (Clow, 2013) data from the blogs and MOOC interactions. We find evidence for critical thinking and worldview transformation from a number of participants, and conclude that the experience of engaging publicly via social media engendered a vulnerability that may have made those new to the field and experienced professionals alike more open to change. The blogging-feedback loop prompted the formation of a social structure reminiscent of a community of practice or affinity space.
Creativity and Commerce in Social Media, Digital Technology, and Music Education
Authors: Lines David
Published: October 2020

Digital music and social media technologies continue to be embraced with a positive sense of optimism in music education, and a broad range of technological and pedagogical innovations and insights have been celebrated and affirmed in the research literature. Despite this, there has been relatively less scholarly discussion on the broader contextual aspects of music and social media technologies, especially within commercial contexts of contemporary education and corporate technology production and consumption. This chapter suggests that a materialist perspective of digital technology and social media is important for raising a greater awareness of the different commercial, cultural, and other dimensions that converge in music and music education. It is suggested that global technologies in education can be questioned through Appadurai’s notion of scapes, and that creative directions in digital technology can be conceptualized through Deleuze and Guattari’s image of the rhizome. These concepts are important for music educators as they become attuned to, and more discerning of, the economic forces that impact on their work with students and as they suggest creative practices that have transformative value for their students.
Reflections From the Field of Communications and Anthropology
Authors: Lange Patricia G.
Published: October 2020

In his chapter, Christopher Cayari draws on the basic premise of the film Inception to coin the term fanception. In fanception, nested forms of fandoms may plant new ideas into the processes of music learning in unexpected ways and places—such as musical fan videos on YouTube. This response to Cayari explores what fanception as an analytical construct might mean for the role of educators and the future of music learning. This term helps contextualize the role of mixed platforms such as YouTube for connecting musicians and video makers of varied levels of ability to broaden their skills and expand their creative horizons. This chapter response discusses how fanception might extend opportunities for informal learning through video.
Creating Multiple Sites of Engagement for Music Learning
Authors: Savage Jonathan
Published: October 2020

Music education exists in multiple spaces. Within formal approaches to music education in academic institutions, there has been an acknowledgment that more informal pedagogical approaches can be useful (as evidenced in the work of movements such as Musical Futures). However, constructive links between formal and informal contexts for music education remain difficult to navigate for many teachers. Within the United Kingdom, the newly defined roles for music education hubs have made some headway in recasting these relationships in a more productive direction. Similarly, social media has an important role to play in developing new relationships between key agencies within music education. Like any specific technology, there are positive affordances and more negative limitations to such approaches. People have a complex relationship with technology, but they are not gadgets! Lanier’s (2010) thesis argues strongly that recent cultural developments can deaden personal interaction, stifle genuine inventiveness, and change people. Within an educational setting, careful consideration needs to be given to the affordances and limitations of social media. For teachers and designers of learning spaces and opportunities, pedagogy should be underpinned by careful, mindful choices—including wise choices about the tools that teachers and students are using. It is about a focus on the core, asking: What is the key learning that this music lesson is facilitating? Is this tool the best one for the job? Does this tool or approach allow one to teach music musically? Done skillfully and conscientiously, social media can help develop collaborative approaches to music education that provide teachers with pedagogical strength and security. They result in mindful teaching and mindful learning that will last a lifetime. They can also help teachers develop meaningful relationships with students that help them make sense of their musical experiences in whatever context they have emerged through: a truly, “joined-up” approach to music education with the student at the core.
Davidic Kingship in Isaiah
Authors: Williamson H. G. M.
Published: October 2020

The right of the Davidic dynasty to rule in Jerusalem was assumed by the eighth-century prophet Isaiah. In his own writings, however, he urged that this was not just a position of privilege but a platform from which to uphold social justice in his kingdom. Though later parts of the book transfer the royal status to the community of those who survived the destruction of the kingdom, the role envisaged remains essentially the same, albeit played out now on a universal scale. It is this continuity of role rather than of position that both unites the various parts of the book in relation to Davidic kingship and opens the way to its messianic application.
Exile in the Book of Isaiah
Authors: Rom-Shiloni Dalit
Published: October 2020

