I

I

I AM  (אהיה (‘eh heh yeh))  The formula which gives a not particularly helpful 

        explanation of the meaning of the sacred name Yahweh.  In its full form it 

        is “I am that I am” or “I cause to be what is.”

IBEX  (דשון (dee shone), antelope)  The wild goat of the Old Testament, gene-

        rally thought to be the ibex, but the exact meaning of deshon is not known.

IBHAR (יבהר, whom he chooses) One of the sons born to David at Jerusalem,

        from a wife (not a concubine).

IBIS  (ינשוף (yan shofe))  A wading bird found on the edge of rivers and lakes.

         It wasn't there 100 years ago, but it may have been there in biblical times.

         The ibis was well-known in Egypt; it was sacred to the god Thoth.  Its link 

         with Egyptian religion, & its diet of mollusks would have made it unclean 

         under Hebrew law. 

IBLEAM  (יבלעם, wasting of the people)  A city in the territory of Issachar lis-

        ted among the cities in Issachar and Asher which were given to Manasseh, 

        and from which Manassites were not able to drive out the Canaanites.  

        Ibleam was conquered by Thut-mose III.  Ibleam probably wasn't con-

        quered by the Israelites until David‘s time.  It is fairly certain that Ibleam 

        was one of the Levitical cities, the same as Bileam.  Ahaziah, king of Judah

        was wounded by Jehu’s soldiers at Ibleam.  Most modern English transla-

        tions of II Kings 15 read Ibleam, while the Hebrew reads “before the peo-

        ple.”  Ibleam has been identified with Belameh, near Jenin.

IBNEIAH (יבניה, the Lord will build up) A Benjaminite who returned from 

        exile in Babylon (I Chronicles 9).

IBNIJAH  (יבניה, may the Lord build up)  A Benjaminite, possibly the same as 

        Ibneiah (I Chronicles 9).

IBRI  (עברי, a Hebrew, but possibly the Hebrew “r” should be a “d,” making it

        ibdi or servant)  A Merarite Levite and contemporary of David (I Chroni-

        cles 24).

IBSAM  (יבשם, pleasant, fragrant)  A man of the tribe of Issachar  (I Chroni-

        cles 7).  

IBZAN  (אבצן, labor)  A so-called minor judge whose 30 sons & 30 daughters

        were married to persons outside his clan. Ibzan appears after Jephthah.

        The site of his 7-year career is given simply as Bethlehem.  Early com-

        mentators assumed this to be Bethlehem of Judah, & that Ibzan was actu-

        ally Boaz, husband of Ruth.  More likely the city was on the site of modern

        Bet Lahm, about 16 km north of Megiddo and 10 km west-northwest of 

        Nazareth in Galilee.  If various judges represented their respective tribes, 

        Ibzan was probably regarded as the judge representing the tribe of Asher.

                   The mention of his large family indicates his wealth.  The reference 

        to his children’s marriages indicates his wide influence and high esteem 

        outside his own immediate circle.  The name Ibzan is mentioned nowhere 

        else.  Some commentators consider Ibzan to be a late editor’s unhistorical 

        invention.  Others consider that what is given is authentic information, 

        based on official records about these officeholders.

ICE.  See Snow; Palestine, Climate of.

ICHABOD  (אי־כבוד, where is the glory, inglorious) Son of Phinehas.  He 

        received his name from the capture by the Philistines of the ark at the time

        of his birth.  Stunned by news of this disaster and by the death of both her 

        husband & her father-in-law, Ichabod’s mother died after giving him birth.

I-1

ICONIUM  (Ikonion)  A city in Galatia, in South Central Asia Minor, visited by 

        Paul and Barnabas on their first journey. (See also the entry in the Old Tes-

        tament Apocrypha/Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.).

                   In the New Testament Iconium was considered as being in the pro-

        vince of Galatia.  Paul and Barnabas on their first recorded missionary jour-

        ney proceeded to Iconium after their first visit to the Antioch in Asia Minor. 

        At Iconium they preached to Jews and Gentiles.  They left when Gentiles 

        and Jews threatened to stone them; the Jews from Iconium and Antioch 

        pursued Paul, stoned and dragged him out of the city.  If the “Southern” 

        theory regarding Paul’s Letter to the Galatians is correct, then the letter is 

        directed to Iconium.

                   Claudius (41-54 A.D.) gave Iconium the name Claudiconium.  In 235

        A.D. one of the early church councils was held there.  In 372, Iconium be-

        came the principal city and capital of the new province Lycaonia.  Today it 

        is called Konya, and is the capital of the province Konya in south central 

        Turkey.

IDALAH  (ידאלה)  A town in Zebulun, generally identified with modern-day

        Khirbet el-Hawarah, a site that is less than 10 km west-northwest of 

        Nazareth.

IDBASH  (ידבש, honey-sweet)  A man of Judah; son of Etam (I Chronicle 4).

IDDO (אדו, from the root meaning “to befall”) 1. A Levite of the Gershom 

        clan of who evidently is called Adaiah.

                   2. Son of a certain Zechariah, appointed by David as chief over 

        Manassites in Gilead. (I Chronicles 27).

                    3.  The father Abinadab, administrative officer of Solomon in Maha-

        naim.  (I Kings 4)

                    4.  A seer and prophet cited as an authority for the reigns of Solo-

        mon (II Chronicles 9).

                    5.  The grandfather of the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 1).

                    6.  The head of a group of temple servants from Casiphia who pro-

        vided cultic servants to accompany Ezra in his return to Jerusalem 

        (Ezra 8).

                    7.  The head of a family of priests that returned to Jerusalem after 

        the Exile (Nehemiah 12).

                    8.  One of those compelled by Ezra to give up their foreign wives; 

        he is called Jaddai in Ezra 10.

IDLENESS  (עצלות ('ats loth), sloth) The neglect of proper duties; depen-

        ding upon the generosity and toil of others.  Hebrew wisdom held that 

        laziness led to poverty and want.  A good wife is always well occupied.  

        Paul reproved the idlers at Thessalonica for being truant from responsibi-

        lities and throwing the burden of supporting them upon their hard-working 

        brethren; such weren't to be sustained by the community.  Among the Thes-

        salonians this condition appears to have going on a long time and not due 

        simply to Jesus’ coming.

IDOL (גלול (ghil lool); מפלצת (mif leh tseth), object of fear; עצב (oh tseb), 

        images; פסל (peh sel), carved image; תרפים (ter ah feem), household 

         gods; eidwlon (i doe lon), image)  Specifically the term denotes a god’s 

        image when such is the object of worship, or any material symbol of the 

        supernatural which is the object of worship.

                   The Hebrew word teraphim apparently refers to household gods in 

        the patriarchal period and not to representations of alien deities.  It is possi-

        ble that they were images of dead ancestors or ancient kin-gods.  There is 

        no evidence of the actual worship of these, and in historical times in Israel 

        they were used in divination.  There's also a number of somewhat obscure 

        Hebrew expressions that may or may not refer to graven images: amah 

        (terror); mifletseth (object of fear); shikkuts (abomination); and aven and 

        alil (nothing, vanity).

                   Aside from the bulls which were a conspicuous feature of the cult 

        sponsored by Jeroboam, the Israelites would seem to have been familiar 

        with the Canaanite idols of Baal, Ashera, and Astarte, at least from the time

        of Solomon, who permitted the worship of gods of neighboring peoples in 

        his harem.  The Baal temple built by Ahab doubtless contained an image of

        the god.  The nature of the “horrible thing” set up to the mother-goddess 

        Ashera by Maacah, the mother of Asa is uncertain.  It is apparent that be-

        fore Josiah’s reformation there were many symbols of Canaanite worship 

        in use in Jerusalem.

                  This familiarity on the part of the Hebrews with material represen-

        tations of local deities is the more intelligible when we consider the limited

        area of the settled land in Palestine and the close proximity of the Phoeni-

        cians, Syrians, and Philistines. Some of these gods and goddesses were: 

        Baal or Hadad; Anat; and Hathor or Astarte.  The last of these was repre-

        sented by clay-molded figurines of a naked female, but it is doubtful that 

        these “Astarte plaques” were properly objects of worship.  They may sim-

        ply have served as amulets.

I-2

                   In Palestine and even from Ras Shamra no life-sized idol survives.  

        In the period of the Hebrew settlements the story of Micah in the Danite 

        migration indicates that graven and molten images and other concrete ob-

        jects such as the ephod were used in the cult of Yahweh.  After the 600s 

        B.C., however, the worship of Yahweh was stripped of all suggestion of 

        images.  Any use of idols after that was introduced in the exile period and 

        in the Seleucid period when the pagan nature cults were revived, and 

        Greek cults, such as that of Olympian Zeus.  Such attempts were resolute-

        ly opposed by the hard core of Judaism.

                  In the early Christian community practices connected with idols 

        again became a problem, though in New Testament, references to idols 

        are generally not specifically to images but to the worship of alien gods.  

        In Corinthians 8, 10, and 12, Paul seems to refer to the actual image as 

        having no more than its material significance.  In Romans 2, the terms 

        “idols” probably signifies the worship of actual images.  It is not clear 

        whether the phrase “pollution of idols” means the use of images or the 

        communion feasts, ritual prostitution and other practices associated with 

        the worship of alien gods.

IDOLATRY  (eidwlolatria)  Taken literally in the Old Testament, idolatry may 

        signify the worship of alien gods, generally represented by concrete images

        or idols, or the use of such symbols in Yahweh worship.  In the New Testa-

        ment (NT), the term is used figuratively of undue obsession with any object 

        less than God.

                   The various gods of Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt were repre-

        sented in figurines.  In Egypt, however, though the chief gods were depic-

        ted in human form, most of deities were depicted also with the chief cha-

        racteristics of animals.  This is probably the survival of a primitive local 

        totemism.  In Syria and Palestine also there are indications of associating 

        certain deities with certain animals.  Baal is depicted as an active warrior in

        a helmet garnished with the bull’s horns.  The bull features in the case of 

        El and Baal probably symbolize their procreative powers. Resheph is re-

        presented in Egyptian sculpture with a helmet and gazelle horns.  The Ca-

        naanite fertility-goddess Astarte was associated with the lion. 

                   The Canaanite texts from Ras Shamra shows evidence of a more 

        enlightened theology.  Animals such as Jeroboam’s bull at Bethel and Dan 

        may have been only pedestals or symbols of their presence, like the ark of 

        Yahweh.  Well-known as an object of Canaanite worship is Asherah, the 

        mother-goddess and consort of El.  The fact that Gideon burnt his offering 

        to Yahweh with the Asherah which he had cut down indicates that it was 

        made of wood.  The term “Asherah” signifies either its “erect” position or 

        being the name of the Canaanite mother-goddess.  The association of the 

        mother-goddess with a tree may have been suggested by primitive Semitic 

        animism, where certain trees, thickets, wells, and rocks are thought to be 

        the abode of welis, many of whom may be the survivors of ancient Baalim.

                  The extent to which the Hebrews in the pre-Mosaic period may have 

        shared in the Near Eastern religious traditions is a matter of conjecture &

        must remain so.  The crude animal cult to which Ezekiel alludes is likely to 

        have been an alien importation.  The various places and features hallowed 

        in patriarchal tradition by God-visitations, such as the trees of Mamre and 

        Shechem and the stone of Bethel, suggest that animism was an element 

        in the faith of the early Hebrews.

                   At various times in the history of Israel there was a tendency to 

        adopt the local Canaanite cults either in principle or in detail.  In conside-

        ring the condemnation of idolatry in Israel we must bear in mind the vary-

        ing degrees to which Israel assimilated the culture of Canaan.  In settling to

        the new life of the agriculturist, the Hebrew nomads naturally adopted vari-

        ous local rites, such as the beginning and end of the harvest, and the New 

        Year festival, which was associated with the Feast of Tabernacles. 

                   Psalms and passages in the Prophets on this theme reveal a stri-    

        king affinity in imagery and subject matter with the myth of the kingship of

        Baal.  The popular tendency was to remain satisfied with securing the ma-

        terial benefits of nature, rather than with the moral aspects of faith.  This 

        preoccupation with the material fruits of creation rather than with the nature

        and will of the Creator is idolatry in the general sense.

                   Judges regards the progress and recession of the settlement as re-

        lated to fidelity to the ancestral faith and apostasy to the cult of Canaanite 

        Baal and Ashtaroth.  In the cults sponsored by Jeroboam I, he seems to 

        have simply adapted the cult and kingship of Baal to that of Yahweh in 

        the New Year, where God is celebrate as king.  Ahab established the cult 

        of Baal of Sidon at Samaria.  

                   In Judah the liberal policy of Solomon had encouraged the cults of

        his foreign wives.  From the accounts of the reforms of Hezekiah, it is ap-

        parent that Canaanite idolatry, the cult of Chemosh, and the worship of the

        sun, had pervaded Jerusalem and the temple itself.  The Seleucid Greek 

        rulers of Palestine revived the worship of local fertility gods and tried to 

        establish the worship of Greek deities in Judah and in the temple.  Such 

        cults were resolutely resisted by the Jews.   

I-3

                    In the patriarchal tradition there is a certain amount of evidence of 

        unorthodox liberality in religion.  Joshua 24 may allude to the worship of

        kin-gods by Hebrews.  The worship of any other god than Yahweh and the

        use of any image in Yahweh’s worship are forbidden in the Ten Command-

        ments.  The Hebrew text which was written earlier than the Command-

        ments doesn't forbid the representation of Yahweh, but only the use of ima-

        ges of other gods besides him.  It is possible that some concrete represen-

        tation of Yahweh was used until the time of the formulation of the Ten Com-

        mandments. 

                   A concrete object of worship was visualized in Judges 8.  Gideon 

        used the gold ornaments to make an “ephod.” Gideon’s narrative suggests 

        a free-standing object, but it may also be of cloth or sheet metal, worn by 

        the priest or hung over some symbol.  In Hosea 3, the ephod is associated 

        with a pillar or standing stone, which may indicate that the latter represen-

        ted Yahweh, or at least marked the place where Yahweh was to be found.  

        Hosea mentions ephod, teraphim, and standing stone without condemna-

        tion as necessary objects in the Yahweh cult.

                   From Ezek. 21 and Zech. 10, it is apparent that they were used in 

        divination.  From Genesis 31, we see that seraphim were portable images,

        familiar domestic deities represented by clay figurines.  Whatever their 

        actual nature and significance in early Israel, they were apparently seen as

        legitimate in certain quarters until Hosea’s time.  By Josiah’s time the tera-

        phim were abused and as such uncompromisingly condemned.

                   An animal cult object was the brazen serpent Nehushtan, but it is 

        unlikely that Nehushtan had much significance in Jerusalem’s Hebrew tra-

        dition.  II Kings 18 regards it as a prophylactic amulet associated with Mo-

        ses.  By the time of Hezekiah’s reforms, the brazen serpent at Jerusalem 

        had outlived its practical purpose and so was abolished in those reforms. 

                   In the NT, idolatry, meaning the worship of gods other than the one 

        living and true God, is characteristic of the heathen's life.  The difficulties 

        of the early Christian communities were highlighted in the eating of meat 

        from a sacrificed animal.  For the more sophisticated among the heathen in

        the Greco-Roman world this heathen communion meal had a merely so-

        cial significance.  In the mind of certain less enlightened Christians, the 

        religious association of such meals prevailed.

                   Higher thought in the Greco-Roman world had really outgrown ido-

        latry and the old cults of Greece.  Mystery religions where the individual 

        or community sought to appropriate the experiences of dying and rising na-

        ture deities such as Osiris or Tripolemus were very popular, and the empe-

        ror cult was already accepted in the Eastern Mediterranean by the time of 

        Paul.  In general “idolatry” is used figuratively in the NT, especially in the 

        Pauline letters, and signifies obsession with created things instead of devo-

        tion to the Creator.

               

IDUMEA  (Idoumaia, [land] of the Edomites) See the entry in the Old Testa-

        ment Apocrypha / Influences Outside the Bible section of the Appendix.

IGAL (יגאל, God will redeem him) 1. The spy from Issachar among the 12 

        spies sent out by Moses (Numbers 13).      2.  One of David’s Mighty Men 

        (II Samuel 23); the name was changed to Joel in I Chronicles 11.

                  3.  A descendant of King David through King Jehoachin (I Chronicle).

IGDALIAH  (יגדליהו, the Lord be extolled)  A obscure Judean prophet whose 

        grandsons had a chamber in the temple under Josiah  (Jeremiah 35).

I-4

IGNORANCE (שגגה (shah gaw gaw), error; agnoia (ag noy ee ah))  In the 

        Old Testament, unwitting sin, although less serious than conscious trans-

        gression involves and requires atonement.  Shagaga is found in legislative 

        passages, where this sin is contrasted with sins committed “with a high 

        hand,” for which there is no atonement.  

                   It is apparent that for the Hebrew even a sin of ignorance was taken 

        seriously as incurring guilt.  The fact that one wasn't aware of wrongdoing 

        does not excuse one; guilt automatically attaches itself to the deed.  This 

        conception is from an earlier mentality where the unwitting sin violates ri-

        tual or taboo.  The consciousness of guilt attaching to it ought to be viewed

        viewed as coming from a deep, spiritual insight into the pervasiveness of 

        sin.  That a sin committed in ignorance was considered less serious than a 

        deliberate sin, appears very clearly in the provision of cities of refuge for 

        those guilty of manslaughter.  It is considered a serious transgression to 

        lead others into these sins.  By extension of meaning these word come 

        simply to stand for all sin.

                   The New Testament takes the more Greek point of view when it 

        speaks of ignorance as the want of knowledge.  In the purely intellectual 

        sense, the concept of “ignorance” appears in various shades of meaning.  

        Intellectual ignorance can, however, lead to sin; in fact, ignorance of God 

        and of the gospel is identical with spiritual estrangement and apostasy.  

        Equally serious is the failure of Jews to acknowledge Christ and to under-

        stand the true “righteousness” of God. 

IIM (עיים (ee yeem), ruins) 1.  One of a list of cities “in the extreme South,” 

        which were allotted to Judah.

IJON (עיון (ee yone), ruin)  An important Israelite town in the extreme 

        north of Palestine.  It is probably located in Merj ‘Ayyun, between the 

        watershed of the Litani River and Mount Hermon; the exact site is un-

        known.  Ijon was among the Israelite towns captured by Ben-hadad of 

        Damascus during the reign of Baasha of Israel.

IKHNATON.  See Akhenaton.

IKKESH  (עקש, false, deceitful)  A Tekoite whose son Ira was a member of

        the company of David’s heroes known as the “thirty.”

ILAI  (עילי, supreme)  An Ahohite who was a member of the Mighty Men of

        David known as “the Thirty.”

ILLLYRICUM (‘Illurikon)  A Roman province on the east coast of the Adriatic

        Sea.  The limits of this area were variable, but in general it may be said to 

        have been bounded by Pannonia on the north, Moessia on the east, Epi-

        rus on the south, and the Adriatic on the west.  The Greek historian Strabo 

        speaks of the wildness and the piratical habits of the people.  

                   The Greeks came in contact with the Illyrians when Chersikrates of 

        Corinth expelled the Liburnians, an Illyrian tribe, from the island of Cor-

        cyra.  In succeeding centuries Greek colonies were established in Illyria 

        notably at Salona near Spalato.  When the Gauls invaded Greece (279 

        B.C.), they sent an army against the Illyrians and the Macedonians.  

                   Illyrian acts of aggression against the Greek colonies and of piracy 

        against both Greek and Roman shipping reached a climax under Queen 

        Teuta and led to war with Rome in 229 B.C.  Although Teuta surrendered 

        large parts of Illyria to the Romans, the conflict continued.  In 168 B.C. a 

        Roman army under Anicus overcame the Illyrian people, but regular Ro-

        man government was not established in the region until Julius Caesar was 

        granted the governorship of Illyricum for five years. 

                   After Tiberius put down the Dalmatian rebellion in 11 B.C., the region

        became an imperial province.  Yet again in 6 A.D. there was a great revolt 

        of the Dalmatians as well as the Pannonians; this too was suppressed by 

        Tiberius after 3 years of fighting.  It is uncertain whether Paul means in Ro-

        mans 15 that he had actually preached in Illyricum.  Christianity is known 

        in Illyricum from the third century.

IMAGE, IMAGERY.  A graphic description, or pictorial representation of reality.  

        The Oriental had a love for the concrete and the practical.  He expressed 

        his ideas pictorially.  Contemplation was in terms of life situation.  The 

        Hebrew was too practical for a metaphysical search for absolute good-

        ness, beauty, truth.  The distinction between the historical and the imagi-

        native, between fact and figure, is not clear-cut.  For the ancient Hebrew, 

        the secular and the sacred were one.  The world was an expression of the 

        divine, and the movements of humans and nature were related to his direct

        action and control.

                   The imagery of the Bible is expressive of the life of the Hebrews, 

        who lived between the desert and the sea, threatened by ambitious neigh-

        bors.  The hopes and fears of the people are expressed in the imagery of 

        the day.  The imagery of the Old Testament and of God is rich and expres-

        sive in its variety, and taken from the most common and elemental experi-

        ences of life.

I-5

                   The New Testament is equally rich in imagery. Jesus speaks of the 

        kingdom of God in terms of every-day imagery.  Salvation is portrayed in 

        figures drawn from the law court, the slave market, the market place. What 

        the biblical writer accomplished by imagery was to relate faith to the life 

        situation and experience of people.  The problem of interpretation and re-

        interpretation, the presenting of the gospel in terms of contemporary ima-

        gery, is the ever-current need.

IMAGE OF GOD  (צלם (tseh lem); דמות, dem ooth, likeness; eikon 

        (i kone)).  The Hebrew word tselem occurs 17 times in the Old Testament 

        (OT); 5 of those are in Genesis 1, 5, and 9 and have an abstract sense.  In 

        10 of the others the meaning is plainly concrete.  It is possible that the 2 

        groups of words mentioned above come from 2 different word-roots.  The 

        Hebrew word demuth may be used in either an abstract or a concrete 

        sense.  

                   We must look at the expression in isolation from the “sea change” 

        which it underwent when it was taken up into New Testament (NT) 

        thought. The Priestly narrative tells that humans were made in the image 

        of God.  The primary reference is to a concrete resemblance, but we must 

        credit the writer with some intention to convey an abstract idea.  The OT 

        never suggests that the image of the God was lost by the Fall.  In the NT 

        the image of God is something which does not belong to humans; it is iden-

        tified with Christ.  Through his relation to Christ the believer is trans-

        formed into the same image. 

                   The primary OT evidence is Genesis 1, 5, 9, which clearly were writ-

        ten with reference to one another.  Interpretation of the Priestly Writer’s 

        statements has fallen somewhere between two extreme views.  At the one 

        extreme are those who take the Hebrew words tselem and demuth in the 

        most strictly concrete sense.  Either humans are a concrete and literally-

        physical image of God, or that they are made after an actual concrete 

        model or image of God.  The fact that the Priestly Writer is at pains else-

        where in Genesis 1 to exclude mythology would suggest that here too he 

        may be deliberately rejecting mythology.  The distinction between man and 

        woman were made in the image of God may imply a rejection of the view 

        that man and woman were made in the image of a god and a goddess.

                   At the other extreme are the interpretations which are purely spiri-

        tual.  The image of God is something which the Priestly Writer believes to 

        be characteristic of all humankind.  The reason for the command not to 

        commit murder was that humankind was made in the image of God.  The 

        fact that the passage in Genesis 9 implies that human life has a greater 

        sanctity than animal life implies that the writer intends by the phrase “image

        of God” to express in some way the human’s peculiar dignity.

                   If we start with the writer thinking of humans as the image of God in 

        the sense in which a statue can represent the absent ruler, it will be seen 

        that immediately humans acquire dignity and authority.  But external resem-

        blance does not exclude spiritual resemblance, and the OT does not treat 

        humankind as a duality of body and soul. Man and animals are distinct, &

        the distinction must not be obscured. The possibility that a physical resem-

        blance between God and humans is intended should not be excluded.

                  In the OT there is a curious cycling between the belief that God can't 

        be seen & can be seen.  What the writer in Genesis says is that God has 

        made humankind an image of God’s self, while at the same time avoiding 

        physical descriptions of God.  So, when the Priestly writer uses the con-

        crete term tsehlem, he may well be seeking to convey an abstract idea.

                   Perhaps we may conclude that the Priestly writer seems to have 

        reached a measure of abstraction & that for him the image of God means 

        personality.  The “image of God” may mean that which gives authority, 

        and that God has made humans to have responsibility and authority.  Al-

        though the image of God must not be defined solely as the task of ruling 

        over the lower creation, the two are closely related.  In Psalm 8 and else-

        where, God grants humankind a status little less than divine and royal 

        honors that humans may exercise God’s rule. The glory and honor with 

        which humans are crowned suggest both outer beauty and inner dignity.

                   The OT view of the image of God appears without alteration in two 

        passages of the NT: I Corinthians 11; and James 3.  Paul uses eikon, and 

        James uses omoiosis.  Elsewhere there is a change of meaning in eikon 

        from mere “likeness” to “perfect reflection of the prototype.”  This new 

        meaning has almost completely obliterated the thought of humans as be-

        ing in the image of God and replaced it with the thought of Christ as be-    

        ing the image of God.  While humans are God’s children already, an even 

        more glorious destiny is in store, a likeness to God or to Christ, in whom 

        God is visible.

I-6

                     It is in the Pauline writing that the new thought of Christ as the 

        image of God is most fully worked out.  In Colossians 1, Christ is the image

        of the invisible God.”  Paul is concerned with practical consequences of 

        this.  Paul identifies the man made in the image of God found in Genesis 1 

        solely with Christ.  It is worth noting that Paul says nothing of the pre-exis-

        tence of Christ as man. The man from heaven in I Colossians is not pre-

        existent man.  Paul’s mind is filled with the thought that it is only in relation 

        with Christ that humans can attain the likeness to God which at the first 

        was only humankind’s in promise.

                   As Christians are in this Christ, the relationship will work itself out in

        the relationships existing in the Christian community, forming a community

        in which racial, religious, and social distinctions will no longer have any 

        meaning, “but Christ is all, and in all” (Ephesians 4).  Above all, Christians 

        must “put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” 

        This is a hope and a reality at the same time, “for we all are being changed 

        into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.

