by
Damien F. Mackey
“The Suffering Servant, who has the guilt of
all laid upon him (53:6), giving up his life as a sin-offering (53:10) and
bearing the sins of many (53:12), thereby carries out the ministry of the high
priest, fulfilling the figure of the priesthood from deep within. He is both
priest and victim, and in this way he achieves reconciliation”.
Pope
Benedict XVI
“Suffering Servant”
prefigures Jesus Christ
Richard B. Hays,
writing a review of Pope Benedict XVI’s book, Jesus of Nazareth Holy Week From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The
Resurrection (2011), acknowledges
an outstanding feature of Benedict’s book: how the Old Testament prefigures and
leads to the New Testament: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/08/001-benedict-and-the-biblical-jesus
Benedict and
the Biblical Jesus
….
From beginning to end, Benedict grounds his
interpretation of Jesus in the Old as well as the New Testament. The
significance of the gospel stories is consistently explicated in relation to
the Old Testament’s typological prefiguration of Jesus, and Jesus is shown to
be the flowering or consummation of all that God had promised Israel in many
and various ways. The resulting intercanonical conversation offers many
arresting insights into Jesus’ identity and significance. Many of the
connections that Benedict discerns are traditional in patristic exegesis, but
his explication of them is artful and effective.
[End of quote]
On p. 81, Pope Benedict
credits French priest André Feuillet with pointing out how well Isaiah’s
Suffering Servant Songs throw light upon the high-priestly prayer of Jesus
(John 17):
....
Before we
consider the individual themes contained in Jesus’ high-priestly prayer, one
further Old Testament allusion should be mentioned, one that has again been
studied by André Feuillet. He shows that the renewed and deepened spiritual
understanding of the priesthood found in John 17 is already prefigured in
Isaiah’s Suffering Servant Songs, especially in Isaiah 53. The Suffering
Servant, who has the guilt of all laid upon him (53:6), giving up his life as a
sin-offering (53:10) and bearing the sins of many (53:12), thereby carries out
the ministry of the high priest, fulfilling the figure of the priesthood from
deep within. He is both priest and victim, and in this way he achieves reconciliation.
Thus the Suffering Servant Songs continue along the whole path of exploring the
deeper meaning of the priesthood and worship, in harmony with the prophetic
tradition ....
On p. 136, Benedict
returns to this theme:
For we
have yet to consider Jesus' fundamental interpretation of his mission in Mark
10:45, which likewise features the word “many”; “For the Son of [Man] also came
not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”. Here
he is clearly speaking of the sacrifice of his life, and so it is obvious that
Jesus is taking up the Suffering Servant prophecy from Isaiah 53 and linking it
to the mission of the Son of Man, giving it a new interpretation.
And then, on pp. 173 and 199, he
broadens it:
This idea of vicarious atonement is fully
developed in the figure of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53, who takes the guilt of many upon
himself and thereby makes them just (53:11). In Isaiah, this figure remains
mysterious: the Song of the Suffering Servant is like a gaze into the future in
search of the one who is to come.
….
The history of religions knows the figure of the mock
king — related to the figure of the “scapegoat”. Whatever may be afflicting the
people is offloaded onto him: in this way it is to be driven out of the world.
Without realizing it, the soldiers were actually accomplishing what those rites
and ceremonies were unable to achieve: “Upon him was the chastisement that made
us whole, and with his stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5). Thus caricatured,
Jesus is led to Pilate, and Pilate presents him to the crowd — to all mankind:
“Ecce homo”, “Here is the man!” (Jn 19:5).
Before concluding his treatment of the subject on pp. 252-253:
A pointer
towards a deeper understanding of the fundamental relationship with the word is
given by the earlier qualification: Christ died “for our sins”. Because his
death has to do with the word of God, it has to do with us, it is a dying
“for”. In the chapter of Jesus’ death on the Cross, we saw what an enormous
wealth of tradition in the form of scriptural allusions feeds into the
background here, chief among them the fourth Song of the Suffering Servant
(Isaiah 53). Insofar as Jesus’ death can be located within this context of
God’s word and God’s love, it is differentiated from the kind of death
resulting from Man’s original sin as a consequence of his presumption in
seeking to be like God, a presumption that could only lead to man’s plunge into
wretchedness, into the destiny of death. ….
