Bible Study: Isaiah 11

[bob x]

"in fact, edom is associated with rome and, by extension, the christian west....
Thank you to everybody for the expansion on the subject, including the nerdy parts."
OK, a little more nerdiness: because Herod (see #26) was Idumean on his father's father's side (from where he derived his dubious claims to be a rightful ruler), "Edom" was used in 1st-century radical Jewish literature as a shorthand for the Herodian royal family, and collaborators with Rome in general. Afterwards, with the specific connection to the Herodian family now meaningless, it became a code-word for the Roman empire, when you wanted to denounce the government without having government agents able to readily notice your treason: compare the use of "Babylon" for Rome, as in Revelation and associated early Christian literature, before Christianity made its terms with the Roman regime. After Christianity took over the empire, the usage of "Edom" in rabbinical literature then naturally transferred to a code-word for "Christendom".