Hevel.org: A Chasing after Wind

I have been reading Christopher Seitz’s Prophecy and Hermeneutics: Toward a New Introduction to the Prophets on my Kindle, and thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of a canonical approach to the Bible. As I was pondering the question, my eyes fell on a poster hanging in my study carrel, a detail of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling: the Delphian Sibyl.

It is hard to express how powerful Michelangelo’s painting is when seen from the chapel floor. I am even more impressed that a close-up detail would be equally wonderful. The only people who have ever seen the painting this close are Michelangelo himself and art restoration specialists.

Notice the individual brush strokes that make up her hair, scarf, and headband. I am amazed at how much emotion and personality he could encode with such simple movements, at how expressive the Delphi’s face is when viewed close-up and when viewed from a distance.

The Bible, like all great literature, works as well on both of these levels. It is important to understand the Delphian Sibyl’s place within the overall painting, but there is certainly nothing wrong with spending time contemplating it in detail. In fact, if you only gazed at the sibyl from the floor of the chapel (as it was intended by the painter, I would add), you might miss some important details. When you zoom in for an intense close-up, what you lose in context can be gained in close analysis.

Do we have to pick between these two vistas? Should the same person have to always be alternating between them? Does the Delphian Sibyl stand on her own as a great work, and as the subject of interpretation, even without reference to the overall painting?

What about the Bible? Where do you come down on the issue of canonical criticism? How should I read, say, Isaiah 7? Is the central oracle of Isaiah 7 its own text, a part of a text called “First Isaiah,” one called “Isaiah,” one called “The Hebrew Bible,” or “The Bible?” All of the above? What does this mean for interpretation of Isaiah 7:14?