52:13–53:12:
THE FRUITFULNESS OF THE SERVANT’S MINISTRY
The passage’s structure
Modern translations make a
chapter division after vv. 13–15, and 52:13–53:12 has been analysed as two
units, a proclamation by Yhwh about the servant (Israel) and a song of
testimony or thanksgiving about the prophet as Yhwh’s servant (so, e.g.,
†Orlinsky, pp. 17–23). The Hebrew manuscript tradition shows some variation,
but it broadly reflects the same two possibilities, of treating 52:13–53:12 as
one unit or as two. Thus some MT MSS provide a setuma before 52:13, again
before 53:1, and then before 54:1. 1QIsa similarly begins new lines
at 52:13 and at 53:1, though it also begins and indents a new line at v. 9,
slightly indents the line for v. 10aβ (v. 10aα had
extended to the end of the preceding line), has slight spaces before vv. 6b and
12, then begins a new line at 54:1. Other MT MSS treat 52:13–53:12 as one
whole, lacking the setuma at 53:1, while 1QIsb likewise has a space
division before 52:13 and none before 53:1. On the other hand, no MT MSS have a
petucha at both 52:13 and 53:12, and none has a petucha at 53:1.
The break at 52:13 is suggested
by differences in speaker and addressee. In 52:7–10 and 52:11–12 the prophet
was addressing Jerusalem and its exiled residents, urging the one to rejoice
and the other to set off, as if Yhwh’s act of restoration has actually
happened. In 52:13–15 Yhwh speaks, about ‘my servant’ and his success; the
identity of the addressee never becomes clear in 52:13–53:12. The modern
chapter change comes with a further change in speaker, though now the identity
of the speakers as well as that of the audience is unclear. But on their own,
vv. 13–15 seem truncated. Conversely, the third-person verbs beginning in 53:2
are deprived of an antecedent identifying their subject if chapter 53 is
separated from what precedes. The further reference to the servant’s ‘look’ and
‘appearance’ (53:2, cf 52:14) specifically links 52:13–15 and 53:1–12. Then,
whereas ‘we’ speak throughout vv. 1–6, and ‘I’ speaks in v. 8b and perhaps thus
throughout vv. 7–9, by v. 11b Yhwh is the speaker again in such as way as to
make the closing lines an inclusio
with 52:13–15. Further, the subject is again the exaltation of ‘my servant’
(52:13; 53:11). There are further references to the ‘many/great’ (rabbîm) who featured in 52:13–15, and a
recurrence of the verb nāśāʾ in the
very last line which balances that in the first. The verbs throughout vv. 1–9
are qatal; they are more mixed in the LXX, Vg, and also in vv. 12–15 and 10–12
MT. Exhortation to Jerusalem then resumes in 54:1.
All this suggests that the
inference that a new unit begins at 53:1 was understandable but that as chapter
53 unfolds, it makes clear that the inference was false. (John Goldingay
and David Payne, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah, 2 vols.
[International Critical Commentary; London: T&T Clark, 2006], 2:275-76)
Other examples of commentators acknowledging that, while
Isaiah 53:1 is connected with the preceding verses, it begins a new literary
unit include the following:
“Who has believed our
revelation? And over whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?” (53:1)
Of decisive importance for an
understanding of the text in its context is the question: Who is it that says,
“Who has believed our message/revelation (לִשְׁמֻעָתֵנוּ)?”
It is obvious that this is not a continuation of the divine speech, because it
talks about “the arm of Yahweh.” The Servant does not speak at all throughout
this whole text; and if it were the Servant, the plural “our message/revelation” would be strange. The other persons who
have been mentioned do not come into question. “The many,” like the audience,
can do no more than enter sympathetically into what is said: “Who has
believed,” that is, who believes—even now. In this uncertainty one might think
of a member of the heavenly household and lawcourt. This can be given credence
by a comparison with two other lawcourt scenes in the OT, scenes that also
contribute to an understanding of the rest of the Servant text. (Klaus
Baltzer, Deutero-Isaiah: A Commentary on
Isaiah 40–55 [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2001], 400-401)
Because v. 15 then joins closely
to 53:1, the effect of this interpretation is naturally to assign the voice of
the confessing “we” in chapter 53 to that of the nations. In my judgment, this
interpretation carries with it major difficulty (cf. below).
