Isaiah 1-39, with an Introduction to Prophetic Literature.

• Author: Soggin, J.A.

By MARVIN A. SWEENEY. The Forms of Old Testament Literature, 16. Grand Rapids, Mich.: EERDMANS, 1996. Pp. xix + 547. $45 (paper).

This latest commentary on the first part of the Book of Isaiah has several elements that make it new: it begins with an "Introduction to Prophetic Literature," a section which is valid for all prophetic books and would fit well within the frame of an introduction to the Old Testament. It is followed, further, by an excellent introduction to the Book of Isaiah. Only then the commentary proper starts. At the end, another very useful feature, the reader finds a "Glossary of the Genres and of the Formulas used by the Form-critical approach." (The present reviewer, however, disagrees on Sweeney's description of "Legend" [p. 523]: "Legend" is not the German "Legende," but the German "Sage"; the German "Legende" refers essentially to the wondrous, miraculous and exemplary, such as lives of Saints.)

The commentary proper does not produce a new translation, but textual matters are treated extensively in each section. Every section is articulated according to "Structure," "Genre," "Setting," and "Intention." Complete bibliographies are provided at the beginning of the work and after every section.

Very interesting is Sweeney's approach to the century-old traditional division of Isaiah in three sections: chs. 1-39, 4055 and 56-66, as proposed by the German scholar B. Duhm in 1892. Conservative authors have always challenged this proposal, which is obviously simplistic. Sweeney's proposal is that, although "the book of Isaiah presents itself as a single literary work . . ., a detailed analysis demonstrates that it is a...