The so-called 'Isaiah Apocalypse' (Isa. 24-27) is typically understood, as is most proto-apocalyptic literature, to rely on previous texts. For example, scholars suggest several possible covenants to which the 'eternal covenant' (? ?) in Isa. 24.5 refers. This reading of the eternal covenant adopts a different view, using the dis cussions of intertextuality in literary theory. The discourse of a culture is thus a web of texts in which texts displace and decenter one another. An intertextual reading of the eternal covenant suggests that Isaiah 24 is an intertextual collision point which links the Mosaic covenant seen in Deuteronomy with priestly traditions concerning eternal covenants involving sabbath, circumcision and Temple activity, helping secure the authority of those texts and traditions. Far from being derivative from other authoritative texts, Isaiah 24 represents an active negotiation of power relations in and through texts which appears to privilege institutional continuity over discontinuity.
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