“Restructuring the Symbolic Universe”: Resilience through Literary and Ideological Reframing in Isaiah 2.2–4(5)

Abstract

This paper elucidates the ways in which the composition and redaction of Isa. 2.2–4(5) function to both exhibit and impart resilience to hearers/readers based on the congruity between Nissinen’s appraisal of scribal activity as “restructuring the symbolic universe” and the process of cognitive behavioral therapy. To begin, I discuss the redactional placement of Isa. 2.2–4(5), delineating its role in reframing earlier judgment texts, along with its overall purpose through comparison with Mic. 1.1–5. Next, I demonstrate how the imagery of Isa. 2.2–4(5) co-opts and reframes the political ecosystem actively perpetuated by the Achaemenid Empire. Finally, through the work of Clemens Sedmak and Robert J. Schreiter, I (1) define resilience as “a capacity to resist” and (2) display the ways in which both the literary and ideological reframing of Isa. 2.2–4(5) likely signified and produced resilience in a manner akin to cognitive reframing for the postexilic community of Yehud.