Monday, July 25, 2022

Justin Martyr's Quotation of Isaiah 53:12: The Suffering Servant will "Make Propitiation" (εξιλασκομαι) not "Make Intercession"

In his First Apology 50, Justin provides a quotation of Isa 53:12. In the Schaff series, we read the following translation:

 

But that, having become man for our sakes, He endured to suffer and to be dishonoured, and that He shall come again with glory, hear the prophecies which relate to this; they are these: "Because they delivered His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, He has borne the sin of many, and shall make intercession for the transgressors. (ANF 1:179)

 

The term translated as “make intercession” is actually the Greek ἐξιλάσεται from εξιλασκομαι, "to propitiate." In her translation of the same passage, Leslie William Barnard rendered the Greek as:

 

But that having become man for us, He endured suffering and dishonor, and will come again with glory, hear the prophecies which were spoken to this effect; they are these: “Because they delivered His soul to death, and He was counted with the wicked, He has borne the sins of many, and will make propitiation for the wicked. (St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies [trans. Leslie William Barnard; New York: Paulist Press, 1997], 57)