Rather, as Beuken has
convincingly shown (II/B, 203ff.), a different subject has been introduced in
v. 15b. The issue at stake is not the astonishment evoked in the nations, but
rather in their seeing and understanding. They key to this interpretation is
found in the intertextual reference to 48:6ff. Israel is challenged to see and
to hear the new things God is about to reveal. “Before today you have not heard
of them” (v. 7). The people’s ear has been closed. Now suddenly in 52:15b, a
group, different from the nations, is promised by God both to see and
understand: “what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not
heard, they will understand.” The reference is to a group within Israel to
which has been revealed the “new things,” hitherto hidden. What then follows in
53:1ff. is the confession of that group, who suddenly is made to understand the
will of God through their experience with his suffering servant.
[53:1–11a] The connection between the new unit and the preceding
divine speech is skillfully made with a chiastic device. The metaphor of seeing
(52:15b and 53:1b) brackets that of hearing (v. 15b and 53:1a) and confirms the
continuity between the group of Israel in v. 15b and the confessing voice of
53:1ff. In addition, from a form-critical perspective, the confessing “we” of
the Old Testament is always Israel and not the nations (Hos. 6:1ff.; Jer.
3:21ff.; Dan. 9:4ff., etc.) Finally, reference to the nations and the “many”
only returns in the second divine speech when they also are brought into the
purpose of God for all his creation, which has been accomplished in the mission
of the suffering servant (53:12).
[1] The confession of Israel begins in v. 1 with a question of
which several interpretations are possible. Is its meaning: Who could possibly
have believed what we have experienced? This rendering is unlikely because the
issue at stake in the confession of Israel is not that of the astonishment
reflected by the nations. Rather, from the outset, those within Israel who
confess understand that their new knowledge came from divine revelation, that
is, derived from the arm of Yahweh. The sense of the question is not simply
rhetorical, but serves to identify among them those who now also believe what
they have seen and heard from God’s disclosure. The note had already been
sounded in 50:10–11 that the response to the servant would divide the people of
Israel into two groups, those who believe and those who oppose. (Brevard
S. Childs, Isaiah: A Commentary [The
Old Testament Library [Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001], 413-14)
A closer examination of the last
three verses in chapter 52 in relation to what precedes will reveal that they
constitute a suitable ending for all of chapter 52. The entire chapter—actually
the theme begins already in chapter 52 preceding—is a proclamation and
exhortation to Zion-Jerusalem to prepare for the triumphant return of the
exiles, a triumph even greater than the Exodus from Egypt:
But you shall not depart in
haste,
You shall not leave in flight;
For the Lord is marching before you,
The God of Israel is your rear guard.)
It is with this dramatic
proclamation that our section is to be associated: God’s degraded servant. His
people Israel, will astonish everyone by the great restoration that he will
achieve. (Harry M. Orlinsky, “The So-Called ‘Suffering Servant’ and the ‘Vicarious
Sufferer’ in Isaiah 52-53,” in Studies on the Second Part of the Book of
Isaiah [Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 14; Leiden: Brill, 1967], 21-22)
52:13-15
The great majority of
commentators support the view that these verses are part of a larger whole, the
fourth 'Servant Song', 52: 13-53:12. But the minority view, held by Coppens,
Snaith, and Orlinsky among others, that 52: 13-15 constitute a separate piece,
has much to commend it. Chapter 53 by itself, though not without its own
problems, makes good sense as a song of thanks- giving for the deliverance of
God's servant, Deutero-Isaiah, from mortal danger (see below). But 52:13-15 are
an oracle spoken by Yahweh which can hardly be regarded as a 'preface' to this.
The many nations and kings of verse 15 suggest that the Servant
here is not the prophet, but Israel. The fact that the phrase my servant
is applied to the person referred to in both cases (52:13; 53:11), the
similarity of the description of the servant's exalted status in those verses,
and the close similarity between the thoughts expressed in 52:15b and 53:1a are
sufficient to account for the editorial juxtaposition of the two passages. 52:
13-15, then, is a short promise of salvation assuring the exiles of a reversal
of their fortunes and a new pre-eminence in the world which will astonish the
other nations. (R. N. Whybray, Isaiah 40-66 [New Century Bible; London: Oliphants,
1975], 169; cf. R. N. Whybray, Thanksgiving for a Liberated Prophet: An
Interpretation of Isaiah Chapter 53 [Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament Supplement Series 4; Sheffield: JSOT, 1978], 110-13)
Early Christians also understood Isa 53:1-12 as a cohesive
literary unit.
