Essays on Prophecy and Canon: The Rise of a New Model for Interpretation

The present volume consists of twenty essays on the Prophetic Books, with a major focus on Isaiah as well as the Minor Prophets and Jeremiah. They span a period of roughly thirty-five years and trace a methodological shift away from the excavation of the individual prophet and setting toward an appreciation of a book or a collection in its final form, as an intentionally shaped accomplishment. An introductory chapter places the individual contributions in their original settings-in-composition and in relationship to one another. A description in this chapter of the period in which the author was trained in Germany and at Yale University enables the reader to comprehend the rise of a new model of interpretation, now referred to as canonical reading or canonical interpretation. The essays come alongside published commentary treatments of Isaiah and Joel, as well as public lectures delivered in the 1980s through the present decade.