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Isaiah 56:1-8 and the redefining of the restoration Judean community

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2000 by Clinton E. Hammock

Abstract

This article argues that the prophetic oracle of Isaiah 56:1-8 was intended to redefine the social boundaries of the Judean community in the early second temple period. This prophecy offers an alternative viewpoint to the nationalist and exclusionist views of Ezra and Nehemiah as to who can be a member of the Judean community. The position taken by this passage utilizes the images of the eunuch and the foreigner to reveal conflicts over land possession and the reproduction and socialization of children. It is argued that the exilic principles of community membership revolve around the issues of "purification" (in the exile) and the exclusion of outsiders who did not share this experience, and "loyalty," seen as endogamy and the reproduction and socialization of children to preserve the ethnic purity of the exilic community. The cases of the eunuch and the foreigner (convert) challenge both these principles and offer alternative principles of "loyalty" by relocating the markers of community membership into Sabbath observance and ethical behavior, social markers that do not require any ethnic purity or reproductive ability, and which ease the conversion of non-exiles into the community while allowing the community access to additional land resources.

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In this paper I argue that Isaiah 56:1-8 is a prophetic attempt to redraw the boundary lines that define the restoration Judean community. Since the establishment of community boundary lines is never made solely on religious grounds, it would be a mistake to think that only religious motives determine who can be considered a valid member of a group. Religious motives can function as an ideology that legitimates the real grounds on which a community's boundaries are formulated, and these real grounds are usually social, economic, and political in nature. It is my opinion that the community boundaries that were established by the opponents of Third Isaiah were drawn with a social concern for the reproduction and socialization of children, and with an economic concern to justify the occupation and exploitation of the land. Also, outside powerful influences on the process of defining the boundaries of the Judean community came from the imperial Persian government in attempts to define economic, and thus ethnic communities.

In an effort to understand the prophetic message of Isaiah 56:1-8, I will consider how the Judean returnees from exile drew their community's boundaries, as illuminated by social, economic, and political conditions of the time. This paper will then consider how Isaiah 56:1-8 attempts to redefine the community's boundaries, by redefining who can be a member of the Judean community, by looking at the issues of possession of the land and the reproduction and socialization of children, particularly in relation to the foreigner and the eunuch of Isaiah 56:1-8. By examining the social, economic, and political grounds that form the basis of community membership, the purpose of the religious restrictions against group membership for the eunuch and the foreigner will be revealed.

To aid in this discussion, I will be making reference to Figure 1 (following page), a diagram fashioned after those used by Lincoln (131-41), which graphically represents the principles on which community membership is based. As this diagram indicates, membership is based on the principles of "purification" and "loyalty." These two principles were developed by the exilic community in Babylon, and carried by the returnees to the homeland in Palestine. This diagram thus reproduces the perspective of the Judean returnees concerning who was a member of the Judean community. Membership is indicated by a plus (+) sign, non-membership is indicated by a minus (-) sign.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

To understand who can be designated as a member of the Judean community, it is necessary to understand the Judean identity movement. A Judean identity movement, summarized by Matthews and Moyer (213-14) developed among the deportees from Judah. The basic elements of this Judean identity movement include the following: (1) the development of scripture that encompassed the ideas of monotheism and Israel as a chosen people with covenant duties and a special status in their homeland; (2) Hebrew as a liturgical language; (3) emphasis on the Sabbath that commemorated God's acts of creation, and that justified the requirements of ritual purity; (4) circumcision as a sign of Judean identity; (5) intensification and expansion of ritual purity; and (6) endogamy for the purpose of cultural and ethnic purity and the socialization of children. All of these things served to mark the boundary between who was and who was not a Judean. The first basic element takes on specific religious force in the context of the traditional covenant ideology that included the promise of land and children made to Abraham by Yahweh in exchange for the sole allegiance and obedience of Abraham and his descendents to Yahweh (Matthews & Moyer: 3). This I see as the primary guiding ideological force in drawing the boundaries of the Judean community. The pairing of land and children in the promise to Abraham, I think, underlies the pairing of the eunuch and the foreigner in Isaiah 56:1-8. This pairing links social, economic and political motives surrounding land and children to Judean identity and group membership.

Isaiah 56:1-8 and the redefining of the restoration Judean community

Biblical Theology Bulletin, Summer, 2000 by Clinton E. Hammock

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