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Whose Child Is This? Reflections on the Speaking Voice in Isaiah 9:5*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

J. J. M. Roberts
J. J. M. Roberts
Affiliation:
Princeton Theological Seminary
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Extract

In his 1947 article, “Das judäische Königsritual,” Gerhard von Rad argued that the Judean enthronement ritual was heavily dependent on the corresponding Egyptian ritual. He argued persuasively that the of Ps 2:7, the of 2 Kgs 11:12, and the of Ps 89:40 were all simply different designations of the same reality, the Judean counterpart of the Egyptian nḫb.t, the royal protocol that the deity writes and presents to the new king along with the crown at the time of the latter's coronation. The Egyptian protocol contained the five names of the new pharaoh's titulary and the legitimation of his rule by the deity's acknowledgment of the king as the deity's child. Von Rad argued that both of these elements also appeared in the Judean ritual. Ps 2:7 quotes from the protocol marking Yahweh's legitimation of the new Davidic king as God's son, while Isa 9:5 reflects the king's divine sonship as well as his five-fold royal titulary.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 90 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 115 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1997

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References

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