Blog Post #13 Liberation Thematic Study Isaiah 61

Isaiah 61, being prophecy in poetic form, is a difficult passage to interpret. Obvious limitations will probably lead to an inadequate analysis of the passage. Some of the difficulties lie in the nature of the prophetic genre; the modern audience has advantages through further revelation (through both Scripture and time) that were simply not available for the ancient audience. The challenge is to first understand how the audience at the time were impacted by the passage before adding further revelation into the picture.

For the purpose of this thematic study, the main emphasis of the investigation will endeavour to reconstruct this ancient context. It has been stated that, in studying Isaiah, Christians should not, “pre-empt the book of Isaiah...” (Brueggemann, 6) Although we know of Christ’s use of Isaiah 61, and we can see in part how He fulfilled this prophecy, this information was not available to the audience at the time. It is important also to note the difficulty that comes with exploring the near view-far view aspect of prophecy; the passages can seem to slip between and almost merge near-future events and events they prophesied about the very distant future (Duvall & Hayes, 382). This makes it all the more important to grasp the broader truths of a passage rather than hunt for very specific details of future events (383). With this in mind, the following study will not answer all of the questions raised by a study of Isaiah 61 but rather try to maintain a firm focus on how this passage develops the theme of liberation.