Utopian prophetic visions, products of Judah's exile to Babylon in the2nd century B.C., describe a set of model relationships and conditions, and thus provide a glimpse of the ideal world according to the authors of these ancient texts. Although some details vary from text to text, the return of the exiles and the restoration of Israel's relationship with its God Yhwh are common themes in many of these visions. There is also talk of military victory over enemies, the removal of oppressors from the land, the establishment of universal peace, the attachment of non-resident aliens to Yhwh and Jerusalem, the emergence of an ideal (Davidic) ruler and various transformations of the natural world.
Disability plays a central role in many of these utopian visions. In some texts, the condition of disabled people is changed by Yhwh so that they can take part in the return of the exiles (Jer 31:7-9), in the military defeat of the enemies and subsequent events (Is 33:17-24), or in temple worship in an ideal future (Is 56:3-7). Other passages envisage a physical transformation of the handicapped, giving them sometimes uncommon abilities when Yhwh acts to deliver Israel (Is 34, 4-10; 29, 17-21). Some texts do not speak directly of the handicapped, but use disability as a metaphor to illustrate the state of the people who have rejected Yhwh's saving and transforming intervention (Mi 4:6-7; So 3:19). Each of these passages uses disability to exalt Yhwh as an incomparable god, whose action enables disabled people to take part in his salvific plan and who, if he so decides, can even eliminate disability altogether.
While utopian texts always exalt Yhwh, they also stigmatize the disabled. They may eliminate disabilities in an ideal future, suggesting that they have no place in a utopia; they may suggest that the disabled depend on special efforts by Yhwh to limit the marginalizing effects of their physical condition and enable them to return to a normal condition; they may devalue the disabled through stigmatizing comparisons (e.g. a desert); they may employ stigmatizing binary discourses (e.g. shame); they may use stigmatizing language (e.g. "I'm not the only one"). e.g. shame); they may associate the disabled with other stigmatized and marginalized groups (e.g. the poor and the afflicted), and with devalued characteristics and conditions such as weakness, vulnerability, immobility, dependence, feminization [of men], and divine rejection - some of which are eliminated from utopia, while others remain. In contrast, at least one utopian text (Is 56:3-7) envisages the full integration of disabled people without stigmatizing them.
