The Israelites, who enjoyed an independent religious existence during the monarchy, faced various challenges during the exile and diaspora, challenges that entailed redefinition and a new understanding of themselves. The postexilic period was a crucial age for reconstructing and redefining their new community, their new future and identity. Living under a foreign regime and among foreigners, this process of emerging as a new community inevitably involved dealing with issues and relationships with “others.” From this experience arose varying perspectives towards foreigners—from very exclusivist, negative perspectives to very open and positive ones. In this paper, I will explore one very positive attitude towards foreigners expressed in Isa 56:1-8, a postexilic text. I will demonstrate that the author, Third Isaiah, is affirming that foreigners (non-Israelites) can truly be part of the Yahweh worshipping community, while remaining ethnically distinct. In his affirmation that his community can be made up of ethnically distinct members, Third Isaiah goes even further to admonish his community for making the foreigners doubt their acceptance (Isa 56:6-7). Before going to the text, I will briefly sketch the historical background of the postexilic period of restoring and redefining the new community.
