The Messiah Myth: The Near Eastern Roots of Jesus and David by Thomas L. Thompson

Author:Thomas L. Thompson [Thompson, Thomas L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Non-Fiction, Religion
ISBN: 9780465085774
Goodreads: 925438
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2005-04-11T22:00:00+00:00

Yahweh empties the earth, makes it a wasteland, turning it upside down. . . . A curse has devoured the earth and its inhabitants . . . because they have broken the eternal covenant. . . . Only a few remain while a new wine mourns as the vine wilts. They will not drink wine with song. . . . In the streets, one hears complaints about the wine; for all joy is gone. (Is 24:1–11)

In restructuring Isaiah’s day of wrath, Matthew will not have his Jesus drink a wine of gladness. He prepares to drink “the cup of his suffering.” Jesus holds his new wine in mourning and cannot drink it in gladness and song (Mt 26:39, 42). The old wine of the covenant’s blood is drunk in preparation for Jesus’ death and burial. There is no wine in the grave, as the disciples must await the resurrection of a new spring, bringing the new year’s wine. Isaiah’s song of Yahweh entering his kingdom (Is 24) offers a useful key to understanding both Matthew’s narrative of the Last Supper and the Exodus story of the elders sitting on heaven’s sapphire floor, eating and drinking with God. Isaiah’s song bears overtones of the exile. Israel’s captive prisoners are gathered. “Divine terror, the pit and the trap” have fallen over the inhabitants of the earth (Is 24:17). Jerusalem’s destruction is projected in a scene of the earth, sun and moon returning to chaos before creation (Is 24:3; cf. Jer 4:23). This metaphor of cosmic destruction closes with a utopian hope of future reversal. The punishment in the pit is transformed as Exodus’ scene of the elders is rewritten: “Yahweh of the armies will rule and before his elders, (the rapture of) his glory (Is 24:22–23).” Much as a day of suffering is marked by a lack of wine and an end to singing (Is 24:7–9, 11), the heavenly feast transforms the day of suffering as the transcendent king enters his kingdom:

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