Benedict XVI - Infancy Narratives - The Great Sign! (Isaiah 7:14)

In Isaiah 7, the prophet goes out to meet Ahaz

COMMENT: 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: William W ...
To: Donald ....
Sent: Wednesday, 2 January 2013, 16:28
Subject: Re: Benedict XVI - Infancy Narratives - The Great Sign!

Dear Father Donald,

 

I am taken by you back to a passage where I lost connection with Bendict's train of thought [I had used the word 'deviation'!], and so you have given me the motivation to try to follow the reasoning behind this excursive section, the historical - or indeed otherwise! - circumstances of the origin of the prophecy of the great sign (Isaiah 7:14):

 

Matthew 1:22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." 

 

I believe that Benedict outlines the historical background in his wish to establish that the famous quotation from Isaiah was drawn from within the context of faith, relating to a decision that ultimately rested upon faith, thus of a kind that is fully justified as prophecy. Before he considers whether it could indeed be applied to the birth of the Messiah, he quietly denounces Ahaz's refusal of a sign ("the prophet is not deterred"); a refusal, for Ahaz had already made up his mind to take the political gamble of an Assyrian alliance. Thus when Benedict raises the legitimacy of the quotation as a reference to the Messiah, he has neatly contrasted Ahaz's obstinacy before God with Joseph's acceptance of the prophecy!

 

I can now see why Benedict made the excursion, for it lays the foundation for his examination of the NT rendering of the passage. On page 48 last paragraph, having described how "the entire Christian tradition" understands the passage, he asks "But is that how Isaiah understood the prophetic sign?" Here Benedict can now draw on the historicity of the prophecy he has outlined, and lead us into an examination of all attempts to provide an historical context for the passage, finding that none of the interpretations are convincing, removing the obvious argument that such prophecies were only relevant to their time! And then he asks (page 50)..."So what are we to say? The passage about the virgin who gives birth to Emmanuel, like the great Suffering Servant song in Isaiah 53, is a word in waiting. There is nothing in its own historical context to correspond to it. So it remains an open question: it is addressed not merely to Ahaz. Nor is it addressed merely to Israel. It is addressed to humanity. The sign that God himself announces is given not for a specific situation, but it concerns the whole history of humanity."

 

His final conclusion is now all the clearer to me: "Indeed", he writes, "I believe that in our own day, we can share anew this sense of astonishment at the fact that a saying from the year 733 B.C., incomprehensible for so long, came true at the moment of the conception of Jesus Christ - that God did indeed give us a great sign intended for the whole world."

  

It is truly the vital piece of the jigsaw that fits exactly and completes the picture of the infancy narratives!

 

Thank you - what a fascinating excursion!

 

With my love in Our Lord,

William

From: Donald ...
To: William J ....
Sent: Wednesday, 2 January 2013, 13:26
Subject: Fw: Benedict XVI - Infancy Narratives - AGAIN and Ahaz

• Grappling with Benedict, Matthew and Ahaz page 45-47 and on.
  
  
  Dear William,
  I read and re-read these pages.
  I will need to study Pagina Sacra, or with more time or other illumination.
  Day Nine of Christmas - fare and music and siesta.
  Deo Gratias
  Donald .   
  
  
  Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict xvi

  THE CONCEPTION AND BIRTH OF JESUS ACCORDING TO MATTHEW p. 46
  
  
  ... leads quite spontaneously to obedience. Even if hitherto he had puzzled over his various options, now he knows what the right course of action is. Being a just man he follows God's commands, as Psalm 1 says. 
  At this point, we must examine the proof from Scripture that Matthew presents, which has become the object (how could it be otherwise?) of extensive exegetical debate. The verse is as follows: "All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel,' which means, God with us" (Mt 1:22£; c£ Is 7:14). This prophetic saying, which Matthew makes into one of the key Christological statements, we will first attempt to understand in its original historical context, and then we will try to see how the mystery of Jesus Christ is reflected in it.
  Exceptionally, we are able to date this verse from Isaiah quite precisely. It comes from the year'733 B.C. The Assyrian King Tiglat-Pileser In had quashed the beginnings of an uprising by the Syro-Palestinian states by means of a surprise campaign. King Rezin of Damascus/Syria and King Pekah of Israel then formed a coalition against the great Assyrian power. Since they could not persuade King  Ahaz of Judah to enter their alliance, they decided to take to the field against the Jerusalem king, in order to force his country into their coalition.
  46
  Understandably,   Ahaz and his people were fearful in the face of the enemy alliance; the heart of the king and his people trembled "as the trees of the forest shake before the wind" (Is 7:2). Nevertheless   Ahaz, who was evidently a clever and coldly calculating politician, maintained his pre­vious line: he did not want to enter an anti-As Syrian alliance, which he evidently thought had no chance of success in view of the vast superiority of the superpower. Instead, he concluded a protection treaty with Assyria, which on the one hand guaranteed him security and saved his country from destruction, but on the other hand demanded, as a price, the worship of the protecting power's national gods.
  After   Ahaz had concluded the treaty with Assyria, despite Isaiah's warnings, an altar was indeed built on the As­syrian model in the Temple at Jerusalem (c£ 2 Kings 16:lIff.; cf. Kaiser, Isaiah 1-12, P: 149n.). At the time of the episode related in the Isaiah passage that Matthew quotes, this had yet to happen. But it was clear that if   Ahaz was going to conclude this treaty with the great king of Assyria, it meant that as a politician he trusted more in the power of the, king than in the power of God, which evidently did not strike him as sufficiently real. So what was at stake here was ultimately not a political problem, but a question of faith.
  Isaiah tells the king that he need not fear the two "smouldering stumps of firebrands," Syria and Israel (Ephraim), and that there is therefore no reason for the protection treaty with Assyria: he should rely on faith, not on political calcu-
  47