Book Review: Unto Us a Child is Born

Unto Us A Child is Born: Isaiah, Advent, and Our Jewish Neighbors. Tyler D. Mayfield. Foreword by Walter Brueggemann. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020). 192 + xvi pp. Reviewed by David J. Zucker.

In this well written, thoughtful, indeed thought-provoking book, Tyler D. Mayfield raises an important question. How is biblical Isaiah a prophet both for Judaism and Christianity? More specifically, how is the Isaiah portrayed in the Revised Common Lectionary readings for many Christian churches both true in his messages, which are understood as pointing to Jesus as the coming Christ/Messiah, and yet also the prophet who speaks a very different Jewish message to a Jewish audience? Just as Jews have a time-honored lectionary for the weekly reading of Torah and Prophetical works, plus additions from the Megillot on selected days, so do many churches worldwide adhere to a document known as the Revised Common Lectionary. This document makes provision throughout the liturgical year, suggesting appropriate readings, often pericopes from the Christian Bible with supplements from the Tanakh. In the month-long period of Advent — the four weeks leading up to Christmas, with a concentration on the four Sundays — many of the messages are taken from Isaiah.

Mayfield, a professor of Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kentucky, points out that for many Christians, the book of Isaiah is regarded as if it were the Fifth Gospel. This is a regrettable error, he asserts. The notion of “Isaiah-the-evangelist” transforms the prophet Christianity shares with Judaism into a Christian whom Jews do not share. Isaiah cannot be read as another Gospel such as Matthew, Mark, or Luke. “By using Isaiah’s rhetoric without care for Judaism’s proper appreciation of their Jewish Bible, we may participate in harm toward our sisters and brothers” (p. 8).

The Introduction contains a very helpful section, “How to Read this Book” (pp. 10-11). Broadly speaking, the book divides into three sections: Isaiah Through Bifocals; Isaiah’s “Messianic” Texts; and Isaiah’s Visions of the Future. By “Bifocals,” Mayfield differentiates between a “Near Vision” — seeing Isaiah only through Christian eyes — and a “Far Vision” — seeing and appreciating Isaiah in its original Jewish historical context. In the section “Using Our Near Vision during Advent,” he addresses “the Problematic Prophecy-Fulfillment Paradigm,” a concern with the approach that primarily or only understands Isaiah as pointing to the time and figure of Jesus. He suggests that Christians need to reframe the meaning of prophecy: in his own historical world, each Hebrew prophet, including Isaiah, gave “little indication that he is predicting the far-off future. Instead, he is attempting to communicate a reliable message to his contemporary audience regarding their current situation.” The prophets were not concerned with what would happen many centuries later — “to read the Hebrew prophets as distant future-tellers is to stretch historical credibility” (p. 23). In the next part, “Using Our Far Vision to Love Our Jewish Neighbors,” Mayfield addresses such issues as the Messiah, supersessionism, anti-Judaism, and post-Holocaust Christian reading.

The second major section, Isaiah’s “Messianic” Texts, addresses four texts found in the Revised Common Lectionary: Isaiah 7:10-16; 9:2-7; 11:1-10; and 61:1-4, 8-11. Each section begins with “The Originating Context” of that passage, and concludes with “Our Context Today” and “A Bifocal Look.” The third major section, Isaiah’s Visions of the Future, addresses Isaiah 2:1-5; 25:1-10; 40:1-11; and 64:1-9, in the same format.

For example, in discussing Isaiah 40:1-11, Mayfield notes that this is a different prophet from Isaiah 1-39, Isaiah of Jerusalem. He explains that “contemporary scholarship [divides the book of Isaiah] into three primary sections”: First Isaiah, chapters 1-39, the pre-exilic context; Second Isaiah, chapters 40-55, the exilic context; and Third Isaiah, chapters 56-66, the post-exilic context (p. 149; see also p. 111). Isaiah 40 then addresses the community in Babylon in the late sixth century BCE. It would have been helpful at this point had Mayfield been a bit more direct in stating that First Isaiah lived in Jerusalem in the eighth century BCE, in the pre-exilic period; that the anonymous prophet called Second Isaiah lived in Babylonia, c. 550 BCE, in the exilic period (586-538 BCE); and that the anonymous prophet called Third Isaiah lived probably in Jerusalem, perhaps at the end of the sixth century, in the post-exilic period.

Mayfield then refers to Isaiah 40:9 and quotes a modern commentator who explains that the verse “makes the God of Israel visible and effective in a setting from which [God] had seemed to be expelled. God’s presence is a welcomed balm for these destitute people,” the formerly exiled Judeans who now plan to return to Jerusalem (p. 151). Most unfortunately, the full sentence begins this way: “The gospel makes the God of Israel visible and effective . . .” (emphasis added). In so doing, he undermines this otherwise helpful section dealing with the “Originating Context of Isaiah 40,” because by using the word “gospel,” he inadvertently “Christianizes” that sentence.

Small matters notwithstanding, this is a helpful book which will further Jewish-Christian understanding and dialogue. This well-written, well-researched volume, which addresses the “problematic prophecy-fulfillment paradigm,” is enhanced by footnotes, a bibliography, and a Subject and Name Index.