Dedication -- Contents -- Editor's Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Need, Method, and Accomplishments of Inquiry -- Statement of the Need -- The General Method of Inquiry -- Intended Accomplishments -- Review and Assessment of Current Literature -- Major Treatments of Isa 6:9-10 and NT Passages -- General Works on Hardening -- Specialized Treatments -- Summary of Works -- Major Alternative Schemes of Isa 6:9-10 and NT Passages -- The Irony View -- The Effect-Purpose Idiom View -- The Psychological View: Frank E. Eakin -- The Higher Critical Views -- A Combination of Views245 -- Summary of Schemes -- Conclusion -- Philosophical Prolegomena and Presuppositions -- Introduction -- God and Time -- Introduction -- Divine Timeless Eternity -- Eternity as Relative Timelessness -- Timelessness and Omnitemporality -- Unqualified Divine Temporality -- Summary on Time -- God and Causation -- George Mavrodes's Four Schemes39 -- John Feinberg's Solution58 -- Mavrodes's Rebuttal -- A New Proposal -- God and Freedom72 -- Augustine and the Will -- Edwards and Freedom -- The Sagacity of an Atheist: A Modern Example -- Summary on Freedom -- Conclusion -- The Wisdom Tradition -- Congenital Condition: The Heart in Its Natural State -- Hebrew Psychology -- The Mosaic Background -- The Wisdom Corpus -- The Heart, Wisdom, and Related Terms and Concepts -- Noetic Ontology: A Series of Sapiential Syllogisms -- Means of Establishing the Truth of the Syllogisms -- Wisdom and the Hebrew Scriptures (MT) -- Wisdom and the Qumran Community -- Wisdom Tradition in the OT Apocrypha153 -- Wisdom Tradition in Philo -- Wisdom Tradition in Josephus157 -- Wisdom Tradition in Mishnah -- Conclusion -- Isaiah 6:9-10: Its Wisdom Connection and Meaning -- Introduction -- The Essential Background of Isa 6:9-10 -- The Overall Context -- The Immediate Context.

Isaiah's Wisdom Metanarrative -- Wisdom in Isaiah -- Sapiential Notions -- Sapiential Motifs -- The Text of Isa 6:9-10143 -- Exegesis of the Masoretic Text of Isa 6:9-10 -- Divergent Streams of Isa 6:9-10 -- Summary -- Conclusion -- Isaiah 6:9-10: The Markan Usage -- Mark 4:10-12: The Purpose of Parables -- The -- Immediate Context -- The Exegesis of 4:10-12 -- Mark 4:33-34: A Recapitulation -- Relation to 4:10-12 -- Parables and Wisdom -- Private Teaching and -- Mark 8:17b-18a, 21: Wisdom and the Hard-heart -- Similarities to Mark 4:10-12 -- The Context -- Wisdom and Hardening -- The Heart in Mark -- The Isaian Passage -- Conclusion -- Isaiah 6:9-10: Matthew and Luke -- Matthew 13:10-17: The Reason for Parables -- The Question and Expected Form of Answer -- The First Interlude on Privilege -- The Answer Part 1: Paraphrase of Isa 6:9-10 -- The Answer Part 2: Quotation of Isa 6:9-10 -- The Second Interlude on Privilege -- Summary -- Luke 8:9-10: The Meaning of This Parable50 -- The Exegesis of 8:9-10 -- Summary -- Conclusion -- Accomplishments of Inquiry -- Bibliography -- Author Index -- Scripture Index.