IMAGINATION (מחשבות (ma khesh eh both), thought, design, project, 

        שרירות (sher ee rooth), firmness, stubbornness; dialogismoV (dee al 

        og is mos), thought, reasoning; logismoV (log is mos), calculation).  This 

        noun in the older English versions such as the King James Version is a 

        source of misconception to the modern reader.  In Old English "imagina-

        tion" has the obsolete sense of “plotting or devising evil” rather than the 

        current sense, which would be a foreign concept to ancient Hebrews. They 

        weren't given to fantasy and conceived of mental activity primarily in terms 

        of preparation for action.  

                   The New Revised Standard Version translates machesheboth as 

        “plans.” The word imagination is also used in a series of passages to trans-

        late sheriboth, which properly means “firmness” or “stubbornness.”  Using

        “imagination” for certain words in the New Testament causes similar confu-

        sion.  Dialogismos and logismos are better translated as given above. 

IMLAH  (ימלא, he (God) will fill him)  The father of the prophet Micaiah 

        (I Kings 22; II Chronicles 18).

IMMANENCE.  A philosophical term often used to express the biblical view that 

        while God is elevated in majesty (transcendent), he is also actively present 

        in human affairs.

IMMANUEL  (עמנו אל, god with us)  A symbolic name to be given to the 

        child whose birth was foretold by Isaiah as the sign to Ahaz and his court 

        that God would deliver them from their enemies (Isaiah 7,8).

                   In 734 B.C., Judah was threatened by Syria’s king Rezin and Isra-

        el’s (Northern Kingdom) Pekah, to force Judah to join a coalition against 

        Assyria’s Tiglath-Pileser.  If necessary, they would depose the Davidic 

        Ahaz and set up “the son of Tabeel,” probably an Aramean.  Isaiah was in-

        structed to take his son Shear-Jashub and assure King Ahaz that if he had

        faith, he had nothing to fear from Rezin and Pekah; Ahaz was unconvinced.

                   Isaiah confronted Ahaz again in the presence of the court, offering 

        him a sign from Yahweh.  Ahaz declined to ask, saying that it was not for 

        him to put God to the test.  Isaiah’s indignant response points to Ahaz mas-

        king hypocrisy under a show of piety.  He said: “Therefore the Lord will 

        give you a sign: See the young woman is pregnant and will give birth to a 

        son, and will give him the name Immanuel.”  Isaiah adds the assurance 

        that the danger to Judah will pass.

                   The above sentence is the subject of much discussion.  The word 

        translated “young woman” is almah.  The word properly denotes a young 

        woman of marriageable age.  At one time the word may have denoted a 

        woman until the birth of her first child, though there is no proof of this.  

        Another problem is the force of the article in “the young woman.”  It could 

        mean “a young woman,” “any young woman,” or “young women.”  The 

        second part of the phrase could mean “is pregnant” or “shall be pregnant.”  

        The word oth or “sign” can be used of either natural or supernatural.  The 

        sign first offered to Ahaz appears to be supernatural from the context.  The 

        predicted sign of the more famous verse could be natural.

                   Opinion is also sharply divided on whether the “sign is a promise or 

        a threat.  The first sign is clearly a promise.  But since Ahaz is obdurate, 

        the promise is turned to a threat; the broader context of the second sign is 

        one of general desolation and privation.  The contrary argument is that in 

        all similar annunciation passages, the birth of the child bodes good.  “Ho-

        ney and butter” can be interpreted as a sign of privation, as in the oppo-

        sing argument, or as luxury items and a sign of promise.

                   There is a verse in Micah 5 that is similar to the one in Isaiah 7. In 

        both passages, the child's birth is to be followed by Israel & Judah's reun-

        ion.  The earliest clear Christian interpretation is Matthew 1 in which the 

        Immanuel oracle is a prophecy of the virgin birth of Christ.  The Jews reac-

        ted strongly against the Christian interpretation.  They maintained that Im-

        manuel was Hezekiah, the first-born son of Ahaz.  The Christians replied 

        that Hezekiah must already have been nine years at the time of the Imma-

        nuel prophecy.

I-7

                   For the last 200 years, the traditional Christian interpretation was 

        being increasingly abandoned.  By the 1900s many scholars take the arti-

        cle in halmah to make the sign to mean little more than an assurance that 

        the situation would change so much for the better, that women would be 

        calling their sons Immanuel.  The Immanuel sign would thus no longer 

        have any messianic significance.

                   There are some scholars who have maintained something like the 

        traditional interpretation, especially in light of the many ancient myths 

        which tell of the virgin birth of a wonder child.  In the Ras Shamra Texts 

        the children are the offspring of divine, or at least royal, marriages.  In 

        this context, the Immanuel sign could be seen as part of a royal formula 

        applying specifically to King Ahaz.  There is no indication that Hezekiah 

        or any contemporary of Isaiah was actually named Immanuel.

                   The problems presented in Isaiah 7 are complicated; right now no 

        final answer can be given.  There have been Protestant scholars who have 

        favored the traditional interpretation that the sign is a direct prediction of 

        Christ.  It is difficult to see how a long range prediction could have any 

        meaning for Ahaz, especially since Isaiah 7:14ff. appears to say that the 

        child will be born within a comparatively short time.  The possibility must

        be considered that a prophecy may have an immediate fulfillment which 

        doesn't exhaust its meaning.  The promise to King Ahaz in Isaiah 7 stands 

        in the middle of the process between the early expectations of a wonder 

        child in other religions and the fulfilled expectation of God’s Incarnation 

        in Christ.  

IMMER  (אמר , lamb)  1.  A priest or priestly house first listed as a contempo-

        rary of David in I Chronicles 24.  The line is represented among the priests 

        returned from Babylon.  Two of them were persuaded by Ezra to divorce 

        their foreign wives.

                   2. A Babylonian place from which exiled Jews who could not prove

        their ancestry, returned to Palestine.  

IMMORALITY  (porneia (por ni ah))  Some kinds of unlawful sexual inter-

        course.  Paul fears he will find many cases of (sexual) immorality in 

        Corinth.  The man who engages in immorality sins against his own body.  

        Because of the temptation of immorality, it is better for people to marry.

IMMORTALITY (aqanasia (ath an as ee ah) Once a relationship between 

        Yahweh and Death had been affirmed, there could be hope of a victory 

        over death.  The life that Yahweh possesses is, moreover, a source of life 

        that he puts at the service of the God’s faithfulness to humankind & God’s

        covenant with them.  Yahweh can restore a life weakened by illness.  

        Nothing prevents Yahweh from exercising this regenerating power, once 

        death has completed its work.  In the case of the lives restored by Elijah 

        and Elisha, the resurrections are more akin to the cure of the very ill than 

        to the final resurrection; they only prolonged life.

                   Faith in immortality was oriented in two directions.  1st, the idea 

        of a possible return to life gained wider and wider acceptance.  The Israe-

        lites were influenced by the Canaanite belief in the death and resurrection 

        of a divinity who symbolized the life of nature.  It is likely that Israel may

        have shared with its neighbors a belief in the immortality of the king.

                   The resurrection of the dead idea underlies certain images in which

        the Israelites’ future includes resurrection.  Both Hos. 6 & Ezek. 37 speak 

        of resurrection.  In Isaiah’s fourth song of the Servant of Yahweh (Isa. 58), 

        a long, probably immortal, life is mentioned.  This life is granted him as a 

        compensation for his sufferings and death, which are accepted as expia-

        tion for the sins of others.  In Daniel 12 resurrection is extended to a grea-

        ter number, where those just people who were martyred are rewarded and 

        others are punished. 

                   As well as being an expression of retribution, resurrection appears

        as the logical consequence of the extension of Yahweh’s reign over all the

        earth.  Even though the hope of an eternal life based on the soul’s immorta-

        lity was far less important in Israel than faith in Yahweh’s power and justice,

        nonetheless Israelite faith was likely influenced by the Iranian religion, with 

        its cosmic myth of the world’s destruction and renewal.

                   The 2nd current of thought is that of trusting to God for the choice

        of a solution, asking no other certitude than communion with God.  For 

        Psalm 16’s author, communion with Yahweh is so strong a reality that it 

        couldn't be destroyed by death.  Psalm 49’s author is certain that since he 

        has been just and faithful, death will not be the inexorably destructive force 

        that it will be for the ungodly.  Similar attitudes appear in Psalm 73 and in 

        Job 19, where Job’s faith is in knowing that his communion with God will 

        exist, whatever happens. 

I-8

                   It is this profoundly religious current which contributed the most 

        strongly to transforming the idea of the resurrection into a living faith. (See

        also the entry in the Old Testament Apocrypha / Influences Outside the 

        Bible section of the Appendix.).  These ideas, however, were far from recei-

        ving unanimous acceptance, and popular Judaism compromised between 

        the beliefs inherited from the Old Testament and the Greek or Greco-Ira-

        nian ideas.  The idea of combining immortality of the soul with resurrection 

        carried over into the New Testament, where a belief in immortality and in a 

        life near God following death is found.         

IMNA  (ימנע, whom he restrains)  A descendant of Asher (I Chronicles 7).

IMNAH (ימנה, good fortune) 1. The ancestor and origin of a family name; listed

        as a son of Asher (Genesis 46).

                   2.  A Levite; the father of Kore in the time of King Hezekiah (II Chro-

        nicles 31).

IMPALEMENT.   Ancient Near Eastern method of execution, whereby a spike 

        stake was set in the ground & a living body thrust upon it (usually between 

        the legs).  Impalement was practiced by the Assyrians for prisoners of war, 

        deserters and malefactors guilty of the more horrible crimes and unnatural 

        vice.

IMPEDIMENT IN SPEECH (mogilaloV (mo gih la los))  Labored speech; a 

        disturbance of the organ of speech, causing one to speak with difficulty.  

        Even though the word alalous in Matthew 7 suggests “mute” or “dumb,” 

        another word and phrase in the same chapter would indicate that man with

        an impediment in his speech was unintelligible in his speaking, rather than

        without the faculty of speech.  The author’s choice of words was meant to 

        recall a verse in Isaiah 35 which prophesied the messiah’s actions.

IMPRISONMENT.  See Crimes and Punishments.

IMPURITY.  See Clean and Unclean.

IMRAH  (ימרה, he will rebel)  A descendant of Asher (I Chronicles 7).

IMRI  (אמרי, Yahweh  has promised))  1.  Ancestor of one of the returned 

        exiles (I Chronicles 9).

                   2. The father of the Zaccur who helped repair the Jerusalem’s walls

        in the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 3).

INCANTATIONS.  Ceremonial chants used by magicians to exorcise malevo-

        lent spirits and to heal the sick.  The incantations were chanted and sub- 

        stances charged with supernatural potency were used at the same time.

                   The quality of the ingredients varied in accordance with the nature 

        of the sickness, but the spells remained the same.  They were collected 

        and classified by the conjuration priests into special “incantation series.”  

        The Babylonian incantation consisted of the invocation of the great gods, 

        the identification of the spirit, and the call on the demon to leave the body

        of the sufferer.  We have no existing text of a Palestinian incantation from

        the biblical period.

                   In Acts 19, “itinerant Jewish exorcists used the name of the Lord 

        Jesus over those with evil spirits.”  The invocation of the name of Jesus 

        was part of an incantation formula used by these exorcists.  Incantation 

        manuals were in circulation in Ephesus, as evidenced by the verse in the 

        same chapter mentioning that several were brought together to be burned.

 INCARNATION.  God’s becoming human; more particularly the revelation of 

        God in the human life of Jesus of Nazareth.  Incarnation signifies the as-

        sumption by a divine being of human or animal form.  The elevation of a 

        human being to divine honors is also to be distinguished from incarnation. 

                    Fundamental Significance—The idea of incarnation is also 

        found in various religions, but most seriously in Christianity.  In Hinduism, 

        Buddhism, and Egyptian religion, the central figure was an incarnation of 

        one of the gods.  Distinctive of Christianity is the note of finality in the 

        thought of Christ’s incarnation.

I-9

                     John 1:14 is the fundamental affirmation of Christianity, for Jesus 

        ben Joseph was no mere Galilean, or Jew. He was the incarnation of God. 

        He was the revelation not only of human abilities (carpenter, teacher, pro-

        phet), but also of divine truth and power.  Jesus was not a temporary repre-

        sentation of a deity, nor was he adopted, or promoted, to divine status at a 

        certain point in his earthly career.  This last theory was early defined as 

        heresy.  From the very beginning of his earthly existence he was God incar-

        nate, although his humanity was fully real.  

                   In the flesh the Logos or mind of God was expressed.  He is to be 

        identified with it, and his human life made God’s mind personally present 

        among humankind.  The coming of Christ is explicable in terms of the best 

        human thinking up to that date about God and his self-communication to 

        the world.  The eternal, cosmic, mediating principle between God and the 

        world is no longer philosophic, but a human life.  The meaning of the uni-

        verse and the nature of God are related to the nature of Christ.

                   How much more is implied by incarnation than by Revelation?  

        Roughly speaking, the Logos doctrine explains revelation well enough.  

        John goes further when he declares that Logos became immanent in a hu-

        man life.  But this is more than speaking of revelation at a point in history.  

        Incarnation is the final form of revelation.  The revelation in Christ so much

        surpasses other revelation as to make John assert that other revelations 

        don't count. The ultimate goal of knowing and being known by God is 

        brought within reach through Christ’s ministry among men.

                   A doctrine of the Incarnation must take some account of the Atone-

        ment.  It is not only Christ’s birth as a man, but also his whole life as revea-

        ler of the divine concern for man and as solver of human problem.  His 

        achievement was not simply his, for God was operating in and through him.

        The paradox of God incarnate, of Christ as God-Man, is typical of the whole

        operation of God as our redeemer.   

                   In the Old Testament—The transcendence and holiness of God is 

        axiomatic in the thought of the Old Testament, so incarnation can't so easily

        be accommodated.  As partial anticipations of the New Testament doctrine 

        the following points should be noted.

              a.) God is close to humans, controlling human action.  

              b.) Humans have an affinity with God. 

   c.) God bestows God’s spirit upon those who have special tasks to 

         perform.  

   d.) Isaiah 7 implies that in some human lives God’s presence is parti-

         cularly known.  

   e.)There is important teaching about divine self-manifestation.  

   f.) It was held by some rabbis that not only Messiah, but also the Law

         and the temple were created before the world.  This isn't pre-exis-

         tence in the metaphysical sense.  Neither the Old Testament nor 

         later Judaism seems to hold that the Messiah really existed before

         his actual appearance.

        So, to accept the Gospel of John’s identification of the Messiah with the 

        Logos is to break the bounds both of pre-existence and of messiahship as 

        previously understood.  The Incarnation had no real precedent.   

                   In the Gospels—Mark’s Gospel has no birth narrative or genealogy,

        but it gives prominence to Jesus’ divine sonship.  Jesus is acclaimed “my 

        beloved Son” by a heavenly voice at his baptism and transfiguration.  Note-

        worthy in Mark’s narrative, is the recognition of Jesus’ divine nature by 

        demons and by the centurion at the Cross.  The parable of laborers in the 

        vineyard is primarily intended to illustrate the martyrdom of God’s final 

        messenger.  Jesus’ sonship is distinguished from the relationship of other 

        servants of God to him and it is destined to lead to self-sacrifice in death.  

        The parable is told under the shadow of the cross, and in it we have Jesus’ 

        own conception of his destiny.  The historical accuracy of the accounts of 

        Jesus trial is more doubtful.

                   Mark’s basic Christology is used in the developed Christologies of 

        Matthew and Luke.  The theme of Jesus as the one who establishes the 

        kingdom of God is more emphasized in Matthew and Luke than in Mark; 

        Jesus’ relationship with God is not precisely defined.  As Messiah, Jesus 

        himself is King of Israel, and this receives some prominence.  The most 

        significant additional materials of Matthew and Luke are their accounts of 

        the birth of Jesus and the primitive sayings of the Q source.   

                   The birth narratives of Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels testify that, 

        though the birth of Christ was real, his paternity was divine rather than 

        human.  According to Luke, Mary’s child was conceived without human 

        sexual relationship.  Mary has the unique honor of being the instrument of 

        divine action, but no special glorification of her as the virgin mother is in-

        tended in the Lukan record.

I-10

                 Matthew, like Luke, connects the birth of Jesus with the action of the 

        Holy Spirit, and with messiahship. Peculiar to Matthew is the reference to 

        Isaiah 7, where the Hebrew does not imply virginity.  The absence of hu-

        man paternity is just as much emphasized by Matthew as by Luke.  Mo-

        dern criticism is inclined to pronounce the virgin birth unhistorical.  How-

        ever, an unprecedented divine incursion into human conditions presuppo-

        ses willingness to admit unprecedented circumstances.  

                    The Isaiah quotation in Matthew indicates that the birth of Christ 

        was part of the eternal purpose of God. Secondly, both writers have some-

        thing to say about the spiritual preparation of the parents.  Certainly the 

        reality of Christ’s birth is affirmed in these birth narratives.  He was truly 

        born, and his body was not a mere semblance.

                   Matthew 11 and Luke 10 mirror Jesus’ own awareness of depen-

        dence on God and of mission to make God known to humans.  The Father 

        chooses to grant the revelation of God’s self to the humble upon earth, and

        the revelation of the Son as God’s mediator.  His earthly existence is the 

        outcome of that divine purpose.   The unique sonship of Jesus stands in 

        contrast with a general sonship which is granted to all who believe in God 

        and accept God as Father.  What matters above all is the relation with God 

        created by obedience. 

                   In John’s Gospel the Incarnation has special prominence.  In the 4th

        Gospel its eternal aspect is much more emphasized, and the sonship and 

        messiahship of Jesus are considered in their relationship to the eternal be-

        ing of God.  John does not commence with the baptism, nor with his birth.  

        John opens his gospel with a reference to creation.   The very opening 

        words, “In the beginning,” are identical with the opening words of the Old 

        Testament and of creation.  The ministry of Jesus is part of the self-commu-

        nication of God to humans.  What was manifested in the activity of Jesus 

        was nothing less than the Word. 

                   The term “Word” had enjoyed considerable currency before John 

        wrote his gospel.  John chose the term and applied it to Jesus because his 

        earthly life and ministry were actually the revealing of the divine purpose to

        humans.  In conceiving that the work of Jesus could be described as the 

        operation of the Logos,  John has to state that the Logos actually entered 

        the human sphere as a human being.  The fleshly existence of the Word 

        began with the human life of Jesus of Nazareth, imparting through the 

        “flesh” grace and truth & glory. The precise meaning of the verb “became”

        is difficult to determine, and perhaps it is unwise to attempt to define it too 

        precisely.  The divine Logos entered, not merely the mind, but the body 

        (flesh) of a particular man.

                   The eternal thus entering history, and being concentrated in a sin-

        gle human life poses a philosophical problem.  But John felt that nothing 

        short of this must be affirmed if the significance of the historic life of Jesus

        was to be brought out as a manifestation of ultimate reality.  John felt that 

        he must assert that the Logos became flesh.  In this gospel this “becoming”

        is the focal point, the decisive event for human salvation.  The Gospel of 

        John is the fountainhead of the type of Christian theology which is called 

        incarnational.  The necessity of Christ’s passion, and his significance as 

        the Lamb of God who takes away the world’s sin are also emphasized in 

        this gospel. 

                   This focusing on revelation rather than on atonement, and on the 

        divine initiative rather than on Christ’s dealing with the human problem is 

        new and significant.  Probably the Gnostic myth of the Redeemer has exer-

        ted some influence on John in these passages; the significant difference is 

        that for Jesus exaltation in glory had to be preceded by exaltation in suffe-

        ring and death.  The descent of Christ for earthly ministry tends to place 

        the emphasis on the fact that incarnation involves atonement, and not vice 

        versa.  

                   The incarnation means revelation of the divine glory and dwelling.  

        No tabernacle is now necessary, no Jerusalem temple either.  The opposi-

        tion of human society is frankly recorded in the Gospel of John.  The Re-

        vealer forces men into the valley of decision, and they must either respond

        with faith or remain in darkness.  After the announcement of the Incarna-

        tion the term “Logos” is laid aside.  Christ is referred to, and refers to him-

        self, mainly as the Son of God.   

                  For the full understanding of what incarnation means, therefore, the

        implications of divine sonship must be drawn out; the mission of the Son is 

        grounded in the divine’s love for the world.  Through this term which John

        shares with other New Testament writers, we learn that the significance of 

        love in human relationships is to be seen in the self-giving of God.  

                   The divine self-giving which prompted the incarnation, and was 

        complemented by Christ’s self-sacrifice, is the heart of the gospel and the 

        sole hope of man.  John has, in fact, used the idea of love to interpret the 

        nature of God, revelation, redemption, and moral relationships within the 

        redeemed community.  In this gospel Christ says, “I am in the Father and 

        the Father in me.”  This is his sole claim to authority in the church or to 

        significance for humanity.    

I-11

                   In Acts and the Letters—The Christology of Acts might be de-

        scribed as adoptionist rather than incarnational. Christ appears as Messiah

        and judge of mankind. He can also be called Son of God, but this seems 

        to contain no suggestion about his divine origin, and is based not of his 

        birth, but on his resurrection.

                   I Peter is more concerned with the passion of Christ and his coming 

        again than with his first coming.  The first is referred to as a realization in 

        time of a divine decision before the beginning of time.  The imminence of 

        the end makes the second manifesting of Christ more prominent than the 

        first.  II Peter asserts the reality or historicity of earthly career; it was no 

        myth. 

                  For Paul’s understanding of the Incarnation, these statements about 

        Christ’s divine sonship are relevant.  

                            Galatians 4:4-5 The period before Christ was “under the 

                law,”  i.e. the Mosaic law or other moral codes; it was a kind of 

                slavery.  “The law was our custodian until Christ came.” God’s 

                intention was that goodness should be achieved and the coming of 

                Christ was the means of this achievement. The object was libera-

                tion by which the former slaves became free and attained the sta-

                tus of divine sonship.

                     In conferring freedom he had to submit to human conditions

           of heredity, and of social and physical environment.  The miracle 

           resides, not in the physical conditions, but in the divine purpose 

           “when God sent forth his Son.”

                    Galatians is not more explicit as to how Christ’s coming 

           secured these benefits. Humans left to their own resources, even 

           with moral guidance from a code, could not achieve the good life. 

           The need has been met by Christ’s coming into human life. Some-

           how he removed the limiting factor and liberated humankind. 

                    Christ so confronts humankind with God’s righteousness that

           it becomes available for them. Whatever metaphor may be used for

           the mode of God’s control of Christ, it is definite that he is God’s
           representative.
                    Philippians 2:6-8   The second main passage refers to the 

           birth and death of Christ, the beginning and end of his earthly life.

           His pre-existence is assumed. Equality with God was his by right.

           Becoming a human meant renouncing that heavenly status. He ex-

           tended it to the point of dying a slave’s death. 

                    Incarnation meant a temporary laying aside of divinity.  

           Christ’s earthly ministry is thought of as voluntary self-impoverish-

           ment. In both passages the paradox of the Incarnation is stressed. 

           It was alien to Jewish messianic expectations. Paul would agree 

           that in assuming human nature Christ didn't assume liability to sin. 

                    In 2 important passages Christ is spoken of as second Adam, 

           as realizing the ideal which the first Adam failed to attain.  This 

           means that Christ opened a new possibility for human life. “He be-

           came what we are that we might become what he is.”
                    Colossian 1:15-20 This passage does not explicitly mention 

           the coming of Christ, but gives us Paul’s thought about his pre-exis-

           tence. Christ is God’s likeness or image. This term was used of the 

           Logos as well as of humans in the creation. 

                    This divine intention, which actual humans never realized, is 

           realized in Christ. The universe was created by Christ’s agency

           and to serve Christ’s ends. Christ is the Lord who will also preside 

           over a final consummation. 

                    Christ’s headship in the universe and of humankind generally

           is paralleled by Christ’s headship in the redeemed society, the
           church. Christ’s work can be described as reconciliation in the 

           whole universe. For this Christ has unlimited divine support and 

           accreditation.  Christ’s presence in the world and in the church is 

           the divulging of the “mystery” of God’s purpose.
                   The Pastorals offer isolated references to Christ’s incarnation. 

        “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (I Timothy 1). The 

        fact that he was “manifested in the flesh” (I Timothy 3) reads like a quo-

        tation from a rudimentary creed. Incarnation is the prelude to Christ’s 

        work of abolishing death and conferring the new light of true life and 

        immortality.
                   In Hebrews the Incarnation isn't stressed in and for itself, but as 

        the prelude to Christ’s dealing with sin, the basis of humankind’s grea-

        test need. In contrast with the prophets, Christ is God’s son. All the dig-

        nity and intimate relationship to God which this implies is emphatically 

        stated in chapter 1. His actual birth is not mentioned, but his superiority,

        not only to prophets but also to angels, is brought out. 

                   Christ “partook of the same nature” as Abraham’s descendants. 

        This self-subjection involved death and the conquest of the devil. His 

        sinlessness is generally implied rather than asserted. Though Hebrews 

        is explicit on Christ’s personal perfection, it is mainly concerned with 

        efficacy of his ministry.  According to this line of thought the Incarna-

        tion was simply the commencement of a fully efficacious ministry by 

        which in and death, and the Devil were overcome. The once-for-all-ness

        of this achievement is underlined. It was final and unrepeatable.

I-12

INCENSE  (קטרת (ket o reth), fat burned as incense; לבונה (leb o naw), 

        frankincense)  A compound of gums and spices intended to be burned; the 

        perfume arising from these substances when burned. 

                   In their early uses the above 2 words were distinct in meaning.  The 

        term qetoret was 1^st used with reference to the sacrificial victims’ smoke.

        Subsequently the term was used with reference to the smoke of frankin-

        cense and other aromatics.  Incense compounded according to a specified 

        formula was used extensively in the temple’s ritual.  This pure incense was

        equal parts stacte, onycha, galbanum, and frankincense.  Pure incense, 

        which could not be used for secular purposes, was burned on the altar of 

        incense.  This altar was a miniature replica of the altar of burnt offering.  

        Incense was burned here by the high priest morning and evening.

