Opening the Sealed Book: Interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity

Of all the texts in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, perhaps no book has a more colorful history of interpretation than Isaiah. A comprehensive history of this interpretation between the prophet Malachi and the first days of Christianity, Joseph Blenkinsopp's Opening the Sealed Book traces three different prophetic traditions in Isaiah — the "man of God," the critic of social structures, and the apocalyptic seer.

Blenkinsopp explores the place of Isaiah in Jewish sectarianism, at Qumran,...