This chapter recognizes that exile in Isaiah remains one of the great riddles of this prophetic collection. Although the book, in its various units and as a whole, “lived through” experiences of deportation and return, it leaves readers with only fragmentary information about one of the most influential phenomena of imperial policy to affect Israel, Judah, and the entire ancient Near East of the first millennium bce. The chapter brings together all the information we have on exile and possible exilic setting(s) in Isaiah, and discusses exile through two of its components—deportation and return. Each component is discussed under seven headings. This mapping of exile leads to additional discussion of the exilic setting(s), that is, the geography and sociology, of Isa 40–66, and of the use of metaphors of exile and of exile as metaphor.
The Servant(s) in Isaiah
Authors: Berges Ulrich
Published: October 2020

Both the theology and the history of the “servant” motif in the book of Isaiah must be assessed within the framework of a paradigm that integrates synchronic and diachronic perspectives in order to understand the prophetic book as a composition. Different from older theories about the so-called Servant Songs, the servant poems should not be excluded from their surroundings in Isa 40–54 but prove—notwithstanding their special character—to be interwoven elaborately and in a meaningful way with their contexts. As a consequence, the literary individual of the servant is to be identified with a social collective. The last part of the book of Isaiah (Isa 55–66) witnesses yet another transformation of the servant motif. From Isa 54:17b on, the servants (plural) increasingly take shape as the tested, Yhwh-abiding part of Israel that can be sure of Yhwh’s protection and salvation.
The Book of Isaiah: Its Composition History
Authors: Becker Uwe
Published: October 2020

This chapter discusses the complex literary growth (Redaktionsgeschichte) that lies behind Isa 1–66, with special focus on history of research. The most important contribution can be attributed to Bernhard Duhm, who proposed the three-part division of Isaiah into Proto-Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah, and Trito-Isaiah. He had several forerunners in the eighteenth century. The great success of the idea of a tripartite authorship stems from Duhm’s conception of the prophet—the prophet was a rhetorical and religious genius. The second part of the chapter deals with the “Rediscovery of the Essential Unity of the Book.” One can speak of a paradigm shift, when the person of the prophet has been replaced by an interest in the book as a literary. There are two basic models for understanding the origin of the book. In the first model, Isa 1–39 and 40–55 are traced back to two, initially independently transmitted, literary works. According to the second model, Isa 40–55 is a literary continuation of Isa 1–39, making it necessary to dismiss the notion of an autonomous Deutero-Isaiah. Two conclusions can be drawn from the history of research: (a) the person of the prophet can no longer serve as an appropriate point of departure for analysis, and (b) redaction-critical analysis of Isa 1–39 must always proceed with attention to the whole book of Isaiah.
Eschatology in Isaiah
Authors: Kim Soo J.
Published: October 2020

This chapter presupposes that the eschatological language of the book of Isaiah is a working rhetorical device for expressing something else underneath it rather than a straightforward description of one’s visionary experience of the afterlife or the end series of this world. Accordingly, it addresses the eschatologically addressed rhetorical discourses in Isaiah. Using adjectival consultation to define “eschatologically,” it argues that the language of these eschatological texts is strong enough to be universal (spatial fullness), ultimate (temporal fullness), and radical (fullness in degree). This strategy aims to rationalize the national crises, as well as to encourage readers to practice proper ethics during those critical and liminal periods. The book of Isaiah illustrates several dystopias and utopias in the eschatologically addressed discourses with the two fixed points—Jerusalem and the Remnants—to serve as witnesses through the ages. Overall, these discourses seek to reassure readers of all ages to understand the divine transformation plan and to join the Torah-based community on Mount Zion for the eternal hope in this world.
The Poetic Structures in Isaiah
Authors: Couey J. Blake
Published: October 2020

Because the book of Isaiah consists largely of poetry, understanding its poetic structures is essential for interpretation. The basic poetic unit is the line. Although single lines occur occasionally, most lines are grouped into couplets or triplets by parallelism or enjambment; these couplets or triplets are then connected to form whole poems. Structural devices at every level involve both repetition and variation. Most of the poems in Isaiah are loosely organized by a variety of devices, and no two poems are exactly alike. Large sections of the book are joined by similar kinds of devices, so that the book as a whole displays a poetic structure.
Use of Metaphors
Authors: Eidevall Göran
Published: October 2020

This chapter reviews major trends and trajectories within previous research on metaphors in Isaiah, including rhetorical, structuralist, redaction-critical, ideological, and feminist approaches. In addition, it surveys recurring types of imagery that inform this prophetic book’s perspective on the relationship between Yhwh and his people. Various images of empires are discussed as examples of propagandistic rhetoric. Some metaphors are analyzed in more detail. It is thus demonstrated that the conceptual metaphor “people are plants,” with its emphasis on the transience of human existence, pervades the book of Isaiah. Among metaphors used about Yhwh, special attention is paid to “God is a parent.” The concluding section discusses the various feminine roles ascribed to personified Zion in several passages in chapters 40–66: daughter, wife, and mother.
Isaiah in Latin
Authors: Laato Anni Maria
Published: October 2020

The book of Isaiah has been used and studied in the West, mainly in Latin translations, for over a thousand years, and by many of the most important theologians there. The importance of these translations for Christian theology and praxis cannot, therefore, be overestimated. This essay gives an overview on the transmission of Isaiah in Latin textual traditions. It presents translations of Isaiah in ancient Latin versions, Vetus Latina, and Vulgate, and then discusses how these translations were used in the early church and early Middle Ages. Some important topics, such as the person of Isaiah, Messianic promises and Christology, ecclesiology and the polemics against the Jews, pilgrimage, and liturgy, are presented as examples of how the Latin translations of Isaiah were used in the West.
Isaiah in the New Testament
Authors: Moyise Steve
Published: October 2020

After the Psalms, Isaiah is the most quoted book in the New Testament and underlies many of its key themes. Jesus used the book of Isaiah to explain why he was being misunderstood and opposed, even though he was fulfilling Isaiah vision of the blind receiving sight and the poor hearing good news. Paul used it to show that God always intended to include Gentiles in the promised salvation, and the author of Revelation derived much of his imagery of the New Jerusalem from it. The occurrence of quotations from Isaiah at key points in Luke-Acts has persuaded many that Isaiah’s vision of new exodus/new creation inspired the early Christians to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. With good reason, the book of Isaiah has been called the “Fifth Gospel.”
Canonical Reading of Isaiah
Authors: Goldingay John
Published: October 2020

The chapter first reviews the background of renewed interest in the Isaiah scroll in the form in which it appears in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. Second, it considers canonical readings within the Isaiah Scroll itself, which involve later parts of the scroll taking up earlier prophecies that appear within the scroll such as Isa 6, and also prophecies from elsewhere such as Hos 1–2. Third, it reflects on the canonical reading of the scroll, the view that the scroll itself has a canonical form, and sets alongside that view the understanding that the scroll is purposefully organized but that a canonical reading of it takes up this form rather than underlying it. Fourth, it considers canonical readings of and from the scroll, notably, within the New Testament, and the implications of the idea that the scroll became a canonical text.
Postcolonial Readings of Isaiah
Authors: Brett Mark G.
Published: October 2020

Postcolonial interpretations of Isaiah consider the complex interactions between imperial imposition, emulation, and resistance, attending particularly to expressions of cultural hybridity. The focus falls not just on anti-imperial impulses, such as the assertion of a national Judean identity, or proclamations of judgment against the empires of Assyria and Babylon, but also on the intercultural dynamics that reflect the tides of empire. Several of Isaiah’s texts mimic imperial administration in order to claim jurisdiction for Yhwh’s torah—not only within a limited national territory but also across the many nations of the empire. Isaiah’s vision of peaceable rule interacts with some distinctive features of Iranian royal ideology, including the symbolism of royal parklands. Isaiah’s Eden theology shows awareness of the Persian paradises and draws on this motif in proclaiming the rule of God in a this-worldly eschatology. Identifying King Cyrus as a messiah might well have sacrificed messianic hopes, but this is only an apparent concession to the ruling powers. While the gōlāh-oriented vision of Ezra laid claim to Persian authority, Isa 49–55 opposes this vision and envisages a reconciliation of Returnees and Remainees within Yhwh’s own empire.
Interpretive Context Matters: Isaiah and the African Context in African Study Bibles
Authors: Holter Knut
Published: October 2020

