7 - Stirring the Echoes

Summary

The written word was more important in the late seventh century than ever before, as evidenced by the authority invested in the book of the Torah, by the emphasis on writing in Deuteronomy, and by the stories of Jeremiah and Baruch. Given that Neo-Assyrian prophecies were already being compiled in the early seventh century, and the critical consensus that a form of the Deuteronomistic History was compiled under Josiah, it makes sense that a collection of the Hebrew prophets would also have been undertaken in his time. Along with this scribal attention to written traditions, one sees early exegetical impulses, and this explains the densely allusive nature of Isa 24–27, presumably created by the same scribes who were copying the oracles of Isaiah ben Amoz, Hosea, Amos, and Nahum.