Opening the Sealed Book: Interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity.

• Author: Cook, Stephen L.
• Position: Book review

Opening the Sealed Book: Interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity. By JOSEPH BLENKINSOPP. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. EERDmans Publishing Company. 2006. Pp. xx + 315. $25 (paper).

This book consists of a vastly learned set of studies in the formation of Isaiah and its impact on sectarian groups in late antiquity. The author began these investigations in the course of producing his recent (2000-2003) multivolume Anchor Bible commentary on Isaiah. After completing the commentary, he worked up and reformulated this material as a separate volume where he could do it full justice. The essays certainly give one a new appreciation for the unique impact of Isaiah on early Judaism's apocalyptic factions and on the Jesus movement.

Early sections of the volume explore the formation of Isaiah, showing how the theme of a sealed book (Isaiah 8:16; 29:1 1-12) influenced Isaiah's shaping. In their final form, Isaiah's prophecies effectively became a sealed corpus of eschatological leaching, slated for archiving until that time when those blessed with apocalyptic insight might finally unravel the book's mysteries. An eschatological reading remained vibrant in Isaiah's subsequent interpretive history, prompting Blenkinsopp to trace the development of sectarian, apocalyptic Judaism, where the prophecies appear to have been especially treasured. In pursuing this agenda, he attempts to link early apocalyptic conventicles of the Persian period with the known sects of Greco-Roman times, reviving some older theories and approaches of scholars such as Max Weber, Otto Ploger, and Paul Hanson.

A major contribution of the volume is its comparative approach to the use of Isaiah at Qumran and within early Christianity, in particular in the gospel according to Matthew. Blenkinsopp presents a plethora of evidence for a powerful interpretive trajectory that begins within Isaiah, flows through Daniel and 1 Enoch, and then streams directly to Qumran and early Christianity. He concludes that a common eschatological message, forged in the history of interpretation of Isaiah, links Qumran and the Jesus movement.

In laying out his case, Blenkinsopp treats the gospel as an eschatological, sectarian document. He moors early Christianity to its milieu as a sect alongside Qumran's dissidents. As at Qumran, the early Christians understood contemporary persons and events to activate meanings latent in Isaiah. In exegetical moves parallel to those at Qumran, they...