                  Virtually all the references in the first five books of the Old Testament

        occur in the Priestly Code.  This led some scholars to believe that offering 

        of incense was a late refinement, as the prophets of the 700s B.C. made 

        no allusion to such a feature in the cult.  Israelite religious tradition regar-

        ded the offering as an ancient one & as a local parallel to a practice which 

        was widely known among the worshipers of false divinities.

                   The offering of incense came to possess several powers in the Isra-

        elite tradition.  Purificatory powers were attributed to the burning of incense

        in time of plague, & a sanitizing influence was seen in its use in places of 

        slaughter and sacrifice.  Incense was costly, suitable for princes & leaders.

        The Israelite, like many another ancients, assumed that the deity, like his 

        people, would enjoy the fragrance of burning incense; it was assumed that 

        they were effective in making atonement before him.   Technically the pre-

        rogative of making the offering belonged to the high priest, and unqualified 

        persons or those doing it improperly were sometimes struck dead.  Zecha-

        riah received divine revelations while offering incense.

INCENSE, DISH FOR (כף (kaf), the hollow or palm of the hand)  Lists of 

        the furnishings of both the Tabernacle and the temple include a number of 

        these incense vessels, made of pure gold.  They are also mentioned in the 

        account of the building of Solomon’s temple.  They were among the plun-

        der taken by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.  The function of these vessels in-

        dicates that they were shallow bowls; the literal meaning of the Hebrew 

        “palm of the hand,” suggests that they may have been shallow stone bowls 

        found in Palestine and Syria.  These have hollow handles into which a woo-

        den pipe was probably attached.  They are often carved with lions’ heads 

        and other cultic symbols. 

INCENSE ALTAR (מזבח קטרת (miz bay akh  ket o reth))  This term refers to

        the altar of incense of the wilderness sanctuary, and may also be applied to

        the golden altar of Solomon’s temple.  The incense altar was intended to 

        be portable, consisted of a gold-overlaid table with horns, measuring one 

        cubit by one cubit by two cubits (.5 meters x .5 meters x 1 meter) .

                   We can identify two types of altars for the period between the 900s 

        and the 400s B.C.  One is a rectangular hewn block of stone—often provi-

        ded with a decorative border and horns on 4corners.  There were incense 

        altars with an attached base or podium, and smaller models were probably 

        also placed on the large altars of burnt offerings.  A second, more recent 

        type, is the cuboid incense altar, usually with four low feet.  These little 

        limestone incense altars from the 500s and 400s B.C. are especially nume-

        rous in Lachish.

INCEST  (תבל (the bel), mixture, confusion (i.e. bestiality))  A number of ex-

        amples of sexual intercourse between persons too closely related for nor-

        mal marriage may be observed.   The allusion concerning Lot and his 

        daughters show that one alleged reason for incest was to populate the 

        earth. In a polygamous society a son, when he inherited his father’s estate,

        may have inherited also his father’s wives.

                   Sexual intercourse with the following classes of women was prohi-

        bited: mother, any other wife of one’s father, a sister, the daughter of a son

        or daughter, a father’s wife’s daughter, a father’s sister, a mother’s sister, a

        daughter-in-law, a sister-in-law.  The penalty for incest was childlessness 

        or death.   The emphasis upon opposition to incestuous practices by the 

        idolatrous Canaanites serves to explain the biblical attitude.

I-13

INDIA (הדו (ho doo))  A country in Asia south of the Himalaya Mountains, 

        referred to twice in Esther as marking the eastern limits of Ahasuerus’ 

        (Xerxes’) kingdom. 

                 In Esther’s time India was a province of the Achaemenid Empire 

        (559-330 B.C.)  In view of the limited data on India which Herodotus had, it 

        isn't surprising the Old Testament (OT) writers should have known nothing 

        about such a distant land.  It was not until after the time of Alexander the 

        Great that the Mediterranean world was properly informed about the Indus 

        Valley and its peoples.  Despite considerable Roman trade with India, the 

        New Testament is just as ignorant of, or indifferent to, India as is the OT.

INDICTMENT  (ריב (reeb), controversy, suit)  A formal charge or complaint in  

        a court of justice.  The Hebrew word reeb in the sense of “indictment,” is 

        used exclusively of God, who brings a case against the wicked for their 

        moral and spiritual condition.  Job cries out for the indictment written by his 

        adversary.  In Micah 6, the hills, mountains, and earth’s foundations are 

        the jury; God is the prosecutor; and Israel is in the witness box.

           

INGATHERING, FEAST OF.  See Booths, Feast of.

INHERITANCE  (נחלח (nakh al aw), act of taking possession; klhronomia 

        (kler on om ee ah))  The New Revised Standard Version sometimes uses 

        the word  “heritage.”  Israel herself is called the inheritance of Yahweh.  

        Associated with the Hebrew word is the sense of “portion.”  Both the He-

        brew and Greek word relate to the process of receiving possession by 

        descent or “to possess as having been handed down from the past,” from 

        the father or given by God.  The theological meaning of the word goes 

        beyond the legalistic; it may be the bestowal of a gift or possession upon 

        his people by a merciful God.

                   The scattered indications of inheritance customs and practices at 

        best furnish useful clues.  Rachel and Leah, wives of Jacob protested that

        their father had denied them their property rights.  The right of inheri-

        tance was vigorously defended by the prophet Elijah.  Naboth refused to 

        give up “the inheritance of my fathers” to King Ahab.  His right to pre-

        serve and transmit his inheritance from his fathers to his sons was circum-

        vented by false criminal charges which brought about his execution.  The

        request that Jesus direct a man’s brother to divide his inheritance with 

        him may reflect the concern of a brother who is not the first-born.

                   Laws of inheritance are few in the Bible.  Certain classes of per-

        sons are singled out for special attention.  These include the son of a slave

        girl or concubine, the first-born son, daughters, and the widow.  The right 

        to inherit was evidently not materially affected by the status of the mother.

        Sarah had to take action to prevent the son of the slave girl Hagar from 

        inheriting as the first-born.  Abimelech the son of a concubine asserted his

        claim to inherit against the claims of the sons of his father’s wives.  A slave

        who acts wisely will have pre-eminence over a shameful son.

                   The first-born is to receive double the portion of his father’s posses-

        sion given to other sons. Reuben was the first-born of Israel, but his birth-

        right was given to the sons of Joseph (Genesis 49).  The story of Isaac’s 

        blessing to Jacob suggests that the rights of the first-born may have been 

        formally conferred by a verbal blessing from the aged father.

                   The rights of the son were pre-eminent.  In Numbers 27, a man had 

        5 daughters and no sons.  Moses gave the decision that in such cases the 

        father’s inheritance should go first to the daughters, the brother if there 

        were no daughters, the paternal uncles if no brothers, the next of kin if no 

        uncles.  A later ruling prohibited daughters from marrying outside the tribe.

        No provision is made for the widow, possibly because death before old 

        age is a calamity, a punishment for sin, which extended to the wife who 

        was left behind.  To preserve both the name & the inheritance of the family,

        remarriage of the widow was required. 

                   Inheritance of a king’s possession was not automatic in Israel, al-

        though the right of first-born was evidently operative as a rule.  Priests 

        were to have no inheritance.  Canaan was the land that God had promised 

        and delivered to God’s people.  This land was distributed among the vari-

        ous tribes of Israel, according to the size of each tribe.  Although the priests

        had no inheritance, they shall share the offerings of grain & meat that are 

        brought by the people.

I-14 

                   Central to Israel’s life are the holy temple and the land around it. 

        Israel is the tribe of the Lord’s inheritance. As a consequence of her nature

        as the inheritance or heritage of her God, Israel undergoes certain types of 

        experience which are also described as a heritage from the Lord.   The 

        tribes of Jacob will be gathered in one place where they will receive their 

        inheritance as it was of old.  

                   Apart from the use of “inheritance” as the transmission of property, 

        the New Testament employs this concept largely in a spiritual and theologi-

        cal sense.  Eternal life is a benefit that can be inherited.  Abraham and his 

        descendants didn't receive the promise to inherit the world through the law, 

        but through the “righteousness of faith.”  To share in the inheritance of the 

        saints, people must be delivered from the dominion of darkness to the king-

        dom of God’s beloved son. 

INK  (דיו (deh yo); melan (meh lan)) Writing fluid made from soot or lampblack

        mixed with gum Arabic.  Red ink was made by substituting red iron oxide 

        for the carbon.

INLAY.  A piece of material fitted or molded into a recess in the surface of ano-

        ther body.  It is likely that where the Bible says that something was made 

        of ivory, such as the deck of a ship or Solomon’s throne, that in fact those 

        objects were made of wood with ivory, and in the case of the throne, gold 

        inlay.  The ivory buildings in I Kings 22 were doubtless structures with 

        ivory inlay on doors and paneling.  Inlay has played a continuous part in 

        the decorative art of the Near East from Sumerian to modern times.

INN (מלון (maw lone), lodging place; kataluma (ka ta loo ma), lodging, khan;

        pandoceion (pan dok ee on), caravanserai)  A word used for several

        different kinds of shelter or dwelling.

                   The King James Version “inn” for the references in Genesis and 

        Exodus is misleading;  In Genesis  and Judges when travelers didn't lodge

        in a private home, they often camped in the open.  The rabbis imported 

        several words from foreign languages, including the Greek pandochion 

        mentioned above, perhaps indicating that the organized hostel was an im-

        portation into the Near East.

                   The Greek word kataluma means literally a “place to loose one’s 

        burden.”  In Luke 2, the word doesn’t mean “hotel” but perhaps “village 

        guest house.” In contrast, pandocheion’s use, where the Good Samaritan 

        took the wounded traveler, was more like an inn in the modern sense of 

        the word.  The Good Samaritan inn has usually been identified with Khan 

        el-Ahmar or Khan Hathrur, midway between Jerusalem and Jericho.   

INNER, INWARD MAN  (o esw anqrwpoV (oh  es oh  an thro pos))  The mea-

        ning of this phrase in Paul’s theology may be found in his view of perso-

        nality, which is made up of: the “inmost self,” in which the law of God 

        dwells”; “my members,” or “flesh,” the innate desires that in their natural 

        state accept no law standing in the way of their satisfaction; and the con-

        scious “I” (ego), which is aware of both reason and desire.  The human 

        predicament is that the inner self of reason is in conflict with the self of 

        desire.

INNOCENCE  (נקה (naw kaw), to be pure; צדיק (tsad deek), just, righte-

        ous, equitable; kathroV (kath eh ros), clean, pure, guiltless)  The con-

        dition of one who hasn't offended God; freedom from sin and guilt.  Inno-

        cence throughout the Old Testament is conceived in moral terms.  With the

        growing tendency to equate God’s will with the Torah, there was also a ten-

        dency to define innocence in terms of keeping the Torah. 

                   In the New Testament’s (NT) Revised Standard Version the adjec-

        tive “innocent” is found 8 times.  In the NT it is primarily in relation to 

        God’s will revealed through Jesus Christ that innocence is judged.  Inno-

        cence in the NT must be understood in terms of the new age.  The Chris-

        tian is only relatively innocent, since only Jesus Christ was truly innocent. 

        Insofar as the Christian can be innocent, it is as they are forgiven and be-

        come a new creature through Christ.  Innocence is God’s gift revealed and 

        given through faith in Jesus Christ.

INNOCENTS, SLAUGHTER OF THE.  An incident recorded in Matthew 2.  A 

        messianic prediction by Magi or astrologers that a child should be born 

        “king of the Jews” is understood by Herod the Great as referring to a royal

        claimant.  Herod I, in a rage, orders the death of all male children in Beth-

        lehem two years of age or less. 

                   While the motif of the story is familiar, recalling the account of 

        Pharaoh and Moses in Exodus 1-2, the character & deeds of Herod would 

        make such an act quite plausible.  No historical evidence for this event 

        exists.

I-15

INQUIRE OF GOD (שאל (shaw ale), to ask, consult; דרש (daw rash); ask, 

        consult [oracle]; בקר (bek ar), make search)  To seek divine guidance 

        through the consultation of oracle, priest, prophet, or God.  In the early 

        period of Israel, the Deity was consulted through the priest or seer.  The 

        priest divined by sacred lot.  The Deity was consulted on numerous mat-

        ters of personal and public welfare; the king would inquire of the Deity, 

        before going to battle.  While dreams, lots, & prophet were the recognized

        means to ascertain the divine will, there were also mediums, wizards, 

        necromancers, teraphim, pillar, ark, and altar. 

                   With the rise of prophetic schools, Deity consultation was predo-

        minantly through the prophet.  How the prophet divined is not known.  

        Seeing and hearing were his specialty.  The nation’s fall and especially 

        false prophets, brought prophecy into disrepute.  However, from Solo-

        mon’s time, the wise man or sage was frequently consulted as to the di-

        vine will in serious matters.  In the synagogue and New Testament times, 

        prayer becomes the chief means to inquire of God, with Christians taught 

        to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus.

INSCRIPTION ON THE CROSS (epigrafh (eh pih gra fay), an inscription; 

        aitia (ahee tee a), accusation; titlon (tit lon), superscription)  The sign 

        attached to Jesus’ cross to indicate the crime alleged against him.

                   Aitia is used in reference to the inscription in Matthew 27 and Mark 

        15.  It eventually takes on the meaning of “accusation,” so the authors of 

        Luke and John may have recoiled from applying so harsh a term in Jesus’ 

        case and used epigraphe and titlon, respectively.

                   The sign's description varies in the 4 gospels, but all contain the 

        definitive phrase “the King of Jews.”  This shows that Jesus was convicted 

        of insurrection, and exhibits the contempt in which the Jews were held by 

        their Roman masters.  The words were in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.  Pilate

        refused to change it to “This man said, ‘I am the King of the Jews.’ ”

INSCRIPTIONS.  During the past century or so, the understanding of the Bible 

        has been revolutionized by the mass of written documents recovered from 

        the ancient Near East.  Here “inscriptions” are understood as any written 

        document, whether on stone, clay, papyrus, or other material.  Brief refe-

        rences to documents of greatest interest to students of the Bible are found 

        below.

                   Egyptian—With the successful decipherment of the Rosetta Stone 

        by Campollion in 1822, it became possible for scholars to read the hitherto 

        enigmatic hieroglyphs.  One of the classics of Egyptian literature is the 

        Story of Sinuhe.  It narrates the adventures of a self-exiled official who 

        took refuge in Syria on the assassination of King Amen-em-het I around 

        1962 B.C.  The vivid picture it affords of semi-nomadic life is a valuable 

        contemporary illustration of the times in which the patriarchal narratives in

        Genesis are set.

                   A number of pottery bowls and figurines have come to light from 

        the 1800s and 1700s B.C.  The bowls had on them curses directed against 

        real or potential enemies of the state.  Among the names of persons & pla-

        ces recorded in these Execration Texts are many Asiatic ones, from which 

        may be deduced political conditions in Syrian Palestine during this period.

                   Much important information may be derived from the topographical 

        lists, cataloguing the conquests of Thut-mose III (about 1490-1436 B.C.) in 

        the temple of Amon at Karnak.  These lists serve to document the history of

        the Palestinian city-states such as Megiddo, Gezer, Taanach, Aijalon, etc.  

        The much later Karnak list of Sheshonk I (940-919 B.C.) records 156 cities

        of Syria-Palestine which he claims to have captured.  This invasion of Pale-

        stine in the fifth year of Rehoboam is referred to in the Old Testament (OT; 

        I Kings 14).

                   A number of Egyptian inscriptions have turned up at various sites in 

        Palestine.  Beth-shan has three stelae, one of Ramses II, and two from his 

        predecessor Seti I.  An outstanding literary work of the reign of Ak-en-Aton

        (1360-1353 B.C.) is his great hymn to the god Aton.  The supposed mono-

        theistic tendencies in the hymn are mere literary clichés which are to be 

        found in the polytheistic Hymn to Amon.  There is striking similarity of 

        Akh-en-Aton’s hymn with Psalm 104, but direct literary dependence is very

        unlikely.

                   In the third year of Mer-ne-Ptah (1223-1211), revolts seem to have 

        occasioned a punitive expedition into Syria-Palestine.  2 years later, Mer-

        ne-ptah faced the Libyans and the Sea Peoples, when they attempted an

        invasion.  Mer-ne-ptah inscribed a series of hymns of victory on a stela at 

        Thebes.  The pharaoh refers to Israel in the final 2 verses:  “Israel lies de-

        solate; its seed is no more.”  The name Israel is written in such a way as to 

        suggest that the people was an important one, although not yet perma-

        nently established.

I-16

                    One ancient Egyptian short story is the Tale of the Two Brothers.  

        There is a close resemblance of the first part of the story with the account 

        of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.  The Sea Peoples made a full-scale assault 

        on Egypt by land and sea during Ramses III's (1179-1147 B.C.) reign.  

        Among them were also the Philistines, who settled on the Palestinian coas-

        tal plain after they were driven back by Ramses.

                   A tale of the 21^st Dynasty, around 1100 relates the experiences of 

        an Egyptian temple official who was dispatched to purchase timber in 

        Byblos.  Egypt, famed for her wise men, produced many didactic treaties 

        written for the instruction of officials’ sons, such as those of Ptah-hotep.  

        The Wisdom of Amenemope exhibited a high ethical tone and an emphasis

        on personal piety.  A close parallel exists between parts of this document 

        and Proverbs 22; it is such as to suggest dependence of the latter on the 

        Egyptian work.  Finally, there is an Egyptian manuscript which is a tale of 

        a man whose son led him through the halls of the underworld.   

                   Sumerian and Akkadian—The key to the decipherment of the Su-

        merian and Akkadian cuneiform was the great rock inscription of Darius I 

        at Behistun.  Darius’ record of his suppression of revolts which followed 

        his accession was inscribed in three unknown languages:  Old Persian, 

        Elamite, and Akkadian.  Rawlinson succeeded in deciphering the Old Per-

        sian version in 1846 B.C., and the Akkadian version shortly afterward.  

        The vast majority of texts are on clay tablets.

                   The Sumerian King list compiled around 2065 records the reigns 

        of Mesopotamia’s earliest rulers, with their version of the Flood as an in-

        terruption point.  The 8 kings before the Flood are given reigns totaling 

        241,200 years, which is reminiscent of the longevity of the 10 patriarchs 

        from Adam to Noah.  The early Sumerian supremacy was interrupted by 

        the Semitic Old Akkadian Dynasty founded by Sargon I.  A legend of his 

        birth has been preserved in which he was placed in a basket of rushes 

        and set afloat in the river.

                   It was in Mesopotamia that the first legal “codes” were produced, 

        particularly the code of Hammurabi (1728-1686 B.C.), inscribed on a 

        magnificent stela, with copies on clay tablets.  Far from being the earliest 

        such “code,” this was one of a series.  Similar collections are known from

        the reigns of Ur-Nammu (2060 B.C.) of Ur-Bilalama (1930 B.C.) of Esh-

        nunna, and Lipit-Ishtar (1865).  The Middle Assyrian laws, probably of 

        the 1400s, are similar in content and suggest how the tradition and form 

        of Mosaic Law had its origin.

                   Two sites have yielded great numbers of texts.  The first is Mari on

        the middle Euphrates, where over 20,000 tablets from the 1800s & 1700s 

        have been recovered from the archives of the palace.  The second group 

        of texts, numbering many thousands of tablets from the 1400s and 1300s, 

        comes from the site of ancient Nuzi in NE Mesopotamia.  These business 

        and legal documents have provided a clue to the understanding of many 

        of the legal practices preserved in the patriarchal narratives of the OT, 

        such as the selling of the birthright, and the possession of household gods 

        conferring title to an estate.

                   The reigns of Amen-hotep III and his son Akh-en-Aton (1360-1353)

        and the stirring events of these days are portrayed in Ak-en-Aton’s state 

        archives unearthed at Tell El-Amarna.  There are nearly 400 clay tablets 

        written in Akkadian, the language of international diplomacy.  They in-

        clude letters to and from the city-states in Syria-Palestine, such as Byblos, 

        Tyre, Megiddo, Jerusalem, etc.  The Habiru figure prominently in these let-

        ters as a people whose invasions led to the end of Egyptian domination.  

        They also contain a large number of Canaanite glosses which are helpful 

        for knowledge of the Canaanite (Hebrew) language of the period.

                   The epic had its rise in Mesopotamia.  The Babylonian god Marduk 

        was honored in a great poem of seven tablets.  The Creation Epic was reci-

        ted annually as a part of the New Year’s festival to celebrate the triumph of 

        Marduk over the forces of chaos.  The motif of the fight between Marduk 

        and Tiamat was later transmitted to Canaanite and Hebrew literature.  The 

        epic tells how, in order to relieve the gods of menial tasks, a man was crea-

        ted from the blood of one of the gods.

                   The Epic of Gilgamesh achieved even greater popularity.  It relates 

        the adventures of Gilgamesh and his boon companion Enkidu.  In the 11th 

        tablet Utnapishtim recounts the flood story in a form remarkably similar to 

        that in the Flood account Genesis 6-8.  Mesopotamian wisdom literature is 

        characterized by extensive collections of proverbs in Sumerian and Akka-

        dian.  The discussion of good and evil likewise has no counterpart in Egypt.

        A common literary genre in Mesopotamian religious literature is the peni-

        tential psalm. Its influence is seen in such examples as Psalm 51. 

                  The Assyrian kings’ royal annals afford a valuable supplement to the 

        Bible’s historical books.  Those of most direct interest for the OT begin with 

        Shalmaneser III (858-824), whose “inscription” tells of his battle at Qarqar 

        against a coalition of 12 kings, including Ahab of Israel.  He describes the 

        submission of Jehu of Israel; neither of these facts is mentioned in the OT.  

        Tiglath-pileser III records how Menahem of Israel paid tribute.  Sargon II 

        (721-705) recounts Samaria’s destruction and the Israelites’ deportation.  

        The description of the siege of Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah by Sen-

        nacherib (704-681) supplements the OT account.

I-17

                   4 Babylonian chronicles give a graphic account of the fall of Nine-

        veh and fix the date as 612.  The Assyrian Empire's collapse makes the 

        death of Josiah at the hands of Pharaoh Neco intelligible.  Most remarka-

        ble of all is a group of 300 tablets from Babylon, dated 595 & 570, during 

        the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562).  These list the rations of oil and

        barley for persons maintained by the royal commissariat, among whom ap-

        pear Johiachin, the exiled king of Judah, and his five sons.  A poem by a 

        Babylonian priest denounces Nabonidus & recognizes Cyrus II (557-529) 

        as the heaven-sent world ruler.

                   Canaanite—The discovery at Ras Shamra, or ancient Ugarit, of an 

        archive of hundreds of clay tablets inscribed in an alphabetic cuneiform 

        script and in an early form of Canaanite was very important.  These mytho-

        logical poems of the 1400s and 1300s are of great importance and have 

        contributed to the understanding of Hebrew vocabulary in the OT.  They 

        richly illustrate the religious beliefs and practices denounced by prophets 

        like Hosea.  A number of inscriptions discovered at the Egyptian turquoise 

        mines in the Sinai have provided the evidence for the origin of alphabetic 

        scripts which produced the Hebrew alphabet and our own.

                   From the 1200s & 1100s comes a series of alphabetic inscriptions.

        These are of great importance in illustrating the development of the script 

        from the proto-Sinaitic texts to the Phoenician inscription of the 1000s at 

        Byblos.  The longest Phoenician inscription to date was discovered at Kara-

        tepe in eastern Cilicia.  This inscription contains 3 versions in Phoenician 

        and two in hieroglyphic Hittite.  The Moabite Stone, monument erected 

        around 840 B.C., is the only important inscription in the Moabite dialect.

                   The earliest Hebrew inscription is a limestone plaque from Gezer, to

        be dated around 925.  It is an agricultural calendar, probably a schoolboy’s

        exercise.  There also invoices for the deliveries of oil and wine to the royal

        treasury between around 778 and 770.  All the Hebrew texts are written in 

        the northern Israelite dialect.  In 1880 a lad discovered a Hebrew inscrip-

        tion in the ancient tunnel leading from the Gihon spring to the Pool of Si-

        loam in Jerusalem.  21 ostraca were recovered from the excavations during

        1935-1938 A.D. at Lachish.  These inscribed potsherds are very important 

        for knowledge of the Hebrew of Jeremiah’s time. 

                   Some hundreds of Hebrew inscriptions are to be found on miscella-

        neous objects, such as seals, weights, jar-handle stamps, ossuaries,  

        coins, etc.  From the Phoenician colony of Carthage come two Punic in-

        scriptions of the 300s B.C. They display a marked resemblance to the ritu-

        al and practice of the sacrificial system in the Priestly Code.  Until recently

        the earliest Hebrew manuscripts of the OT were of the 800s A.D.   The dis-

        covery of the Dead Sea Scrolls from 1947 on were of manuscripts that 

        were from 200 B.C.  They produced a wealth of information with regard to

        the literature and beliefs of the sectarian community which wrote them. 

                   Aramaic—A stela, found near Aleppo, was erected around 860 B.C.

        to Melcarth, the god of Tyre by Ben-hadad [I], who is mentioned in I Kings 

        15.   The Ben-hadad of II Kings 8 is usually considered to be the 2nd king 

        of this name.  Hazael usurped the throne of Ben-hadad I in II Kings 8; his 

        son was Ben-hadad II.  Assyrian inventory lists records ivories as a part of 

        the booty captured from Syria by Shalmaneser III, one of which was found 

        with an inscription by archaeologists.

                   The longest Old Aramaic text yet found, dated around 730 B.C., 

        comes from Sujin.  This and other inscriptions provide contemporary mate-

        rial for the history of the Aramaic kingdoms.  Many documents coming 

        from the sites of Jewish military colonies have been found in Egypt.  They 

        include 110 papyri from Saqqarah, Edfu, Hermopolis, Magna, & especially 

        Elephantine, which is also the origin of 350 ostraca or pottery fragments.  

        They are mostly from the 400s B.C. and are important for knowledge of 

        Aramaic of the period.  A still earlier papyrus was found at Saqqarah, to be 

        dated around 603; it refers to Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion.  3 silver ves-

        sels bear Aramaic inscriptions referring to Gashmu, king of Kedar; they 

        may be referring to the Gashmu or Geshem of Nehemiah 2 and 6. 

