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Horizons in Biblical Th eology 31 (2009) 100-110 brill.nl/hbth

“Another Look at the Fourth Servant Song of Second Isaiah”

Cullen Story Princeton Th eological Seminary

Abstract Th is essay argues for a contextual exegetical reading of the servant songs in Second Isaiah. By reading the songs in the literary context of references to the “second exodus” and hymns of cel- ebration, several conclusions can be drawn. Th ere are three servant fi gures in the four servant songs: one servant (Israel) in need of redemption, one servant (Second Isaiah) who proclaims redemption, and one servant (the Messiah) who procures redemption. Th is servant of the fourth song is not the prophet himself or Israel but a servant fi gure whose sacrifi ce will break the yoke of Babylon.

Keywords Second Isaiah, servant songs, messiah, prophets, suff ering servant

I. Introduction

More than forty years ago, C.R. North observed, “So much has been writ- ten about the suff ering servant that it seems an impertinence to write any- thing more, unless one has something new to say.”1 But it is seems that every generation of scholars have had something old or new to say.2 Now

1) Christopher R. North, Second Isaiah: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary to Chap- ters XL-LV (Oxford: Clarendon, 1964) 20; idem, Suff ering Servant in Deutero-Isaiah (Lon- don: Oxford University Press, 1956). 2) R.E. Watts, “Th e Meaning of ʿālāw yiqpəsụ̂ məlākîm pîhem in Isaiah LII 15,” VT 30 (1990): Roger Brooks and John J. Collins, eds., Hebrew Bible or Old Testament? Studying the Bible in Judaism and Christianity (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990); Paul J. Achtemeier, “Suff ering Servant and Suff ering in Christ in 1 Peter,” in Future of Christology: Essays in Honor of Leander E. Keck (eds., Abraham J. Malherbe and Wayne A. Meeks; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 176-188; Francis Landy, “Th e Construction of the Subject and the Symbolic Order: A Reading of the Last Th ree Suff ering Servant

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contrary to North’s observation, it cannot be impertinence for students and scholars alike, to examine the word of God daily, without prejudice (Acts 17.11) to hear and weigh what it says with a willingness to follow where it leads and allow it to speak to the church today in a fresh and new way. “An impertinence to write anything more” on the servant songs can only occur when one assumes a rigid or doctrinaire stance which claims to know the full truth about the songs and to be impervious to any other approach than one’s own.

II. Th e Context and Content of the Servant Songs3

Th e claim made in this paper is a very modest one, to the eff ect that a con- textual exegetical inquiry is still the most fruitful approach to the songs.

Songs,” in Among the Prophets: Language, Image, and Structure in the Prophetic Writings (eds., Philip R. Davies and David J.A. Clines; Sheffi eld: JSOT Press, 1993), 60-71; Bernd Janowski and Peter Stuhlmacher, eds., Der Lende Gottesknecht: Jesaja 53 und seine Wirkungsgeschichte (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr/P. Siebeck, 1996); ET, Th e Suff ering Servant: Isaiah 53 in Jewish and Christian Sources (trans. D. Baily; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004); see especially Wolfgang Hüllstrung, Gerlinde Feine, Daniel P. Bailey, “A Classifi ed Bibliography on Isaiah 53,” 462-492 in the same volume. J.T.A.G. M van Ruiten and Marc Vervenne, Studies in the book of Isaiah: Festschrift Willem A. M. Beuken (Louvain: Leuven University Press/Peeters, 1997); Jürgen Werlitz, “Vom Knecht der Lieder zum Knecht des Buches: Ein Versuch über die Ergänzugen zu den Gottesknechtstexten des Deuterojesaja- buches,” ZAW 109 (1997): 30-43; William Bellinger, Jr. and William R. Farmer, Jesus and the Suff ering Servant: Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press Inter- national, 1998); Roland Meynet, “Le quatrième chant de serviteur: Is 52, 13-53,12” Gregorianum 80/3 (1999): 407-440; Hyun Chul Paul Kim, “An Intertextual Reading of ‘A Crushed Reed’ and ‘A Dim Wick’ in Isaiah 42.3,” JSOT 83 (1999): 113-124; John Collins, “Teacher and Servant,” Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses 80 (2000): 37-50; Michael L. Barré, “Textual and Rhetorical-critical Observations on the Last Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13-53:12),” CBQ 62 (2000): 1-17; Israel Knohl, Th e Messiah Before Jesus: Th e Suff ering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls (trans. David Maisal; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000); Catherine Chalier, “Le servituer souff rant: Isaïe 52,13-15; 53,1-12” in Mythe et Philosophie (eds., Christian Berner et Jean-Jacques Wuenburger; Paris: PUF, 2002): 153- 167; John H. Walton, “Th e Imagery of the Substitute King Ritual in Isaiah’s Fourth Servant Song,” JBL 122 (2003): 734-743; John Oswalt, “Isaiah 52:13-53:12,” Calvin Th eological Journal 40 (2005): 85-94; Kristen Joachimsen, “Steck’s Five Stories of the Servant in Isaiah lii 13-liii 12, and Beyond” VT 57 (2007): 208-228. 3) For three contextualized perspectives, see Jorge V. Pixley, “Isaiah 52:13-53:12: a Latin American Perspective,” in Return to Babel: Perspectives on the Bible (eds., Priscilla Pope-Levison

