Whether through a hymn, Handel’s Messiah, or the lectionary reading, the book of Isaiah provides a familiar voice for congregations during the season of Advent. So how do we create faithful
Whether through a hymn, Handel’s Messiah, or the lectionary reading, the book of Isaiah provides a familiar voice for congregations during the season of Advent. So how do we create faithful, Christian interpretations of Isaiah for today while respecting the interpretations of our Jewish neighbors?
Integrating biblical scholarship with pastoral concern, Tyler Mayfield invites readers to view Isaiah through two lenses. He demonstrates using near vision to see how the Christian liturgical season of Advent shapes readings of Isaiah and using far vision to clarify our relationship to Jews and Judaism—showing along the way how near vision and far vision are both required to read Isaiah clearly and responsibly.
“Tyler Mayfield’s Unto Us a Child Is Born overflows with insight. I recommend it as a lucid way in which we Christians might envisage the power of Scripture for our world today.”
— Mary C. Boys
Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
“Whereas Christians traditionally read Isaiah as a prophet who predicts the coming of Christ, Mayfield demonstrates that Isaiah must be read from different angles as a book that gives expression to the issues that faced ancient Israel and Judah in the prophet’s own day as well as to some of the highest ideals of Judaism in our own.”
— Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont School of Theology
“Mayfield’s way with eight Isaiah texts that are especially familiar to the church is rich, imaginative, and thick with multiple meanings.”
— Walter Brueggemann
from the foreword
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Tyler D. Mayfield is the Arnold Black Rhodes Professor of Old Testament and director of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He teaches courses in biblical theology, ethical readings of Scripture, and prophetic literature and regularly leads a travel seminar to Israel and Palestine to explore ancient biblical sites as well as those of contemporary Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: Isaiah through Bifocals
1. Using Our Near Vision during Advent
2. Using Our Far Vision to Love Our Jewish Neighbors
Part Two: Isaiah’s “Messianic” Texts
3. Isaiah 7:10–16
4. Isaiah 9:2–7
5. Isaiah 11:1–10
6. Isaiah 61:1–4, 8–11
Part Three: Isaiah’s Visions of the Future
7. Isaiah 2:1–5
8. Isaiah 35:1–10
9. Isaiah 40:1–11
10. Isaiah 64:1–9
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