Commenting
on the “justification” of the Suffering Servant (who is hardly merely reputed to be righteous[!]),
James Prothro wrote:
This Servant is depicted as righteous even
after Israel’s failing and is called to “gather” and “establish” God’s people
and to “become salvation to the end of the earth” (49.5-6). This righteous
Servant sees his labor as futile amid a punished Israel and idolatrous nations,
meets opposition on all sides, but still maintains that his “case is with the
Lord” (η κρισις μου παρα κυριω, 49.4). His confident voice reemerges in 50.4-11. He is stricken
by the Lord’s “discipline” (50.4, 5). But rather than gainsay God (ουκ απειθω
ουδε αντιλεγω, 50.5), he
submits to God by allowing himself, undaunted, to suffer injury at the hands of
his adversaries (50.5-6). He is nevertheless confident in God’s future aid, no
matter who stands to oppose him. The opposition to the Servant continues to be
depicted with legal overtones – some stronger and some weaker – that especially
emerge in 50.7-9:
7And the Lord became my helper (βοηθος), therefore I was not disgraced,
but I made my face like hardened stone and I knew that I would not be put to
shame. 8For he who justifies me draws near (εγγιζει ο δικαιωσας με); who will enter into judgment
with me (τις ο κρινομενος μοι)? Let him stand against me now (αντιστητω μοι αμα). 9Behold the Lord
helps (βοηθει) me; who
will do me harm? Behold you all will grow old like a garment, and like a moth
he will devour you.
The scenario is clearly trilateral. The Servant
invites any opponents to “stand against” (ανθιστημι) him and enter into dispute with
him (κρινομαι): this is
the language of contention, one against the other. God is confidently asserted
to be the Servant’s “help” (βοηθος) against these foes. Parallel to this aid is
“justification”: the Servant endures opposition with a stony countenance because
“the one who justifies” him – God – is present. “Justifying” here appears – as one
would expect in a trilateral scenario – to indicate this authoritative advocacy
and aid that a judge provides in taking the side of one against the other. This
does not appear to be a mere pronouncement, a mere “clearing” of the Servant’s “name”
(pace REB) or ensuring of status. The
judge’s task is again twofold: he “justifies” and helps the Servant and “devours” the Servant’s opponents
like a “moth.”
This is continued in the next Servant
passage, where we again find him “justified.” Here the Servant’s suffering and
opposition is further described and its significance clarified. Two futures are
prophesied for him, one of which will precede the other: hatred and
ill-treatment in the near future, victory and exaltation thereafter (52.13-14;
53.9-10a). From the perspective of his latter exaltation, the text
retrospectively recounts people’s failure to acknowledge the Servant (53.1-3)
and maintains that this despised one’s suffering was divine discipline purposed
to remove the people’s sins (53.4-8, 12). The “case” (κρισις) he entrusted to the Lord’s
judgment has been taken away (53.8; cf. 49.4) – and so has his very life (οτι αιρεται
απο της γης η ζωη αυτου, απο των ανομιων του λαου μου ηχθη εις θανατον, 53.8). Nevertheless, the Lord
does intend a vindication for this Servant. The text continues (53.10b-12):
10 . . . And the Lord desires (βουλεται) to take away (αφελειν) 11 from his [the Servant’s]
soul’s toil, to show (δειξαι) him light and to form (πλασσαι) [him] in understanding, to justify the
righteous one who serves many well (δικαιωσαι δικαιον ευ δουλευοντα πολλοις) and he himself will take away
their sins (και τας αμαρτιας αυτων αυτος ανοισει). Or this reason he will inherit many and
distribute the spoils of the strong, because his soul was given over into
death, and he was reckoned among the lawless; and he has offered for the sins
of many and was given over because of their sins. (Isa 53.10b-12)
As is everywhere acknowledged, the LXX here “differs
significantly from the MT,” especially regarding “speakers and addressees,
literary structure, word choice, verb tenses, etc.” This has particular significance
for the reference to ‘justifying’ in 53.11. For, while the MT has the righteous
Servant “justifying” many (יצדיק), in the LXX the justifier is “the
Lord,” and the Servant is justified. Along with three other aorist infinities (αφελειν,
δειξαι, πλασαι), δικαιωσαι is governed by βουλεται
κυριος in 53.10.
In view of his suffering, humiliation, and death. God desires to remove the Servant’s
suffering and to “justify” him.
This righteous sufferer already expressed
confidence that, through and after his suffering, God would justify him against
his adversaries (50.7-8), and now we are told that, despite the suffering that
he was allowed to undergo, that hope is also the very will of God. And this “justification”
appears to correspond to God’s ole as just judge: the one whom he justifies is
not ungodly, but is in fact the “righteous one who serves many well” (δικαιον ευ
δουλευοντα πολλοις).
God stands as sovereign and acts to vindicate this righteous one over against
his foes, as in a trilateral scenario. And because he had been given over to
death for the people’s sins (53.12, cf. 5), this formerly dead Servant will
plunder his mighty opponents at the hand of the judge who vindicates him
against foes and requites both accordingly, exalting the righteous one and
defeating his opponents. (James B. Prothro, Both
Judge and Justifier: Biblical Legal Language and the Act of Justifying in Paul [Wissenschaftliche
Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament 461; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018], 100-3)