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Over against this claim, two very diff erent investigations should be men- tioned—one embracing all of the songs as a whole, and the other, examin- ing the fourth song solely.

In an article entitled “Th e Suff ering Servant: A New Solution,”4 Julian Morganstern sees the servant songs as a powerful drama patterned after the classical Greek Pageant where speakers occupy the stage, in turn, with Greek choruses interspersed. Furthermore, Morganstern fi nds the songs to be not by Second Isaiah but by a Jewish sect in the early part of the 5th century B.C.E., a sect which lived in close proximity to Dor on the north- ern Palestine coast. Th ere, under Greek infl uence, it is said that the drama that is found in the songs celebrated the death and rising again of an appointed king of the Davidic line who is called “the servant of the Lord” (2 Chron 6.42). As its religious model, it is said that the sect was beholden to the Babylonian New Year’s festival where the king enacted the role of Marduk, the dying and resurrected supreme national deity. Gressmann, Engnell, and the Scandinavian school have also tried to link the servant of Isaiah 53 to the same Babylonian cult. With due respect to the literature on Second Isaiah that has introduced us to the oracle of salvation and the rîb pattern or trial speech, Morgenstern’s claim that the servant songs reveal a dramatic form containing a Greek husk and a Babylonian core raises serious problems. Th e very structure that he gives to the songs is suspect since it depends throughout on extensive emendation and re-arrangement of the text.

At this point, we listen to Claus Westermann who, commenting on the opening verses of the fourth song, i.e., Isa 52.13-15, says:

It is epoch-making in its importance. Th at a man who was smitten, who was beyond human semblance, and who was despised in the eyes of God and of Men should be given such approval and signifi cance, and be thus exalted, is, in very truth, something new and unheard of, going against tradition and all men’s settled ideas. V15b also makes clear that the thing reported in this servant song is thought of as something

and Jon R. Levison; Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999); 95-100; Kabasele Lumbala “Isaiah 52:13-53.12: an African Perspective;” ibid., 101-106; Cyris H.S. Moon, “Isaiah 52:13-53-12: an Asian Perspective,” ibid, 107-113. 4) Julian Morgenstern, “Th e Suff ering Servant—A New Solution,” VT 11 (1961): 292-320; idem, “Th e Suff ering Servant—A New Solution,” VT 11 (1961): 406-431; idem, “Two Additional Notes on ‘Th e Suff ering Servant, a New Solution,” VT 13 (1963): 321-332).

