An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 147: Sorceresses, cockatrices and a Breastplate of Vengeance: It’s all gone a bit Dungeons and Dragons (Isaiah 56-60)

Isaiah 56-60
Sorceresses, cockatrices and a Breastplate of Vengeance: It’s all gone a bit Dungeons and Dragons.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Isaiah 56

“The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.”

A short chapter, and in this one the worship of God is opened up to others – sons of strangers and even eunuchs, as long as they keep the Sabbath and obey unspecified purity laws. Although, I have to say that it seems a bit mean to say to eunuchs that “I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off”. I mean, rubbing it in a bit?

The last few verses take a sudden jump; somebody’s watchmen are cast as lazy dogs, more eager to eat and drink and sleep than do their job, but unfortunately once again the KJV’s attitude to pronouns means that it is unclear who they belong to – the context makes it sound like they belong to God, but this doesn’t make sense.

Isaiah 57

“But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.”

I like that verse, it has a good mad-eyed street preacher vibe about it. There’s a not a lot novel about this chapter in that it revisits an old theme of condemning those who worship idols and natural features (trees, cliffs, streams). However, this chapter would appear to end with forgiveness for them, not the fire and brimstone we’ve come to expect, at least if they turn to God. This is a new direction, offering a second chance at redemption to those who have “gone astray”. The tone of the last couple of verses is more weary than angry – there are endless supplies of wicked people, and “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked”.

Isaiah 58

“Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.”

I’ve cautioned before, I’m sure, about taking specific parts of the bible that support your own prejudices and using them to back them up. And now I must confess that this chapter appeals to me. In it, religious hypocrites are attacked. They fast, according to the law, but they do so to make a big deal of how much they are suffering for their religion, whereas the real purpose of the fasting is to “deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house”. Fasting provides spare food to share with the hungry, and also gives the faster a better understanding of the plight of the poor. Doing these charitable things without thought of reward, says this chapter, is far better than making a big show of piety “And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday”. Interesting.

Isaiah 59

“They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.”

Back to condemning the wicked; shedders of blood, tellers of lies and those who walk not in the way of the Lord. After so many chapters of the bible I’m now starting to write in the same idiom! But really, the main gist of this chapter is that God, in the form of “judgment” and, I guess, redemption and/or salvation, is a long way from evil-doers, but it is the evil-doers who have put themselves far from God, not that God has withdrawn from them. A bit of theological hair-splitting but it does make a world of difference, putting the blame fully on the evil-doers and making God seem less judgemental and vengeful. Once again the concept of universal salvation through God for all, if they are willing to take it, becomes a theme of the chapter.

I was pondering this, and it occurred to me that these ideas seem to have entered the bible during the Babylonian captivity, so the Israelites must have been exposed to some religious and philosophical concepts that were new to them whilst in the east; I’ll be interested to see if this is evident in some of the later OT chapters (and also what evolution occurs by the start of the NT).

Anyway, the end of this chapter is good old school divine fury, grapes of wrath kind of stuff, with “him” (it’s those vague pronoun attributions again) putting on his Breastplate of Righteousness, Cloak of Zeal, Helmet of Salvation and Garments of Vengeance like a high-level Dungeons and Dragon character tooling up with magic items, and dishing out just desserts to all and sundry. Good old blood and thunder stuff.

Isaiah 60

“The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.”

Here the chapter returns to the future glories of Jerusalem, where nations of the world bring treasures in tribute, and all is peaceful with spiritual fortification in place of physical: “thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise”. I’m pretty sure that this can, and has, been interpreted as a kind of kingdom of God as much as an earthly one, the spiritual results of worshipping God as opposed to a geo-political promise to His worshippers; personally I’m not sure if I can see that as being the original intent, but the choice of language in some places is interesting.

Also of interest is the mention in the quoted text about gifts of gold and incense from kings and the forces of the Gentiles. This makes me wonder about the three Magi from the nativity and their gifts; is the nature of the gifts (which have their own symbolism as well) another attempt to shoehorn in prophetic signs and portents to the story of Jesus? As before, it is entirely possible that what is written is exactly what happened and therefore, gosh, look at that, it’s uncanny how it gibes with yet another passage from Isaiah!