                   The “Balustrade” Inscriptions survives in two Greek copies from 

        Herod’s temple in Jerusalem, and reads: “No foreigner is to enter the enclo-

        sure around the temple.”  Another inscription from Jerusalem provides the 

        oldest evidence of a synagogue in Palestine.  An inscription from Delphi 

        proves that Gallio was proconsul of Achaia in 52 A.D.; this is important 

        for the chronology of Paul.  The sands of Egypt have yielded up masses of

        Greek papyri.  They are letters, business and legal documents, and literary 

        works, including the Oxyrhynchus Sayings of Jesus.  They shed a flood of 

        light on the daily life of the early centuries of the Christian Era.

I-18

INSECTS (שרץ העוף (shaw rats ha ofe), creeping things that fly) On insects 

        as a class, see Animals. The “winged insects” of Leviticus 11 include the 

        locust. In the biblical age these insects were referred to as having 4 feet, 

        with the edible ones having leaping legs in addition to their four feet.

  

INSIGHT (בינה (bee naw), understanding; לב (labe), heart, understandings; 

        תבונה (toe boo naw), words of wisdom; sunesiV (soo nes is), under-

        standing; nouV (noos), intellect, understanding) The intellectual and spiri-

        tual capacity to discern the nature of things. In the Bible insight, like wis-

        dom, is a gift from God; it is essential for the guidance of life. Insight is 

        coupled with wisdom, understanding and counsel. In Ezra 8, the term 

        “men of insight” (King James Version has understanding) refers to intelli-

        gent leaders—i.e. teachers. By this gift humans are able to perceive the 

        spiritual in the material, to see in human history the divine activity, in Jesus 

        of Nazareth, the Christ of God. 

 

INSPIRATION AND REVELATION (VsunesiV (thay op nay oo stos), God-

        breathed). The verb “to inspire” is found in a number of passages in the 

        Revised Standard Version (RSV). It does not translate any single word in 

        Hebrew or Greek but has been used in order to clarify the sense of the ori-

        ginal. It denotes the action of God in bestowing wisdom or skill on a parti-

        cular individual, or the operation of the Holy Spirit in the prophets or mem-

        bers of the Christian community either to spiritual joy or to the performance

        of various functions and offices. The wise king utters “inspired decisions.”

                  The word “inspire” is used by the RSV in order to bring out the mea-

        ning of such passages as Matthew 22 and Mark 12, where David as pro-

        phet is seen as speaking of Christ “in the Spirit.” In I Corinthians 12 we are

        told that the Spirit “operates” the various gifts needed by the members of 

        the community for their different kinds of service, gifts which are a result of 

        the Spirit’s inspiration. The “joy of the Holy Spirit” is described by the RSV 

        as “inspired by the Holy Spirit” in I Thessalonians 1.

                   Inspiration and Scripture—The Greek term theopneustos occurs 

        only once in the Bible (II Timothy 3). “All scripture is inspired by God and 

        profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righte-

        ousness.” The word indicates that God has in some manner breathed into 

        these writings his own creative Spirit. Beyond that, it is not easy to deter-

        mine in what sense the writer of this letter thought of the Scriptures as 

        being inspired.  

                   The scriptures of the Old Testament (OT) are the product of men 

        who were especially inspired and empowered by the divine Spirit. The 

        concept was a familiar one in the Greek world.   Oracles, for example, 

        were regarded as inspired.   The Scriptures were written by men who were 

        given peculiar insight into God’s ways and purposes, so that their message 

        was to be regarded as essentially God’s word to his people.

                   The Christian interpretation of the OT is different from the Judaic In- 

        terpretation & it carried through a most remarkable revolution in the under-

        standing of the OT. In Judaism, the setting of the OT Canon was based on 

        the belief that God had uniquely revealed himself to certain minds.   The 

        Christians, on the other hand read the Bible as a Christian book; the focus

        and central point of the writings was Christ.   The Law pointed forward to 

        him and spoke of him in types and figures. The prophets foretold Christ in 

        fuller detail and with greater clarity.  David, the ancestor of Christ according

        to the flesh, was himself one of the prophets, who spoke plainly about 

        Christ in the Psalms.

                   The justification of the Christian gospel from the pages of the Scrip-

        tures must have been an essential task of the missionary preacher. The 

        peculiar collection of proof texts used by Matthew may indicate an early 

        stage in the process of assembling evidence to prove that the Scriptures 

        spoke of Christ. Indeed, it is likely that the reinterpretation was begun by

        Jesus himself. 

                   It was seen that “in many and various ways God spoke of old to our 

        fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a 

        Son.” Christ’s word was not discontinuous with the prophets and such in-

        spired writers as David in the Psalms. On the contrary, the prophets of Is-

        rael were now seen as men who were moved by the Spirit of God to wit-

        ness to Christ and his coming. Their inspiration was now not simply to dis-

        cern God’s act in history, but rather to foresee and proclaim the dispensa-

        tion of the Incarnation.   The prophets of the Old Covenant, including 

        Moses, were divinely empowered to predict the sufferings of Christ and 

        the subsequent glory; in them the Spirit had borne witness to Christ.

I-19

  
                   The Scriptures can be understood only if the reader possesses the 

        Spirit-inspired key to their interpretation.   The key was supplied by the 

        apostles and the other missionaries who bore testimony to Christ under 

        the guidance and in the power of the same Spirit who had inspired the

        prophets. The ministry of the prophets and of the apostles is continuous; 

        in essentials it is the same ministry. The prophecies are to be interpreted 

        by an objective standard; they are divinely revealed words whose mea-

        ning is declared in Christ.

                   The primitive church accepts prophetic works as a body of sacred 

        scriptures. It has taken them over from Judaism, and looks to them for evi-

        dences for the gospel, as part of the belief that “Christ died for our sins in 

        accordance with the scriptures.” The evidence of the inspired prophets is 

        an actual part of the gospel as Paul had received it. The missionary spee-

        ches, when they were not for purely Gentile audiences, were mainly con-

        cerned to show the necessary connection & harmony between the Chris-

        tian message and the prophecies of the OT, which included all those parts

        of the scripture which could be understood as alluding to Christ. And the 

        inspiration of the prophets took on new life, because their utterances have 

        found a fulfillment in the events of the gospel and the age of the church.

                   The witness of the apostles is guaranteed by the authority of the 

        inspired prophets and is in itself a new attestation of the fact that the Spirit 

        of God moved those prophets so that their writings are supremely authori-

        tative.   Jesus asserted the divine inspiration of David in the messianic 

        Psalm 110. The New Revised Standard Version translates Mark 12:36 as: 

        “David himself, by the Holy Spirit, declared. . .” It is God himself who spoke 

        through the prophets and David.   The gospel of Christ was “promised be-

        forehand” by God “through his prophets in the holy scriptures” (Romans 1). 

        God speaks in the Scriptures in harmony with, and subordinately to, the 

        final utterances of his word in Christ.

                   Inspiration of Apostolic Preaching—The apostles witness to the 

        events that the prophets foresaw.  The apostles, as Christ’s representa-

        tives, envoys, are inspired by the Spirit to testify to him.  The Spirit attests 

        the gospel and commends it to those who listen to apostolic preaching. 

        His message did not rest upon his own wisdom or persuasive eloquence. 

                   The apostle was inspired by the Spirit to proclaim the gospel in word

        and deed, and to grasp the meaning of God’s promises.  The letters by 

        Paul bear out in detail what is said in the gospels and Acts concerning the 

        inspiration of the apostolic missionaries. Whether or not Paul conceived 

        himself to be writing “Scriptures,” he certainly believed that the inspiration 

        which enabled him to grasp and to proclaim the Christian gospel was 

        brought about by the same Spirit who had spoken in the OT prophets.

                  Inspiration of Christians—The Spirit that inspired the prophets to 

        proclaim the coming of Christ and the gospel in advance testified to Christ 

        in a special way in the mouth of his disciples when they publicly acknow-

        ledged him. Those who confessed Christ under persecution would receive 

        an immediate inspiration of the Spirit; the martyr was preeminently a “spiri-

        tual” man. 

                   The warning given by Jesus was: “When they bring you to trial and 

        deliver you up, don't be anxious beforehand what you are to say; but say 

        whatever is given you in that hour, for it isn't you who speak but the Holy 

        Spirit." Luke sets in contrast to this the unforgivable blasphemy against the 

        Spirit by those who reject the divine assistance. John also places the wit-

        ness which the Spirit will bear to Christ in the context of a warning that the 

        disciples of Jesus will be hated and persecuted as he himself was. Inspira-

        tion is in itself the witness of the Spirit of God to Christ.

                   The great example of this promise is seen in Stephen’s story. In the 

        Spirit he contends against the enemies of Christ in answering charges 

        which were the same as those upon which Jesus himself had been con-

        demned. His speech is not a defense, but rather a proclamation of the gos-

        pel in terms of scriptural fulfillment. When his hearers are about to kill him, 

        he is filled with the Holy Spirit and can “see the heavens opened and the 

        Son of man standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7).

                   The confessor who suffers for his faith is thus a uniquely inspired 

        man. The special sanctity of the martyrs prompted the development of a 

        cult of the saints. No one can make his initial confession of faith in Christ 

        as Lord without the inspiration of the Spirit.  The Christian concept of the 

        bestowal of the Spirit is paradoxical; the Spirit comes to them as a result 

        of baptism, yet it is because of the inspiration of the Spirit that the Christian

        is enabled to confess Christ in the first place.

                   Since the Spirit’s inspiration is experienced by all who acknowledge 

        Christ, the whole community can be said to be inspired. John says: “The 

        anointing which you received from him abides in you, & you have no need 

        that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about every-

        thing. . .” Such inspiration is no longer the privilege of a few individual pro-

        phets; it is granted to the whole society insofar as it is possessed by the 

        Spirit.   They are “taught by God,” the Spirit is given to them to bring the 

        words of Jesus to their remembrance.  There is thus a continuous opera-

        tion of the Spirit in the prophets and other inspired individuals and hence in 

        their words which were set apart as “scripture,” in the testimony to Christ of 

        the apostles, the confessors, and ordinary Christian believers.

I-20

  
                   The New Testament speaks of certain classes of persons who were 

        endowed with a peculiar degree of inspiration. The most important of these

        are the ecstatics, endowed with the gift of tongues. The inspiration which 

        enables some to speak with tongues and others to interpret what has thus 

        been said is only one among the many manifestations of the activity of the 

        Spirit. Speaking with tongues is listed by Paul relatively low in his list of the 

        Spirit’s operation, and he is evidently anxious to dispel the idea that a per-

        son who has been inspired  to “speak in a tongue” has received a special 

        divine favor which marks him as a more advanced and “spiritual” Christian. 

        The gift of prophecy ought to be more highly valued than that of tongues.

                   Prophecy is to be preferred because the prophet can be understood 

        by his hearers without the need for an interpreter. Paul will not allow that 

        speaking with tongues is beneficial to the community, unless it is translated 

        into intelligible speech. The celebrant might make his prayer “in the Spirit,” 

        in a state of ecstatic possession; but his unintelligible utterances will not 

        benefit the congregation. In the controversy with the Montanists, orthodox 

        apologists maintained that genuine prophecy didn't involve the suspension 

        of the prophet’s rational consciousness. Irrational inspiration was a mark of 

        the false prophet. It seems probable, however, that the Christian prophet's

        chief task was to unlock the meaning of the Scriptures in the light of the in-

        spiration of the Spirit of Christ.

                   The OT prophet was essentially a man inspired to interpret God’s 

        dealings with man.  He was conscious of being entrusted with a word of 

        God, so his speech is often prefaced with “Thus saith the Lord.” But to 

        what extent the great “canonical” prophets were ecstatics is hard to de-    

        termine. So far as the OT is concerned, the test of prophetic inspiration lay 

        in the effects and results of the prophet’s message; from the standpoint of 

        the New Testament writers it lay primarily in the relation of the prophet’s 

        message to Christ.

   

INSTINCT.  (alogoV (ah log os), irrational, brute) A word which occurs in the 

        phrases “creatures of instinct.”  Jude speaks of blasphemers who know, 

        “by instinct,” or “by nature.”

INSTRUCTION.  See Teaching.

INSTRUMENTS.  See Altar; Musical Instruments; threshing; Weapons and Im-

        plements of War.

INTEGRITY  (תם (tawm), perfect, sincere, honest)  The state or quality of be-

        ing complete, well adjusted. In biblical thought moral character isn't judged 

        by any absolute or ideal, but by relationship to God.  God sets the stan-

        dard by which humans are judged.  Integrity thus marks the persons who 

        walks with single-hearted devotion to God and honorable behavior towards 

        others; integrity brings its own reward.  Assertions of integrity and inno-

        cence do not indicate a spirit of self-righteousness and self-satisfaction.  

        While the term “integrity” scarcely occurs in the New Testament, the con-

        cept is surely present.  Jesus enjoins purity of heart, singleness of eye, & 

        purity of motive.  These and other positive attributes are held to be funda-

        mental to Christian character and conduct.

INTERCESSION.  See Prayer; Mediator.

INTERDICT (אסר (es awr)) A Legal term signifying a prohibitory decree, used

        in Daniel 6. Darius issued it to ban petitions or prayers to any god or man, 

        except the king.  The prohibition was to be binding on all subjects and ir-

        revocable.  Such an ordinance, while not impossible, is utterly out of kee-

        ping with what we know of the religious policy of Persian kings, but may 

        well reflect the religious situation of the Greek era, which is when most 

        modern scholars believe that Daniel was written.

INTEREST (נשך (neh shek), oppression) The sum paid by a borrower for the 

        use of the borrowed capital.  The King James Version uses the term 

        “usury,” which in King James time did not have the derogative connota-

        tion it has taken in our day.  See Debt entry.

I-21

INTERMEDIARY.  See Mediator

INTERPRETATION, HISTORY AND  PRINCIPLES OF.  See Introduction to Biblical entries.

INTERPRETER  (מליץ (mel ee tsaw), intercessor, to mock, deride; dieromh-

        neuw (dee ro may nay oo o), explain, translate)  One who translates lan-

        guages; one who makes known the will of another.  Joseph interprets the 

        dreams of others, and uses an interpreter when his brothers are still to be 

        confused and tested.  In the New Testament the verb “interpret” is used in 

        reference to explaining the speech of those with the gift of tongues.

IOB  (יוב (yobe))  Third son of Issachar.  The parallel lists in Numbers 26 and 

        I Chronicles 7 indicate that “Jashub” was the original reading.

IOTA (iwta)  The smallest letter of the Greek alphabet.  In Matthew 5, it most 

        likely represents the Hebrew letter yodh, likewise the smallest letter.  The 

        New Revised Standard Version translates the verse as:  “not one letter 

        [iota], not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law.”

IPHDEIAH (יפדיה, whom the Lord delivers)  A Benjaminite (I Chronicles 8)) 

IPHTAH  (יפתה, he (God) will open)  A village of Judah in the Shephelah dis-

        trict; possibly modern Tarqumiya.

IPHTAH-EL  (יפתה־אל (El will open))  A valley on the border between Zebu-

        lun and Asher, probably northwest of Nazareth (Joshua 19).

IR  (עיר, young ass, watchman)  Apparently a Benjaminite (I Chronicles 7).

IRA  (עירא, watch)  1.  A Jairite who was included among the officers of David 

        as his priest, although he was not necessarily connected with the official 

        priesthood (II Samuel 8).      2. A Ithrite who belonged to the company of 

        Mighty Men of David known as “the Thirty” (II Samuel 23).      3.  Son of 

        Ikkesh, one of the Mighty Men of David, and the captain in charge of Davi-

        dic militia for the sixth month.

IRAD  (עירד , wild ass)  In the tradition of the Yahwistic writer, a patriarch from 

        before the Flood, a descendant of Cain and the father of Mehujael.

IRAM  (עירם, citizen, watchman)  A Edomite clan chief (Genesis 36).

IRI  (עירי, young ass, watchman)  A Benjaminite (I Chronicles 7).

IRIJAH  (יראייה, the Lord shall look upon him)  Benjaminite sentry presuma-

        bly at Anathoth, who arrested Jeremiah as a deserter to the Chaldeans.

IR-NAHASH  (עיר נהש, city of a serpent; perhaps originally city of copper)  A 

        city of Judah in the “Valley of Craftsmen”; its precise location is unknown.  

        It is probably north of Jerusalem, in the territory of Benjamin.

IRON  (ברזל (bar zel), hard, inflexible)  Beads made of meteoric iron were 

        used in Egypt as far back as pre-dynastic times.  Only 5 iron objects have 

        been found before the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and only one of 

        those did not come from a meteor.  It is practically certain that the art of 

        smelting and working iron was discovered by the Hittites around 1500 

        B.C.  A letter of a Hittite king to one of his contemporaries around 1250 

        B.C., implies that in the 1200s the Hittite area was recognized to be the 

        source of iron. 

I-22

                   Hebrew tradition asso ciates the beginnings of ironworking with a fi-

        gure called Tubal-cain, who is most likely a merger of two traditions.  Some

        think “Tubal” is merely a sound-alike word to be used with Jubal, and that 

        there can be no possible connection with the metalworking Tubal of north-

        eastern Asia Minor. Depending on when the Jahwist's source material was  

        written the Hebrews could have known of these people, who moved into 

        Asia Minor around 1200 B.C. and learned mining and smelting from the 

        Hittites.

                 The use of iron seems to have spread very slowly, because it was dif-

        ficult to produce & because the first iron smelted was doubtless not much 

        harder than hammered copper or bronze.  It is generally believed that iron 

        was introduced into Palestine by the Philistines; according to Hebrew tra-

        dition, the Canaanites possessed iron at the time of Joshua’s invasion, be-

        fore the Philistines' arrival.  Moses is said to have forbidden the Israelites 

        to employ any iron tool when they built an altar on Mount Ebal.

                   Although the Philistines may not have introduced iron to Palestine, 

        they had a lot of it.  When the Philistines conquered the Hebrews, they did 

        not permit them to have smiths of their own.  This forced the Hebrews to 

        resort to the Philistine smiths, who charged them exorbitant prices, and 

        only for non-iron objects.  For a long time the Hebrews continued to be 

        handicapped in war with their neighbors by their lack of metal.

                   The situation changed with the establishment of a Hebrew monar-

        chy.  David made metal a main prize of war.  Iron tools were used in Trans-

        jordan in David’s time.  In the 500s B.C., Tyre was importing iron.  In the 

        Elijah and Elisha stories there are 2 references to iron (I Kings 22 and II 

        Kings 6).  Literary metaphors derived from iron all seem to be of relative-

        ly late date.  Iron is used as a symbol of hardness, strength or harshness.

IRONS  (ברזל (bar zel), hard, inflexible)  A reference either to fetters or to 

        chains, suggesting the custom of binding prisoners shut up in a dungeon 

        with chains. 

IRONSMITH  (חרש ברזל (khaw rawsh  bar zel))  One who works with iron, 

        both smelting the ore and casting the finished pieces.  The Hittites and the 

        Philistines had a monopoly on such craftsmen until the time of David.

IRONY AND SATIRE.  Irony is a “sort of humor, ridicule, or light sarcasm, the 

        intent of which is the opposite of the literal sense of the words.”  Satire is a 

        “literary composition holding up human or individual vices . . . for ridi-

        cule.”  Satire and irony tend to be more moralistic and disciplinary than 

        humor.

                  There are numerous examples of irony in the Bible. In the Old Tes-

        tament (OT) the examples are: the mockery of supposing that man can be 

        equal to God; Samson’s straight-faced lies to Deliah; Solomon’s command 

        to “cut the living child in two”; and God’s challenge to Job at the end of 

        that book.  In the New Testament (NT) there is:  “I reap where I have not 

        sown; the mockery of the crowd; “Can anything good come out of Naza-

        reth?”; the contemptuous epithet of “King” spoken by Pilate.

                   Satire is a more extended form of expression; irony may be used in 

        satire.  Invective alone is not satire, for satire must contain humor, yet have

        a serious purpose to reform some widespread evil or folly, as in the pro-

        phets’ bitter criticism of society.  The terrific impact of this satire is often 

        avoided or evaded by readers or interpreters who wish to see the Bible as 

        a book of sweetness and light.

                   The satire on the reign of Solomon seems clear.  The book of Job is

        a masterpiece of satire.  The whole effort of Job is not only a personal de-

        fense, but a satire on the conventional religious ideas of the day.  The 

        ‘friends’ add to this effect by the very stuffiness & conventionality of their

        attack.  It would seem from one point of view in the book that both sides 

        in the debate stood in need of correction such as might be stimulated by 

        satire.  

                   The author never criticizes God as does Job, and he may have been

        contending for a better conception of God and a more wholesome view of

        life.  The book of Proverbs contains a certain amount of satire.  The major

        topics that are satirized are: women (5, 6, 7, 9, 22, 30); lazy men (6, 13, 18,

        21, 22, 26); the drunkard (20, 21, 23); gluttony (23), and fools (10, 14-18, 

        21, 22, 26, 27, 29). 

                   As noted above, the most significant strain of satire in the OT is that

        in the books of the prophets.  It should be remembered that this satire is 

        directed against the prophets’ own people & requires more courage.  This

        satire may be said to emerge in the story of Elijah the Prophet and the pro-

        phets of Baal.  Another satire is directed against the sycophantic professio-

        nal prophets of Yahweh, who say only what the king wants to hear.

                  A century later the literary prophets began to satirize conditions in the

        Hebrew states.  Amos and Hosea spoke directly to the northern kingdom 

        of Israel, trying to avert its downfall.  Isaiah and Micah also satirized Israel

        from their vantage point in Judah.  Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke in similar 

        vein to Judah just before its downfall.  Each of these prophets criticized the 

        ruling monarchy of his day. 

I-23

                   The prophets criticized, ridiculed, and satirized the idolatry and cor-

        ruption of their own kings, cities, and people.  Amos included some neigh-

        boring nations in his sweep before castigating Israel most of all.  Other, 

        more chauvinistic writers hurled even more fiery verbal darts at foreign na-

        tions.  Closely related is the ridicule of foreign idolatry, in contrast to con-

        demnation of idolatry practiced by Hebrews. 

                   Much of the book of Daniel is satire:  Chapter 1 satirizes foreign 

        “wisdom” and eating habits; Chapter 2 targets the helpless ignorance of the

        Chaldeans; Chapter 3 has 3 Jews making a great image and a great king

        look ridiculous; Chapter 4 shows a great potentate going mad; Chapter 5 

        satirizes licentiousness, idolatry, and foreign magicians.  In the rest of the 

        book foreign kingdoms are shown as transitory and of little significance 

        compared with the immortal kingdom of the saints.  The book of Jonah 

        presents a satire of a very different type.  A broad-minded Jew ridicules his

        own people, for their lack of missionary zeal, their prejudice against foreig-

        ners, and their failure to understand a God of love. 

                   In the NT, the principal satire is against the scribes & the Pharisees 

        for their hypocrisy.  Finally comes the well-known satire on Rome in Reve-

        lation.   The empire is represented as a strange beast, then Rome is dis-

        guised as the great harlot-city of Babylon.  The city and all its allies go 

        down to perdition as the apocalyptic author vents his bitterest mockery and 

        sarcasm upon them.

IRPEEL  (ירפאל (yir peh ‘el), God will heal)  A town allotted to the tribe of 

        Benjamin; it is most like in the hill country, a little over 10 km northwest of 

        Jerusalem. (Joshua 18).

IRRIGATION.  Artificial means of watering crops used throughout Bible times in 

        the form of aqueducts, cisterns, dams, canals, etc.

IR-SHEMESH  (עיר שמש, city of the sun)  A city of Dan; probably identified 

        with Beth-Shemesh. 

IRU  (עירו, a watching)  A son of Caleb; listed in the genealogy of the tribe of 

        Judah (I Chronicles 4).

ISAAC  (יצחק; ישחק, both mean laughter or mocking)  The three sources of

        Genesis have different explanations of the name's source.  The Yahwist 

        narrative has Sarah laughing at Yahweh’s promise of a son.  The Elohwist 

        has Sarah laughing for joy, or perhaps seeing herself as the object of 

        laughter.  The Priestly Writer has Abraham laughing at the divine promise.  

        In spite of these popular explanations of the name, it is best to regard 

        “Isaac” as a shortened form of name which originally had an additional 

        divine element, and may have meant “may God laugh (i.e. look kindly to-

        ward the name’s bearer)”.

                   Birth-Marriage to Rebekah—In comparison with Abraham, 

        Jacob, and Joseph, the Isaac of the Old Testament (OT) is weak both in 

        character and portrayal.  The Isaac cycle of stories was probably formed 

        in Beer-sheba’s cultic centers, where he was esteemed as the regional 

        hero and patron.  Whatever the original place of the Isaac story in Israel’s

        traditions, it creates the initial impression of serving primarily as a link 

        between Abraham and Jacob.  It also contributes to an important theolo-

        gical theme in the patriarchal history.  Isaac is the child of promise, living

        sign of God’s faithful and gracious dealing with Israel.  Vague and insigni-

        ficant though Isaac appears, he remains a major channel through whom 

        God works salvation for Israel.

                  The first word spoken about Isaac’s birth declares him to be the child

        of divine promise.  The child stands as an inescapable sign of God’s faith-

        fulness in the face of Sarah’s incredulity.  On the day of festal celebration 

        of Isaac’s weaning, Sarah is greatly disturbed to see Ishmael sporting with 

        her son.  Ishmael’s intimacy with Isaac leads Sarah to question whether the

        son of the handmaid may share in, or even usurp, the inheritance of her 

        own son.  She compels Abraham to drive out Ishmael and his mother. 

                   God allows Abraham to comply with Sarah’s desperate action. It is 

        through Isaac, the child granted by God’s grace, and not through Ishmael, 

        the child of human impatience and unfaith, that the divine promises will be

        kept.  The tradition here accounts for the historic situation that the Israelites

        and Ishmaelites represent collateral lines of descent from Abraham.

                  The sacrifice of Isaac is the only episode known about the childhood 

        of Isaac; it is a superb example of the Elohist’s narrative art.  As they walk 

        together they also share a deep faith.  Abraham trusts God knows what he

        has asked and that Isaac will respond in obedience; Isaac relies upon the 

        wisdom and love of his father.  The picture of Isaac sensing the solemnity 

        of the occasion and yet walking while carrying the wood upon which he is 

        to be sacrificed, ranks among the most Christ-like portraits found in the OT.