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absolutely unique. It cannot therefore be explained as arising out of anything that recurs, such as the cult of a dying and rising God”5

Another approach with a literary emphasis on the fourth song only comes from David Clines.6 Clines sees Isaiah 53 as enigmatic and open to mul- tiple interpretations. As the prophet produces his work, Clines thinks that, “the umbilical has to be cut and the work must go forth into the world on its own.”7 To talk of the meaning of the text, says Clines, is impossible, since the text undoubtedly had more than one meaning even to the author. In the words of T.S. Elliot, Clines feels that the design of the poem is “what the poem means to diff erent sensitive readers.”8 To be mentioned later is an attractive emphasis which Clines gives on the varying human and divine relationships found in the fourth song. Basically, however, the writer’s thesis emphasizes simply the artistry of the writer and thereby calls into question the fearful predicament that exiled Israel faced in the 6th century B.C.E. Th at to me is the serious weakness of his approach. And this leads me to the basic pre-suppositions of my approach to the songs, and espe- cially to the fourth.

First, each of the four songs belongs to the textual context where each is respectively placed. Although Duhm has denied this, Morgenstern attempts to unite the songs together—divorced completely from Second Isaiah. In truth, each song left where it is in the fi nal placement, as it has come down to us, occupies a strategic position, lying between an announcement of the “second exodus” or “return migrations” (from Babylon to Jerusalem) and a hymn that celebrates both the exodus and God’s provision of a servant to lead the exodus or return.9 Th us in 41.27, the exodus is surely intimated just prior to the presentation of the servant in 42.1-9, which, in turn, is followed by a hymn to Yahweh (42.10-12). Th e same can be said about the second song (49.1-12). It is preceded by a joyful announcement of the exodus (48.20-21) as well as by a caveat to those who may be reluctant to

5) Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40-66: A Commentary (trans. David M.G. Stalker; OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969), 260. 6) David Clines, I, He, We, and Th ey, A Literary Approach to Isaiah 53 (Sheffi eld: JSOT Press, 1976). 7) Clines, Isaiah 53, 60. 8) Ibid., 60. 9) Anthony Ceresko, “Th e Rhetorical Strategy of the Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13- 53-12): Poetry and the Exodus-New Exodus,” CBQ 56 (1994): 42-55.

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leave (48.22). And then the second song appears (42.1-12) followed by an exhortation to nature to sing of God’s encouragement and mercy (49.13). Just prior to the third song (50.4-11) the motif of the second exodus is unmistakable (50.1-3). And the hymn follows in 51.3. As for the fourth song (52.13-53.12), the pattern is quite lucid. In 52.4 the Egyptian sojourn is referred to briefl y but in 52.11-12, in the plea to fl ee Babylon, there is the clear transparency of the Egyptian deliverance, including also an inti- mation of the crossing of the Jordan (52.11-12). And following the fourth song, we fi nd immediately an exhortation to sing (54.1). In one way, the entire chapter (54) may be regarded as the hymn to be sung in the light of the servant’s work as described in the fourth song.

Second, the four songs without a doubt come from Second Isaiah him- self. One could, of course, surmise that a wise editor may have composed the songs and inserted them appropriately into the main body of the prophet’s work.10 At the same time, if the prophet’s underlying theme is Israel’s redemption and return to the homeland, and if the songs, here and there, describe Yahweh’s servant or servants in relation to Israel’s return, my hunch is that the concepts of redemption and servant come from a single pen, i.e., the pen of Second Isaiah. Moreover, the text of the trial speech in 43.22-28, suggests clearly the ʿebed songs indeed come from the prophet. Westermann points out that “the catch word of the servant songs” is echoed in 43.23-24, “I did not make you serve ʿābad with off erings . . . You made me serve ʿābad with your sins.”11 To this, Westermann adds, “Th is connec- tion between 43.22-28 and the poems about the ʿebed is in my view the clearest proof that the latter come from Deutero-Isaiah.”12

Th ird, three servants are to be distinguished within the scope of the four songs.

10) Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001); Klaus Baltzer, Deutero-Isaiah: A Commentary on Isaiah 40-55 (Hermeneia; trans. Margaret; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001); Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55 (AB; Garden City: Doubleday, 2002); Roger Norman Whybray, Second Isaiah (London/New York: T & T Clark International, 2003); John Goldingay and David Payne, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 40-55 ( 2 vols.; London/New York: T & T Clark, 2006). Sue Ann Fye, “From Suff ering to Restoration: Th e Relationship Between the Unnamed Servant and Zion in Isaiah 40-55” Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Fuller Th eological Seminary, 2006. 11) Westermann, Isaiah 40-55, 131. 12) Ibid., 132.

