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The Journal of Theological Studies Advance Access originally published online on August 27, 2009
The Journal of Theological Studies 2009 60(2):538-555; doi:10.1093/jts/flp113
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Justin Martyr's Logocentric Hermeneutical Transformation of Isaiah's Vision of the Nations

Matthew W. Bates

University of Notre Dame

Correspondence: mbates2{at}nd.edu


  Abstract

Within the book of Isaiah itself, the author's vision of the future of the nations takes on three basic forms: (1) subjection to Israel, (2) pilgrimage to Zion, and (3) incorporation into Israel. Justin employs a logocentric reading of Isaiah within which the distinct voice of the prophet is entirely swallowed up by the divine logos. By this logocentric reading strategy Justin transforms each of the three Isaianic themes in the following way. (1) The subjugation of the nations to Israel becomes the eschatological subservience of Israel to Jesus the Messiah. (2) The pilgrimage of the nations to Zion is interpreted metaphorically as the spiritual journey of the Gentiles to the God of Israel through Jesus Christ. (3) The incorporation of the nations into Israel is transformed into the inclusion of obdurate ethnic Israel into the Christian church. Justin's polemical use of Isaiah as a rhetorical tool for crafting the self-definition of the Christian community over against the synagogue stands as an important testimony to the status of Christianity in its relationship to Judaism in the second century.


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