        For his part Abraham, for his faithfulness, receives his son from God a 

        second time. 

I-24

                    When Abraham is old he sends his trusted servant back to the 

        region of Haran to obtain a wife for Isaac, seeking to maintain the purity of

        religion, not of race.  He is insistent that Isaac, as the inheritor of the pro-

        mise of this land must not leave it, or marry anyone from it.  The servant 

        goes and finds Rebekah; she agrees to accompany him back to Palestine 

        and marry Isaac.  Rebekah displays something of the resolution of will and 

        independence which characterize her later in the Isaac story.  

                   Isaac has just come up to the Hebron region to await the servant’s

        return; he sees the caravan approaching, and walks out to meet it.  Rebe-

        kah “falls off” the camel and veils her face.  The lasting impression of the 

        narrative is that the pair enjoy love at first sight.  He marries her and is 

        “comforted after his mother’s death.”

                   Esau and Jacob’s Birth-Isaac’s Death—Rebekah is barren like 

        Sarah was; as before & in the following Jacob story, barrenness creates a

        major test of faith in Yahweh.  Isaac meets the temptation with prayer.  

        Isaac’s patient faith is set in a high light by the Priestly chronology, where 

        Rebekah remained childless for 20 years.  With the birth of the twins Esau

        and Jacob,  Yahweh’s promise concerning Isaac is fulfilled and the patri-

        arch’s faith and prayer exonerated.  But also, with the birth of twins who 

        are in conflict with each other the promise is again threatened, and in fact 

        deepened by, the divided loyalty of their parents.

                   Only in his dealings with Abimelech does Isaac stand out as a per-

        son in his own right.  Perhaps here, then, Israel’s distinctive picture of 

        Isaac may be sought, Isaac appears to be a man of blessing.  Yahweh’s ini-

        tial meeting with Isaac in Gerar highlights the statement: “Sojourn in this 

        land, and I will be with you and will bless you.”  In the same chapter it is 

        confirmed that “Yahweh blessed him, and the man became rich, & gained 

        more and more until he was very wealthy.”  Isaac was also successful in 

        obtaining plentiful sources of water.  When Isaac returned to Beer-sheba, 

        Yahweh again appeared to him, repeating the blessing.  By erecting an 

        altar there, Isaac bound his family to the same God worshiped by his 

        father.

                   The theme of blessing also dominates the final, most poignant 

        scene in Isaac’s life.  Through crass deceit initiated by the mother herself, 

        the younger son, who has previously gained the family birthright, now 

        steals the patriarchal benediction; the blind, uncertain father gives to his 

        undeserving son his deathbed blessing.  With Esau’s anguished cry (“Bless

        me, even me also, O my father!”) the scene reaches it dramatic height.  

                   Isaac knows that the blessing he has solemnly communicated to 

        Jacob can neither be recalled nor annulled.  The brokenhearted father can 

        only take some of the words of the blessing & pronounce them over Esau

        as a mitigated curse.  Isaac dies, knowing he has given his blessing to a 

        lying, deceitful son; Esau hates his brother and seeks to kill him; and Jacob

        flees from the land promised to him, never to see his mother again.  When 

        he was 180 years old, Isaac died at Hebron, and was buried by his 2 sons 

        in the cave of Mach-pelah.

                   The most important aspect of the Genesis story dealt with in the 

        New Testament is the sacrifice of Issac.  Paul reminds the Galatians that 

        “we, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.”  As Isaac was obedient 

        unto the point of death, so Christ offered himself in perfect obedience.  

        Isaac’s sacrifice would serve as a “type,” first for Christ, then also for 

        Christians, who are Abraham’s seed after the Spirit.  The early Christian 

        church developed this latent concept quite fully.

ISAIAH (ישעיהו, salvation of the Lord)  The name of the first of the “major” 

        prophets.  Other individuals are named yesha’iyahu and yesha’iyah, but 

        for these the New Revised Standard Version has kept the King James Ver-

        sion spelling of Jeshaiah.

          List of Topics—1.  Isaiah's Life and Personality;    2.  Isaiah's 

           Theology;    3.  Book of Isaiah:  Chapters 1-39;   4.  Book

           of Isaiah:  Chapters 40-55;    5.  Book of Isaiah:  

           Chapters 56-66

                   1.  Isaiah’s Life and Personality—Isaiah’s life and ministry must  

        be seen against the historical background of his time.  What is related of 

        Isaiah’s life in Isaiah 36-39 is paralleled in part by II Kings 18-20.  He was

        the son of Amoz (not the prophet), born in Jerusalem around 760 B.C.  He

        married and had two sons, to whom he gave the symbolic names Shear-

        Jashub and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (See Biblical entries on each name).  

        The last we hear of him is during Sennacherib’s threat to Jerusalem in 701.

        Tradition has it that Isaiah was sawn in half in the reign of Manasseh.  It is

        impossible to determine whether or not it contains an element of truth.

I-25

                   Isaiah's call came to him in the temple.  He must have stood in or 

        very near the sanctuary, and it isn't fanciful to suppose that he was a priest

        or a temple prophet.  It is clear that Isaiah had no illusion about the obdu-

        racy of his people.  He always appears to have had easier access to the 

        king and the court than we can suppose was possible for the ordinary citi-

        zen; the assumption that he belonged to the aristocracy is confirmed by 

        his literary style.  

                   He was opposed to Ahaz’ plan to cast himself on the protection of 

        Assyria.  He saw clearly that such alliances would compromise the religi-

        ous as well as the political freedom of his country.  Not to have faith was 

        to court disaster.  But Isaiah was no conspirator against the state; & after 

        Ahaz concluded the Assyrian alliance, Isaiah announced his intention to 

        keep silence and to wait for Yahweh.  We can't with certainty point to any  

        of his public utterances between 734 and Ahaz’ death in 715.

                  When Ahaz was succeeded by Hezekiah, Isaiah was once more able

        to speak freely.  The dates on the Messiah passages aren't certain; it is 

        more likely that they come from a time when the outlook was brighter. 

        Isaiah was bidden to go naked and barefoot as a sign and portent of the 

        fate that awaited Egypt and Ethiopia; this he did for three years.  He was 

        convinced from the beginning convinced that Yahweh’s chastisement was 

        coming to Judah.  He was equally convinced that it wasn't in the divine 

        purpose that Zion, the earthly portion of Yahweh, should be given over to 

        the Assyrians to be spoiled and plundered.

                   The death of Sargon was the signal for a revolt against Assyria.  It 

        is clear from the story that Hezekiah was being drawn into a coalition 

        against Assyria.  Isaiah harshly criticized the alliance as a “covenant with 

        Death & Sheol.”  Sennacherib, having crushed Merodach-baladan, moved 

        swiftly against the Philistine cities.  An Assyrian detachment was sent to 

        invest Jerusalem, & Sennacherib describes how he shut up Hezekiah “like

        a caged bird in Jerusalem his royal city.”  Isaiah interpreted the insolence 

        of Sennacherib’s as mockery and reviling of the “Holy One of Israel.”  He

        declared that Sennacherib should go back by the way he had come, “for I 

        will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my 

        servant David.”

                   So long as it was believed that the entire book of Isaiah was written 

        by the prophet himself, Isaiah was assumed to be the greatest of the major

        prophets.  Today not even the whole of chapters 1-39 is thought to come 

        from him. Notwithstanding, the word “genius” is the only word that does 

        justice to Isaiah.  And anyway, to discuss which was the greatest of the 

        prophets is futile.  Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Deutero-

        Isaiah, to name those who may be considered “major” have common 

        characteristics and qualities.  The differences are largely those dictated by

        the circumstances of their times.

                   Even in considering only the majority of chapters 1-39 as the genu-

        ine work of Isaiah, his literary output is still considerable, & his ministry 

        lasted for more than a generation; he was poet-seer, man-of-action, and a 

        statesman.  Isaiah was sanity itself.  Jeremiah was sometimes unsure of 

        himself; Isaiah never was.  Isaiah never felt under unwilling compulsion, 

        but he could speak of Yahweh’s strong hand “upon” him.  His response to 

        the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, & who will go for us?” was, “ Here

        I am! Send me.” 

                   His private & family life was dedicated to a service he never regret-

        ted and from which he never looked back.  He was fearless & frank in the 

        presence of majesty, scathing in his denunciations.  Isaiah’s consistency 

        was the consistency of a “little mind.”  His policy of non-alliance was the 

        right one for his time.  His doctrine of Zion's inviolability of  was justified. 

                   Isaiah, like all great poets must have been born a poet.  But his ex-

        perience at his call gave an incandescent quality to his genius.  The fact 

        that he knew how a vineyard was prepared, what a derelict hut in a garden 

        looked like, or his knowledge of domestic animals is not remarkable, as 

        there were no big cities in his day.  But the majesty of his description of 

        Yahweh’s coming in judgment is superb.  His was a genius heightened by 

        utter consecration to the service of God.

                   2.  Isaiah’s Theology—There is every reason to believe that pro-

        phets gathered disciples and that it was to such like-minded spirits that we

        owe the preservation of much of their teaching and theology.  The outstan-

        ding emphases in Isaiah’s theology are already explicit or implicit in the 

        account of his call.  Isaiah did not say that there is no God but Yahweh.  

        But it is inconceivable that he thought of any other “god” as having real 

        existence.  It is Yahweh who determines the course of history.  The Assy-

        rians appear invincible, but they are only a rod in Yahweh’s hand. 

                   “Holiness” is another abstract noun.  The meaning of the Hebrew 

        root-word qadosh was originally “physical separation.”  Isaiah saw Yah-

        weh in majestic exaltation, and the threefold “Holy, Holy, Holy,” was the 

        Hebrew way of expressing the superlative, “most holy.”  Yahweh’s holi-

        ness is his perfect moral purity combined with his transcendent exaltation.

        That holiness has a moral content had been anticipated by Amos.

 I-26

                   It was evident to Isaiah that Yahweh’s holiness must express itself in

         judgment upon human sin, and this had an immediate impact on him.  Sin 

        is uncleanness (e.g. “I am a man of unclean lips) and rebellion against Yah-

        weh.  The inevitable consequence of man’s sensuality, self-sufficiency, 

        pride, and injustice was a fearful expectation of judgment.  There is only 

        one remedy for a human’s self-reliance and promoting their own interests 

        as opposed to what is right.  The remedy is faith in Yahweh; this strikes a 

        new note in prophecy.  As Isaiah puts it:  “In returning and rest you shall be

        saved; in quietness and in trust shall be strength.”

                   Amos had spoken of the “remnant of Joseph,” but it is certain that 

        Isaiah looked for something more than Judah’s bare survival.  Yahweh was 

        “laying in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tested stone, a precious corner-

        stone, of a sure foundation.”  The book of Isaiah is evidence that a purified 

        remnant did survive.  The remnant doctrine has been of great significance 

        in the subsequent history both of Judaism and of Christianity.  

                   Isaiah's teachings about the Messiah is not free of confusion.  This 

        may be because it was more incidental than central to his teaching.  Ex-

        pectation of a future messiah was largely born of dissatisfaction with the-

        reigning kings and, based on the prophetic sayings that came before him, 

        it is natural that Isaiah should have made pronouncements about the Mes-

        siah like the “Immanuel” prophecy (Isaiah 7).  Because of Hebrew gram-

        mar, it is difficult to determine whether the “perfect” tenses in chapter 9 are

        referring to the future, or whether the passage celebrated the birth of a con-

        temporary prince.  It may even refer to a contemporary king, like Hezekiah.

        In his time, kings were seen as sacred and, in some sense a semi-divine 

        person. 

                   3.  Book of Isaiah: Chapters 1-39—In all printed Hebrew Bibles 

        “Isaiah” is the first of the “Latter Prophets.”  Some later manuscripts put 

        Isaiah second after Ezekiel.  This may indicate that Jewish scholars were 

        not satisfied that the entire book was from the pen of Isaiah.  There is an 

        obvious break in the subject matter of the book at the end of chapter 39, 

        and another break at the end of 55.

                   The occurrence of subsidiary titles suggests that book was in part 

        compiled from smaller units.  Chapter 1 is a collection of prophetic pro-

        nouncements; chapters 2-12 deal with “Judah and Jerusalem”; chapters 

        13-23 are oracles or pronouncements about foreign nations; 24-27 and 

        34-35 are prophecies concerning the ending of this age and the beginning 

        of the next; 28-33 is a collection of “woes”; 36-39 are historical narratives.

        But it is an oversimplification to suppose that Isaiah 1-39 was formed by 

        seven originally independent booklets.

                   In general prophetic books consist of 3 types of materials: utteran-

        ces of the prophets; stories about the prophets; and passages of auto-bio-

        graphy.  Given these types, chapters 2-12 can be broken down as follows: 

        chapters 2-5 are prophecies; 6 and 8 are autobiographical; chapter 7 is bio-

        graphical; and 9-12 are prophecies.  It is likely that chapters 13-23, 24-27. 

        and, with modifications, 36-39 were complete and separate entities before 

        they were incorporated in the book.  Chapters 13-23 consist of what must 

        originally have been separate pieces, most of which have the phrase “the 

        oracle concerning.”  The Hebrew masso is from the root meaning “to lift 

        up.” While some resemble oracles as we think of them, “pronouncements  

        on” perhaps better conveys the meaning to the modern reader of most of 

        the passages.

                The contents of chapters 1-39 may be grouped and summarized as 

        follows: 

                Chapter 1-This contains five or more short poems.  Unlike most 

            prophetic oracles, Yahweh’s verdict on his people’s ingratitude in 

            verses 2-9 are put in the mouth of the prophet.  Verses 7-9 best 

            suits the conditions during Sennacherib’s invasion.  The theme of 

           10-17 is futility of sacrifices; the alternative to repentance is destruc-

            tion (18-20).  Verses 27-31 may or may not be a later addition offe-

            ring consolation. 

                Chapters 2-12-Most of 2 is the coming “day of Yahweh.”  3 pro-

            nounces the doom of rapacious rulers. 4 describes Zion.  5 is made

            up of the vineyard song and a series of “woes.”  The tragedy high-

            lighted here is that the crimes of the privileged must drag down 

            everyone in a common ruin.  The account of Isaiah’s call (chapter 6)

            is autobiographical; 7-8 relate to the Syro-Ephraimitic invasion of 

            734, with 7 being biographical, and 8 being auto-biographical. 

                 9 is prose, a connecting link between the pronouncement of 

            doom and the passage about the messiah; it is presumably earlier 

            than Samaria’s fall. Part of 10 illustrates the Hebrew conviction that 

            Yahweh is Lord of history.  The Assyrians are the unconscious in-

            strument of Yahweh, and their arrogance cries aloud for retribution. 

            The promise of deliverance from Assyria follows this section.  11 is

            a picture of the messianic age. 12 is made up of 2 hymns of thanks-

            giving.

                 Chapters 13-23-These chapters are mainly concerned with fo-

            reign peoples.  13 is the “oracle concerning Babylon and is almost 

            certainly from a later time; the reference to the Medes points to a 

            date around 540, nearly 200 years after the main body of material.  

            14 is joined with what precedes it by verses that presuppose the 

            Exile, and is mostly a “taunt song against Babylon.”  15-16 are the 

            “oracle Moab,” and is full of obscurities.  The beginning of 17 is 

            another oracle; this one concerning Damascus and pronouncing 

            doom on both Syria and Ephraim; the latter part of this chapter is an

            addition which cannot be dated. 

                 Chapters 18-19 are concerning Egypt.  The last part of 19 is uni-

            que in that it pictures a time when Egypt and Assyria will worship 

            Yahweh together with Israel.  20 is biographical. 21 contains three 

            pronouncements on the wilderness of the sea, Dumah, and Arabia.  

            22 is a pronouncement on the “valley of vision,” which is about 

            Jerusalem and a valley somewhere in its vicinity.  

                 Isaiah protests against the premature and reckless levity of Jeru-

            salem’s inhabitants, because they rely on their own resources with

            regard to Yahweh.  There is a pronouncement on Tyre in 23 which 

            foretells the doom of Phoenician seaports.   There were so many un-

            successful sieges of Tyre in 400 years that it is impossible to tell 

            which of them this chapter describes. 

                  Chapters 24-27-These chapters have often been described as a 

            “apocalypse,” but they lack an apocalypse’s pseudonymity, symbo-

            lism, and the like.  The passages dealing with the end of this age are 

            interspersed with some lovely lyrical passages.  26 contains one of 

            only two passages in the Old Testament in which the doctrine of the 

            resurrection of the dead finds expression. 

                 Chapters 28-33-These open with a woe against the “drunkards of 

            Ephraim.”  Isaiah denounces the blindness and incompetence of the 

            rulers of Jerusalem, but he is still convinced that Yahweh’s purpose 

            for Zion was something  no folly of man could change, even in the 

            midst of widespread destruction. 

                 Chapters 34-35- These contain two poems about the ending of 

            this age.  34 describes Yahweh’s judgment “against all nations.”  

            Edom is typical of those who are enemies of Jews, and thereby 

            become the enemies of God.  The well-known chapter 35 is in com-

            plete contrast to what precedes it, with descriptions of the desert 

            become oasis and the highway back to Zion.  

                 Chapters 36-39-These historical narratives parallel II Kings 8-20.

            The section looks like an appendix, which suggest that the book of 

            Isaiah once closed with chapter 39.

                4.  Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40-55—It's almost unanimously agreed 

        that the historical background of at least chapters 40-48 is the Babylonian

        exile, which took place more than a century after the events described in 

        most of this book.  The question is whether chapters 40-55 (and possibly 

        56-66) are “long-range” prophecy, or whether they come from an author or

        authors living during the Exile, for chapters 40-55, and after the Exile for 

        chapters 56-66.  If the end of 44 and the beginning of 45 is sound text, and

        Cyrus is the historical Cyrus, it is clear that we must interpret chapters 40-

        48 against the background of the Exile, for here the exile is presented as 

        an accomplished fact.  Jerusalem and the temple appear to be in ruins.

                   If chapters 40-55 had not been preserved as part of the “book of the 

        prophet Isaiah,” and we assume a different author, it is safe to assume that 

        this author wrote some time between the rise of Cyrus and the fall of Baby-

        lon.  In order to say this is to deny the inerrancy of the Bible, as the New 

        Testament, which holds to the belief that Isaiah was the author of the entire

        book of Isaiah, quotes from chapter 40. 

                  Elsewhere in the Old Testament, and indeed in Isaiah, there are pas-

        sages which predict the distant future.  But such passages are mostly brief 

        and in general terms.  If Chapters 40-55 are 16 consecutive chapters which

        give a detailed account of what was to happen two centuries after it was 

        written, then they would be unique in prophetical writing and would serve

        no discernible purpose for Isaiah’s contemporaries.  Chapter 48 especially 

        indicates a later writing, as it speaks of “hidden things,” which is a concept

        which appeared considerably later than the time of the pre-exilic Isaiah. 

                   Nothing is known of the author, who is generally referred to as 

        Second Isaiah, or Deutero-Isaiah.  It is probable that he lived in Babylonia.

        It is likely enough that in the earlier part of his ministry the prophet was 

        precluded from speaking in public.  But the first part reads like public pro-

        clamation, and it is easy to imagine that as Babylonian fell, he was free to 

        come into the open.  Some have maintained that he was himself the Suffe-

        ring Servant.  This is improbable; but whoever the Servant of the Lord was,

        it would be surprising if something of the prophet’s own experience hadn't 

        contributed to the portrait of him.

I-28

                   So long as chapters 40-55 were thought to come from the Isaiah of 

        the 700s B.C., it was assumed that they were part of a “written book.”  

        Since early in the 1900s there has been a growing recognition that the pro-

        phets were mostly “speakers.”  It was recognized that Second Isaiah bears 

        more of the marks of a written composition than does Amos.  2nd Isaiah’s 

        work is repetitive.  For a number of years, the dominant view has been that

        Deutero-Isaiah consists of 50 independent pieces.  A closer inspection re-

        veals that Isaiah 40-55 is an orderly document.  In 40-48, but never in 49-

        55, there are polemics against the idol-gods.  Of the references, implicit 

        and explicit, to Cyrus, it is significant that Cyrus is not named until he is 

        directly addressed.

                  There is reason to think that some of the short passages which have 

        been supposed to be independent units, are really parts of longer poems.  

        At the other extreme from the “small unit theory,” it is thought by some 

        that Isaiah 40-55 is a poem, or series of poems.  But no 2 scholars agree 

        on where the larger units begin and end.  The whole bears the stamp of 

        Deutero-Isaiah’s own personality, and we can discern his theological con-

        ceptions in some logical sequence.

                   The contents of 40-48 are as follows: 

                 Chapter 40-The prophecy opens with a series of proclamations

            announcing Jerusalem’s approaching deliverance.  We are proba-

            bly to understand that the prophet overhears announcements 

            made in the divine assembly. Orders are given for a processional 

            highway to be prepared across the desert between Babylonia and 

            Jerusalem.  Finally, Jerusalem is to announce to her daughter ci-

            ties of Judah the imminent approach of Yahweh. 

                 The next part describes Yahweh in a series of questions.  He is 

            Lord of the nations and leader into battle of the starry hosts of hea-

            ven.  Yet after all the weary years of exile, Jacob-Israel feels that 

            his “way” is hid from, and his “just right” disregarded by, God.  

            Yet those who wait expectantly for Yahweh acquire fresh strength,

            “They shall walk and not faint.” 

                 Chapter 41- In the 1st part of this chapter the nations are sum-

            moned to an assize-inquest to inquire who it is that has “stirred up 

            one from the east whom victory meets at every step.”  It's Yahweh 

            who controls history, and the victor from the east is, by general 

            consent, Cyrus.  Israel is called by Yahweh “my servant.”  The 2nd 

            part amplifies the theme of the processional highway.  In the third 

            part the nations have already been summoned to the bar of judg-

            ment.  Yahweh declares that the gods of these nations are nothing 

            at all.  

                 Chapter 42- The 1st part has to do with the Servant of the Lord

            (See Biblical entry); the 2nd part is thought by some to be either a 

            separate Servant Song or a continuation of the preceding.  The 

            next part is similar in style to Psalms 96 and 98.  Like these Psalms, 

            it begins with “Sing to Lord a new song” and ends with God’s judg-

            ment of the world.  It uses the human-like images of Yahweh as a 

            berserk warrior and a woman in labor.  The last part of this chapter

            is uncompromisingly frank about the “blindness” of Yahweh’s ser-

            vant Israel.  The disaster was due to their sins, not the inevitable 

            fate of a small people in the path of a ruthless empire. 

                 Chapter 43-This chapter’s beginning is a continuation of the pre-

            ceding paragraph.  Yahweh has “redeemed” Israel.  In the next part 

            the Israelites are portrayed as witnesses to nations.  There is next a 

            verse whose meaning is unclear, followed by reference to Egypt’s 

            disaster at the Red Sea.  The wonders of the second exodus, this 

            time from Babylon, will surpass those of the first.  The next part is 

            a judgment that the sacrifices she offered in the days of her indepen-

            dence were prompted by self-indulgence and did not honor Yahweh

            at all. Nonetheless, it was Yahweh’s nature to “blot out” their rebel-

            lions, though they had first to endure heavy chastisement. 

                 Chapter 44-It begins with reference to “water on the thirsty land,”

            i.e. the outpouring of Yahweh’s spirit for the increase of Israel’s po-

            pulation.  Next, there is a satire on idol-making which is more elabo-

            rate here than anywhere else in biblical prophecy. This may be an 

            insert, with the third part of the chapter originally following the first.

            The chapter ends with a declaration that Yahweh is the sole Creator 

            and that Cyrus is the appointed agent to fulfill Yahweh’s purpose. 

I-29

                 Chapter 45-This chapter is mainly concerned with Cyrus.  He 

            was earlier referred to as “my shepherd,” and is now addressed as 

            God’s “anointed.” The next section is probably addressed to Jews 

            who might be scandalized that Yahweh should be said to employ a 

            non-Israelite to carry out his purposes.  All the ends of the earth are 

            bidden to turn to Yahweh and be saved.  

                 Chapter 46-The Babylonian and Borsippan gods are contrasted 

            with Yahweh, as gods which are incapable of self-movement & have

            to be carried on pack animals, whereas Yahweh carries his people 

            from birth to old age.  Idols are incapable of saving their anguished 

            devotees. 

                 Chapter 47-This is a “taunt song” addressed to Babylon and pre-

            dicting her certain ruin.  

                 Chapter 48-As the end of this section, it asserts that Yahweh 

            long ago announced the disaster that would overtake Israel, and 

            Israel has no alternative but to attribute it to her own obstinacy.  

            Two verses before the end of the chapter portray something almost 

            like divine anguish in the face of Israel’s obstinacy.  The chapter 

            and section closes with a summons to leave Babylon.  Nearly all the

            leading ideas of Deutero-Isaiah find expression in the first half of 

            his prophecy.  

        Chapters 49-55 are mostly an amplification of the preceding section. 

                 Chapter 49-The first part is the second so-called Servant Song. 

            It is followed by verses which seem imply a declaration of the re-

            lease and safe conduct of the returning exiles.  

                 Chapters 50-54-Chapter 50 begins with the statement that Yah-

            weh has not given Zion any bill of divorce.  On the contrary, the 

            Exile was consequent to his people’s sins.  There are 2 songs of the 

            Servant of the Lord, one in chapter 50, and another which begins in

            52 and ends in the middle of 53.  The rest of the chapters have to do

            with the rehabilitation of Zion-Jerusalem.  

                 Chapter 55-In this well-known final chapter of what is generally

            accepted to be from Deutero-Isaiah, the gifts of God are due to 

            grace and are universal.  The prophecy concludes on the same note

            as that with which it began.  We should judge that the liberation 

            edict of Cyrus had not yet been published.  The second exodus will

            be an occasion of rejoicing, with all of creation joining in the cele-

            bration.  The closing sentence may be rendered: “And it shall be to 

            Yahweh for a memorial, an everlasting inscription which shall 

            never be effaced.” 