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(a) One servant (Israel) is in need of redemption (b) One servant (Second Isaiah) proclaims redemption (c) One servant (the Messiah) procures redemption

(a) One servant (Israel) is in need of redemption (42.1-13). Th e divine claim is often made, “You are my servant, Israel” (42.1; 43.19; 44.1, 21; 45.4). At times, Yahweh names Israel, “my chosen” (41.8; 42.1). Th e claim is made as well in the plural number (“my people” in 43.20 and “my sons and daughters” in 43.6). Th ey are who they are because they have been formed and created by Yahweh (43.1). Israel is reminded of its miraculous origin through Abraham and Sarah (51.1-12). But the servant has fallen into captivity, handed over by Yahweh himself to be plundered and looted by a foreign nation (42.22-24), for Israel had sinned grievously by suc- cumbing to idolatry (44.22-24). Th e parody on the creation of an idol (44.9-20) is a reminder of the mind-boggling nature of Israel’s apostasy from Yahweh.13 What more poignant depiction could there be of Israel’s basic need for redemption? Th us the exhortation follows at once, “Remem- ber these things, O Jacob” (44.21). Nevertheless, the servant Israel is both blind and deaf (42.19-29), yet called not to initiate but to respond to the divine redemptive appeal (48.20).

(b) One servant (Second Isaiah) proclaims redemption (Isa 49 and 50). Th e second song (Isa 49) portrays comprehensively the prophetic call of the prophet, quite close in its form to the call of Jeremiah:14

(1) Th e call was before his birth—49.1b; cf. Jer 1.5 (2) His equipment—49.2; cf. Jer 1.9, 18 (3) His complaint—49.4a, 6a; cf. Jer 1.6 (4) His encouragement from Yahweh—49.7-8; cf. Jer 1.14-19 (5) His protection—49.2b; cf. Jer 1.8, 19 (6) His mission to Israel and the nations—49.6; cf. Jer 1.14-20

13) Knut Holter, Second Isaiah’s Idol-Fabrication Passages (Frankfurt am Main/New York: Peter Lang, 1995). 14) Norman Habel, “Form and Signifi cance of the Call Narrative,” ZAW 77 (1965): 297- 323; Martin Buss, “An Anthropological Perspective on Prophetic Call Narratives,” Semeia 21 (1981): 9-30; Kathleen M. O’Connor, “Lamenting Back to Life,” Interpretation 62 (2008): 34-47.

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Th e servant has a unique “I-Th ou” relationship to Yahweh while both songs (Isa 49 and 50) reveal the serious opposition which the servant faces. His trust in Yahweh, however, remains fi rm. Both the opposition and the trust are put in such personal terms as to point indubitably to Second Isa- iah himself as the servant. Th e apostle Paul appeals to Isaiah 49 expressly in making his great apologia for his ministry (2 Cor 2.14-7.16). His exact quotation from the LXX of Isa 49.8 (cf. 2 Cor 6.2) has a certain force attached to it since the Old Testament text is non-Messianic. Paul’s quota- tion appears near the end of his extended defense of his apostleship. Th at is to say, Paul has been keenly conscious of moments of great despair and discouragement in his work, but he claims to fi nd a parallel to his dilemma from the servant’s call, a call out of despair into hope. Plummer’s commen- tary on 2 Corinthians contains such a suggestion and I sense that there is merit to it.

