Isaiah 56 - Introduction

Isaiah 56:1-8. Removal of the religious Disabilities of Eunuchs and Proselytes

(1) The passage opens with a general exhortation to righteous conduct and a correct religious attitude, to be manifested by a strict regard for the sanctity of the Sabbath (Isaiah 56:1). (2) The main subject of the oracle is then introduced, viz., the fears entertained by foreigners and eunuchs that they would be excluded from participation in the blessings of the covenant (Isaiah 56:3). (3) To the latter class is promised the signal honour of a monument in the Temple and a name "better than sons and daughters," i.e. more than compensating for the loss of that perpetuation through posterity of which a cruel fate had deprived them (Isaiah 56:4). (4) In like manner the "sons of the stranger" are reassured by the confirmation of their right to a full share in the worship of the new Temple (Isaiah 56:6 a). (5) The principle on which this privilege rests is stated in all its breadth and spirituality, viz., the destiny of the religion of Israel to supersede distinctions of race and to unite men of all nations in the common worship of the true God (7 b, 8).

The short oracle stands in no very close connexion either with what precedes or with what follows. Although it has often been treated as an appendix to ch. 55, its real affinities seem rather to be with the group of prophecies which follow. Like them it presents features which are thought by some recent critics to point to a period subsequent to the return of the first exiles from Babylon (see Introduction, pp. lv lx). It is urged that the religious status of the two classes referred to would hardly become a practical question until the new community was formed; that the adhesion of proselytes is spoken of by the second Isaiah as a natural consequence of Israel's exaltation (Isaiah 44:5), and that nothing that happened prior to the release of the Jews is likely to have given rise to such misgivings as are expressed in Isaiah 56:3. Further, that the most obvious inference from Isaiah 56:7 b, Isaiah 56:8 is that the Temple is already in existence, and that partof Israel has already been gathered. These indications, taken in conjunction with many references in chs. 57 ff., render it probable that we are here face to face with the problems raised by the situation of the new Jewish community in Palestine.