                   There is some question as to whether the exuberant language of the

        prophet is to be taken literally, or is it poetic hyperbole.  Was he a poet-

        prophet of the 500s?  Or a poet of around 400 B.C.?  If he was from the 

        400s, it may be argued that if events did not happen as he expected, then 

        his theology has no firm foundation.  It's hardly necessary to say that there

        was no “return” from exile in the way that Deutero-Isaiah expected.  The 

        evidence of Haggai and Isaiah 56-66 is that conditions in Jerusalem were 

        depressing until Nehemiah rebuilt the walls (444 B.C.).

                  The matter may be expressed in this way:  Deutero-Isaiah is the last

        of the great prophets, and in his message we see the culmination of revela-

        tion which began through Moses and was intensified in the prophets.  The

        vision of any great prophet is “foreshortened.”  He sees the distant as near

        and depicts it in outlines of amazing clarity.  That depiction must be in a 

        medium suitable to his theme and in the idiom of his time.  It is right to 

        say that his message has been “transfigured,” especially by the New Testa-

        ment, and that its basic conceptions are authenticated.

                   Deutero-Isaiah’s theology is determined by his conception of Yah-

        weh as the sole Creator of the universe, Lord of history, Savior of Israel 

        and of all humankind.  His whole outlook is centered on God.  Yahweh’s 

        care and concern for the world didn't cease when he created it.  And who-

        ever the perfect Servant of the Lord may have been, suffering is the 

        means by which he fulfills his mission.  The most obvious link with the 

        Isaiah of the first 39 chapters is the conception of Yahweh as the “Holy 

        One of Israel.”  The emphasis in the first part of Isaiah is upon Yahweh as

        judge; in Deutero-Isaiah it is always upon his saving power and protection. 

I-30

            

                   5.  Book of Isaiah: Chapters 56-66—The section which includes 

        these chapters presents problems which so far have no one solution.  A 

        small minority of scholars believe that chapters 40-66, together with, per-

        haps, chapters 34-35, are from one author.  Others think that 56-66 are not 

        from Deutero-Isaiah, but perhaps a student.  The majority believe they are 

        from several authors, most of whom were Deutero-Isaiah’s disciples.

                   The general background of this section is Palestinian, and it is argu-

        able that some parts at least could be pre-exilic. What's said about the tem-

        ple in chapters 56 and 60 may be in expectation of the future rather than a 

        description of the present.  It's hard to see these chapters as a unity com-

        pared to chapters 40-55.  The broad difference of emphasis between chap-

        ters 56-66 and chapters 40-55 is this: in chapters 40-55, Yahweh is coming 

        to the immediate help of his people, who need to be roused from their 

        hopelessness; in chapters 56-66 it is Yahweh who seems reluctant, while 

        the people clamor for his coming.

                   The most probable solution of the problem of chapters 56-66 is that

        which is most widely favored—“Trito-Isaiah” is from a number of authors

        who were in the tradition of Deutero-Isaiah.  Parts of chapters 63 and 64 

        may date from early in the Exile.  For the rest, it is difficult to assert with 

        confidence dates before or after the period 520-516.  Most recently the ten-

        dency has been to favor dates around 516.  Trito-Isaiah shares with Deu-

        tero-Isaiah and the original Isaiah the emphasis upon Yahweh as the “Holy

        One of Israel.”  We are to think of the Isaiah of the 700s as having created 

        a tradition which continued to be a living and potent force for some three 

        centuries.  The contents of these chapters are as follows: 

                 Chapter 56-It begins with religious ordinances and is almost 

            wholly foreign to the preceding chapters.  The passage is an assu-

            rance to foreign proselytes and (Jewish) eunuchs that they shall 

            have equal access to Yahweh.  The rest of 56 is a scathing attack 

            against corrupt religious leaders.  

                 Chapter 57-The verses up to the middle of this chapter continue

            the attacks of the preceding chapter.  The remaining verse echoes 

            the sentiment of Deutero-Isaiah in saying that the transcendent God

            dwells with the man “who is of a contrite and humble spirit.” 

                 Chapter 58- There is evidence that during the Exile regular fasts

            were observed.  This chapter’s  first part mentions the danger that 

            statutory religious observances may come to lack sincerity, and cri-

            ticizes how people observe these fasts.  The last two verses discuss 

            the keeping of the sabbath. 

                 Chapter 59-  Its theme is that Yahweh’s delay in coming to the 

            help of his people is not due to inability on his part but to their sins.

            Eventually God will come as Redeemer. 

                 Chapter 60- This chapter has things in common with Deutero-

            Isaiah and opens with a magnificent description of the sunrise glory

            of Yahweh upon Jerusalem.  The Holy City shall be mistress of the 

            nations; foreigners will rebuild her walls, and their kings will be 

            her servants. 

                 Chapter 61- The opening verses of chapter 61, which again is 

            similar to Deutero-Isaiah, were read by Jesus in the synagogue at 

            Nazareth.  The rest of the chapter is very similar to the chapter 

            which precedes it. 

                  Chapter 62- The first five verses revert to the theme of Zion as 

            the bride.  With only a vowel change in a word in verse five, the 

            meaningless “your sons” becomes “your builder—i.e. Yahweh, who

            will also station watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem. 

                 Chapter 63- Antiphonal voices are heard in the first six verses.  

            The first must be that of the prophet; the second is the voice of Yah-

            weh, solitary, and mighty in power and salvation.  The rest of the 

            chapter is a lament, an impassioned appeal to Yahweh to come to 

            the deliverance of Yahweh’s people. 

                 Chapter 64- It finishes the lament begun in chapter 63. 

                 Chapter 65- There is a notable difference with how the King 

            James Version translates the first verse, and how the New Revised 

            Standard Version translates it.  The latter translation is: “I was ready

            to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who

            did not seek me.”  This is followed by a denunciation of ghoulish 

            worship.  The chapter concludes with descriptions of a new creation

            and the long life of those who shall live in the redeemed community.

                 Chapter 66- The final chapter moves between judgment and sal-

            vation.  The first paragraph is most likely a protest against temple 

            and sacrifice.  The verses here are the clearest foreshadowing of the

            New Testament concept that “God is spirit, and those who worship 

            him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4).

I-31

                   The physical text of Isaiah has, on the whole been well preserved.  

        It presents fewer problems than do the majority of the other prophetical wri-

        tings.  If a passage appears to be seriously corrupt and the surviving ver-

        sions provide no solution, it is becoming more possible to compare the He-

        brew with other related Middle Eastern languages.  The most recent disco-

        very of ancient texts of Isaiah were found in the late 1940s in the Dead 

        Sea Scrolls.  There are 2 such scrolls of Isaiah, one complete and one frag-

        mentary.  The 2 Dead Sea manuscripts go to show that the Hebrew Maso-

        retic Text, which sets the norm for the Old Testament, was substantially 

        fixed by the beginning of the Christian era.

ISHBAAL  (איש־בעל, man of Baal)  The name Ishbaal is not found in the 

        Bible.  Because of the hesitancy to pronounce the name “Baal,” Ishobo-

        sheth was substituted.

                   Ishbaal-Ishbosheth was ruler of the northern tribes of Israel after 

        the death of Saul.  He struggled unsuccessfully with David for the leader-

        ship of all the tribes.  The Chronicler makes no mention of this chapter in 

        Israel’s history.  After the defeat of Israel by the Philistines, and the death 

        of Saul and his older sons, the ambitious Abner took Ishbaal, one of the 

        surviving sons of Saul, & proclaimed him king.  The crowning took place

        at Mahanaim.  In II Samuel 2 it is claimed that Ishbaal ruled over Gilead, 

        Asher, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, & all Israel, while the house of Judah  

        followed David. 

                   The boundary between David & Ishbaal seems to have been the 

        Aijalon Valley.  Both David & Ishbaal may well have started their careers 

        as Philistine vassals.  Perhaps the Philistines hoped that conflict between 

        the two contenders for rule would provide a check to the development of 

        any single strong power in Palestine.  A long civil war soon broke out be-

        tween the two parties.  

                   The northern tribes were handicapped by lack of strong leadership. 

        The real power was Abner, whom the weak Ishbaal seemed unable to 

        check.  Abner appropriated for himself one of Saul’s concubines; Ishbaal 

        objected.  Abner asserted his loyalty and immediately began plotting to 

        transfer the allegiance of the northern tribes to David.  Joab’s murder of 

        Abner frustrated this attempt.  But without Abner the cause of the northern 

        tribes was in dire straits.  Ishbaal was murdered in his sleep by two of his 

        captains, and the last block to David’s complete control was removed.  

                   It is stated that Ishbaal was 40 years old when he began to rule, & 

        that his reign lasted two years.  40 years is much too old, for this would 

        make Ishbaal around 28 years old when his father was anointed, an event 

        which took place when Saul was a “young man.”  It is likewise argued that

        the length of his reign must have been roughly the same as David's rule at 

        Hebron or 7½ years. 

ISHBAH  (ישבה, soothing)  A descendant of Judah; son of Mered and Bithiah

        the daughter of Pharaoh.

ISHBAK  (ישבק, forsaking)  Fifth son of Abraham and Keturah. (Genesis 25).

ISHBI-BENOB  (ישבו בנב, they abode in Nob)  A Philistine giant who was

        slain by Abishai when he threatened the life of David.   Ishbi-benob is

        clearly translatable as “they abode in Nob.”  It is likely that Nob should be

         “Gob,” as a Hebrew “n” and “g” are very similar.

ISHBOSHETH  (איש־בשת, man of shame)  King of Israel after the death of  

        Saul. The name was originally Ishbaal.  Many Hebrew names were com-

        pounded with “Baal,” which can mean “master” or “possessor,” without 

        connecting Yahweh with the Canaanite fertility gods.  The violence of the

       prophetic attack on Baal-worship made later generations hesitant about 

        pronouncing the name “Baal,” and “bosheth” was substituted.

ISH-HAI  (אישהי)  The name used in the title “the son of Ish-hai,” used of 

        Benaiah in II Samuel 23.

ISHHOD  (אישהוד, man of glory)  A Manassite, son of Hammolecheth the 

        sister of Gilead.  The names are used also for the names of tribes (I Chro-

        nicles 7). 

I-32

ISHI  (אשעי, salutary)    1.  A Jerahmeelite (I Chronicles 2).      2.  A man of 

        Judah (I Chronicles 4).    3.  A Simeonite (I Chronicles 4).      4.  A chief of  

        the half-tribe of Manasseh (I Chronicles 5).

ISHI (NAME OF GOD) (אישי, from the root meaning foundation)  This is the

        name to be used by Israel in addressing God in the day of redemption, in-

        stead of the pagan name Baali.

ISHMA  (ישמא, desolation)  A descendant of Judah.

ISHMAEL  (ישמעאל, God hears)  The first explanation of “Ishmael” is also the

        most explicit: the child is to be named Ishmael because the Lord “has given

        heed” to the mother’s affliction (Genesis 16:11).  This verse is from the Jah-

        wist writer, even though the name used for God is “El.”  2 other passages 

        allude to the name's meaning: one from the Elohist (Genesis 21); one from 

        the Priestly writer (Genesis 17).  It's best translated as “May God hear.”

                   1. Abraham’s son by Hagar; Isaac’s older half brother.  Despite the 

        fact that the traditions about Ishmael are carried by all 3 sources compri-

        sing Genesis, little is said about Ishmael himself.  The Yahwist writer tells 

        that Ishmael “shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and 

        every man’s hand against him.” 

                 The Elohist adds that Sarah saw Ishmael “playing with her son Isaac;”

        through jealousy for Isaac if not also for herself, she forced Abram to cast 

        out Hagar and Ishmael. Under the protection of God, Ishmael grew up in 

        the wilderness of Paran.  The Elohist’s description of Ishmael and his sepa-

        ration from Ishmael is more ethnic than personal. 

                  From the Priestly writer come a little personal data, but this is brief.

        Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 years, and was named by his 

        father; when Abraham died, Ishmael joined Isaac; Ishmael lived 137 years.

        The Priestly writer also mentions his twelve sons, who dwelt from Havilah

        to Shur.  This writer’s statistics have more to do with the Ishmaelite people 

        than with Ishmael.

                  But if these few verses tell little about Ishmael the man, they say a 

        great deal about Ishmael the child as a witness to man’s despair & God’s 

        goodness.  God had promised Abraham & Sarah a son.  Yet they doubted 

        &, despairing, forced the issue by using Hagar as a substitute.  Then, even

        after God had made good his promise through Isaac, Sarah drove Hagar &

        Ishmael into the wilderness, because she feared that God might renege. 

        Ishmael, the very child of Sarah’s despair, instead of serving as a confirma-

        tion of God’s goodness, becomes for Sarah and Abraham a living threat to 

        the promise.  

                  This story portrays the tension between faith and doubt, & condemns

        Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar alike as guilty of lack of faith.  Conversely, 

        through Ishmael, God proves himself dependable and gracious.  Not only 

        does God give Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, but God hears Hagar & saves

        Ishmael also. 

                   2.  The third son of the Benjaminite Azel (I Chronicles 8 and 9).

                   3.  The father of Zebadiah, the governor of Judah during Jehosha-

        phat (II Chronicles 19). 

                   4.  Son of Jehohanan. One of the “commanders of hundreds” in II 

        Chronicles 23. 

                   5. Son of Nethaniah.  As a member “of the royal family” of Judah, 

        Ishmael acted as leader of the “captains of the forces” who overthrew the 

        Judean puppet government established by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.  

        Ishmael went into Mizpah and killed the governor Gedaliah.  Later by trea-

        chery he slew also 70 Israelites who had come to Mizpah to worship.  The 

        rest of the citizens of Mizpah he took captive.  These were rescued by 

        Johanan, though Ishmael and 8 comrades completed their flight success-

        fully.  (Jeremiah 40 and 41).

                   6.  Pashhurite who put away his foreign wife during Ezra’s reforms 

        (Ezra 10).   

ISHMAELITES  (ישמעאלי, God hears)  A term indicating a group applied 

        without specific geographical or racial reference to wandering caravan tra-

        ders, tent-dwellers, and camel-herders.

                 The Ishmaelites traced their descent from Ishmael, whose story im-

        plies that the Ishmaelites had some Egyptian blood.  The Ishmaelites as 

        such are mentioned only a few times.  The earliest instance is in the story 

        of Joseph, who was sold to Ishmaelites coming from Gilead.  Ishmael him-

        self would appear to have been a fairly close contemporary of Joseph.  

        However, Ishmaelites were primarily nomadic caravan traders without spe-

        cific geographical or racial reference.

                   In the period of the judges we find the Ishmaelites in close connec-

        tion with Midianites.  Gideon requested the men of Israel to give him the 

        earrings they had taken as spoil from the Midianites, who were Ishmaelites,

        which in this case was synonymous with “nomadic traders.”  In the last Old

        Testament occurrence, they are mentioned with Edomites in a list of con-

        spirators against Israel (Psalm 83).  The historical context of this passage 

        need not be any later than the 700s B.C.  Two individual Ishmaelites are 

        named: Abigail, David’s sister, married “Jether of the Ishmaelites”; and 

        the official in charge of the camels in David’s administrative organization 

        is named “Obil the Ishmaelite.”

I-33

                   Twelve princes have sprung from Ishmael, causing the Hebrews to 

        acknowledge that Ishmael's descendants of  had become a “great nation.” 

        Ishmaelite ancestors such as Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Dumah, Massa, & 

        Tema are mentioned in Assyrian texts as well as Genesis 25.  From this 

        same chapter 2 names, Mibsam & Mishma, appear again in I Chronicles 4

        as Simeonite clans.  Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah form another homoge-

        neous group.  All these Ishmaelite stocks are represented as quartered, in 

        general, to the east of Palestine in the Syrian Desert.  Around 50 A.D., 

        Josephus connected the Ishmaelites with Arabia.  But throughout the Old 

        Testament they are clearly distinguished from the descendants of Joktan, 

        who peopled the Arabian Pennisula.

ISHMAIAH  (ישמעיהו, the Lord hears)  1.  One of the disaffected Benjaminite 

        warriors who joined the proscribed band of David at Ziklag.  He is repre-

        sented as a leader of the “Thirty,” a legion of military merit, made up ex-

        clusively of Benjaminites.  It is different from the later Davidic “Thirty.” 

                   2.  An officer and a leader of the tribe of Zebulun (I Chronicles 27).

ISHMERAI  (ישמרי, whom the Lord keeps)  A Benjaminite (I Chronicles 8).

ISHPAH  (ישפה, eminent)   A Benjaminite (I Chronicles 8).

ISHPAN (ישפן, eminent )  A Benjaminite (I Chronicles 8).

ISHTAR.  The Babylonian fertility-goddess, originally masculine.  Ishtar was the

        most potent goddess in Mesopotamian religion, playing the same role in 

        the fertility cult as Anat at Ras Shamra.  Ishtar is associated with the dy-

        ing vegetation-deity, in this case Tammuz.  In the Assyrian period she 

        was revered beside the national god Assur as a goddess of war.

ISHVAH  (ישוה, likeness)  Second son of Asher; descended from Jacob and 

        Zilpah; it may be a form of Ishvi.

ISHVI  (ישוי, like, similar) 1.  An ancestor & the origin of the name of an Ashe-

        rite tribe.      2.  A son of King Saul (I Samuel 14).

ISIS  An Egyptian goddess; the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus.  Isis was 

        worshiped in ancient Egypt from the earliest historical period as the su-

        preme mother-goddess and the creative power of the soil.  Her principle 

        attributes were well defined by the time of the Pyramid Texts.  She was 

        identified with numerous Semitic, Greek, and Roman deities.  Her cults 

        survived in the Roman world until the 500s A.D. 

ISLAND, ISLE (אי (ee); איים, eem; nhsoV (neh sos))  The islands of the 

        Mediterranean are referred to in the biblical references in which these 

        words are found.  Judging from the biblical context, the Hebrew word ‘eem 

        frequently means “coastlands,” rather than “islands.”   The hope is ex-

        pressed in Psalm 72 that the kings of the isles will render tribute to the He-

        brew king.   The image of the new age in Isaiah 42 is expressed in the 

        phrase “I will turn the rivers into islands.”  Some scholars suggested that 

        “island” should be changed to “dry land.”  In the New Testament, specific 

        islands of the Mediterranean Sea are referred to by name: Cyprus; Cauda; 

        Malta; Crete; Rhodes; and Cos.

ISMACHIAH  (יסמכיהו, the Lord uphold him)  A temple officer of third rank 

        (II Chronicles 31).

I-34

ISRAEL, HISTORY OF.  The history of Israel cannot begin before the time of 

        Jacob.  But the Bible opens with the origin of the cosmos, and bridges the 

        gap between Creation and the patriarchs with genealogies.  These stories 

        are of high value for studying biblical thought, but they can't be considered

        historical.  Their similarity to Babylonian traditions has long been recog-

        nized, but there is nothing similar in Canaanite sources.  Abram, the grand-

        father of Israel, left Ur & migrated to Haran, and then Palestine.  It is likely

        that some ancient connection between Ur and Haran exists, as both wor-

        shiped the god Sin.

                   List of Topics:  1.   Patriarchal Age      2. Moses and the 

        Exodus      3. Joshua and the Judges      4.  The Rise of the 

        Monarchy      5. The Reign of David      6.  The Reign of 

        Solomon    7. The Divided Kingdom     8. The Fall of Samaria        9. The Kingdom of Judah     10. The Fall of Jerusalem    

        11. The Exile and Restoration     12. The Persian Period     

        13.  New Testament Period

                    1.  Patriarchal Age—Some scholars have found no historical value 

        in the patriarchal traditions.  In Genesis 10, many tribal names became the 

        names of individuals.  There is nothing impossible in the theory that some 

        of the group experiences became those of individuals, but that theory can-

        not cover all the patriarchal traditions, especially not Abraham.  Even if all 

        of these stories were about tribes, they might still have some historical 

        substance.  

                   None of these stories have independent confirmation from other an-

        cient or contemporary sources.  Our knowledge from archaeological dis-

        coveries shows that contemporary customs of the patriarchal period are ac-

        curately reflected in biblical stories.   The biblical narratives cannot have 

        had the same origin as the modern-day historical fiction, so we can only 

        conclude that they are traditional stories.  Hence, there is a greater belief 

        today that history can be found in the stories. 

                   We must beware of going to the other extreme and attributing literal 

        historical truth to these stories.  They are sagas, not history; recovering 

        history from them can only be in broad & general terms.  Israel’s ancestors 

        came from Babylonia to northern Mesopotamia and thence into Palestine.  

        Later some of them went to Egypt and were reduced to slavery; there is no 

        obvious motive for the creation of such unflattering stories.

                   The chronological problems attaching to this period are complex.  

        There is only one passage which sets Abram in relation to world history: 

        Genesis 14.  Scholars disagree as to whether this is a very early or very 

        late biblical passage.  It makes Abram the contemporary of Amraphel, king

        of Shinar, presumably in the 2000s B.C.  This king is often held to be Ham-

        murabi of Babylon.  In the light of recent knowledge, it is now certain that 

        Hammurabi belonged to a much later period (i.e. the 1700s), which is far 

        too recent a time for Abraham to have been alive.  For any reconstruction 

        of history we must therefore start from the Exodus. 

                   2.  Moses and the Exodus—In the last century the Exodus was at 

        first dated in the 1200s B.C.  Palestinian archaeology has established that 

        the main wave of destruction of Canaanite cities was toward the end of the 

        1200s.  When the archaeologist Garstang dated the fall of Jericho at the 

        end of the 1400s this date for the Exodus became widely adopted.  

                   In support of this date, the Amarna Letters are used.  Written by 

        Palestinian princes, they are talking about the Hebrews when they appeal 

        for help against the Habiru.   Since these letters ask for small reinforce-

        ments of 10 or 50, is hard to reconcile them with the biblical tradition.  

        Also, the biblical traditions represent the Israelites as building cities of the 

        Nile Delta,  whereas our knowledge of Egypt in the 1400s does not show 

        any extensive building.   Finally, the dating of the fall of Jericho is so 

        doubtful that scholars no longer use the fall of this city as the sole deter-

        mining factor in considering the date of the Exodus.

                   Accepting the 1200s as the period of the Exodus presents its own 

        problems.  This would force the period of the judges to be too short, unless

        we assume that the judges were local, rather than national leaders, that 

        their terms overlapped, or that events took place before Joshua & Exodus.

        There is archaeological evidence of Israel’s presence in Palestine, but the 

        date of the evidence, which was inscriptions, and the ruins of cities would  

        not leave time for the failed attempt to enter southern Palestine that is a 

        part of biblical tradition.  Some have fallen back on the belief that some 

        Israelites were in Palestine while the others were in Egypt.

                   By combining as much biblical evidence as possible with extra-bibli-

        cal evidence, it is possible that the migration of Jacob and his sons from 

        Mesopotamia fell early in the 1400s B.C., and that this group formed part 

        and not the whole of the Habiru tribe.  The treachery of Simeon and Levi at 

        Shechem would fall in this age.  The other associated groups moved much 

        more slowly northward. 

                   The story of Joseph’s being taken into Egypt is placed shortly after 

        the Shechem story, & would be in the period in which the heretic Pharaoh 

        Akh-en-aton broke with the priesthood of Amon and made the worship of 

        the sun-god, whose symbol was the sun-disk Aton, the sole permitted wor-

        ship.  Such a Pharaoh would have to find public servants in unusual pla-

        ces, which would help explain the story of Joseph.  Joseph’s kindred in 

        Egypt could be represented by some Levites & Simeonites who had failed 

        to settle in Shechem. 

                   The period between the death of Joseph and the rise of the oppres-

        sing Pharaoh is passed over in a single verse in the Bible.  The time of the 

        sojourn in Egypt is given as 430 years, but the biblical genealogies are uni-

        formly inconsistent with this.   The actual period was most likely 4 to 7 

        generations, or 130 years.  This would make Ramses II the pharaoh of the 

        oppression; he is known to have undertaken building operations in the Nile

        Delta.  This fact would provide an appropriate setting for the Moses story. 

I-35

 

                   The Israelites who were led out by Moses would be mainly the Jo- 

        seph tribes, but with Levite elements, to which Moses certainly belonged. 

        Levites would be represented both in Egypt and in Palestine.  In the bibli-

        cal account 38 of the 40 years between the Exodus and the Conquest are 

        said to have been spent at Kadesh; the wandering was limited to 2 years.  

        It may be that the long sojourn at Kadesh was actually connected to the 

        sojourn of Jacob.  It is the combining of the two movements into a single 

        story which has resulted in the linking of the long sojourn at Kadesh and 

        the short period of later wandering into a single period of 40 years.   

                   No historical view accepts all the Bible statements as they stand; 

\       every view either openly or silently dismisses what it can't use.  The view 

        presented above represents a greater integration of evidence from the 

        Bible and from other sources than any other view.  Two major pieces of 

        archaeological evidence provide difficulties: Jericho and Ai.  The latter of  

        these was probably destroyed long before the Joshua’s time.  

                  The Joseph story is presented here as being substantially histori-

        cal; so is the story of Moses. Neither of these stories can be regarded as 

        strict history in all its details, and none of the actual events of the Exo-

        dus can be shown to be referred to in contemporary non-biblical records.

        In its favor, the biblical story is such that it is unlikely that any people 

        would invent the story that it had been reduced to slavery in a foreign coun-

        try, and that it took no active part in its deliverance, if there were no sub-

        stance in the story. Politically Moses was the creator of the nation; he led 

        these tribes into the desert and filled them with a national consciousness, 

        & with the sense that they had been chosen by the Yahweh in whose name

        he had led them out. 

                   3.  Joshua and the Judges—Joshua is represented as the leader 

        of the united tribes of Israel, and as achieving a conquest and the land's  

        division.  In Judges 1 the conquest is attributed to separate tribes, which is

        the more likely account.  To Joshua, the Ephraimite, the leader of the Jo-

        seph tribes, should be attributed the securing of a foothold in central Israel.

        It is improbable that he linked up with Judah, since we find a Canaanite 

        belt separating Judah from the northern tribes later on in history.   The 

        sense of kinship among the tribes and also the tensions can be under-

        stood, if we recognize a common origin & a long period of separate history. 

