Isaiah's Suffering Servant

Question 1

When did Isaiah live

Answer 1

8th century BCE

Question 2

Describe his background

Answer 2

Probably from the royal family of Judah (the House of David) and he lived through difficult times. The Assyrians destroyed the northern Kingdom of Israel and dispersed its pop. When Judah allied itself with the Egyptians, they were the next to be threatened: Jerusalem was attacked twice by the Assyrians but miraculously survived. The Jews believed that angels had protected the city from the fate that befell their neighbour

Question 3

How does his career as a prophet begin

Answer 3

Begins in 742 BCE, with a shattering RE in the temple. He had a vision of God on his throne, praised by angels while smoke and noise fills the temple. This is a numinous RE for Isaiah - he is gripped by a sense of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. An angel brings a fiery coal to his lips to burn away his sin. He hears God saying to his angels ‘Whom shall I send?’ and the newly purified Isaiah calls out ‘Here I am! Send Me!’

Question 4

What unpleasant message must he deliver to the people of Judah

Answer 4

That God has condemned them for their sinful ways, particularly for their greed and their mistreatment of the poor. The Assyrians rising against them is an instrument of God’s anger: God is using them to punish them for their sins. He predicts military defeat, slavery and humiliation for the people of Judah, predicting the same fate endured by northern Israel

Isaiah turns out to be right as this happens around 100 years after his death, although it is the Babylonians rather than the Assyrians

Question 5

How did he criticise the temple priesthood

Answer 5

He said that God was sick of their sacrifices of animals and wants them to lead moral lives instead

Question 6

Why is Isaiah important for the debate around who the messiah is

Answer 6

He predicts the future messianic age where wars between empires will end and the jews will be able to live in peace on their land, worshipping God properly and leading moral lives

He goes beyond predicting happiness solely for the Jews: describing a future world where no one will have to suffer, a sort of paradise on earth

Because of this his prophecies have always been important for those trying to identify the messiah. Isaiah seems to hold the answers but his prophecies are like riddles and can be interpreted in many ways

Question 7

Explain the idea of the suffering servant

Answer 7

Unusual figure that keeps appearing in Isaiah’s prophecies. Serves God with total selflessness and loyalty. He is given mission by God to lead the nations of the world. However, the servant is mocked, abused and attacked by the people God has sent him to help. He endures his sufferings without complaining, intervening on behalf of other people and bearing sufferings for them. Finally he is murdered. However, God returns the servant to life and rewards the servant infront of the whole world. The people who had mistreated him are stunned and ashamed

Question 8

What did 19th century German scholar Bernard Duhm say about the suffering servant

Answer 8

He noticed that the references to the SS are grouped together in 4 olaces and these passages are separate poems or songs. They are known as the 4 servant songs

Question 9

Where can the first servant song be found

Answer 9

Isaiah 42: 1-4

Question 10

What does this first servant song say

Answer 10

God chooses the servant who will bring justice to to earth. The servant is a kingly messiah and a prophetic messiah who brings about God’s will on earth

Question 11

State Isaiah 42:1

Answer 11

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nation

Question 12

How does this relate to the description of Jesus baptism as described in the synoptics

Answer 12

God is pleased with and delights in Jesus and outs his spirit into him. This links Jesus to the servant in Isaiah 42

Question 13

Where does the second servant song take place

Answer 13

49: 1-6

Question 14

What happens in this servant song

Answer 14

This song is from the servants POV. He describes how he was called by God to lead not just the Jews but all the nations. The servant will not be a political or military ruler but a ‘light to the Gentiles’ - a source of inspiration and a moral teacher

Question 15

Isaiah 49:6

Answer 15

I will also make you a light for the gentiles, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth

Question 16

How does this relate to Jesus

Answer 16

Jesus gives his disciples the great commission to convert the gentiles and Paul echoes this passage from Isaiah to justify why he converts the gentiles to Christianity. For Christians, it’s important that Jesus has a message for the gentiles as well as the Jews

Question 17

Where does the third servant song take place

Answer 17

Isaiah 50: 4-9

Question 18

What happens in this song

Answer 18

The servant describes the abuse he will have to face, but he is confident of God’s protection

Question 19

State 50:6

Answer 19

I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard: i did not hide my face from mocking and spitting

Question 20

How does this relate to Jesus

Answer 20

Seems to predict his famous teaching that his followers should turn the other cheek in Luke 6:29. It also anticipates Jesus abuse at the hands of the soldiers who arrest him

Question 21

Where is the fourth servant song

Answer 21

52:13 - 53:12

Question 22

State 53:3

Answer 22

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain

Question 23

Explain 53:3

Answer 23

Describe the SS as a man of sorrows. This expression is commonly attributed to Jesus by Christians