Hezekiah seems to
fit Isaiah 53
53:7 When his sickness was at
its worst, [Hezekiah] acknowledged the justice of the LORD’s judgment upon
him, but like a dumb man who did not
open his mouth, he expected from hour to hour the
moment of his death, as he declares himself in his writing (Isaiah 38:9): I said in the cutting off of my days, let me go through the gates of death, etc, and accepted his afflictions as sent upon him in love,
without murmuring, or complaining of the shortness of his days. ….
Introduction
The so-called
“Suffering Servant” of Isaiah 53 is sometimes referred to as the “Fourth
Suffering Servant”, or, with direct reference to the text itself, the “Fourth
Song of the Suffering Servant”. For instance: http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-year/lent/reflections-songs-suffering-servant-4.cfm
by Graziano Marcheschi, M.A. D.Min
Song 4 — Suffering and Triumph of the Servant of the Lord
This fourth Song of the Suffering Servant is
likely one of the best known texts of the entire Old Testament. It is a
plaintive dirge that declares God’s innocent Servant was punished for our sins
and crushed for our iniquities. Like a “lamb led to the slaughter,” he
went silently to his death, a death that bore away our offenses and made us
whole.
Though the “suffering” of the Suffering Servant
is more evident in this text than in the other “songs,” this passage begins
with a trumpet blast declaration of the Servant’s future glory. His exaltation,
however, won’t spring from victory but from a well of deep sorrow. Though cast
in the past tense, the Servant’s suffering is palpable.
Perhaps what’s most remarkable about the Servant
is how unremarkable he is: “no majestic bearing” to attract, “no beauty” to
please the eye. He was shunned and avoided the way one might recoil from a
leper. And yet, says the prophet, it was for us that he suffered, for us that
he endured shame. Foolishly, we assumed he was reaping the fruit of his own
failures, but now we see the truth: it was our sins brought him low.
In street parlance we might say, “We did the crime, but he did the time.” If at
least he would complain, express anger, go resentfully to his death. Maybe that
would assuage our guilt. But he accepts his fate in silent dignity. No finger
pointing; no “woe is me.”
Mercifully, he bore the wounds but we
were healed. He did no wrong, Isaiah tells us, yet somehow it
suits the will of God to make him a “reparation offering” and let him be cast
aside “among the wicked.”
Such willing self-sacrifice is as surprising as
the spin Isaiah gives it. Any religious person of his day would have viewed the
Servant’s suffering as rightful punishment for sin. But the prophet sees
through a different lens. With beautiful imagery, Isaiah announces ultimate
vindication for the Servant whose vicarious suffering will “justify the many.”
God greatly rewards the selfless Servant and turns his suffering into the
ointment that heals the world.
This vision must have shocked Isaiah’s audience.
A Messiah who would suffer and die instead of riding in with brandished sword
to drive out their foreign dominators was plain preposterous. So was the notion
that he would “justify the many.” The Messiah’s light was to shine on
Israel, not upon the nations. It would be difficult, indeed, to long for such a
universal Messiah.
Yet who could fail to recognize the suffering
Christ within the contours of the Servant’s face? No one paints a better
portrait than Isaiah of the Christ who suffered silently for our sins. But
let’s not forget how this song begins: “My servant shall be raised high and
greatly exalted.” Because he “surrendered himself to death,” the suffering,
mocked Messiah is now the Lord who reigns and reconciles.
[End of quote]
This series will be
purely concentrated upon Isaiah 53 – whether or not the other three supposed
Songs of the Suffering Servant directly relate to it.