The chapter analyzes three examples of the genre Study Bible in Africa, discussing how they express African contextual concerns in their respective interpretations of Isaiah. The three include a Roman Catholic one (characterized by Catholic inculturation theology), a mainstream Protestant one (characterized by conservative evangelical theology), and a Pentecostal one (characterized by concepts of prosperity gospel and spiritual warfare). Three conclusions are reached. First, that the genre should attend more to definitions of context, not only cultural but also denominational and ideological aspects. Second, the purpose of the comparison of ancient text and contemporary, interpretive context should be clarified. And third, as far as content is concerned, readers of a Study Bible should expect to find information about literary and historical questions.
Isaiah 56–66
Authors: Schüle Andreas
Published: October 2020

This chapter discusses the redaction history and theological message of Isa 56–66 (Third Isaiah). It makes a case for essentially two core compositions that each contains a theologically consistent message of prophetic criticism and future promise. The first composition—comprising Isa 58:1–59:21 (prophetic criticism) and Isa 60:1–62:12 (messianic age)—depicts the salvation that the people of Israel may obtain if they heed God’s voice. In many ways this is reminiscent of the prophetic criticism that one finds in the Book of the Twelve (Amos and Hosea in particular). Likewise, the second core composition—comprising Isa 63:7–64:11 (self-accusation) and Isa 65:1–25; 66:1–24 (new heaven and earth)—promises salvation to those who remain faithful to God’s commands.
The Executive Branch in Israel
Authors: Kenig Ofer
Published: October 2020

As in other parliamentary democracies, the Israeli government is dependent on the confidence of parliament. Israel is a country with a diverse society, divided by multidimensional political issues and using a proportional representation electoral system. It is therefore not surprising to find a multiparty system with a highly fragmented parliament. This setting produces the central institutional feature of its executive branch: coalition politics. This chapter outlines the process of cabinet formation and the types of coalitions formed, presents an overview of the position of the prime minister, describes the work and structure of cabinet ministers and ministries, explains why governments seldom complete a full term, and assesses claims about both instability and nongovernability in Israel.
Israel and the Palestinians
Authors: Sela Avraham
Published: October 2020

Israel’s theory and practice in the conflict with the Palestinians since the beginning of the Zionist enterprise reveals continued striving for secure and exclusive Jewish national territorial sovereignty over historic Palestine while disregarding Palestinians’ collective political rights and claims to the same territory. Nonetheless, changing regional and international constraints brought Israeli decision makers to shift their strategies in coping with the Palestinian political/military challenges to the country’s security and international legitimacy. This chapter analyzes Israel’s shifting policies toward the Palestinians, from long-term denial and military responses to negotiated agreements and tense coexistence with a self-governing Palestinian authority in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Since that period, however, the collapse of the Oslo process in the year 2000 and consequent Palestinian uprising, the increased role of religion in the conflict on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, Israel’s insistence on continuing its overall domination of the Palestinian territories, and the stalemated diplomatic process all underline the narrowing options for bringing this conflict to any peaceful end.
US–Israeli Relationship
Authors: Stein Kenneth W.
Published: October 2020

The US–Israeli relationship is complicated, dynamic, multidimensional, and enduring. From initial American governmental opposition to the present, Washington has become Israel’s most trusted ally. Rooted in common bonds, entrenched military sharing, and valued strategic interests, the association has also greatly influenced the shaping and sustenance of American Jewish identity. Four factors have influenced the relationship’s evolution: (1) deep American Jewish involvement in the American electoral system; (2) American government impatience with regularly objectionable Arab state behavior toward Washington; (3) a US imperative to contain threats to the region’s politics and states, including the Cold War, Islamic radicalism, and Iranian adventurism; and (4) how Washington retained its perceived need not to alienate Arab oil-producing states. The evolving relationship is explained in three time periods: distance after World War II, the unwavering embrace of Israel’s security from the1960s onward, and deep disagreements with that sustained embrace seventy years later.