Die Stadtfrau Zion im Zentrum der Welt

Chapters 60-62 of the book of Isaiah are considered to be key texts for explaining the origins of the third section of the book in Isaiah 56-66. Hypotheses on the origin of the texts frequently address an unknown post-exilic author called Third Isaiah, who is said to have formulated his calling and his programme in Isaiah 60-62. After Steck rigorously dismissed the postulate of one prophetic individual, the learned character of these texts – which were never conceived as discrete prophetic logia, but rather always seen within a literary context – is examined. Following Steck’s impulses, the context and genesis of chapters Isaiah 60-62 are examined here. In the absence of a prophet’s biography and prophetic proclamations it is the portrayal of Zion that characterises these chapters. The city of God is configured spatially, as holy ground, but also anthropomorphized as a figure and as a community of justice in the centre of the world.