Wednesday Bible Study: Plagiarism

It ' s a bit puzzling, but 2 kings 19 and Isaiah 37 are essentially identical. Isaiah is a bit player here, but he gets a whole book later on, and this chapter is in it. I ' m not into the weeds of biblical scholarship, but as I understand it the Book of Isaiah is cobbled together, apparently by three different authors, and one of them lifted this. As I said last time, there is no historical record of an outright defeat of Sennacherib in his Levantine campaign, but there is some indication that sickness in his camp may have discouraged him from actually entering Jerusalem. Just a reminder that until the last few chapters, it has not been possible to compare the Biblical account to any other extant historical record, but now we have that luxury. Note the prophecy starting at verse 29. This is of course essentially what happened, but it was written three generations later, which makes it kind of easy to foresee. Note also Yahweh ' s claim of omnipotence and omniscience in the prayer beginning at verse 21. He claims to have jurisdiction over Sennacherib, in that he ordained his victories; now he ordains his defeat. In other words Yahweh usurps the authority and power of Sennacherib ' s gods; Judaism is becoming more clearly monotheistic.19 When King Hezeki ′ah heard it, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of theLord.2 And he sent Eli ′akim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs