Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yon_saf AT bezeqint.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 9:46 PM
Subject: RE: The Messianic Idea
> I think all the references to David in Ezekiel are added by a later
> post-exilic
> redactor.

Liz, Ez. 34 is an organic whole. There's idea development and progression
towards the prophet's logical conclusion: the restoration of the people of
Israel and the Davidic dynasty.
>
>
> And what do you do with with Haggai 2:20-23, from the reign
> > of Darius I? I think all these prophets are talking about a Davidic
scion
> > about to reign or be born in their own time or close to it.
> This is part of the reaction against Cyrus and the Persians.
> As is Zechariah.

I disagree. It's part of the same hopes for an ideal Davidic king that we
find in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, as I wrote below.
>
> > To me, this appears to be a continuous chain of prophetic hope
> > for an ideal
> > Davidic king, starting with David and stretching down to the
> > restoration of
> > the Second Temple, when it is bitterly and finally disappointed.
> > That, in my
> > opinion, is when the clasical Jewish (and later Christian) idea of
Messiah
> > begins its real development..
>
> I think you've got to allow for a little break there by Deutero-Isaiah.

Even the prophet's terms for Cyrus are taken straight out of the messianic
king ideology already existing in Deutero-Isaiah's time. His special
contribution was applying it to a non-Israelite king.
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren
Chairman
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Israel