Apart from the common
identification of the “Suffering Servant” here with Jesus the Messiah, various
other candidates have been tossed into the ring as well, including the
collective “Israel”, particularly Israel in exile.
Others say that he is
Moses, or king Josiah of Judah.
It may remind one of
when Jesus asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13): ‘Who do people say the Son of
Man is?’, and He thereupon received these various viewpoints (vv. 14, 16): ‘Some
say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of
the prophets … You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God’.
Given that the
prophet Isaiah appears to have been talking about a young contemporary male
whom they had familiarly seen growing up (53:2): “He grew up like a tender
shoot before us, like a root from dry ground. He possessed no splendid form for
us to see, no desirable appearance”, I have been inclined to opt for either
King Hezekiah or Eliakim, both younger contemporaries of the prophet who had
begun to receive the word of God as far back as Hezekiah’s great-grandfather,
King Uzziah of Judah (Isaiah 1:1): “The vision about Judah and Jerusalem that
Isaiah, son of Amos, saw in the days of Judah’s kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah”.
The words, “like
a shoot” or “sapling” (כַּיּוֹנֵק) “like a root” (כַשֹּׁרֶשׁ) in v. 2 could suggest Davidic lineage
(hence e.g. Hezekiah).
But in Part One (i) we had considered the
high-priestly imagery associated with the Isaian text (hence e.g. Eliakim). See
my:
Hezekiah's Chief Official Eliakim was High Priest
However, the
terms of Isaiah 53 did not seem to fit well with what we know about Eliakim.
As for
collective Israel, or Judah, the prophets invariably (but not always) spoke of
these in feminine terms: Virgin daughter of Zion; heifer; and the less
flattering harlot, whore, prostitute. The Hebrew verb in Isaiah 53:2 וַיַּעַל “For
he grew up …”, is masculine.
Strong Proud King Hezekiah
This is the
description given the King of Judah by his arch foe Sennacherib, Great King of
the Assyrians (Bull Inscriptions): “… the strong, proud Hezekiah …”.
Roughly half a
millennium later, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) would include Hezekiah - and, of
course, Isaiah - amongst the greats of the past (44:1-2): “… godly men, our
ancestors of generations past, those whom the Lord honoured with great glory,
in whom his greatness has been seen …”.
Sirach 48:17-25:
Hezekiah
Hezekiah fortified his city,
and brought water into the midst of it;
he tunneled the sheer rock with iron
and built pools for water.
In his days Sennacherib came up,
and sent the Rabshakeh;
he lifted up his hand against Zion
and made great boasts in his arrogance.
Then their hearts were shaken and their hands trembled,
and they were in anguish, like women in travail.
But they called upon the Lord who is merciful,
spreading forth their hands toward him;
and the Holy One quickly heard them from heaven,
and delivered them by the hand of Isaiah.
The Lord smote the camp of the Assyrians,
and his angel wiped them out.
For Hezekiah did what was pleasing to the Lord,
and he held strongly to the ways of David his father,
which Isaiah the prophet commanded,
who was great and faithful in his vision.
and brought water into the midst of it;
he tunneled the sheer rock with iron
and built pools for water.
In his days Sennacherib came up,
and sent the Rabshakeh;
he lifted up his hand against Zion
and made great boasts in his arrogance.
Then their hearts were shaken and their hands trembled,
and they were in anguish, like women in travail.
But they called upon the Lord who is merciful,
spreading forth their hands toward him;
and the Holy One quickly heard them from heaven,
and delivered them by the hand of Isaiah.
The Lord smote the camp of the Assyrians,
and his angel wiped them out.
For Hezekiah did what was pleasing to the Lord,
and he held strongly to the ways of David his father,
which Isaiah the prophet commanded,
who was great and faithful in his vision.
Isaiah
\
In his days the sun went backward,
and he lengthened the life of the king.
By the spirit of might he saw the last things,
and comforted those who mourned in Zion.
He revealed what was to occur to the end of time,
and the hidden things before they came to pass.
and he lengthened the life of the king.