But the prophet’s mission is clear—to bring Israel back into a relation- ship with Yahweh and to be a light to the gentiles (49.5-6).15

(c) Th e servant who procures redemption is the Messiah (52.13-53.12). Although he is not named the Messiah, he undertakes a Messianic minis- try. Presuppositions now lie behind us as we approach this fourth and fi nal song for the fi gure of the servant looms before us throughout the pericope (cf. 52.13 and 53.11). Th e servant is quite distinct from both Israel (Isa 42) and the prophet (Isa 49-50). With one exception, the servant is presented in the third person, revealed not only by the verb forms and by preposi- tions used with nouns with a third masc. sing. suffi x, but also by the repeated use of the third masc. sing. personal pronoun, hū, “he” (53.4, 5, 7, 11, 12). Th e one exception to this feature (52.14) need not detain us for at once the writer returns to an extensive array of 3 m.s. forms where both verbs and suffi xes refer to the servant. In every line, the fourth song depicts the “one” who is truly named the suff ering servant. To be sure, the servant of Isa 49-50 endures certain indignities—shame, spitting, plucking out of the hair, smiting on the back. And yet the affl ictions of the prophet are

15) R.E. Clements, “A Light to the Nations: A Central Th eme of the Book of Isaiah” in Forming Prophetic Literature: Essays on Isaiah and the Twelve in Honor of John D. W. Watts (eds. James W. Watts and Paul R. House; Sheffi eld: Sheffi eld Academic Press, 1996), 57-69; Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Mission in the Old Testament: Israel as a Light to the Nations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000).

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comparable to what servants of God have often endured. Some have even paid the supreme price (2 Chorn 24.20-26).

Yet, in this fourth song, the servant is disfi gured in his face (52.14), pierced and crushed (53.5), even placed under the fearful stroke of Yahweh (53.6). In this connection, the passive forms of the verb (often in intensive conjugations) need careful consideration.

53.3 nibze(h) “He was despised” Niphal 53.3 wîd̠ûaʿ ḥōlî “and known of sickness” Qal passive 53.4 nāgûaʿ “struck” Qal passive 53.4 mukkē(h) “simitten” Hophal 53.4 məʿunne(h) “affl icted” Pual 53.5 məḥōlāl “pierced” Poal 53.7 niggaś “He was oppressed” Niphal 53.7 naʿāne(h) “He was affl icted” Niphal 53.7 yûbāl “He was led (to slaughter)” Hophal 53.8 luqqāḥ “He was taken (away)” Pual 53.8 nigzar “He was cut off ” Niphal 53.12 nimnā(h) “he was numbered Niphal (with transgressiors)

Th e list is impressive. Th ere is no other place in the Old Testament that can compare with this passage in a description of suff ering, whether of a nation or of an individual—that is to say, suff ering that is vicarious. It is expressed pointedly in 53.5, “He was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.”

Overall, the essential content of the pericope is summarized by the ques- tion which the prophet raises in v. 1 For “the report that reached us”16 is not “word-centered” but “event-centered” since twice we are told that the servant does not open his mouth” (v. 7).

Remarkably, Yahweh’s opening exclamation, “Behold my servant,” intro- duces the one who becomes the center of attention in the song from begin- ning to the end. In what way? I have found the following diagram by David Clines to be a helpful interpretive tool.17

16) BDB, 1035a. 17) Clines, Isaiah 53, 39.

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Yahweh

He (Christ)

We Th ey18

I have taken the liberty of building and expanding on Clines’ treatment:

(a) Th e song is concerned throughout with relationships, the servant, “he” acting as the center. Note the repeated pronoun hū (53.4, 5, 7, 11, 12).

(b) Th ere is wholeness about the song as it begins and ends with the “I-he” relationship. In 52.13, the “he” is introduced by Yahweh as “my servant” while in 53.11-12, the “he” is endorsed and rewarded and vindicated by the “I” (Yahweh) for all of the servant’s vicarious suff erings.

(c) Th e “we” are related to the “I” only through the “he.” (d) Th e “we” undergo a transformation of attitude toward the “he”

from aversion and repugnance to acceptance and grateful recogni- tion of who the “he” is and what the “he” has done.

(e) Th e “they” are related to the “we” and the “we” to the “they” only through the “he.”

(f ) Th e “they” also go through a transformation—from being “the many” whom the “he” will “startle” (52.15) to become the many who fi nd their heritage with the “he” (53.12).

(g) Th e “we” and the “they are related to the “he” in the same way since the “he” bears and carries the sins and crimes of the “we” (53.4-6) just as the “he” bears and carries the sins and crimes of the “they” are related to the “I” and to one another only through the “he.”