The Greek Text
The stability or otherwise of the
Greek text of Isaiah 53 can best be assessed by way of the earliest Christian
citations from this chapter. A citation that deviates from the Greek text as
attested in the major uncials could, of course, simply be a free citation
rather than representing a deviant text-form. In fact, however, deviations from
the received text are remarkably few. Early Christian citations are extant both
of Isaiah 53 as a whole (1 Clem. 16; Justin, Dial. 13) and of individual passages:
• Isa
52:10–54:6 = Justin, Dial. 13.2–9. In
Isa 52:14, there are a transposition and an abbreviation (Dial. 13.3). At 53:7, an explanatory pronoun is added (τὸ στόμα αὐτοῦ), and a redundant pronoun is
omitted (ἐναντίον τοῦ κείραντος [αὐτόν]) (Dial. 13.5). At 53:11, τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν becomes
τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν (Dial. 13.7).
• Isa
52:15 = Rom 15:21. There are no significant variants either between or within
the Pauline or the Septuagintal textual traditions.
• Isa
53:1–12 = 1 Clem. 16.3–14. The citation of the entire chapter shows that
early Christian readers could view it as a distinct literary unit. At v. 3,
Clement reads παρὰ τὸ εἶδος τῶν ἀνθρώπων for παρὰ πάντας ἀνθρώπους (Alexandrinus), or παρὰ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων (Vaticanus; Justin, Dial. 13.4), or the harmonizing παρὰ πάντας τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων (Sinaiticus). Clement is
probably paraphrasing here. In v. 6, it is said that “the Lord gave him up to
our sins [ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἡμῶν]”; Clement’s substitution of ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν (1 Clem. 16.7) is clearly
shaped by traditional Christian terminology. (Francis Watson,
“Mistranslation and the Death of Christ: Isaiah 53 LXX and Its Pauline
Reception,” in Translating the New
Testament: Text, Translation, Theology, ed. Stanley E. Porter and Mark J.
Boda [McMaster New Testament Studies; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Eerdmans, 2009], 219-20,
emphasis in bold added)
Some Masoretic manuscripts feature a setuma or “closed” diacritical mark before 53:1, separating this verse from the previous section. Similarly, the Dead Sea Scroll, 1QIsa, features intentional spacing and new lines of text beginning at 52:13, and again, prior to 53:1. So even though scholars are correct that the full-textual pericope runs from 52:13-53:12 there exists a well-established Jewish tradition for interpreting Isaiah 53:1 as a new thematic unit. Hence, in beginning his citation of the Suffering Servant passage with Isaiah 53:1, Abinadi proves consistent with the literary approach taken in several Hebraic manuscripts including the Dead Sea Scrolls.
My friend, Christopher Davis, provided the following image, with an 'x' next to the beginning of what is now Isa 53:1 in the Great Isaiah Scroll, showing that Isa 53:1 was interpreted as a new thematic unit in the Fourth Servant hymn:
And the Lord said unto me . . . (Mosiah 12:2)
Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver (Mosiah 13:3)
Ye see that ye have not power to slay me, therefore I finish my message (Mosiah 13:7).
When Abinadi answers this specific question, the Book of Mormon prophet begins with the Isaiah passage that serves as a natural counterpart to 52:7-10, i.e., Isaiah 53:1: “Yea, even doth not Isaiah say: Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” (Mosiah 14:1).
Not only does the expression “arm of the Lord” in 53:1 directly link with the earlier expression in 52:10, “the Lord hath made bare his holy arm,” but the initial rhetorical question emphasizes the irony of the fact that when presenting a report of salvation, the people receive the Lord’s messengers with appreciation and belief. Biblical scholar John Watts notes the connection between these two distinct passages in his Word Biblical Commentary volume:
53:1 שׁמעתנו, “our report.”
Messengers who had brought word protest that it was not their fault. No one had
believed them. Are these the same messengers who were greeted with such
jubilation in 52:7-10 when they brought a message of peace and salvation? זרוע יהוה,
“the Arm of YHWH,” was predicted in 52:10. The sign of YHWH’s power and
presence had appeared to be conspicuously absent at that time. (John D. W.
Watts, Isaiah 34-66 [rev ed.; Word Biblical Commentary 25; Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Zondervan, 2005], 787)
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