Williamson, `Pre-Exilic Isaiah'
10
particularly damaging to our case, since, as Donner, who thinks that 9b-lla has been
added later, points out, the source from which the added material was drawn must
have been well informed.
31
In other words, it would still faithfully reflect pre-exilic
conditions.
More seriously, however, Jer. 33:4 indicates that comparable measures were
taken in preparation for the later Babylonian siege: `É concerning the houses of this
city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were torn down to make a defense
against the siege-ramps and before the sword'. This, together with conclusions
drawn from an assumption that a later addition to a text must reflect later
circumstances, has therefore enabled commentators to conclude that we have a
recollection of events long after Isaiah's time. While I do not myself regard this as a
necessary conclusion, it has to be conceded that, to cite Rudman once again,
`intelligent waverers may, as they have always done, go either way'.
I summarise the results of applying this first method, therefore, by concluding
that there is good evidence for finding solid, pre-exilic historical memory at several
points in Isaiah 1-39, but that association with Isaiah's own authorship is as yet not
firmly established. In the case of chapters 7, 20 and 36-39, those memories are
incorporated now into material which shows much evidence of later reflection, so
that it is not what one might call pristine, while chapter 22 is theoretically open to
alternative explanation. Despite this minimal conclusion, it establishes one very
important point, namely that somehow pre-exilic material, including the details of
names and events, could and did survive the fall of Jerusalem and the exile. While
the circumstances in which this happened remain unknown, it is helpful as we
proceed not to be troubled by the a priori argument that nothing could have
survived in writing.
Eerdmans, 1996) 288-302; Gallagher, Sennacherib's Campaign to Judah, 60-74.
31
H. Donner, Israel unter den Vslkern: Die Stellung der klassischen Propheten des 8. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. zur
Aussenpolitik der Ksnige von Israel und Juda (VTSup 11; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1964) 128.