By the spirit of might he saw the last things,
and comforted those who mourned in Zion.
He revealed what was to occur to the end of time,
and the hidden things before they came to pass.
Various scholars have considered that Isaiah 53 was
referring to King Hezekiah of Judah.
I would agree, and I particularly like the
interpretation given by Jacob Joseph Mordecai:
The Death of the Suffering Servant
….
Nevertheless, many Jewish commentators have come up with different interpretations to the identity of the Suffering Servant. Some say he is Moses, some say king Josiah, but most interpret the passage symbolically and say the Servant is Israel in exile. Others, like Jacob Joseph Mordecai try a more literal approach. His interpretation is very logical and makes perfect sense. He himself says that Scripture never bears any other than the simple and literal meaning. But without the mind of Christ, it is clear that there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end leads to death (Proverbs 14:1-13). Jacob Joseph Mordecai said that the Suffering Servant is King Hezekiah.
52:13a Behold my Servant shall prosper, as it
is said in Second Chronicles 32:30, And Hezekiah prospered in all
his works, therefore, Hezekiah is rightly called God’s servant, for he not only turned himself, but also brought back Judah,
and a great part of Israel as well, to the
service of God – an achievement which none of
his ancestors, in spite of all their excellent intentions, ever contemplated.
For he put away the high places, and sent runners throughout all Israel
and Judah with the letters from the king and his leaders, and spoke according
to the commandment of the king: Children of Israel, return to ADONAI the God of Abraham (Second Chronicles
30:6). He restored the crown to its former state,
entreating the favor of his princes and ministers, almost prostrating himself
before them, while he said: Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves,
sanctify the house of ADONAI the
God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place (Second
Chronicles 29:5).
52:13b He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high, for so it said in Second Chronicles 32:23: And many
brought gifts to the LORD at
Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in
the sight of all nations thereafter.
52:14 Because of the dangerous illness that
attacked him, his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man
and his form marred beyond human likeness as he drew
near to the gates of Death (Psalm 107:18).
52:15a Many kings and princes were amazed
exceedingly at the miracle wrought for him, for not with sword or spear did ADONAI save his
anointed from the hand of Sennacherib.
52:15b but greater far was the miracle which
displayed itself in the world when the orbit of the sun turned backward before
the eyes of all, and when Merodach-Baladan sent ambassadors to him to enquire
about the portent which had occurred in the earth; this is what is meant by the
words: What had not been told to them they have seen; for they perceived clearly that so highly favored was he in
the eyes of God that the order of creation was
altered for his benefit.
53:1
Who has believed our message? Feigning surprise, asks
the prophet of his pious contemporaries; for good Hezekiah was a descendant of the wicked Ahaz, and upon Hezekiah was the arm of ADONAI
revealed in the destruction of Sennacherib.
53:2 At the time when all were immersed in
idolatrous worship, Hezekiah grew up before Him like a tender shoot, out
of dry ground, in which was no religion or fear of
God.
53:3 As, from his birth upwards, Hezekiah rejected the deeds of his fathers, and the shameful customs
of his age, the people abominated him, and held aloof from him, and hence he
was despised and rejected by men, his father in particular hating him even to
the day of his death, for he made him pass through the fire of Molech (Second
Kings 16:3 and Sanhedrin, fol. 69), though he
was delivered miraculously by God. Still,
however, the few righteous who were to be found at that time felt a longing and
desire for him saying, “O that the shoot were to come up from the stump of
Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) and that the Spirit of
knowledge and fear of ADONAI were resting on him (Isaiah 11:2),” and this is the meaning of the words: He had no
beauty or majesty to attract us to him (Isaiah 53:2),
yet we desired him. When, after his father’s death, he ascended to the throne,
his servants were so much dissatisfied that, with Shebna at their head, they
rebelled against him, and sought to submit themselves to the wicked Pekah, son
of Remaliah, king of Israel, as Isaiah narrates in 53:6 and when
they saw him afflicted with severe illness, their hatred carried itself still
further, and they poured contempt upon their prince, judging maliciously that
his sufferings were because he had despised their own wicked faith, and that
the graven images of their gods would hide their faces from him.
