"Then your light will break forth like the dawn" : solar imagery associated with YHWH in post-exilic prophecy, with special regard to its religious-historical background and its significance to Hebrew biblical theology

Abstract

Throughout the Hebrew biblical scriptures we are presented with a multitude of images relating to how YHWH, god of the Israelites, is portrayed by the believing community or prophet. This very varying imagery is a result of many centuries of multifaceted tradition that have converged in the Hebrew biblical canon we know today. I will in this dissertation be concerned with one such tradition: The solar portrayal of YHWH. To narrow the dissertational range I have selected three passages in post-exilic prophecy that is the vantage point for this thesis: Isaiah 58:8, 60:1-3 and Malachi 3:20.