On the Way to a “Normalized” Future? Isaiah 35 and the Medical Model of Disability

Abstract

In its vision of the future, Isaiah 35 opens up the prospect of a safe return of the exiled people to Zion. For this, Isaiah 35 uses striking imagery, in which people with physical disabilities are made the visual object of divine encouragement and action, analogous to the surrounding nature. Not only areas which are believed to be dead are transformed into a fertile paradise, but also physically disabled people experience healing through YHWH, the god of Israel. However, the fact that this vision of healing also contains negative ethical implications for people with disabilities is worked out in this essay with reference to the Disability Studies and their various disability models.