The Hidden God of Isaiah 45:15: Whose Voice? Which Meaning?

Abstract

This thesis provides a fresh answer to a deceptively simple question in the history of interpretation: In what sense is God hidden as confessed in Isaiah 45:15? To answer this question this thesis explores the dynamic relationship between the confession itself, “Surely you are God who hides himself…” (Isa 45.15a), and its interpretation in recent scholarly literature. The present work is, on the one hand, an exegetical investigation of a perennially problematic pericope, Isa 45:14–17, in its immediate literary context of Isa 40–49:13. In chapter two it is demonstrated how divine hiddenness as articulated in this poetry is made more coherent by understanding the often overlooked, yet contextually organic, juxtaposition of the addressee to the divine image (especially in the wider symbolic discourse of the Mesopotamian Mīs pî ritual). On the other hand, this thesis is a meta-critical reflection and hermeneutical case-study on the moves interpreters make towards meaning, to answer the question, “Whose voice are we hearing?” while rendering a contingent construal of divine hiddenness. The ambiguous referential features of this pericope are shown to be constructive, serving to place the audience/reader within an experience of relational dislocation and estrangement. This opens up a way of understanding Isaiah 45:15 that stresses the dynamic relationship between readerly self-involvement in the poetry’s progression, which is facilitated by key moments of dialogue in which the twin topoi of blindness/sight and hiddenness/glory figure prominently.