Williamson, `Pre-Exilic Isaiah'
16
the view that the passage is a specific rather than a categorical condemnation of the
cult is strengthened.
The cumulative force of all these details makes it overwhelmingly probable that
this passage reflects aspects of the pre-exilic cult, and that however much it may
have been possible to reapply them to later circumstances it could never have served
its purpose if it had been written from scratch in this form at that later time.
If these two examples of the second method in search of the pre-exilic Isaiah are
sound, then they mark an important advance on the first in that they both relate to
prophetic sayings rather than the record of events. Neither is explicitly ascribed to
Isaiah, but I do not know of a stronger candidate for authorship.
The third method is both more slippery in terms of detail but equally more far-
reaching in terms of its cumulative effect. I refer to the use of quotations and
allusions by later writers, a subject which is attracting a great deal of attention at the
present time. If it can be demonstrated that one author is dependent in literary
terms upon another, and if the date of the dependent author can be determined, then
that establishes a terminus ad quem for the earlier author.
I have no wish to underestimate the force of those two `ifs', especially in the
present context, where we are looking for a secure basis on which to build rather
than adding further suggestions and speculations to an already disputed field. At
the same time, space limitations must be respected! So far as the broad issues of
method are concerned, therefore, I must content myself with referring to the full
recent discussion by Schultz,
45
who as it happens draws many of his main examples
from the book of Isaiah. While an important part of his work is to draw attention to
the importance of the study of citations for purposes other than the diachronic, his
cautionary remarks on the latter should be carefully heeded.
homonymous root
µwx
which meant `injustice' (cf. Arabic
), for which
öwa
was then
substituted, is desperate; cf. L'hermZneutique analogique du juda·sme antique d'apr s les temoins textuels
d'Isa·e (VTSup 33; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982) 414-24.
45
R.L. Schultz, The Search for Quotation: Verbal Parallels in the Prophets (JSOTSup 180; Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 1999).