53:4 They did so even more when they saw that his
affliction prevented him from maintaining the style and manners of a court
(Sanhedrin, fol. 94), for he would eat only a
pound of meat a day: since, then, he did what was right in the eyes of
the LORD, with
a whole heart, just as his father David had done (Second Chronicles
29:2), and removed all defilement from the
sanctuary (Second Chronicles 29:5) and restored all
Israel to the true faith, the sufferings which he endured must have been for
the sake of his generation; almost, indeed, had the Almighty determined to
quench the coal that was left, and to give Jerusalem to the hand of
Sennacherib, and only in consequence of Hezekiah
was the redemption of their soul achieved, and deliverance wrought for them by
his transcendent merits, so far surpassing the sufferings which he bare.
53:5-6 After this, however, all perceived that he
was pierced for their transgressions, and crushed for their iniquities, in order to make atonement for them unto God; for the attribute of judgment, displaying itself before
them, laid on him the iniquity of them all, as the text says, for the transgressions of My
people (Isaiah 53:8), even the wounds which should have fallen upon them.
53:7 When his sickness was at its worst, he
acknowledged the justice of the LORD’s judgment upon him, but like a dumb man who did not open his mouth, he expected from hour to hour the moment of his death, as
he declares himself in his writing (Isaiah 38:9):
I said in the cutting off of my days, let me go
through the gates of death, etc, and accepted his
afflictions as sent upon him in love, without murmuring, or complaining of the
shortness of his days.
53:8 When,
however, he heard the prophet Isaiah’s command:
Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not
recover (Isaiah 38:1), he entreated God to grant him a longer life in order that he might be
enabled to serve him; by oppression and judgment he would have been taken away
in the prime of his life and when his reign had but lately commenced: now, if
his death had occurred before he had time to restore the faith of his people to
its pristine integrity, who would have told of his generation?
53:9 It would have been rather a generation
departing in darkness until it was all consumed without having seen the mighty
acts of the LORD, wrought by him on behalf of himself after him, but would
have been buried with his wicked father – as the text states: He was
assigned a grave with the wicked, implying that it was
so determined – in spite of the innocence of his hands, and the fact that he had
done no violence.
53:10 Yet, it was ADONAI’s will
to crush him and cause him to suffer, and to put the
guilt of his generation on his soul; accordingly, after his prayer, when God
had heard his supplication and seen his tears, the promise is given that He
will see his offspring and prolong his days; thus God added to his life fifteen years, and let him “see seed”,
for previously he had no children.
53:12 Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will
divide the spoils, or the spoils of Sennacherib,
because he bore the iniquities of the age, and was counted as a transgressor,
and above all interceded for the remnant that were still left (who were the
transgressors), as it is said in Second Kings 19:15: And Hezekiah prayed
to the LORD, “ADONAI, God of Israel, enthroned between the
cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth,” and in Second Chronicles 32:20, “King Hezekiah and
the prophet Isaiah son of Amos cried out in prayer to heaven.” This, then, is the meaning of made intercession for
the transgressors, in order that the city might not
fall into the hands of the King of Assyria. And so, when all Judah and Jerusalem
and the remnant of Israel returned to the services of ADONAI, and the
sanctuary was restored to its original purity, and the priests to their
ministrations, and the Levites to their pulpits (all which Ahaz had neglected),
and when they beheld the miracles, then all his servants began to love and
honor him; and when he died, he was not assigned a grave with the
wicked, as had been determined, and as nearly took
place, but he ended his life honorably and Hezekiah rested with his
fathers and was buried on the hill where the tombs of David’s descendants are.
All Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him when he died (Second
Chronicles 32:33).
