Introduction

Summary

One of the most rewarding of recent approaches to the study of Deutero-Isaiah has been the attempt to understand his teaching against the background of his ministry to the second generation of Jewish exiles in Babylonia. Two factors have here to be taken into account: the nature of the Israelite religious tradition which the exiles had inherited from the past, and the actual circumstances of their life in Babylonia, where they were subject to the cultural and religious pressures of their environment. Each of these factors may be expected to have exercised some influence on the teaching of Deutero-Isaiah. It is in order to explore the relationship between the two that this study of one short passage has been undertaken. This passage, which has long been the subject of vigorous controversy, admirably raises the question of the sources of Deutero-Isaiah's theology, and it is hoped that a detailed study of it, employing as far as possible all the techniques of modern critical investigation, may shed some light on the interpretation of Deutero-Isaiah as a whole.