                   On the view presented above, it isn't necessary to shorten the peri-

        od of the judges.  The judges were tribal heroes, rather than national he-

        roes, and the chronological framework which Judges is placed in is later 

        than the actual traditions.  If some of the tribes had been continuously in 

        the land from the time of Jacob, some of the stories may well come from 

        the period before Moses and Joshua.  It has been suggested that the 12

        Israelite tribes formed a loose tribal confederacy with a religious bond & 

        shrine as its center, but it is doubtful that all 12 were part of it at the same 

        time.  It is more likely that there were alliances of groups of tribes, and that 

        these alliances were sealed at various sanctuaries. 

                   The specific exploits of the judges were against Moabites, Midia-

        nites, Ammonites, and Philistines.  These were non-Canaanites, and the 

        Israelites were fighting an invasion of Canaan as much as of their own 

        lands.  While in times of crisis the Israelites were conscious of their racial 

        and religious distinction from the Canaanites, there must have been some 

        intermarriage and assimilation. 

                  Deborah is the only judge whose victory was over Canaanites. Sise-

        ra was seeking power over the Israelite tribes north and south of his Vale of

        Esdraelon.  Deborah urged Barak to summon the tribes nearby to combine 

        against the foe. The Israelites routed the far better-equipped enemy, due to

        a storm.  The victory was celebrated in both prose and poem.  In the prose 

        account, the victory over Sisera has been combined with the victory over 

        Jabin of Hazor.   In the book of Joshua the Jabin victory is attributed to

        Joshua.  In the poem, various tribes are praised or blamed for giving or 

        withholding aid.  Judah isn't mentioned for praise or blame, because Judah 

        was still separated from the northern tribes & couldn't be expected to lend

        aid.  

                   Samson performed fantastic feats against the Philistines, who 

        gained a foothold on the Mediterranean coast early in the 1100s B.C.  

        Gradually they extended their sway up the coast.  The tribe of Dan’s migra-

        tion to the north was due to Philistine expansion. The book of Judges is 

        important for the study of the social and political conditions in the post-set-

        tlement period.  There was serious internal strife among the Israelite tribes. 

        In one case, tribes combined against Benjamin after the incident concer-

        ning the Levite’s concubine. 

                   4.  The Rise of the Monarchy—The rise of Saul and the monar-

        chy’s establishment was mainly due to the Philistine expansion into the 

        heart of the land.  At that time the ark of the covenant was kept at Shi-

        loh by Eli.  A battle was fought at Aphek. The ark was carried onto the 

        battlefield, but the ark was taken as a trophy and Shiloh was destroyed. 

        Eli died on hearing the news of the defeat, and the central highlands 

        were lost.  

                   The Philistines returned the ark, but its sanctuary had been de-

        stroyed, and it lay in Kiriath-jearim for many years.  The rise of the 

        monarchy to meet this situation was due to prophetic inspiration.  From

        the time of Sisera’s defeat through Deborah’s inspiration, we find evi-

        dence of the political and religious activities of the prophets of Israel.  

        Samuel played a prophetic role establishing the monarchy, although he 

        is called a judge.

I-36

                  There are two accounts of the rise of the monarchy that were com- 

       bined into the present biblical story.  The earlier represents Saul as first 

       privately anointed by Samuel with the commission to deliver Israel from 

       Philistine power.  The second account has Saul prevailing against first the 

       Ammonites.  The people of Jabesh-gilead had inter-married with the Ben-

       jaminites.  When they were pressed by the Ammonites, they appealed to 

       the tribe of Benjamin for help. 

                   The Philistines would be unconcerned with this incident, but Saul 

       turned against the Philistines with the strength and popular support he 

       had gained by his victory.  The Philistines were driven out and Saul was 

       acclaimed king.  At the beginning of his reign they were in the heart of 

       the country.  Later, they sought to go up the defiles that led from their 

       own chief cities into the hill country, but the battle of Ephes-dammim, 

       where David defeated Goliath, checked their advance.  They then tried 

       attacking from the north.   Saul was killed at Gilboa as a result of this 

       later attack.  The moodiness of Saul shouldn't detract from these accom-

       plishments.

                   5.  The Reign of David—Before the death of Saul, the attention 

        of the reader of the Bible is directed to David, of whose life we have a 

        more detailed account than we have of any other Old Testament (OT) 

        character.  At first he was a supporter of Saul, until the king’s jealousy of

        his popularity turned him into an outlaw.  Ishbosheth succeeded his father

        Saul as king, but had his headquarters east of the Jordan.  He can have 

        had little real authority to the west.  Actually, all real power was in the 

        hands of his general, Abner. 

                   At once war ensued between him and Ish-bosheth. The Philistine 

        welcomed the struggle with Ishbosheth as one which would weaken both 

        groups of Israelites, and would prevent David from becoming too power-

        ful.  When Abner tried to switch sides and made overtures to David, he 

        was killed by David’s general, Joab.  Ishbosheth was murdered and David 

        was recognized as the king of all Israel. 

                   David’s seeming dependence on the Philistines wouldn't com-

        mend him to the Jebusites.  David quickly attacked Jerusalem, which had 

        remained a formidable Jebusite stronghold.  By a bold and skillful ruse the

        city was entered and captured, though David was too wise to treat its peo-

        ple harshly or to destroy its defenses. 

                  Now it was clear to the Philistines that David was a menace to their 

        power, and they tried to suppress him.   David turned the tables on them, 

        and reduced them to dependence on him.  He wasn't long in further exploi-

        ting the situation and reducing the surrounding states one by one to a simi-

        lar recognition of his overlordship.   He soon established himself as the

        head of a kingdom greater than that ruled by any other Israelite king.  This 

        was in part due to his own and Joab’s military gifts, but it was also due to 

        the political vacuum that existed in the international situation.   No great 

        power was in a position to interfere in Palestine. 

                   David’s skill enabled him to take advantage of the situation.  His 

        genius was seen in his transfer of his capital to Jerusalem after its capture. 

        David was anxious to enlist the natural strength of the city, and was quick 

        to attach Israelite sentiment to the city.  He brought the long-neglected ark 

        into the city.  Before David moved it, the ark had been associated with the 

        northern tribe of Ephraim.   Now it became the focal point and symbol of 

        the national religion that lay at the base of David’s kingdom. 

                    David’s rule did not remain popular everywhere in Israel.  The dis-

        appearance of the foreign menace removed one of the major unifying for-

        ces, and the newly found unity of the Israelite tribes began to disintegrate. 

        Even David’s own tribe of Judah was a source of unrest.   His own son 

        Absalom revolted and David had to find refuge east of the Jordan.  Saul’s 

        tribe of Benjamin was hostile for obvious reasons; later Sheba, from the 

        same tribe, led a revolt against David.  And despite the glory of David’s 

        reign, his subjects were conscious of the burdens of war and were forced 

        under David’s mandatory labor for the state to frequently neglect their own 

        occupations.  This aroused deep resentment in the time of Solomon.

                   6.  The Reign of Solomon—When David’s end seemed near, his 

        eldest surviving son, Adonijah, assumed that the succession would be his.  

        He was foiled by the prophet Nathan and the queen Bathsheba.  Nathan 

        sided with Bathsheba even though earlier he had rebuked David for com-

        mitting adultery with her, and virtually murdering her husband.  It was be-

        cause of Nathan’s resources that her son secured the throne.

                   The people in power at the time of the succession split their support 

       between Adonijah and Solomon.  Abiathar the priest, son of Eli, supported 

       Adonijah, while Zadok the Jebusite priest supported Solomon.  The army 

       commander Joab supported Adonijah, while Benaiah, the captain of the 

       bodyguard, supported Solomon.  By a swift stroke, planned by Nathan, 

       Solomon was proclaimed king before the death of his father. 

I-37

                   Later generations accorded Solomon a reputation for wisdom which 

        his subjects might have disputed.  There was a certain splendor in his 

        reign, but it was largely a hollow splendor.  Solomon’s reign was one of

        peace.  It  might therefore be expected that the country would enjoy pro-

        sperity.  Instead, the common people faced ever harder conditions, while 

        the court grew in size and splendor. 

                   The sources of Solomon’s wealth were many.  He levied heavy 

        taxes on his own people, requiring both goods and services from them. His

        country was divided into twelve districts.  Since equal districts would be 

        needed, tribal divisions were ignored.  Judah seems to have been given a 

        privileged position.  The tolls levied on traffic that crossed Israel increased

        the king’s treasury.  Solomon’s reign was the one period of peace when the

        Israelite king controlled this area, and drew profit from trade.  Solomon 

        also fitted out a fleet of ships which sailed down the Red Sea and as far as 

        India.  In Ezion-Geber, he had copper mines.  From all these sources, it is 

        not surprising that the king acquired a wealth; he shared little of it with his 

        subjects. 

                  Great building enterprises were undertaken. The most famous was 

        the temple, which Solomon built to house the ark.  It was not built by the 

        king to be the sole sanctuary.  The temple was intended to be the royal 

        shrine.  Also, at Megiddo stables have been discovered by archaeologists, 

        and there can be little doubt that these were built for Solomon.  Solomon 

        also entered into numerous foreign alliances including the Pharaoh of 

        Egypt and the king of Tyre.  These alliances were sealed by marriages with

        foreign princesses, which brought religious and cultural influences into the

        land that were unwelcome in Israel.  Religion became the focus for all the 

        discontent with which the land seethed; it was the prophets who directed 

        the discontent.

                   7.  The Divided Kingdom—Already, during the reign of Solomon, 

        the discontent was smoldering, and the prophet Ahijah encouraged Jerobo-

        am, one of the king’s officers, to lead a revolt. Solomon took swift action 

        against Jeroboam, who escaped to Egypt & placed himself under the Pha-

        raoh’s protection.  Solomon doesn't seem to have faced any rebellion, and

        may not have realized the strength of feeling his oppressive reign had 

        aroused.  Before the end of his life, some of the neighboring states had 

        secured their independence, and the revolt of Damascus brought into being

        a kingdom which was later to become a serious threat to Israel.

                   On the death of Solomon, Jeroboam returned from Egypt, and soon 

        became the leader of the north.  The northern tribes demanded reform be-

        fore they pledged their loyalty to Rehoboam, son of Solomon.  Rehoboam 

        gave a disdainful answer, and was completely unprepared for the open re-

        volt which broke out under the leadership of Jeroboam.  Possibly, the Dis-

        ruption would have come anyway.  Jealousy over Judah’s favored position 

        played its part in the situation.  

                   Judah had entered the land quite separately from the Joseph tribes, 

        and in a different age.  To conciliate this feeling would have meant that 

        Rehoboam would forfeit the support of his own tribe.  He would also have

        to lighten taxation and abandon the forced labor system, which would have 

        greatly reduced the life of the extravagant court Rehoboam had inherited.  

        While recognizing the folly of his disdainful answer, it is fair to recognize 

        that the new king’s problems were not all of his own making.

                   We should also not forget the role that the prophets played at this 

        time.  Ahijah, a northern prophet, had instigated the rebellion, & a southern

        prophet Shemiah, paralyzed Rehoboam’s arm when he tried to suppress 

        that rebellion.  Prophets from both regions were moved partly by the suffe-

        rings of the people, and were also interested in the national religion.  The 

        foreign alliances of Solomon brought Israel into international life in a way 

        she was unfamiliar with; this in turn brought religious and cultural influen-

        ces into the land that the prophets could not but view with alarm.  The pro-

        phets preferred religious purity to political power.

                   The relatively brief period during which all the Israelite tribes had 

        been united in a single kingdom had left a permanent deposit of the grea-

        test importance.   The north & the south of Israel each had their separate 

        document regarding their history.  But each document contained a diffe-

        rent combination of elements from the north and south as a result of their 

        having been a United Monarchy.

                   When Jeroboam led the tribes in revolt, the tribe of Judah continued

        to be loyal to Rehoboam.  From now until the destruction of Samaria the 

        two kingdoms continued separately, sometimes warring, and sometimes 

        with the smaller kingdom accepting dependence on the other.  The sou-

        thern kingdom remained true to the David’s dynasty, save for a few years 

        under Athaliah. The northern kingdom had frequent changes of dynasty. 

I-38

                   Often these changes of dynasty were due to prophetic influence.  

        Jeroboam himself did not retain prophetic support.  He made Bethel and 

        Dan’s sanctuaries into national shrines, because his new kingdom needed 

        them.  The priesthood of Dan claimed descent from Moses, Bethel is asso-

        ciated with the patriarchs.  The bull images which stood in them were most

        likely not idols but the pedestals of an imageless God.  The prominent pro-

        phets Elijah, Elisha, and Hosea were northern prophets, and Amos prophe-

        sied in the north. 

                   Not long after the Disruption Shishak, Egypt's Pharaoh, attacked 

        Palestine, both north and south.  The southern kingdom hastened the end 

        of the northern kingdom and weakened their own position by having the 

        Arameans of Damascus attack the northern kingdom. Gradually Damascus

        increased in power until they became a serious menace to the Israelites.  

                   Early in the 800s B.C. the northern Israelite kingdom went through 

        a period of revolution when there were three aspirants to the throne.  Omri 

        emerged as the sole king.  He was a better leader than the verses devoted 

        to him in Bible would suggest.  The choice of Samaria showed something 

        of the strategic insight David had shown, although Samaria had to be crea-

        ted by Omri.  Omri made an alliance with Tyre, and under Omri’s leader-

        ship the northern kingdom of Israel showed a new strength. 

                    In the reign of Omri’s son Ahab, the effects of the Tyrian alliance 

        became apparent.  Jezebel was a forceful personality, whose ideas on the 

        powers of the monarchy were foreign to Israel.  Also, Tyrian cultural and 

        religious influence was widely felt in the land.  The southern kingdom of

        Judah was at this time friendly to Israel, and both flourished.  The king of 

        Judah was able to improve his kingdom’s economic status.  An alliance be-

        tween the two kingdoms was sealed by Jehoshaphat’s son marrying Ahab’s

        daughter Athaliah.  

                    It is of interest to note that though the prophet Elijah was bitterly 

        opposed to Jezebel and all the Tyrian influence, whenever it came to con-

        flict with Damascus, the prophet sided with his people.  In Ahab’s reign 

        Damascus made a determined attempt to conquer Israel; its king ended up 

        being captured by Ahab.  Ahab made a treaty with him, which was con-

        demned by the prophets.  In 853, Assyria was met by a confederation of 

        western states at the battle of QarQar.  The Assyrians claimed the victory, 

        but their advance was halted.  When Ben-hadad refused to restore Israe-

        lite districts east of the Jordan war broke out anew, and in the battle Ahab 

        met his end.  Only the prophet Micaiah proved to be a true prophet by op-

        posing Ahab. 

                   Within a few years the prophets promoted another northern revolu-

        tion.  This time Jehu was chosen by the prophets for the revolt against the

        dynasty of Omri.  The revolution swept away the kings of Israel & Judah,

        Jezebel, and large numbers of the royal house.  Jehu sought Assyrian aid 

        against Damascus.  This shortsighted policy of buying security against a 

        nearer menace by welcoming a farther one, happened often in both king-

        doms.  Jehu found relief against Damascus, but Assyria was too busy to 

        be of much help.  It was not until toward the end of the 800s B.C. that the 

        Aramean pressure was relaxed. 

                   In the southern kingdom of Judah, Athaliah, the queen mother and 

        Ahab’s daughter, at once seized power and killed all members the royal 

        house, with the exception of Joash.  After six years he was presented in 

        the temple by Jehoiada and acclaimed king, while Athaliah was swept 

        away.  When King Joash assumed power, there was friction between him 

        and Jehoiada over the maintenance of the temple and whose pocket it 

        would come out of.  In the end a compromise was reached, and a system 

        was established that lasted two centuries. 

                   Beginning in 800 B.C. there was an improvement in the fortunes 

        of both kings.  There was now peace between Israel and Judah and the 

        long reign of Jeroboam II in Israel saw a revival which brought the grea-

        test measure of prosperity since the Disruption; unfortunately not all clas- 

        ses shared in it.  Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a small class, 

        many of the small peasant farmers found themselves dispossessed, and 

        the poor were denied the protection of the law.  In the southern kingdom 

        of Judah Uzziah’s long reign was largely at the same time as Jeroboam’s 

        and it saw a similar prosperity and similar injustices. 

                   In such a situation the prophets championed the rights of the op-

        pressed in the name of religion.  Amos and Hosea belonged to the time 

        of Jeroboam and the period immediately following.  Isaiah and Micah be-  

        longed to Uzziah’s time.  In the prophetic view Israel’s religion consisted

        most importantly of the maintenance of covenant which bound the peo-

        ple to God and to one another. 

                   8.  The Fall of Samaria—To the prophet the collapse of the nor-

        thern kingdom was due to its weakness and disloyalty; to the historian it 

        was due to the power of a revived Assyria.  In 745 B.C., Tiglath-pileser 

        seized the Assyrian throne, and was a vigorous & ruthless ruler.  The sys-

        tem of deportation of conquered peoples which he began was continued by

        his successors.  After the death of Jeroboam II there were frequent revolts, 

        and no king sat long on the throne of Israel.  One party pinned its faith to 

        Egypt and another favored submission to Assyria.  

                   In 734 B.C., Israel joined Damascus in an anti-Assyrian alliance &

        pressured Judah to join it.  Ahaz, the king of Judah appealed to Assyria.  

        The prophet Isaiah had only contempt for the western allies, though he did 

        not favor the appeal for Assyrian aid.  The aid resulted in Assyrian laying 

        siege to Samaria few years later. After a stubborn resistance Samaria was 

        captured, many citizens were deported, and Israel came to an end in 723 

        or 722. 

I-39

                   9.  The Kingdom of Judah—One of the most difficult questions of 

        Old Testament history is whether Hezekiah succeeded to the throne before 

        or after the fall of Samaria.  In any case, Judah wasn't involved in the disa-

        ster of her neighbor; this little kingdom survived for a further century and a 

        half.  She was now the buffer state between Assyria and Egypt.  It was not 

        only Egypt that intrigued here. Babylon was restless under Assyrian rule, 

        and Merodach-baladan, a Chaldean, twice sought to head a revolt in the 

        east and to free Babylon from Assyria.

                   In 709, Hezekiah was drawn into Merodach-baladan’s alliance 

        against Assyria.  Hezekiah sought to bring pressure on his Philistine neigh-

        bors.  He strengthened the defenses of Jerusalem, & constructed the Silo-

        am tunnel to ensure the water supply of the city.  He also carried through 

        religious reform, so any revolt against Assyria would involve rejecting her 

        gods, and the revival of the national religion. 

                   The prophet Isaiah did not favor the rebellion and perceived that it 

        could not succeed.  When Sennacherib came, the whole of Judah, with the 

        exception of Jerusalem, was soon overrun.  Hezekiah paid a heavy fine.  

        Thereafter we read of the siege of Jerusalem, & of the city being delivered 

        by a plague.  In any case the reform of Hezekiah seems to have collapsed 

        with the revolt associated with it.  His successor, Manasseh, pursued the 

        policy of submission to Assyria.  Manasseh’s reign saw the greatest expan-

        sion of Assyrian power.  When Assyria finally fell, it fell from inner weak-

        ness as much as from external pressure. 

                   In the west, Josiah revolted in alliance with other little states.  That 

        Josiah carried through a religious reform is in no way surprising, and that 

        he should seek to give leadership to Israel as well as to Judah is also not 

        surprising.  The reform again centralized religion in Jerusalem, and was 

        based on a book discovered in the temple that was at least the core of the 

        book of Deuteronomy. 

                   Meanwhile Egypt, traditionally the foe of Assyria had instead aided

        them. When Assyria fell, Egypt sought to occupy the area west of the Eu-

        phrates.  As a result, Judah was quickly reduced to obedience, while 

        Josiah perished for his resistance; his religious reforms collapsed.  In 605 

        B.C. the battle of Carchemish ended with Nebuchadrezzar, son of Nabopo-

        lassar defeating the Pharaoh Neco.  A few years later Babylon was forced 

        to meet another threat from Egypt, and another battle was fought in the 

        south. 

                   10.  The Fall of Jerusalem—On Josiah’s death, his younger son 

        had been placed on the throne, but Neco replaced him with Jehoiakim, who

        promised obedience to Babylon, but sought to revolt.  Before the Chaldean

        armies appeared at Jerusalem’s gates, the king died and his son Jehoia-

        chin succeeded him.  Jehoiachin was carried off into captivity.  The weak 

        Zedekiah had only Jeremiah as a wise counselor and had not the strength 

        to take his advice.  He intrigued with Egypt, rebelled against Babylon, and 

        brought down on himself and his people the long Jerusalem siege, the de-

        struction of the city, the temple, and the kingdom of David in 586 B.C. 

                   11.  The Exile and Restoration—Large numbers of the people 

        were carried away to Babylon when Jerusalem fell.  Gedaliah, governor of 

        Judah was murdered, and his companions fled to take refuge in Egypt, 

        taking Jeremiah the prophet with them; the Edomites pressed in on the 

        people remaining in Judah.  The exiles seem to have cherished the faith 

        they had frequently forsook in their own land.  Some even maintained their 

        separateness and cherished the hope of restoration to their land.  Nebu-

        chadrezzar was not only a great warrior, but also a wise and enlightened  

        ruler; no comparable ruler followed him.  Three rulers followed him before

        Nabonidus seized the throne.  The land was seething with discontent, and 

        was in no state to meet the threat of Cyrus, king of Anshan and Persia.

                   Among the Jewish exiles was the prophet whom we call Deutero-

        Isaiah.  He heartened his people with the promise of deliverance.  Cyrus 

        won a victory at Opis, and shortly afterward Babylon fell without a blow.  

        Cyrus soon gave the Jews permission to return to their land and rebuild 

        their temple.  The enthusiasm of hopes was exchanged for the hard reali- 

        ties of rebuilding their homes and their lives in Judea.  

                   12.  The Persian Period—Of the history of the Jews in the Per-

        sian period relatively little is known.  Egypt was added to the Persian 

        Empire by Cambyses after Cyrus died; there was already a Jewish colony

         on the island of Elephantine, opposite Assuan.  How far back this colony

        went is not known; Cambyses died during his Egyptian campaign.  Gau-

        mata laid claim to the throne, and for a time it looked as though the Per-

        sian Empire would fall to pieces.

I-40

                   At this time Zerubbabel, who was of the house of David and the go-

        vernor of Jerusalem, revolted in hopes of restoring David’s kingdom and 

        rebuilding the temple. Back in Persia Darius Hystaspis, who was a kins-

        man of Cyrus, took control.  Before long the Persian Empire was restored, 

        with a more solid organization than it had before.  Zerubbabel disappears 

        from the picture, and we can only suppose that Judea came under the Per-

        sian sway and Zerubbabel was eliminated.  Under the enlightened Persian 

        rule Judaism was established.

                   For the next half century we have no secure knowledge of Jewish 

        history.  There was an appeal to the court against rebuilding Jerusalem 

        from Samaria, which was successful.  The mission of Nehemiah fell in 

        the 20^th year of Artaxerxes I.  His adversary was Sanballat, governor of 

        Samaria.  Nehemiah laid his plans with extreme caution and was anxious 

        to complete the work before any further appeal against it could be made.

                   The mission of Ezra is less easy to place.  The Chronicler believed 

        that Ezra was first sent to put into effect the “law of the Lord” before Ne-

        hemiah came to the restore the walls.  The abortive attempt to rebuild the 

        walls would then appear to have fallen after Ezra’s arrival.  Many scholars 

        believe that the work of Ezra lay in the reign of Artaxerxes II, when he re-

        turned to Jerusalem. 

                   Both he and Nehemiah exercised independent civil and religious 

        authority, and if both were in the city together, this is hard to understand.  

        They both were against mixed marriages.  Nehemiah’s reasons were politi-

        cal, and directed against the family of Sanballat of Samaria, who married 

        into the Jerusalem high priest’s family.  On the other hand, Ezra’s action 

        was religiously inspired, and was directed against the threat brought to re-

        ligious purity.  The work of Ezra was the enforcement of a religious law 

        which he brought from Babylon.  Scholars do not agree whether the law he

        enforced was all of the first 5 books of the OT (Pentateuch) or the Priestly 

        Code, but it became accepted by the Samaritans no less than by the Jews.

                   One of the difficult questions of Jewish history is that of when the 

        Samaritans broke off from Judaism.  Since the Samaritans accepted the 

        Pentateuch, the final breach took place after the mission of Ezra and be-

        fore the work of the Chronicler, who left the northern kingdom entirely out 

        the history he wrote. 

                   (See also the entry in the OT Apocrypha / Influences Outside the 

        Bible section of the Appendix.).

                   13.  New Testament Period—In the New Testament period, Herod 

        the Great died around the birth of Jesus.  Despite the outer splendor of his 

        reign, his excessive cruelty won him no gratitude.  After his death his king-

        dom was divided among members of his family; Archelaus secured the rule

        of Judea for a few years, until he was displaced and Judea was brought 

        under direct Roman rule.  The other parts of Herod’s kingdom continued to 

        be ruled by members of the Herodian house.  Deep divisions developed 

        among the Jews.  Some cherished bitter hostility, while others sought by 

        co-operation with Rome to further Jewish interest.  The Roman rulers rarely

        understood the Jewish character, and were of varying ability and worth. 

                   In 66 A.D. the Jewish Revolt broke out; it was marked by fanaticism

        & bitter excesses on both sides.  For a time the Roman armies were com-

        manded by Vespasian, until he was made emperor.  The final capture of 

        Jerusalem was made by his son Titus.  Jerusalem and the temple were de-

        stroyed in 70 A.D.  The temple was never rebuilt, but its spiritual work was 

        completed nonetheless.  

                   The temple symbolized the religion of Israel, with its high achieve-

        ment, its pure monotheism, its noble prophetic teaching, and deep personal

        piety.   The table, the candlestick, and the Law were carried to Rome, to 

        symbolize the spread throughout the world of the faith that had sprung from

        Judaism.  Its supreme sacrament centers in a table; its Lord is the light of 

        the world; & its roots are so firmly embedded in Israel’s history that it can-

        not be understood without the Old Covenant.

ISRAEL’S NAME, USES OF.   In Genesis 32 we are told about Elohim’s wrest-

        ling with Jacob, and that because of this the latter’s name was changed & 

        he should be called Israel (“El wrestles”).  It is commonly admitted that this 

        interpretation cannot be the real meaning of the name.  Actually, it is impos-

        sible to present decisive arguments for any particular source of a name like

        Israel. 

