Carrier v. Litwa: What Did the “Ascension of Isaiah” Originally Say?

[dbz]

Norelli writes that “Et vidi similem filii hominis…” depends on three verses in the New Testament.

The similarities between the Latin text of Apc 14 and the S and to some extent the L² version of the Ascension of Isaiah are striking, since the vocabulary employed is almost identical. [For the dependence of S and L² on Apc 1:12-13 and 14:14 see also NORELLI: Ascensio, 536-537. However, NORELLI neglects the strong influence of the Latin tradition of Revelation on these versions.] (p. 79, n. 210)

Hoffmann, Matthias Reinhard (2005). The Destroyer and the Lamb: The Relationship Between Angelomorphic and Lamb Christology in the Book of Revelation. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 978-3-16-148778-1.

[MrMacSon]

The similarities between the Latin text of Apc 14 and the S and to some extent the L² version of the Ascension of Isaiah are striking...

Hoffmann, Matthias Reinhard (2005). The Destroyer and the Lamb: The Relationship Between Angelomorphic and Lamb Christology in the Book of Revelation

I presume 'Apc 14' = the Apocalypse of John chapter 14

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FWIW,
from Hoffmann, Matthias Reinhard (2005). The Destroyer and the Lamb: The Relationship Between Angelomorphic and Lamb Christology in the Book of Revelation, Mohr Siebeck:

Screenshot Hoffmann (2005).png (546.44 KiB) Viewed 735 times

[dbz]

The Ascension of Isaiah is the oldest Christian apocryphal work attributed to an Old Testament figure and it may be the oldest Christian apocryphal apocalypse (dated at the end of the first century by Bauckham 1998: 381-90; in the first half of the second century by most other scholars). For much of the twentieth century, study of it as an early Christian work was impeded by attempts to excavate pre-Christian Jewish sources within it (still reflected in Charlesworth 1985: 143-76; Hennecke-Schneemelcher 1992: 603-20), an attempt that has now been universally abandoned. Chapters 1-5 make use of a Jewish tradition about the martyrdom of Isaiah, but there is no reason to suppose that a non-Christian Jewish work has been incorporated in those chapters, still less to entitle it or them 'The Martyrdom of Isaiah' (a title that is nowhere found in antiquity). In ancient usage, the title Ascension of Isaiah always refers to all eleven chapters, although chapters 6-11 did circulate as a separate work known as the Vision of Isaiah in Latin and Old Slavonic versions. The Ascension of Isaiah certainly consists of two distinctive parts, but recent scholarship agrees that they are both of Christian origin and are at least closely connected. Enrico Norelli, who has contributed most to recent study of this work, argues that chapters 6-11 were written first and that another author then added chapters 1-5 to them (Norelli 1994, 1995). I have argued, on the contrary, that the two parts were designed as complementary parts of a single work, and compared them to the two parts of the book of Daniel (narratives in chapters 1-6, visions in chapters 7-12), which the author of the Ascension of Isaiah probably took as a generic model for his work (Bauckham 1998). The resemblance to Daniel and to other apocalypses that combine a substantial narrative section with visionary revelations (Book of Watchers [1 Enoch 1-36], Apocalypse of Abraham) also makes it clear that the Ascension of Isaiah really is an apocalypse, though it is an unusual one that cannot be assigned exclusively either to type 1 or to type 2 in the classification used in my discussion.

Chapters 1-5 tell the story of Isaiah's persecution and martyrdom at the hands of king Manasseh, but they also contain a report of a prophetic vision Isaiah had seen during the reign of Hezekiah (3:13-4:22). A longer and complementary account of the same vision is the main content of chapters 6-11, within a narrative framework set in the reign of Hezekiah. The first account of the vision begins with the coming to earth of ‘the Beloved’ (a title for Christ distinctive of this work), summarizes the earthly history of Jesus, and goes on to describe the corruption of the church and other events of the last days up to the end. In the second account, Isaiah ascends through the heavens to the seventh heaven, from which perspective he is given a prophetic vision of the future descent of the Beloved through the heavens to earth, his earthly history and his re-ascent through the heavens to enthronement beside God in the seventh. While both accounts of the vision tell the story of Jesus, the first operates on a mainly temporal axis, the second on a mainly spatial (cosmological) axis.

