Concentricity and Continuity: The Literary Structure of Isaiah
By (Author) Robert H. O'Connell
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Sheffield Academic Press
1st November 2009
NIPPOD
United Kingdom
Professional and Scholarly
Non Fiction
Criticism and exegesis of sacred texts
224.1066
Paperback
272
Width 156mm, Height 234mm
438g
This monograph explores the structure and rhetoric of the book of Isaiah. Its thesis is twofold. First, the book of Isaiah best manifests its structural unity, thematic choherence and rhetorical emphasis when read as an exemplar of prophetic covenant disputation. Second, the principal arrangement of the book comprises seven asymmetrical concentric sections, each made up of complex (triadic and quadratic) framing patterns. They are: an exordium (1.1, 2-5), two threats of judgment (2.6-21; 3.1-4.1), two programmes for the punishment and restoration of Zion and the nations (4.2-11.16; 13.1-39.8), an exoneration of Yahweh (40.1-54.17), and an appeal for covenant reconciliation (55.1-66.24).
Robert O'Connell is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Colorado Christian University, Lakewood, Colorado.