This article maintains that the essence of Prophetic Criticism is methodology.
Recently, a new paradigm shift took place in prophetic research, specifically in the
study of the book of Isaiah. This article assesses the methodological ground of the
new shift and points out that the new paradigm has failed to replace the earlier one
(Form Criticism) because it did not succeed in defining its methodological
foundation. Instead, another paradigm of research is presented in this article. This
new paradigm is Rhetoric, that is, the text as a communicative and argumentative
address. The rhetorical reading is an act which studies—through the text
itself—the design of a given unit as a response to a given situation.
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