We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Part II - AN INVENTED HISTORY
The Dying Rays of the House of David
The monarchy, personified in the last descendants of the ‘house of David’, remained the foundation of hopes for redemption throughout the sixth century. This was initially a predictable option, so deeply rooted was the identification between the royal house and national independence. The plan to rebuild Israel, in its old territory, and in the same manner as before, could only imagine putting the legitimate king back on the throne (Jehoiachin, or after his death, his legitimate heir). The monarchic option, however, encountered both ideological and practical opposition. Ideologically, the negative verdict on past experience could only weigh heavily, and did so increasingly as the idea developed that national disaster was of course to be blamed on all the citizens, but above all on its monarchs. Compare the assessment of the ‘house of David's’ failure later expressed by Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56–59) with the trust still displayed by First Isaiah. If hope for redemption was to be based on greater loyalty to Yahweh, not only a ‘new covenant’, but also a new kingship must be conceived, not repeating the mistakes of the past, just (assured by a more important role for the people's representatives), and pious (assured by a political role for the priesthood).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