Such is the interpretation, which I have been able
to give of these verses. And if my view is not in accordance with the mind of
the prophet, I pray the Almighty to grant me a reward for what I have done! May
the ADONAI lighten mine eyes in His Law! And may the purpose of mine
heart be well pleasing to him! This is one rabbinic interpretation
of Chapter 53, that the suffering servant was Hezekiah.
Isaiah 53: 1-12
1 Who can
believe what we have heard, and for whose sake has the LORD's arm been
revealed?
2 He grew up
like a young plant before us, like a root from dry ground. He possessed no
splendid form for us to see, no desirable appearance.
3 He was
despised and avoided by others; a man who suffered, who knew sickness well.
Like someone from whom people hid their faces, he was despised, and we didn't
think about him.
4 It was
certainly our sickness that he carried, and our sufferings that he bore, but we
thought him afflicted, struck down by God and tormented.
5 He was
pierced because of our rebellions and crushed because of our crimes. He bore
the punishment that made us whole; by his wounds we are healed.
6 Like sheep we
had all wandered away, each going its own way, but the LORD let fall on him all
our crimes.
7 He was
oppressed and tormented, but didn't open his mouth. Like a lamb being brought
to slaughter, like a ewe silent before her shearers, he didn't open his
mouth.
8 Due to an
unjust ruling he was taken away, and his fate—who will think about it? He was
eliminated from the land of the living, struck dead because of my people's
rebellion.
9 His grave was
among the wicked, his tomb with evildoers, though he had done no violence, and
had spoken nothing false.
10 But the LORD
wanted to crush him and to make him suffer. If his life is offered as
restitution, he will see his offspring; he will enjoy long life. The LORD's
plans will come to fruition through him.
11 After his
deep anguish he will see light, and he will be satisfied. Through his
knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will make many righteous, and will
bear their guilt.
12 Therefore, I
will give him a share with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the
strong, in return for exposing his life to death and being numbered with
rebels, though he carried the sin of many and pleaded on behalf of those who
rebelled.
Skipping over the
Old Testament
The “figure”
becomes far less “mysterious”, I would suggest,
if he is to be
grounded in some literal flesh and blood person of Isaiah’s day.
Such Christians as
those who tend to relate solely to the New Testament, having an extremely poor
knowledge of - even sometimes seeming to be virtually allergic to - the Old
Testament, will immediately identify Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant” as Jesus
Christ the Messiah, without any consideration that the ancient prophet might
have intended, directly and literally, some younger contemporary of his – such
as King Hezekiah of Judah, as I suggested in the earlier section: Hezekiah seems to fit Isaiah 53.
Now, whilst I could
never accuse Pope Benedict XVI of discounting the Old Testament - he who in his
book, Jesus of Nazareth (2011), is at pains show how the Old Testament prefigures and
leads to the New Testament - and that Jesus Christ cannot be properly
understood without the Old Testament - also writing along such lines as (p.
202):
What
is remarkable about these [Four Gospel] accounts [of Jesus’ crucifixion and
Death] is the multitude of Old Testament allusions and quotations they contain:
word of God and event are deeply interwoven. The facts are, so to speak,
permeated with the word – with meaning; and the converse is also true: what
previously had been merely word – often beyond our capacity to understand – now
becomes reality, its meaning unlocked [,]
-
Benedict does, nevertheless, seem to bypass any possible ancient identification
of Isaiah 53’s Suffering Servant in this next statement of his (I had
previously quoted this):
“In Isaiah,
this figure remains mysterious: the Song of the Suffering Servant
is
like a gaze into the future in search of the one who is to come”.
The “figure”
becomes far less “mysterious”, I would suggest, if he is to be grounded in some
literal flesh and blood person of Isaiah’s day: one who also points to “the one
who is to come”, who perfectly fulfils Isaiah’s prophecy, but who also
re-interprets it, thereby, in the words of Benedict, ‘unlocking its meaning’.
