Prophecy and Faithfulness: Towards Reading the Portrayals of the Isaianic Servant and Jeremiah as Christian Scripture

Abstract

This thesis addresses the nature of, and the relationship between, the portrayals of the Isaianic servant and the prophet Jeremiah when read as Christian Scripture. It prioritizes the primary intertextual resonances which frame the servant and Jeremiah, Isa 49:1-7 and Jer 1:4-10, at both verbal and thematic levels. Both passages speak of an individual being called before birth to be a servant-prophet. This pre-birth language acquires a distinctive tenor in their accounts, particularly evident in how the vocations of these prophets are clearly addressed to the nations. Thus, I argue that when Isa 49:1-7 and Jer 1:4-10 are read together within their canonical context, framed by this distinctive note of their pre-birth vocation, they become a prime expression of the Old Testament conception of prophecy and faithfulness. My chosen critical approach aims to engage the biblical texts with a second naivete mode of reading within an overall concern for theological interpretation of Scripture. The first four chapters give attention to the history of interpretation considering the various ways in which premodern, modern, and postmodern readers handle the intertextual relationship between the servant and Jeremiah. The last three chapters, informed by this existing scholarly work, engage with full imaginative seriousness with the intertextual resonances between, and the subject matter of, the servant and Jeremiah in their received literary-canonical form in Isa 49:1-7 and Jer 1:4-10. At the heart of my argument, I offer detailed fresh readings of Isa 49:1-7 and Jer 1:4-10 exploring how these portrayals are associated with faithfulness. Then, I also provide an account of the portrayal of Moses as an archetypal prophet, where there are comparable thematic patterns contextualizing the servant and Jeremiah within a larger canonical portrayal of prophecy and faithfulness and opening a conceptual way on a possible reading strategy for a contemporary appropriation of the paradigm of faithfulness. I conclude by drawing out the implications of reading Isa 49:1-7 and Jer 1:4-10 when they are set alongside Gal 1:15-16, the prime New Testament resonance with the pre-birth language, within a Christian frame of reference.