During my two years as a graduate assistant, the paper assignment that caused my students (and me!) the most headache was called “Context is Everything.” In this assignment we asked the students to answer a few questions based on their reading of Isaiah 7, describing the sign given to Ahaz, its probable fulfillment, and Isaiah’s mission in the text.
And like clockwork, every semester half of the students would fail the paper because they would write something like this: ”The Prophet Isaiah is predicting the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.”
Granted we anticipated these answers and used the assignment to teach how to think historically and critically when interpreting ancient texts, informing our students that there is no way Isaiah had any of the “modern” knowledge we bring to the text. Then we would reflect on how commitments to established theological doctrines can contribute to a lack of objectivity when translating biblical texts or investigating historical issues. And as I know this subject is the heart of intense translation and theological controversy, I’d like to add my thoughts to table.
When we look at the text in Isaiah, we must first look at it in its original context. This passage is situated in the larger schema of the prophetic names given to Isaiah’s children, which were messages of warning and instruction for King Ahaz. In ch 7 you can almost imagine Isaiah standing in the room, pointing towards a nameless woman and exclaiming yet another prophetic name, “Look! the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel,” the name Immanuel embodying God’s promise of protection to Jerusalem. Like other prophets of his day, Isaiah did not intend to articulate a “future” promise, hundreds of years in the coming, but spoke to his current social situation, expecting to see the fruition of his words.
Jump forward to the time the author of Matthew is constructing his text. He writes to depict the birth of Jesus, and cites the prophecy in the book of Isaiah, using it as the proof-text for his narrative. What the author of Matthew does here is none other than ”derash.”
Derash is the Jewish method of homiletic or comparative interpretation, a method that later rabbinic writers would use to justify the continuing legacy of oral tradition under the covering of scriptural basis. Jewish exegesis is categorized by four types: peshat or literal meaning, remez or hints of meaning, derash or comparative meaning, and sod or secret meaning. These distinctions are essential for understanding the author of Matthew’s use of Isaiah 7.
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When the author of Matthew cites Isaiah 7, he is using a comparative story to remind the reader of God’s promises of protection, realized in Matthew’s narrative as the person of Jesus. However, the author of Matthew is not saying that Isaiah was envisioning the birth of Jesus, an example of peshat. Rather, in typical drashic exegetical form, Matthew strategically uses a citation as a comparative lens for his story. Perhaps, Matthew is even alluding to a sod or hidden meaning in Isaiah’s words, brought to light in Matthew’s narrative. But this in no way implies that the author of Matthew is lying, deceiving, or doing something “bad.” He is simply using texts the way ancient Judeans used texts, and doing it with narrative purpose.
We as modern readers cannot impose upon the author of Matthew our modes of historical scrutiny. What gets us scholars worked up in a tizzy simply did not matter to the ancient world.
Still, as modern readers, we must recognize that Matthew is not attempting to write a history but a narrative, and we cannot use his narrative as the framework of our historical reconstruction. The text in Isaiah and the text in Matthew speak to similar promises and refrains, messages we as modern participants in Christmas can relate, yet let us be careful of confusing these messages and losing their original context: Isaiah’s concern with the Syro-Ephraimite war, Matthew’s reflection on messianic expectations under Roman occupation of Judea, and we as modern readers, reflecting and inhabiting the Christmas story within our own world affairs.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
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