I have argued (Bauckham 2015) that the principal purpose of the author was to create a cosmological reading of the Gospel story. For this purpose he has adopted a particular version of the seven heavens cosmology. In a sharply dualistic picture of the cosmos, the heavens (inhabited solely by angels occupied with the praise of God) are characterized by glory, which increases as one ascends upwards to the Great Glory (God) in the seventh. The realm below is in darkness, dominated by the powers of evil who inhabit the firmament. In order to bring the saints up to glory in the seventh heaven, the Beloved must descend to earth and, further, to Hades, all the while keeping his identity secret so that it may not be known to the evil powers. So in each heaven he adopts the form of the angels in that heaven, in decreasing degrees of glory, and then on earth he takes human form. Only after his resurrection does he resume his glorious form and ascend in this form back to the seventh heaven. To create this version of the Gospel story the author has developed hints in cosmological passages in the Pauline literature (Phil. 2.6-11; 1 Cor. 2.6-7; 2 Cor. 3.18; Eph. 1.20-1, 2.6, 6.12). The resulting vision of the hidden descent and glorious ascent of Christ was remarkably influential in the Christian literature of the second century (Bauckham 2015).

The attribution of this revelation of the cosmological dimension of the Gospel story to the prophet Isaiah was highly appropriate, for it was especially in the prophecies of Isaiah that early Christians found the events of the Gospel story foreshadowed in considerable detail. But according to the Ascension of Isaiah, these things were told ‘in the book which I prophesied openly’ only ‘in parables’ (4.20). In the later vision recounted in the Ascension of Isaiah they were much more clearly revealed.

(pp. 128–130)

Bauckham, Richard (2015). "NON-CANONICAL APOCALYPSES AND PROPHETIC WORKS §. Ascension of Isaiah". In Verheyden, Joseph (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha. Oxford University Press. pp. 115–140. ISBN 978-0-19-108018-0.

[dbz]

"Ascension of Isaiah". Dictionary of the Apostolic Church. C. Scribner's sons. 1922. p. 101.

content.png (18.43 KiB) Viewed 709 times

[gryan]

What is going on in The Ascension of Isaiah?
https://www.earlychristianwritings.com/ ... nsion.html

Having skimmed it once, it looks to me like someone writing after Paul's "third heaven" ascent story became well known wrote up a fantasy fictional account of Isaiah having a somewhat similar (literary hack job) ascent and foreseeing something pretty close to Matthew's story of Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the crucifixion. The story Jesus birth, life and death is a quick summary and paraphrase which seems to me to make no serious literary effort to appear more ancient than Mark and Paul and Acts (i.e. the texts I'm reading carefully), even though is supposedly happened and was recorded in the days of Isaiah.

Litwa obviously didn't read Carrier's book (per Carrier's interview on youtube); nevertheless, I find myself in basic agreement with Litwa's critical assessment of Ascension of Isaiah in the transcript quoted in the OP. Thanks for posting it!

[dbz]

[T]he case for the AI being a patchwork document with a series of interpolations has a high pedigree in mainstream scholarship. I tried to capture the main points of this mainstream scholarship in several of my blog posts and in the following diagram I drew up:

[MrMacSon]

I find myself in basic agreement with Litwa's critical assessment of Ascension of Isaiah in the transcript quoted in the OP

A transcript of Litwa's assessment of the Ascension of Isaiah wasn't posted in the OP of this thread (tho a video was)
Were you referring to the transcript in the OP of another thread: viewtopic.php?p=144415#p144415

[dbz]

I encourage everyone to contribute to the "Ascension of Isaiah". Wikipedia. article.

For those not comfortable with editing the main page, then just add your suggestions to the "Talk" page @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ascension_of_Isaiah

[John T]

Which is easier, getting Carrier's crackpot idea posted on the Babylon Bee or Wikipedia?

[dbz]

Which is easier, getting Carrier's crackpot idea posted on the Babylon Bee or Wikipedia?

Your best bet is "Richard Carrier". Encyclopedia Dramatica.

Given in AoI: A pocket gospel story going all the way from Mary’s miraculous birthing of Jesus to some King crucifying Jesus on a tree in Jerusalem, radically deviates from the content and discourse style of the rest of the text—which evinces a different author.

Question: Who are the scholars that hold the viewpoint that the "pocket gospel story" is suspicious?