In this study, Fredrik Hagglund presents an interpretation based on a hypothesis that conflicts emerged between the people in the land of Israel and those who returned from exile. He analyzes these conflicts with the help of contemporary refugee studies, other texts of the Old Testament, and also relevant passages in Isa 40-55. At the end of the exile, there was hope that the deported people would return to Israel, that it would be rebuilt, and that Jerusalem would again flourish. This hope is most clearly expressed in Isa 40:1-52:10. However, as time went by, there was a realization that the envisaged glorious return was in reality a rather limited return, and the joy of receiving those who returned had turned into conflicts, not least regarding the possession of land and the availability of places to live. In this situation, someone probably reflected on the message of Isa 40:1-52:10 and sought to understand what had gone wrong. Isa 53 was then inserted as an explanation of how the people in the land of Israel, i.e. the we, should have received those who returned, i.e. the servant. If this embrace had taken place, Mother Zion would have rejoiced, as described in Isa 54. Instead of these pictures painted for us in Isa 53 and 54, we encounter the reality of the conflicts described in Isa 56-66.

"Isaiah is strangely silent on the destruction of Jerusalem and the people's deportation to Babylon in the early sixth century BCE. Frederik Poulsen demonstrates that the exile hides itself as a "black hole" at the center of the composition and thereby has a decisive influence on the literary structure, poetic imagery, and theological message of this prophetic book."

Written by eleven biblical scholars, this study explores the theology of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 and answers a number of imporant questions: What is a Christian interpretation of Isaiah 53? What is a Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 53? How did the New Testament writers understand Isaiah 53? How should forgiveness and salvation be understood in Isaiah 53? How can Isaiah 53 be used in Jewish evangelism? How do we preach Isaiah 53?

Isaiah 40-66, by Marvin A. Sweeney, is the nineteenth published volume in The Forms of Old Testament Literature (FOTL), a series that provides a form-critical analysis of the books and units in the Hebrew Bible. Building on his earlier FOTL volume Isaiah 1-39, Sweeney here presents his analysis of Isaiah 40-66 within both the synchronic literary form of Isaiah and the diachronic history of its composition. In keeping with the methodology and goals of the FOTL series, Isaiah 40-66 offers detailed examinations of the formal structure of the chapters covered; the genres that function within these chapters; the literary, historical, and social settings of the text; and the overall interpretation of Isaiah 40-66 and its constituent textual units. Including a glossary of the genres and formulas discussed, this commentary will be a useful resource to anyone wishing to engage more deeply with this central book in the Hebrew Bible.

In addition to challenging historical-critical readings in the tradition after Duhm, this book presents three ways of reading the text based on variations of linguistic theory: one linguistic, one narratological and one intertextual. In these readings the trope personification is central.

This study brings together the hermeneutical approaches of three Old Testament scholars, specifically as they pertain to the interpretation of Isaiah 52.13-53.12 in the framework of Christian theology. Contemporary discourse and hermeneutical discussions have led to the development of a point of confusion in theological hermeneutics, focusing on what relationship older frames of reference may have with those more recent. Bernhard Duhm is presented as a history-of-Religion scholar who does not easily abide by popular understandings of that school. Brevard Childs moves outward from particular historical judgments regarding the nature of redaction and form criticism, attempting to arrive at a proximately theological reading of the poem. Alec Motyer's evangelical commitments represent a large constituency of contemporary theological readership, and a popular understanding of Isaiah 53. Following a summary and critical engagement of each interpreter on his own terms, the study analyzes the use of rhetoric behind the respective readings of Isaiah 53, and proposes theological reading as a highly eclectic undertaking, distanced from the demarcations of 'pre-critical', 'critical', and 'post-critical'.

In Christ Died for Our Sins, Jarvis J. Williams argues a twofold thesis: First, that Paul in Romans presents Jesus' death as both a representation of, and a substitute for, Jews and Gentiles. Second, that the Jewish martyrological narratives in certain Second Temple Jewish texts are a background behind Paul's presentation of Jesus' death. By means of careful textual analysis, Williams argues that the Jewish martyrological narratives appropriated and applied Levitical cultic language and Isaianic language to the deaths of the Torah-observant Jewish martyrs in order to present their deaths as a representation, a substitution, and as Israel's Yom Kippur for non-Torah-observant Jews. Williams seeks to show that Paul appropriated and applied this same language and conceptuality in order to present Jesus' death as the death of a Torah-observant Jew serving as a representation, a substitution, and as the Yom Kippur for both Jews and Gentiles. Scholars working in the areas of Romans, Pauline theology, Second Temple Judaism, atonement in Paul, or early Christian origins will find much to stimulate and provoke in these pages.

Although disability imagery is ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible, characters with disabilities are not. The presence of the former does not guarantee the presence of the later. While interpreters explain away disabilities in specific characters, they celebrate the rhetorical contributions that disability imagery makes to the literary artistry of biblical prose and poetry, often as a trope to describe the suffering or struggles of a presumably nondisabled person or community. This situation contributes to the appearance (or illusion) of a Hebrew Bible that uses disability as a rich literary trope while disavowing the presence of figures or characters with disabilities. Isaiah 53 provides a wonderful example of this dynamic at work. The "Suffering Servant" figure in Isaiah 53 has captured the imagination of readers since very early in the history of biblical interpretation. Most interpreters understand the servant as an otherwise able bodied person who suffers. By contrast, Jeremy Schipper's study shows that Isaiah 53 describes the servant with language and imagery typically associated with disability in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern literature. Informed by recent work in disability studies from across the humanities, it traces both the disappearance of the servant's disability from the interpretative history of Isaiah 53 and the scholarly creation of the able bodied suffering servant.

The Old Testament is transformed from problem to ally when preachers attend to power at work in ancient and modern contexts by mirroring Second Isaiah's proclamation, listening to contemporary servant Israel, and learning from African American preaching in context of domination. This book analyses the impact of domination on Old Testament proclamation and thus leads to several unique contributions. Firstly, it reads Second Isaiah as a homiletic model for proclaiming older (pre-exilic) texts in response to exilic domination. Secondly, it treats the Old Testament as a rich resource for confronting racism and anti-Semitism though teaching and it introduces contemporary Christian-Jewish dialogue in Germany as a model for the Church. Lastly, it highlights preaching traditions within the African American Church as instructive for formulating an effective Old Testament preaching strategy.

Although scholars have for centuries primarily been interested in using the study of ancient Israel to explain, illuminate, and clarify the biblical story, Megan Bishop Moore and Brad E. Kelle describe how scholars today seek more and more to tell the story of the past on its own terms, drawing from both biblical and extrabiblical sources to illuminate ancient Israel and its neighbors without privileging the biblical perspective. Biblical History and Israel’s Past provides a comprehensive survey of how study of the Old Testament and the history of Israel has changed since the middle of the twentieth century. Moore and Kelle discuss significant trends in scholarship, trace the development of ideas since the 1970s, and summarize major scholars, viewpoints, issues, and developments.