The Bible in the News

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“The Word will stand forever,” Isaiah affirmed in chapter 40. Indeed, the words of the prophets do still stand, well over two millennia after they were first uttered. As the following media accounts demonstrate, however, these days the Word often stands incongruously in odd company.

Earlier this year a syndicated columnist found in Newt Gingrich a modern exemplar of the prophet Jeremiah. An indignant letter writer (to The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York) fired back: “I’ve never seen Newt sacrifice his personal happiness to speak God’s judgment to the people of the U.S.A., as Jeremiah did to the people he loved … I never heard Newt thunder against the ravaging of nature as Jeremiah did.”

At times like this, we may wonder if the political circumstances are commensurate with the lofty words quoted from the prophets. Thus, the stirring words of Isaiah 11: “The spirit of the Lord will be with him to give him understanding, wisdom and insight”—originally applied to Israel’s future ruler—preceded the December 2006 installation of Todd Stroger as the 34th president of the Cook County (Illinois) Board. As an editorial in The Chicago Tribune noted, “Isaiah wanted an end to injustice and government corruption. Good ideas, then and now. So, like the prophets before him, by Todd Stroger’s predictions and pledges shall he be judged.”

At other times, however, the comparison of current circumstances or personalities with their Biblical counterparts seems appropriate. Thus, there are few (if any) who would disagree with the sentiment expressed by Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon with respect to Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Rev. King was a modern-day prophet, a veritable reincarnation of Jeremiah or Isaiah” (as reported in The Washington Times, January 2006).

More controversial, as we can easily imagine, are comparisons made between Al Gore and the prophet Jeremiah, both in a positive vein—“In the Old Testament, Jeremiah was the prophet heaped with scorn as he warned and warned the Israelites of a coming reckoning. That seems to be the role Al Gore is taking on” (The Orlando Sentinel)—and in a negative vein—“The release of the hagiographic new documentary about his global-warming crusade has turned Gore into a latter-day Jeremiah, warning us about our corrupt ways and our need to reform lest we reap the whirlwind” (The New York Post).

This phenomenon is by no means restricted to the United States; its scope is by now thoroughly international. For reasons of space, alas, just one example—this one from Canada: “A century ago German scholars detected, through an exhaustive deconstruction of text, that the Book of Isaiah was written by three different authors, whom they named Isaiah I, II and III. Analysis also shows that Ottawa’s final international policy statement had three authors, who worked mightily to weave a single narrative … Isaiah I, a hard-nosed realist … Isaiah II is a romantic … Isaiah III is the skilled craftsman whose job is to reconcile the realists and romanticists” (The Globe and Mail).

Finally, we come upon one more use of the ubiquitous Isaiah, this time as commentary for a poll seeking the world’s leading public intellectuals (as contained in an Irish News Limited story, titled “Bono and Pope among ‘Top Thinkers’”): “As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah observed, declaring yourself to be a brainbox is fraught with danger: ‘Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight,’ he warned. However, Isaiah did not say what fate would befall those branded bright by other people.”

“The Word will stand forever,” Isaiah affirmed in chapter 40. Indeed, the words of the prophets do still stand, well over two millennia after they were first uttered. As the following media accounts demonstrate, however, these days the Word often stands incongruously in odd company. Earlier this year a syndicated columnist found in Newt Gingrich a modern exemplar of the prophet Jeremiah. An indignant letter writer (to The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York) fired back: “I’ve never seen Newt sacrifice his personal happiness to speak God’s judgment to the people of the U.S.A., as Jeremiah did to the people […]