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Isa 8:16 is considered a key reference regarding the formation of the book of Isaiah and the role of prophetic disciples in this process. This article argues, however, that originally this verse had a more limited significance. The instruction to which v. 16 refers is to be identified with vv. 12-15 rather than an early ‘book’ of Isaiah. The expression ‘the instructed ones’ (of YHWH rather than the prophet) is applied to the prophet’s audience. This term reflects Isaiah’s characteristic view of prophesying as an act of instruction and prophecy as a form of teaching, and it does not presuppose the existence of any prophetic school. The view that sealing the instruction would allude to preserving prophetic teaching for the posterity is discounted here in favour of understanding the symbolic act as a metaphor from the legal sphere refering to authentication, with no inherent temporal significance.

In studies on the composition of prophetic literature, the larger textual layers reinterpreting earlier texts, the so-called Fortschreibungen, received much attention. It is well-known that beside these larger literary elaborations prophetic books also contain shorter explanatory interpolations, often called glosses, which intend to clarify a particular imagery of the prophecy (e.g., Isa 9:14). A systematic reading of these short annotations has been neglected, however, in studying the formation of prophetic books. The present article reconsiders the Isaiah-Memoir from this perspective. It identifies editorial interpolations in three distinct pericopes, Isa 8:2, 8:6-7a and 8:23b. It is argued here that the identification of such explanatory additions is the key to understanding notorious textual complexities. Moreover, it points out that these interpolations tend to expose recognisable patterns and common hermeneutical principles.

A genfi Tanító már halálosan beteg volt 1564 áprilisában, amikor a nagyenyedi hitvitázó zsinaton megalakult Erdély református egyháza. A nagy haldoklónak azok közül a népek közül, amelyeknek kebelében az ö földi élete folyamán számottevő református egyház alakult vagy kezdett alakulni, körülbelül a magyarsággal volt a legcsekélyebb személyes összeköttetése. Ennek a végzetszerüségnek messze kiható következményei voltak, amelyek nem egy tekintetben még ma is fennállanak. Megkapó kárpótlásul a személyes összeköttetés hiányáért, a dolgok különös és mélyértelmü összetalálkozása folytán, az történt, hogy a földi küzdelmek világából búcsúzkodó Kálvin az erdélyi magyarság református egyházának bölcsője felett mégis hallatta tiszta és hatalmas szavát.