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Jonathan Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 6

1 In the year that King Uzziah was struck with leprosy, the prophet said, I saw the glory of the LORD sitting on His throne,⁠ high and lifted up to the highest heavens, and the temple was filled with the brightness of His glory.⁠ 2 Holy ministers on high stood before Him; each one had six wings.⁠ With two he covered his face, so that it could not see; with two he covered his body, so that it could not be seen; and with two he was ministering. 3 One cried to another, and they were saying, “Holy in the highest and exalted heavens is the house of His Shekinah; holy on the earth is the work of His might; holy forever and ever is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of the brightness of His glory.”⁠ 4 The posts of the threshold of the temple shook at the voice of the one who cried, and the house of the sanctuary was filled with cloudy darkness. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I have sinned! For I am a guilty man, deserving rebuke, and I dwell in the midst of a people polluted with sin; for my eyes have seen the glory of the Shekinah of the King of the worlds, the LORD of hosts.” 6 Then one of the ministers flew to me, and in his mouth was a word that he had received from the Shekinah of Him who sat on the throne of glory in the highest heavens, above the altar. 7 He placed it in my mouth and said, “I have put the words of my prophecies in your mouth; your iniquities are taken away, and your sins are atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Memra of the LORD, which said, “Whom shall I send to prophesy, and who will go to teach?” Then I said, “Here I am; send me.” 9 And He said, “Go and tell this people, who hear diligently but do not understand, and see diligently but do not know.⁠ 10 Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and darken their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and repent, and it would be forgiven them.” 11 Then I said, “LORD, how long?” And He answered, “Until the cities are laid waste with no inhabitant, and the houses without people, and the land is left desolate and wasted.” 12 And the LORD has removed the children of men far away, and the desolation is great in the midst of the land. 13 And there will be left in it righteous men, one out of ten; they will return, and they will be brought to poverty. Like the terebinth and the oak when their leaves fall, they are like dry trees; nevertheless they are still moist enough to raise up seed from them. So the captivity of Israel will be gathered and will return to their land, for the holy seed is their planting.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 6:1 and John 12:41 and Jonathan Isaiah 6:1

Hebrew Bible · New Testament · Targum

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Summary

Isaiah describes seeing God directly, but the Aramaic translation in the Targum avoids this by focusing on divine glory. This may follow an early Aramaic tradition that also influenced John's gospel, which says Isaiah saw the Messiah's glory.

Passages

Isaiah 6:1

Hebrew Bible
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!”
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

John 12:41

New Testament
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them.” 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s glory and spoke about him. 42 Nevertheless, even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
90–110 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John

Jonathan Isaiah 6:1

Targum
1 In the year that King Uzziah was struck with leprosy, the prophet said, I saw the glory of the LORD sitting on His throne, high and lifted up to the highest heavens, and the temple was filled with the brightness of His glory. 2 Holy ministers on high stood before Him; each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, so that it could not see; with two he covered his body, so that it could not be seen; and with two he was ministering.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

"... It is not impossible that the author of the Fourth Gospel, using these quotations from the prophet Isaiah, may have also had other texts of his in mind and texts of the Targumic tradition. In John 12:41, Isaiah’s vision is referred to the glory of Jesus. The theme of “glory” is an important point in the Targumic tradition ... The text of Isaiah, who speaks about the vision of God: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple (Isaiah 6:1), reads in the Aramaic translation (Targum Isaiah 6:1) ... In the light of the Aramaic version, the text of the Fourth Gospel becomes more comprehensible: Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him (John 12:41) ..."
Mirosław S. Wróbel, “Ideological and Intertextual Relations Between the Targum Isaiah and the Gospel of John,” Collectanea Theologica 93.1 (2023): 85–102.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 6:1 and John 12:41 and Jonathan Isaiah 6:1

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