Along somewhat similar
lines, the prophet Job has remained “mysterious”, and “like a gaze”, without
any known genealogy; or era; or country, unless he be “grounded” in his more
historically-endowed alter ego, Tobias,
son of Tobit. See my:
Job's Life and Times
And somewhat similar
again is the common tendency to lift the Book of Apocalypse (Revelation) right
out of its contemporary era, and interpret it almost wholly as a prophecy
pertaining to our times, without realising that its “ground” is the C1st AD,
though it also “gazes” prophetically into our day with which its shares some
striking parallelisms.
But by no means can
Apocalypse’s literalness be applied to the modern age.
Account of Job
modelled on Isaiah
53
“… just because
someone - in this case the Suffering Servant - is having pain inflicted upon
them, even by God's decree, that this automatically entails God's Wrath must be
upon the individual … is a serious logical fallacy. The prime example of this
false assumption being soundly disproved is that Job is explicitly described as
being "stricken," "smitten," "afflicted," etc, by
God - yet the very lesson of the Book of Job is that God caused all this
suffering to fall upon Job yet God's Wrath was never upon him.”.
“Is Job the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53? …” we find being asked
at Nick’s Catholic site: http://catholicnick.blogspot.com.au/2010/05/is-job-suffering-servant-of-isaiah-53.html
Though
Isaiah 53 is one
of the primary OT proof-texts for the Protestant understanding of the
Atonement, popularly termed "Penal Substitution," in this post I will
briefly look at various verses in the chapter and show why projecting that erroneous
doctrine onto this prophecy doesn't work.
As I go through Isaiah 53, I will highlight various words that appear elsewhere in the OT:
As I go through Isaiah 53, I will highlight various words that appear elsewhere in the OT:
(53:4a) Surely
he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows
(11c)
he shall bear their iniquities
(12c)
yet he bore the sin of many
St
Matthew (8:16-17) directly quotes verse 4a and applies it to Jesus healing the
sick and casting out demons; it has nothing to do with Penal Substitution. The
term "bore" (H5375) here
also appears in verse 12c, and the term "carried" (H5445) also
appears in verse 11c. What the parallel usage in 4a (and Mat 8:16f) shows
is that the notion of 'bearing' need not be literal nor so called
"imputation", but rather a way of simply saying 'takes away'.
(4b)
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
(7a)
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted
Job 2:5 But stretch
out your hand and touch his [Job's] bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your
face.
Job 19: 21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
Job 30:11 God has loosed my cord and humbled me
Job 19: 21 Have mercy on me, have mercy on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
Job 30:11 God has loosed my cord and humbled me
Many
Protestants read 4b as saying people thought ("esteemed" H2803) Jesus
was being punished for His own sins rather than ours, but that's a serious
distortion and quite unwarranted. In fact, it ties back to 53:2-3, where it
says the Jews "esteemed" (same word) Jesus as a nobody, and at the
Cross thought was under God's displeasure because God didn't come to His rescue
(cf. Mat 27:40-43) -
though these folks were obviously jumping to erroneous conclusions. The term
"esteemed" in Hebrew is very frequently used in reference to people
"reckoning" evil thoughts or plans against others, or even down right
mistaken (Gen
38:15; 1
Sam 1:13). The term for "stricken" (H5060) is also
applied to Job (where the Devil challenges God to touch/strike down Job), as is
the term for "smitten" (H5221, where
Job states he was 'smitten by God'), and finally, the term
"afflicted" (H6031, where
Job states he was afflicted/humbled by God). Keep in mind that though the
English words might be slightly different at times (depending on Bible
translation), the color-coded Hebrew words are the same, and the context
clearly is using the words the same way as well.
(5)
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our
iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that
brought us peace, and with his stripes we are
healed.
(10)
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him
As
with the previous verse, a similar theme emerges: The Hebrew terms "crushed"
(H1792) and
"chastisement" (H4148) are
applied to Job. One important note here, some translations render the term
"chastise" as "punishment," but this is inaccurate since
the term refers to fatherly correction and not a judicial punishment (note how
frequently the book of Proverbs uses the term!). With that in mind, while the
term "stripes" (H2250) doesn't
appear in Job, the reference to Proverbs above shows it can fit the 'chastise'
concept as well.
