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Heralds of the Good News: Isaiah and Paul "in Concert" in the Letter to the Romans, by J. Ross Wagner. NovTSup 101. Leiden/Boston/Cologne: Brill, 2002. Pp. xxii + 440. $192.00/$57.00. ISBN 9004116915/0391042041.
The publication three years ago of Ross Wagner's study of Paul's use of Isaiah in the letter to the Romans showed how the movement inspired by Richard Hays fifteen years ago in Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989) continues to mature and develop. Wagner, who studied under Richard Hays at Duke University, has written an impressive book that makes judicious use of Hays's methods and conclusions while moving beyond Hays at many key points. The quality of the argumentation is high throughout; indeed, the book sounds more like the work of a seasoned scholar than a recent Ph.D. student. Wagner's study is essential reading not only for scholars interested in Paul's use of Scripture but for anyone involved in the study of Paul's thought.
The bulk of Wagner's book is devoted to a detailed exposition of key passages in Romans 9-11, where Paul quotes or alludes to the book of Isaiah. In each case he starts by comparing the Pauline version of the text with its original form in Isaiah, then shifts into an examination of how Paul interprets the Isaianic text and how this interpretation fits into Paul's developing argument. Wagner argues that Paul took the contexts of his quotations and allusions seriously, since he believes that Paul knew the entire Greek text of Isaiah by memory. At the same time, he parts company with scholars who have insisted that Paul faithfully reproduced the ideas of his source text. Instead, he claims that Paul engaged in a "radical rereading" of the book of Isaiah (pp. 154, 271) through the eyes of Christian faith. This Christian reinterpretation of Isaiah led Paul to engage in "shocking" interpretive moves (p. 82) and "stunning misreading[s]" (p. 205; cf. p. 89) of the prophetic text. On the whole, Wagner seems sympathetic to Paul's reading strategy, but he is no naïve apologist for Paul.
While acknowledging that many of Paul's readings of the biblical text appear tendentious, Wagner rejects the claim that Paul simply plundered the Jewish Scriptures for verses...