                   The most probable interpretation is that which connects “Israel” with

        the Hebrew root-word meaning “reliable,” “successful,” “happy.”  There are

        words in other Middle East languages which are almost identical and con-

        nected with Canaanite fertility gods.  Possibly the name Israel refers to the 

        Canaanite substratum of Old Testament religion.  The “Rock of Israel” re-

        fers to a cult stone.

I-41

                   According to Old Testament traditions of the growth of the Israelite 

        nation, the patriarchs were the earliest ancestors of the people.  According 

        to one theory, they were real historical persons; according to another they 

        are cult heroes.  Since the patriarchs' traditions were created much later 

        than the time they reflect, they have many features from later periods, and  

        they cannot be considered historical.  As a matter of fact, they were associ-

        ated with cult centers: Abraham with Hebron, Isaac with Beer-sheba, and 

        Jacob with Bethel. 

                   In the traditions about the sojourn in Egypt, the Exodus, and after 

        the invasion of Canaan, the Name of “Israel” is used about the Israelite 

        people as a whole, and accordingly the twelve tribes of Israel all appear in 

        these traditions.  In Genesis 49 we encounter the 12 sons of Jacob, where-

        as in Deuteronomy 33 the tribe of Simeon is omitted and Joseph is divided

        into two tribes.  The system of the twelve tribes originated in Palestine, and 

        accordingly, this system as applied to periods before the Exodus and Con-

        quest is not historical. 

                   In passages II Samuel 2, 3, 19, 20; and I Kings 12, the name Israel 

        is used about the northern tribes, whose center is Ephraim.  After the divi-

        sion of the United Kingdom, Israel is the name of the northern kingdom.  

        Israel is used about the southern kingdom, in most cases after the fall of 

        the northern kingdom. 

                  The name Israel began its use as a designation of the Israelite peo-

        ple as an ethnic group, and applied mostly to the northern tribes, several 

        of them being Canaanite.  But when the Israelite nation became consci-

        ous of its national characteristics, it was the belief in the god Yahweh that

        was the basis of the Israelite nation.  This religious basis of the national 

        consciousness is most noticeable in the idea of Israel’s people as Yah-

        weh’s chosen people.  These ideas are the chief recurrent theme in the 

        whole Old Testament conception of the history of the Israelite people, &

        have remained the basis of the Jews' national consciousness through the 

        ages.  It was used by the Maccabeans in the 100s B.C., and is still being 

        used by the Jewish nation today.  

ISRAEL, RELIGION OF.  See Hebrew Religion.                  

ISRAEL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF.  

                   The Nomadic Stage—Israel, like the other Semitic peoples, had  

        its origin in the Arabian Desert’s northern stretches.  Israel emerged from 

        the desert and established itself in Palestine, not as a single, united peo-

        ple, but rather as a separate, independent, or loosely federated clans or 

        tribes.  The Israelites once lived as nomads, the only way of life which 

        the desert permits; the problem of food confronted them constantly. 

                   Their religious belief and practice were correspondingly primitive. 

        Their gods, having supernatural powers, were responsible for their exis-

        tence,  as individuals and as a clan. Their divine task was to provide for 

        physical needs, fertility, safety, and victory over enemies.  Each clan or 

        tribe, a complete social unit unto itself, had its own deity.         

                   These ancient Semitic desert clans, for the most part, traced kinship

        through the mothers alone.  The women of a clan received visits from men

        of other clans.  The offspring of such matings belonged to the clan of the 

        mother.  Fatherhood, frequently unknown, was inconsequential.  Many 

        scholars maintain that the more primitive Semitic society was patriarchal. 

        Within the clan absolute social equality and democracy prevailed.  Every-

        one was equal in every respect.  Clan action was initiated by the elders.  

        Right and wrong and rendering judgment, were determined primarily by 

        custom and tradition.  But the principle of absolute democracy withheld 

        from these “judges” authority to enforce their judgments.  Public opinion  

        exercised this power. 

                   The Agricultural Stage—The country of Palestine divides naturally

        into two distinct sections.  An imaginary, east-west line just north of Jerusa-

        lem would effectively mark this division.  North of this line the country is, 

        as a whole, fertile and well watered.  South of this line the country is poorly

        watered, sterile, and barren.  Therefore, its dominant occupation in biblical 

        times was sheep-raising.

                   The southern section was conquered by Judah around 1250 B.C.; 

        they entered from the south.   Their way of life changed little from what it 

        had been of old.  David finally welded these clans into the single tribe of 

        Judah and this tribe was integrated with others into the kingdom of Judah.

                   North of the imaginary line conditions differed radically, because of 

        its fertility and the more densely settled population.  Here the Israelites first

        established themselves north of the Valley of Jezreel.  The entire northern 

        section's occupation was completed no later than 1300 B.C.  The tribe of 

        Manasseh certainly evolved within Palestine through the fusion of clans de-

        cimated by the protracted and devastating forays of marauding Midian no-

        mads and their ultimate conquest by Gideon.  The nomadic spirit of demo-

        cracy still persisted in the thought and culture of these clans, as evidenced 

        by Gideon’s absolute refusal to accept the proffered kingship. 

I-42

    

                   This 2nd group of invading Israelite clans and tribes seem to have 

        established themselves at first in the more mountainous section of Central 

        Palestine.  Confrontation by the Canaanites tended to draw these northern 

        Israelite clans and tribes together upon occasion into loose, inter-tribal fe-

        derations, such as the battle of Taanach, in which only the tribes next to the

        Valley of Jezreel participated.

                   Now firmly settled in the land, these northern Israelite clans & tribes

        absorbed much of the Canaanite way of life, agricultural techniques, insti-

        tutions, language, and religion.  As integration increased and the Canaanite

        threat decreased, the impulse to inter-tribal federation gradually weakened.

        The tribes north of the Valley of Jezreel, those east of the Jordan, and the 

        tribe of Dan to the southwest along the seacoast, tended to go each its own

        way.  In consequence the tribes of Central Palestine, Ephraim, Manasseh, 

        and Benjamin, came to constitute a sort of tribal confederation.  For these 

        tribes of Central Palestine, this was a period of steadily expanding life, cul-

        ture, prosperity, security, and belonging to the land.

                   The advent of the Philistines changed all this.  They eventually esta-

        blished themselves along the southern Palestinian coastland.  They contri-

        buted knowledge of iron production and the fabrication of iron weapons 

        and tools.  A half century or so later the prophet Samuel, realizing that a 

        leader and deliverer would hardly arise either from Ephraim, his own tribe, 

        or equally crushed & dispirited Manassah, looked to the unconquered tribe

        of Benjamin.  

                   When chance brought to him Saul, Samuel was convinced that Yah-

        weh had chosen this man and sent him for a purpose, so Samuel anointed 

        Saul as king over a united Israel consisting of Benjamin, Ephraim and Ma-

        nasseh.  Saul’s entire reign was devoted to unending, fruitless warfare 

        against the Philistines.  The failure of the Ephraimites and Manassites to 

        join him, forced him into a defensive war.  Small wonder that he failed 

        completely to end Philistine domination.  

                   David, Saul’s successor, was a man of extraordinary ability.  Opera-

        ting primarily from his assured position as king of Judah, Benjamin and 

        the northern tribes; David captured the hitherto impregnable Canaanite 

        city-state, Jerusalem.  Now in complete control of the indispensable ave-

        nue of communication between north and south, David joined the two king-

        doms of Judah and Israel into the so-called United Kingdom.  

                   The Philistines were reduced to vassalage.  And, taking advantage 

        of the contemporary low ebb of power of the surrounding nations, Egypt, 

        the Hittites, Assyria, and Babylonia, David established an Israelite empire 

        from Ezion-geber northward to Kadesh on the Orontes, and from the Medi-

        terranean coast as far north as Mount Carmel, & from the Lebanon Moun-

        tain eastward to the Great Desert; naturally Judah was dominant.  

                   The International-Commercial Stage—Shortly before this time, 

        Tyre had become the commercial metropolis of the world.  The new united 

        Israel was Tyre’s immediate neighbor.  Relations of friendship and alliance 

        were quickly established.  The establishment of the Davidic empire inaugu-

        rated a period of peace for all Western Asia.  Palestine's people could now 

        carry on occupations.  Israelite farmers raised crops far in excess of local 

        needs.  They traded this surplus to Phoenician merchants. 

                   Foreign commodities became more plentiful; slowly but surely the 

        standard of living rose.  The activities of the merchant class expanded, and 

        their wealth and influence increased.  More and more they centered their 

        residence in the cities.  They built luxurious homes and acquired servants 

        and slaves; they clothed their women and children in foreign cloth.  The 

        cities grew in size, wealth, and economic power, and especially Jerusalem. 

        Class distinctions developed, and the difference between the city aristo-

        cracy of the court, military, government, and merchant officials and the 

        masses of peasants, shepherds and small farmers increased. 

                   This system, inaugurated by David, was greatly expanded by his 

        very able son and successor, Solomon.  Relations with Tyre were drawn 

        closer.  There was a particular emphasis on traffic in horses and chariots.  

        The mineral resources, especially the copper mines in the Arabah, were ex-

        ploited extensively by slave labor.  Solomon developed Ezion-geber as a 

        seaport and with his own fleet began to exploit the potentially rich com-

        merce of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.  

                   Scribal activity also increased, and, Hebrew literature had its begin-

        nings.  Quite naturally the stronghold of this new, evolving Israelite culture 

        was Jerusalem.  Other cities, particularly in the agricultural north, thrived, 

        but in far less degree than Jerusalem.  A decided division and antagonism 

        sprang up between the progressive and class-conscious city-dwellers, and 

        the rural population. 

I-43

                   With the death of Solomon the Israelite empire dissolved, and the 

        United Kingdom resolved into the agricultural north and the predominantly

        pastoral south, or Israel and Judah, respectively.  At times a state of hosti-

        lity kept the two nations apart.  But the need for cooperation, in order to 

        control the trade route from Ezion-geber to Tyre, tended to maintain peace-

        ful relations between them. 

                   Immediately following the division of the kingdom, Israel reverted 

        to its earlier agricultural economy.  Under Ahab and Jeroboam II, interna-

        tional commerce flourished anew by cooperating closely with Judah and 

        Tyre, It was these circumstances, the steady increase in wealth and power, 

        steadily expanding oppression and enslavement of the poor, which seemed

        to contravene in every way the democratic manner of life instituted by Yah-

        weh.  In Judah conditions remained much as they had been.  The contrast 

        between Jerusalem and Judah proper, with its rural, predominantly pastoral

        population, became even more clearly defined. 

                   The Postexilic Period—The Babylonian conqueror, Nebuchadnez-

        zar, captured, laid in ruins, & carried off to exile in distant Babylonia large 

        sections of the urban population.  With this, urban life & its attendant eco-

        nomic and social circumstances, came to a sudden end.  Only the lower 

        social strata remained in the land.  The Judean community’s general cul-

        ture reverted very largely to the agricultural level.  During the early por-

        tion of this exilic period life for these Judean farmers in their native land 

        seems to have been difficult indeed. 

                   Gradually, the economy of the people seems to have stabilized, & 

        some, even many, prospered sufficiently for them to dwell in houses with 

        ceilings, and to be capable of rebuilding the temple.  In this 70-year period,

        during which time the temple lay in ruins, these Judean farmers expanded 

        the role of the synagogue as the religious center, so much so that their first 

        response to rebuilding the temple was indifference.

                   The message of that exalted prophet Deutero-Isaiah plainly influ-

        enced the thought and program of this Judean community far more than 

        the Babylonian Jewish exiles, to whom it was directed.  It proclaimed the

        absolute unity and universal character and authority of Yahweh, Israel’s 

        native deity, as the one sole God of humankind.  A world empire was to be

        established by Cyrus the Persian, chosen by Yahweh for this service.  Isra-

        el as no longer a political entity, a nation, but was rather a people, chosen 

        by Yahweh to be his servants.

                   The closing years of the Babylonian exile found the Jewish commu-

        nity of Palestine divided into nationalists and the universalists.  While both 

        parties were universalistic in principle, the nationalists cherished the eager 

        hope for regained Jewish political independence.  The suicide of Cambyses

        in 522 B.C. and the sudden collapse of Cyrus’ dynasty encouraged these 

        nationalists in their hopes and plans.  They rejected a portion of the pro-

        phet’s full message, holding that Yahweh could never have intended that 

        any people other than Israel should permanently administer this world em-

        pire.  Moreover, the time was ripe, so they believed, for the achievement of

        their program.  The result was the altogether futile rebellion of Zerubbabel. 

                   With the collapse of this rebellion the universalists came to the fore.

        With the aid of the Persian government, the 2nd temple was erected and

        dedicated upon the New Year’s Day of 516.  Conforming to Deutero-Isai-

        ah’s message as mentioned earlier, these universalists transformed the 

        Jewish nation into qehal Yahweh, the “community of Yahweh,” whose sole

        king was Yahweh, and whose earthly representative was the chief priest.  

        These universalists apparently won many converts to Judaism.  This sys-

        tem only continued for 30 years.  

                   It came to a catastrophic end after a second failed rebellion from 

        Persia; it was crushed by Xerxes, who allowed Edom, Moab, Ammon, and

        the Philistines to invade.  The nationalists offered almost no resistance, re-

        lying on Yahweh’s promised intervention.  The country was ravaged, Jeru-

        salem was mostly destroyed, and the population was decimated by massa-

        cre and slavery down to a tiny remnant of its former self.

                  With the return of Ezra in 458 B.C., Palestine became slowly more 

        stable.  The rebuilding of the city walls by Nehemiah in 444 stimulated the

        revival of urban life.  This community was faced with a perplexing pro-

        blem: how to resist assimilation & preserve its Jewish identity in a foreign,

        superior culture.  The solution used was strict Jewish separatism, and parti-

        cularism, the complete opposite of the universalist program. 

                   Ezra sought quite naturally to impose this Babylonian program of 

        Jewish particularism and separatism upon the Palestinian Jewish commu-

        nity.  Proselytism to Judaism was halted completely, and intermarriage 

        with foreigners was banned.  Ezra and his followers subscribed fully to the

        doctrine of Israel as a religious people, but it was exclusive, not inclusive. 

        By the close of the 400s B.C., adat Yisrael, the “congregation of Israel,” 

        had supplanted the older term.  

                   The penalty of “cutting off,” of expulsion from the “congregation of

        Israel” for violating those principles which safe-guarded the Jewish inte-

        grity of this “congregation” was instituted already in Ezra’s day.  The Sama-

        ritans and the Jewish community of Egypt were regarded as not true Jews, 

        and so were excluded from the “congregation of Israel.”  The erection of 

        the third temple, the entrenchment therein of the Zadokite or Aaronide 

        priests, their compilation of part of the Priestly Code, and the adoption of a

        new luni-solar calendar, fixed the character of official Judaism for the next 

        five centuries.

I-44

                   The Hasmonean kingdom resulted from the desperate reaction of 

        the Jewish people to the religious oppression which Antiochus IV of Syria 

        sought to impose.  The Hasmoneans were not of the line of David, or even 

        Judea.  The first Hasmonean rulers administered the kingdom in a respon-

        sible and traditionally democratic manner; the later Hasmonean kings be-

        more autocratic.  Under them a court party and an aristocracy evolved 

        once again; the struggle between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, reflec-

        ted this situation. 

                   Under Herod and his successors, this process expanded notably.  

        But this aristocracy represented always something foreign to the true, 

        democratic spirit of the Jewish people.  Throughout the Herodian era, 

        the separation of this aristocracy from the people at large was clearly 

        defined, and the traditional spirit of democracy within the Jewish people

        was strengthened by it.  

ISSACHAR  (יששכר, he brings reward)  1.  The ninth son of Jacob, fifth son 

        of Leah and the ancestor and origin of the name of one of the 12 tribes.  He

        is always mentioned together with Zebulun and directly after the older full

        brothers.  The tribe of Issachar belongs with the tribe of Zebulun as Manas-

        seh does with Ephraim; they are even mentioned in the same order, the 

        younger before the older.  Their territories border each other, and on the 

        border they have a common sanctuary on Mount Tabor.  Issachar and Ze-

        bulun developed separately only under the influence of their geographical 

        setting, and they were very much more closely associated in the first period

        of their occupation of the land.

                   Later each of them had its own destiny.  The Issachar statement of 

        the Blessing of Jacob is preceded by the Zebulun statement.  The tribe is 

        compared to a strong ass which can no longer rise between its loaded sad-

        dle baskets.  It is reproved for having become a serf in this pleasant land.  

        This can only mean that the tribe sought and found contact with the Canaa-

        nites, and this was condemned by the remaining tribes.  One theory is that 

        Issachar was taken into the Pharaoh service to help with the management 

        and resettlement of the devastated lands and city of Shunem.

                   Obviously Issachar was able to rehabilitate itself in the period be-

        fore the kings.  Issachar is mentioned with praise for its bravery in the Song

        of Deborah.   In Solomon’s arrangement, Issachar’s territory formed an in-

        dependent province.  King Baasha of the northern kingdom of Israel was 

        from the tribe of Issachar; after his reign, an Israelite royal residence, Jez-

        reel, was situated in the territory of Issachar, probably because the property

        of Baasha had been confiscated as royal domain.  

                   Issachar was the only Israelite tribe to settle from the beginning in 

        the territory which was long occupied by old Canaanite city-states.  It often

        paid with its independence, but it withstood the test.  In the later literature 

        Issachar appears primarily in statistical contexts, in lists of the land allot-

        ment and the list of Levite cities.  Here, it is listed before Zebulun.  The 

        New Testament doesn't deviate from the rule, in that it puts Issachar ahead

        of Zebulun in the list of the sealed (Revelation 7).

                   For the territory of Issachar, see Tribes, Territories of.

                   2. Son of Obed-edom; a Levite gatekeeper at the time of David (I 

        Chronicles 26).

ISSHIAH  (ישיה, whom the Lord lendeth)  1.  A man of the tribe of Issachar  
        (I Chronicles 7).      2.  One of David’s Mighty Men (I Chronicles 12).      

        3.  A Levite, son of Uzziel (I Chronicles 23, 24).      4.  A Levite, chief of 

        the family of Rehabiah (I Chronicles 24), descended from Moses.

ISSHIJAH (ישיה, whom the Lord lendeth)  One of those forced by Ezra to give

        up their foreign wives. 

ISSUE  (זוב (zoob), issue of blood; rusiV (roo sis), flowing)  A discharge from a 

         suppurating sore or wound.

ITALIAN COHORT (speira Italikh (spi ra  ee tal ih kay))  A unit of the Ro-

        man army.  There is historical evidence of Cohors II  Italica at Caesarea in 

        69-157.  Luke probably had this cohort in mind.  It was made up of troops 

        mustered in Italy and possessing Roman citizenship, whether free-born or 

        freedmen.

I-45

ITALY  ( h Italia)  A long peninsula between the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas. 

        Italy has a length of some 1120 km, and its breadth is 160-240 km.  The 

        Apennines mountain chain forms the backbone of the peninsula.  The lar-

        gest river is the Tiber, south of which is the extremely fertile Campania.  

        The best harbors are Naples and Genoa on the west and ancient Brundi-

        sium on the east.  Italy derived its name from King Italos, who ruled in the 

        1200s B.C. in the extreme southwest or “toe” of Italy; the name originally 

        applied only to this region.  Italy is mentioned in Acts 18, while Acts 10 

        refers to the Italian Cohort, stationed in Palestine.

ITCH  (נתק (neh thek), a plucking off of hair)  One possible symptom of le-

        prosy in which restricted patches of baldness were produced.  A 14-day 

        quarantine period sufficed to establish its identity.

ITHAI  (אתי, near)  Son of Ribai of Gibeah of the Benjaminites; numbered 

        among David’s Thirty Mighty Men.

ITHAMAR  (איתמר, possibly island of  palm trees)  A figure known only in the

        Priestly Writings, Chronicles, and Ezra; the fourth of the sons of Aaron.  

        After the Return, the problem of how the priesthood was arranged was re-

        solved by ascribing to David 16 courses of priests from the Eleazar line 

        and 8 courses of priest from the Ithamar line.  Post exilic tradition stated 

        that four sons of Aaron were consecrated.  The rejection of 2, Nadab and 

        Abihu left Eleazar and Ithamar pre-eminent.  The tradition concerning Itha-

        mar asserted that in the wilderness he was leader of the Levites; the  

        house of Eli was descended from Ithamar.

ITHIEL  (איתיאל, there is a god)  1.  An ancestor of the Benjaminite Sallu 

        (Nehemiah 11).      2.  One of the two people in Proverbs 30 to whom Agur

        addressed his words.

ITHLAH  (יתלה, hanging, lofty place)  A village of the tribe of Dan; the site is 

        unknown (Joshua 19).  

ITHMAH  (יתמה, orphanage)  A Moabite whose name is included in the 16 

        names added by the Chronicler to the list of David’s 30 Mighty Men.

ITHNAN  (יתנן, gift)  A city in the south of Judah, near Ziph; its site is unknown

        (I Chronicles 4).

ITHRA  (יתרא, residue)  The father of Amasa, husband of David’s sister Abi-

        gail.  In II Samuel 17 he is Ithra the Israelite.  In I Chronicles 2 his name is

        Jether the Ishmaelite.

ITHRAN  (יתרן, abundance, residue)  1.  Son of clan chief Dishon; ancestor of 

        a native Horite subclan in Edom (Genesis 36; I Chronicles 1).

ITHREAM  (יתרעם, abundance of the people)  The sixth son of David; born of

        David’s wife Eglah in Hebron (II Samuel 3; I Chronicles 3).

ITHRITES  (יתרי, possibly abundance)  A tribe or clan associated with Kiriath-

        Jearim.  Two of David’s 30 Mighty Men were Ithrites.

ITTAI (אתי, possibly plowshare)  1.  A devoted Philistine soldier exiled from 

        Gath, who with 600 of his followers and their families fled with David when 

        he fled from Jerusalem during Absalom’s rebellion.  Ittai commanded with 

        Joab & Abishai at the battle of the Ephraim’s Forest, where Absalom was 

        defeated (II Samuel 18).              2.  Son of Ribai of Gibeah of the Benjami-

        nites; numbered among David’s 30 Mighty Men.

ITURAEA  (Itouraioi)  A region northeast of Galilee in the Anti-lebanon coun-

        try settled by Arab people of Ishmaelite stock; included in the tetrarchy of 

        Philip, traditionally considered descendants of Ishmael’s son Jetur.  It is dif-

        ficult to define the boundaries of Ituraea, as it isn't certain whether Ituraea 

        and Trachonitis were wholly distinct districts, overlapped or were identical.  

        Originally the Ituraeans were a hill-country people living on the Western 

        slope of Anti-lebanon.

I-46

                   Herod the Great received from Augustus the Zenodorus’ tetrarchy, 

        successor to Lysanius I of Ituraea and Cleopatra’s vassal.  In 38 A.D. Soe-

        mus’ Ituraean kingdom was seized by Caligula.  Another part of the Itura-

        ean kingdom was given to Herod Agrippa I in 41 A.D.  A final section 

        known as the Chalcis kingdom was given to Herod of Chalcis, Herod the 

        Great’s grandson; it passed in 50 to Herod Agrippa II when it included all 

        of Philip’s tetrarchy, Abilene, and Arca.  In 93 A.D. it was incorporated 

        into the province of Syria.  See also entry in the Old Testament Apocry-

        pha/Influences outside the Bible section of the Appendix.

IVORY (שן (shane), tooth)  Ivory was carved for inlaid decoration on thrones, 

        beds, houses, & possibly on decks of ships.  Archaeological excavations

        reveal additional uses in boxes, gaming boards, cosmetic spoons & jars.  

        Large elephant herds roamed northern Syria from 2000-1000 B.C. There

        are historical records of elephant hunts by Egyptians & Assyrians up until 

        the middle of the 800s B.C. when the elephant may have become extinct 

        there.  Until then tusks were available to Palestine from northern Syria.

                   In Amos 3 and 6, ivory is mentioned as a token of wealth & luxury.

        This association of ivory with luxury items is confirmed by lists of booty 

        taken from Palestine by Egyptian & Assyrian conquerors.  A great wealth 

        of “Phoenician” ivory has come from excavation in Palestine and Syria.  

        The most important collections of Palestinian ivories have come from Me-

        giddo & Samaria.  The hoard discovered at Megiddo included 383 pieces, 

        ranging from gaming boards, cosmetic spoons, boxes to a rich variety of 

        other objects.  The Samarian ivories contain decorated panels that were at-

        tached to furniture or woodwork.  These pieces, to judge from a partly 

        worked carving, were probably carved at Samaria and belong to the period

        of Ahab.

IVVAH  (עוה, ruin)  A town, site unknown, which the envoys of the Assyrian 

        king Sennacherib referred to when they spoke to King Hezekiah, citing it 

        as an example of the fate of other towns (II Kings 19; Isaiah 37).

IYE-ABARIM  (העבﬧים  ,ﬠייruins of the regions beyond)  A stopping place of

        the Israelites.  Iye-abarim was in the wilderness on the southeast border of 

        Moab.  It is tentatively located by some in the region of Mahaiy, a strong 

        Moabite fortress dominating the ascent from the Brook Zered.

IYIM (עיים, ruins)  A shortened form of Iye-Abarim (Numbers 33).

IYYAR  (אור)  The second month of the Hebrew calendar; earlier known as Ziv.

IZHAR  (יצהר, new oil)  1.  A Levite, son of Kohath; the ancestor and origin of 

        a tribal family name.      2. In I Chronicles 4 a variant of Zohar.

IZLIAH  (יזליאה, long-living (?))  A Benjaminite (I Chronicles 8).

IZRAHIAH (יזרהיה, may Yahweh arise, shine forth)  A descendant of Issachar 

        (I Chronicles 7).

IZRAHITE (יזרה, may (the deity) shine forth)  A man of a family or town called 

        Izrah. The name occurs only once with the definite article (i.e. “the Izra-

        hite”; I Chronicles 27).

IZRI  (יצרי, something formed)  A temple musician, perhaps the same as Zeri 

        (I Chronicles 25).

IZZIAH (יזיה, exults in the Lord)  One of the those compelled by Ezra to put 

        away their foreign wives.  (Ezra 10).  

I-47