"Restructuring the Symbolic Universe": Resilience through Literary and Ideological Reframing in Isaiah 2.2–4(5). (March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nessler, Brent
• Is Part Of: Journal for the study of the Old Testament. Volume 47:Number 3(2023)
• Page Start: 259
• Page End: 276
• Publication Date: 2023-03
• Subjects: Isaiah -- resilience -- Persian period -- iconography -- salvation oracle -- redaction criticism -- social-scientific criticism; 221.605
• DOI: 10.1177/03090892221149051
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-0892

Abstract

This paper elucidates the ways in which the composition and redaction of Isa. 2.2–4(5) function to both exhibit and impart resilience to hearers/readers based on the congruity between Nissinen's appraisal of scribal activity as "restructuring the symbolic universe" and the process of cognitive behavioral therapy. To begin, I discuss the redactional placement of Isa. 2.2–4(5), delineating its role in reframing earlier judgment texts, along with its overall purpose through comparison with Mic. 1.1–5. Next, I demonstrate how the imagery of Isa. 2.2–4(5) co-opts and reframes the political ecosystem actively perpetuated by the Achaemenid Empire. Finally, through the work of Clemens Sedmak and Robert J. Schreiter, I (1) define resilience as "a capacity to resist" and (2) display the ways in which both the literary and ideological reframing of Isa. 2.2–4(5) likely signified and produced resilience in a manner akin to cognitive reframing for the postexilic community of Yehud.