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JOHN GOLDINGAY and DAVID PAYNE, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 40-55, Volume 1, introduction and Commentary on Isaiah 40.1-44.23; Volume 2, Commentary on Isaiah 44.24-55.13 (ICC; London/New York: Clark, 2006). Pp. 1 + 368; viii + 381. $200.95 set.
This latest addition to the prestigious International Critical Commentary series has had a long period of gestation. The commentary on the entire Book of Isaiah was first assigned to Samuel Rolles Driver, who abandoned it-overwhelmed, we are told, by the problem of identifying the Suffering Servant. It was then passed on to A. B. Davidson, who died before making substantial progress, whereupon it was taken over by George Buchanan Gray and Arthur Samuel Peake (of Peake s Commentary), who decided to publish it in three volumes (chaps. 1-27, 28-39, and 40-55). Peake died before completing his part, but Gray published an excellent commentary on chaps. 1-27 in 1912. Chapters 28-39 and 56-66 remained unwritten and unpublished, while 40-55 passed to John Noel Schofield, who at first invited David Payne to share the burden and then surrendered the entire task to him. Payne finally invited John Goldingay to work with him, and the present two-volume commentary is the result of their combined labors. In the meantime, the first of three volumes of the new-generation ICC commentary on chaps. 1-27, covering chaps. 1-5, was published in 2005 by Hugh G. M. Williamson, Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford. We can therefore anticipate that the commentary on the entire book, when finished, will consist of seven volumes.
In keeping with the character and aims of the series, the authors concentrate on philological, text-critical, and micro-exegetical matters. For the broader literary and theological issues, they refer the reader to John Goldingay's companion volume The Message of Isaiah 40-55: A Literary-Theological Commentary (London/New York: Clark, 2005). Although the series has never emphasized these broader interpretative aspects, the...