III. Conclusion (with a personal faith claim)

As a Christian, I have no problem in seeing the fulfi llment of the fourth servant song in Jesus of Nazareth. I place myself among the “we” (53.4)

18) Note: Yahweh is referred to once as “I” (53.12), once as “he” (53.10), “He” has put him to grief ”), and once as “him” (53.2) “He grew up before him”). Elsewhere, the “he” and “him” refer to the servant.

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who make this confession. It is known that early Jewish interpreters under- stood the song to refer to the Messiah, especially to his exaltation (52.13-15) as seen by Jonathan ben Uzziel. Yet the troubling question remains. What do we do with the context in which the lament and confession are found? In my seminary course on Second Isaiah, I insisted that the various peri- copes of the prophecy of the prophet are to be related to context. I know of no other direction to take than that. What then do I do with the fourth song in the light of its context?

Assuming that the servant of the fourth song is an individual, has he appeared on the scene of history or does the prophet set forth an ideal fi gure? Orlinsky fi rmly believed that the servant of Isa 53 is none other than Second Isaiah himself, who has suff ered as so many other prophets have suff ered—but not vicariously—since the prophet has both announced restoration from exile and come to enjoy something of that restoration himself.19 To me, however, it is impossible to miss the impression of vicar- ious suff ering in Isa 53. Th e announcement made in Isa 40.2, “her crime is atoned for,” is proleptic. It states that Israel’s crime is expiated but that can only be claimed in anticipation of the servant’s work. If the servant, then, is not the prophet, is he an actual person known to the prophet? In the light of the exodus imagery that precedes the song, is the servant por- trayed as a second Moses? Th e song does contain an allusion to the Passover deliverance. Still, Isa 53 is far more serious than the Passover in Egypt. Accord- ing to Exodus 12, a lamb was provided for each household, but according to Isa 53, the servant is himself the lamb (cf. John 1.29) and the sacrifi ce is made for all (“all of us”). Is Second Isaiah apparently convinced that the conversion of the gentiles and the return of Israel can only be eff ected by the servant of the Lord whose life is to be given up not only for: “my peo- ple” (53.8) but for the “the many” (53.11; cf. Mark 10.45)? Not Cyrus, not Israel, not Second Isaiah himself can eff ect such events but only the servant who is described in Isa 53, and only as he gives up his life or is smitten by Yahweh and crushed by the sins of his people. It is hard to imagine that the exilic prophet had only an ideal person in view. Yet, it is diffi cult as well to think that he describes a person whom he actually knows in the fl esh.

Th us it would appear that, sensing keenly the enslaved condition of his people, the prophet sang of one who would shortly appear and through his

19) Harry M. Orlinsky, “Th e So-Called ‘Suff ering’ ‘Servant’ in Second Isaiah,” in Studies on the Second Part of the Book of Isaiah (Leiden: Brill, 1967), 295.

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own sacrifi ce make the deliverance of his people possible. Th at is to say, the prophet sensed that only through the sacrifi ce of another servant of Yah- weh, the servant soon to arise, could the Babylonian yoke be decisively broken and the new exodus launched. It was appropriate for such a servant to be predicted. Yet, it was not time for him to appear for not yet did the people know the full meaning of Divine holiness nor the depth of their sin which made the exile necessary in the fi rst place. A Zerubbabel and a Joshua, an Ezra and a Nehemiah could become and did become servants of Yahweh to bring the exiles out from under the Babylonian yoke and lead them back home and re-establish them in their own land. But the servant whom Second Isaiah expected did not appear in his day. Th us, though his timing was off , the prophet saw ever so clearly the very real problem of sin and the authentic nature of the redemption that would be wrought by a servant who would bear the sin of many (Isa 53.12) and give his life a ran- som for all (cf. Mark 10.45).

In truth, I fi nd myself in full agreement with Philip (Acts 8.29-35) who, upon hearing the Ethiopian offi cial reading aloud in his chariot, Isa 53.7-8 began at the same Scripture and proclaimed to the Ethiopian the good news of Jesus.

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