Isaiah Ben Amoz Or Isshiah the Prophet?
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SHORT NOTES 2 CHR. XXVI 22: ISAIAH BEN AMOZ OR ISSHIAH THE PROPHET? Citation references to prophets are common in 1 and 2 Chronicles, but the only canonical prophet cited is Isaiah ben Amoz (2 Chr. xxvi 22; xxxii 32). 1 The LXX of 2 Chr. xxvi 22 however is peculiar when compared with the later citation in xxxii 32, of potential exegetical and text historical signi cance. 1 2Chr. xxxii 32 The citation in xxxii 32 is straightforward, with general agreement as to its import: As for the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, they are written in the vision of Isaiah ben Amoz the prophet in the Book of ( ’al-sper) the Kings of Judah and Israel (MT). The association of Isaiah with Hezekiah is not in dispute, and the use of úˆzôn “vision” may be linked with the title of the book of Isaiah. Schiedewind notes the use of the noun or cognate verb in the titles of Isaiah, Amos, Micah, Nahum and Habakkuk and sees in the Chronicler’s use of the noun “vision” for both Isaiah (xxxii 32) and Iddo (ix 29) an “indication that the book of Chronicles depends on the editorial superscriptions to the canonical prophets for the compo- sitional style of the source citations”. 2 The structure of the citation in MT of xxxii 32 is however unusual. It “perhaps implies that 2 Kg 1 Other citations naming prophets (or “seers”) are 1 Chr. xxix 29 (regarding David: Samuel, Nathan, Gad); 2 Chr. ix 29 (Solomon: Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo); xii 15 (Rehoboam: Shemaiah, Iddo); xiii 22 (Abijah: Iddo); xx 34 (Jehoshaphat: Jehu ben Hanani); and xxxiii 19 (Manasseh: Hozai [MT] or “the seers” [LXX]). Jeremiah is referred to, but not in citations (2 Chr. xxxv 25; xxxvi 12, 21, 22). 2 W.M. Schniedewind, The Word of God inTransition: From Prophet toExegete inthe Second Temple Period (JSOTSup 197; She Yeld, 1995), p. 218. On pp. 40-44 he discusses use of the title úôzeh for Gad, Iddo and Jehu ben Hanani (1 Chr. xxix 29; 2 Chr. ix 29; xii 15; xix 2 [in 1 Ki. xvi 1, 7 Jehu is a “prophet”]). There is also the source citation in 2 Chr. xxxiii 19 which refers to “the records of úôzˆy (Hozai/my seers)” which most scholars emend, noting the LXX tÇn õrÅntvn . © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Vetus Testamentum LIII, 4 Also available online – www.brill.nl 554 short note 18-20 is understood as authored by the prophet Isaiah”, 3 although LXX implies two separate sources, following literally the MT prepo- sitions, but including kai: “in the prophecy 4 of Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet and on the book of the kings ...”. 2 2 Chr. xxvi 22 This citation is shorter, not referring to “the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel”, but simply stating: The rest of the acts of Uzziah, the earlier and the latter, Isaiah ben Amoz the prophet wrote (MT). Uzziah is mentioned in the book of Isaiah only in the superscrip- tion and the reference to his death (Isa. i 1; vi 1). While Begg states simply that the “linkage of Isaiah and Uzziah was suggested by the chronological notice of Isa 6:1”, 5 Schiedewind goes further: “the Chronicler’s reference to Isaiah in Uzziah’s source citation is obviously not a footnote to traditions known from the book of Isaiah. ..Simply put, the Chronicler makes the prophet Isaiah an annalist for the deeds of the king”. 6 One wonders however why, if the Chronicler saw the need for a prophetic author for Uzziah’s reign (with Isaiah the choice), he is strik- ingly silent regarding Isaiah for the subsequent reigns of Jotham (men- tioned in Isa. i 1) and Ahaz (Isa. i 1; vii 1-12; xiv 28). Regarding the absence in the Ahaz narrative, Begg suggests that reference to Isaiah would have obscured “the distinctiveness of this gure’s (the ‘non-clas- sical prophet’ Oded) ministry” (2 Chr. xxviii 9-15). 7 This may explain the non-mention of Isaiah in the narrative, but not absence in the citation reference (xxviii 29). In contrast is the mention of Iddo in the citations of three successive kings (Solomon, Rehoboam and Abijah; 2 Chr. ix 29; xii 15; xiii 22). 3 S.B. Chapman, The Law and the Prophets (FAT 27; Tübingen, 2000), p. 228. See also T. Willi, Die Chronikals Auslegung:Untersuchungen zurliterarischen Gestaltung der histo- rischen Überlieferung Israels (FRALANT 106; Göttingen, 1972), pp. 234-35, on the prophet as “author”. 4 LXX has the more general, t» profhteÛ & , where Isa. i 1 has ÷rasiw. 5 C.T. Begg, “The Classical Prophets in the Chronistic History”, BZ 32 (1988), pp. 100-07 (see p. 101). 6 The Word of God , p. 217. Similarly Willi, Die Chronik, pp. 234-35; A.F. Rainey, “The Chronicler and His Sources—Historical and Geographical”, in M.P. Graham, K.G. Hoglund and S.L. McKenzie, eds, The Chronicleras Historian (JSOTSup 238; SheYeld, 1997), p. 51. 7 “Classical prophets”, p. 103..