Isa 32,15a, or the Art of the Beginning

Abstract

The article focuses on Isa 32,15a with regard to its function of debut of the salvation prophecy of vv. 15–20. The analysis, conducted on the basis of the studies of comparative literature on literary incipits, shows the peculiar significance of this solemn beginning, its generative force in relation to the rest of the pericope, which renders it an unprecedented „in the beginning”. To this end, the biblical author uses a form already codified during the Exilic period, making significant variations (transposition with initial function, shifting of the verb producing the metaphor, allusion to the stories of creation, reticence, change of the point of view). The analysis highlights also the socio-critical function of Isa 32,15a, as indirect claim of a group that, at the height of the Post-Exilic period, proclaims itself the depositary of eschatological salvation.