(6b)
the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all
(12c)
he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the
transgressors
The
term "laid" (H6293) in
Hebrew means to "encounter, meet, make intercession," and this is how
it's used in verse 53:12c. Taking into account the parallel in 12c, the notion
that should be drawn from 6b is that the Servant took upon Himself the burden
to correct the sins, and interceded (not substituted) to make atonement.
Examples of intercession (again, not substitution) appear all over the
OT, for example: Jer
15:1; 18:20; Num 25:10-13; Deut 9:16-20.
Conclusion: The purpose of this brief exercise is to show that just because someone - in this case the Suffering Servant - is having pain inflicted upon them, even by God's decree, that this automatically entails God's Wrath must be upon the individual, for that is a serious logical fallacy. The prime example of this false assumption being soundly disproved is that Job is explicitly described as being "stricken," "smitten," "afflicted," etc, by God - yet the very lesson of the Book of Job is that God caused all this suffering to fall upon Job yet God's Wrath was never upon him. Why can it not be the same for the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ? This is not to put Jesus and Job on the same plane, God forbid, for their status and merits are without comparison. Rather, Job would be a foreshadowing of a more excellent Person, Jesus Himself, which is something the Early Church Fathers saw very clearly. …. [End of quote]
Conclusion: The purpose of this brief exercise is to show that just because someone - in this case the Suffering Servant - is having pain inflicted upon them, even by God's decree, that this automatically entails God's Wrath must be upon the individual, for that is a serious logical fallacy. The prime example of this false assumption being soundly disproved is that Job is explicitly described as being "stricken," "smitten," "afflicted," etc, by God - yet the very lesson of the Book of Job is that God caused all this suffering to fall upon Job yet God's Wrath was never upon him. Why can it not be the same for the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ? This is not to put Jesus and Job on the same plane, God forbid, for their status and merits are without comparison. Rather, Job would be a foreshadowing of a more excellent Person, Jesus Himself, which is something the Early Church Fathers saw very clearly. …. [End of quote]
The prophet Job
was indeed a contemporary of Isaiah’s in the neo-Assyrian period (C8th BC).
Moreover, scholars have discerned an influence of the so-called Deutero-Isaiah
upon the Book of Job (https://books.google.com.au/books?isbn=3161543971), or was it the other way around, that
Isaiah was influenced by Job? (https://books.google.com.au/books?isbn=0802825281).
Be any of this
as it may, however, the prophet Job could not have been directly or literally intended
as the “Suffering Servant” of Isaiah 53.
For one, Job, as
Tobias, son of Tobit, had grown up in Nineveh of Assyria, which means that
Isaiah could not have written thus of him (Isaiah 53:2): “He grew up like a
tender shoot before us, like a root from dry ground”.
What could well
be the case, though, is that the account of the prophet Job’s later sufferings,
as an aged man of vast experience now living in the Chaldean era, could have
been modelled on the “Suffering servant” of Isaiah 53, whom we have identified
as King Hezekiah of Judah.
Speaking of the
so-called “Deutero-Isaiah” - and ignoring here the supposedly even later
“Trito-Isaiah” - we learn from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Book-of-Isaiah
Book of
Isaiah, also spelled Isaias, one of the major prophetical writings of the Old Testament. The
superscription identifies Isaiah as the
son of Amoz and his book as “the vision of Isaiah . . . concerning Judah and
Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” According to 6:1, Isaiah received his call “in the
year that King Uzziah died” (742 bc), and
his latest recorded activity is dated in 701 bc.
Only chapters 1–39, however, can be assigned to this period. Chapters 40–66 are
much later in origin and therefore known as Deutero-Isaiah ….
[End of quote]
If this series
is correct in its view that Isaiah 53 refers to King Hezekiah of Judah, though,
then “Deutero-Isaiah” is in a lot of trouble, now being quite anomalous.
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