Isaiah 56-66.

Isaiah 56-66. Anchor Bible 19B. By Joseph Blenkinsopp (Doubleday, $45). With this book B. completes his three-volume commentary on Isaiah in record time (2000-2003). His is a diachronic, historical-critical reading, with ample evidence of the commentator's philological skills. While there is some continuity with the message of Second Isaiah (return from exile and national reintegration), the interest in 56-66 is more focused on concerns internal to the community. The author of these final chapters identifies with those who "tremble at the word of Yahweh" and are called Yahweh's servants; their opponents are the temple priesthood, who are accused of alien cultic practices. Chapters 56-66 do not come from one hand or one time period, and B. speaks of the development of a prophetic succession leading to the emergence of an eschatologically oriented sect within the Persian province of Judah in the mid-fifth century B.C.E. B., with many others today, recognizes that Isa 1:27-31 forms an inclusion with 66:17-24, thus bringing a superficial order to a book that emerged over the course of three centuries. Blenkinsopp's three-volume commentary goes to the head of the pack on current commentary options for this crucial Old Testament book. RWK