Question 24

State Isaiah 53:4

Answer 24

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted

Question 25

Explain Isaiah 53:4

Answer 25

The servant doesn’t just suffer for himself, he takes upon himself other people’s pain and suffering, but nobody appreciates it. Instead people regard the servant as a victim and an evil doer

Question 26

How does this relate to Jesus crucifixion

Answer 26

According to the OT anyone who is hanged or crucified is considered to be cursed by God according to Deuteronomy 21: 22-23

Question 27

State 53:5

Answer 27

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed

Question 28

What is the meaning of 53:5

Answer 28

Describes the SS being put to death, but his death is an atoning death that brings healing to others

Jesus was ‘pierced’ by nails for the sake of mankind’s ‘transgressions. Christian’s believe that Jesus’ wounds bring healing from original sin

Question 29

State Isaiah 53:1

Answer 29

After he has suffered, he will see that light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities

Question 30

Explain 53:1

Answer 30

For Christians this predicts Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection which removes mankinds sins

After this miserable death, God will restore the servant to life again. But his sufferings will have saved other people

Question 31

How do Christians interpret the servant songs

Answer 31

They see them as predicting the messiah - JC - but a very different kind of messiah than the king/priest/prophet that was expected by others. They predict a suffering messiah who will die an atoning death and then be resurrected

The specific details in Isaiah struck many Christians as uncanny in their resemblance to Jesus sufferings and their beliefs around the meaning of his death

Question 32

How does Saint Jerome express this view

Answer 32

He said that Isaiah ‘described all the mysteries of the church of christ so vividly that you would assume he was not prophesying about the future, but was rather composing a history of past events’

Question 33

What are the issues with this interpretation

Answer 33

No evidence that 1st century Jews thought the messiah was going to be the suffering messiah or that Isaiah 53 was supposed to predict the messiah

The gospels depict the disciples as being stunned when they learn JC is going to die. They would not have reacted this way if they believed that the messiah was supposed to suffer and die

Question 34

How do the Jews interpret the servant songs

Answer 34

They don’t accept that Jesus was the messiah or see them as predicting the messiah.

The servant is symbolic of Israel itself. Earlier in Isaiah, God refers to Israel as his servant…

‘But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendents of Abraham my friend’ (41:8)

The Jews are sent into the world to be ‘a light to the gentiles’ through their religion, but they are mocked, abused, tortured and murdered. It is Jews who hope that their sufferings will be vindicated and that the sufferings of their nation will be a lesson to the rest of the world

‘Israel, who has been chosen by God as his servant, is to be restored from exile and will manifest God’s glory to all nations’ (Hooker)

Past Jews may have connected various anti semitic persecutions with the servant songs. This would be a futurist interpretation

Many scholars think that the section of Isaiah containing the servant songs was written by someone else a century or two after the real Isaiah: they call this author second Isaiah. If this is true the sufferings might refer to the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah and the Babylonian exile - with the exiled Jews suffering on the behalf of the Jews who were left in Palestine. When the exiled Jews returned to. When the exiled Jews returned to Palestine, the mysterious second Isaiah described their experiences with the servant songs. This is the preterist interpretation of the servant songs - as they refer to events occuring at their time of composition

‘Israel had been subjected to a terrible humiliation, she was oppressed and afflicted, taken from her own country and led like a lamb to the slaughter: but now here sufferings are over, and she is to return; she will be exalted and know prosperity again (Hooker)

Jews have other interpretations of the SS. For some he represents not all Jewish people, but rather the holiest and the best, the faithful few. If this is true then the text is saying that anyone who faithfully serves God is bound to suffer in this world. While this may mean it applies to the messiah it also describes other sincere and good religious people too

Both of these interpretations treat the servant as a corporate personality - a single person who symbolises a big group of people

There are other ancient rabbis who believe the servant really does represent the messiah. When the messianic age comes, the gentile nations will be ashamed of the way they have treated the Jews now that their faith has been vindicated by the arrival of the messiah

Question 35

Make the case that the SS is supposed to be JC

Answer 35

The servant is identified as the messiah by several ancient rabbis who believed that the kingly messiah would suffer

Isaiah links the servant to the line of king david, just like a kingly messiah. JC is also said to be from the line of david

The 4th song ends with God rewarding the servant and ushering in the messianic age

The sufferings of the servant fit closely with the sufferings of Jesus, who was rejected by his own people, abused and tortured and then painfully executed. This supports the Christian belief that the servant predicts Jesus’ death as atoning for the sins of mankind

Question 36

Make the case that the SS is not supposed to be JC

Answer 36

Corporate personality representing the Jewish people or perhaps just those among the Jewish people who are faithful to God

The songs describe the sufferings of Jews at the hands of the gentiles rather than the sufferings of Jesus

Although some rabbis link the suffering servant to the messiah, there’s no evidence that 1st century Jews thought Isaiah 53 described a suffering messiah. The link between the messiah and the suffering servant was made by Christians after Jesus’ death