Servant Songs Research Articles

"Another Look at the Fourth Servant Song of Second Isaiah"

AbstractThis 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 celebration, several conclusions can be drawn. There are three servant figures 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. This servant of the fourth song is not the prophet himself or Israel but a servant figure whose sacrifice will break the yoke of Babylon.

Steck's Five Stories of the Servant in Isaiah lii 13-liii 12, and Beyond

AbstractBernhard Duhm's Servant Song thesis from 1892 has had a paradigmatic status for more than a century. Gottesknecht has become a technical term, Ebed-Jahwe-Lied a genre, Stellvertretung an established theological concept, and "Servant Song Research" a particular discipline within Old Testament scholarship. is article investigates of Odil Hannes Steck's reading. Steck outlines an intra-Isaianic reception of the songs on five levels dating from 539 to 270 BCE. In the original version, the servant of Isa. liii is identified individually as the prophet. On the remaining four redactional levels, the servant is identified collectively as Zion, as those who have returned from exile, as those who remained at home in Judah, and as the true Israel (which includes other peoples). After a presentation of Steck's reading, features of reading related to historicising, theologising, and textualising are discussed. Finally, a narrative reading of Isa. liii is offered, with a focus on the literary trope of personification.

Van wie zegt de profeet dit? Een een-voudige vraag en een meervoudig antwoord

Of whom does the prophet say this? A single question and a multifaceted answerTheologians seeking to preach Old Testament texts meaningful way in Christian congregations face a great challenge. On the one hand, very little has been written in homiletical textbooks about hermeneutical problems facing those who wish to read the Old Testament from the perspective of Christ’s life and death. On the other hand, advances in biblical criticism seemed to have made any such attempt problematic to begin with. In this article, the author attempts to provide a practical-theological contribution to this hermeneutical challenge by reconsidering the heuristic value of mediaeval fourfold interpretation of scriptural passages. By focussing on the servant song of deutero-Isaiah (53) in light of its reinterpretation in Acts 8, this paper aims to provide some suggestions on how Christological interpretation of the Old Testament can be done in a way that takes the original context seriously and is able to read the text from a Christian perspective without the one reading infringing on the other.

Indications of the Faith of the Translator in the Peshitta to the 'Servant Songs' of Deutero-Isaiah

Indications of the Faith of the Translator in the Peshitta to the 'Servant Songs' of Deutero-Isaiah

Indications of the Faith of the Translator in the Peshitta to the 'Servant Songs' of Deutero-Isaiah

Abstract The Peshitta of Deutero-Isaiah includes several passages relevant to the question of the faith of the translator: Jewish or Christian? There are inconsistencies: some differences between MT and P suggest a Christian or messianic nuance; one blunts an anti-Jewish phrase; in another an opportunity to introduce a Christian theme is resisted. The cumulative weight of examples suggests Christian input. The inconsistency could be explained by postulating a Jewish-Christian translator who attempted to play fair by his Vorlage, putting his own convictions and religious literature to the back of his mind, but occasionally failed.

The Imagery of the Substitute King Ritual in Isaiah's Fourth Servant Song

Interpreters have long struggled over the imagery that supplies the background for the fourth Servant Song (Isa 52:13-53:12).1 For those who have seen the Servant as a personification of corporate Israel, the imagery has been problematic both because it is intensely individual and because Israel appears to be the beneficiary of the Servant's suffering. Those who have seen the Servant in royal or messianic terms have had difficulty finding precedent for a suffering king or messiah in Israelite theology. Attempts to identify the Servant with a prophet, whether Deutero-Isaiah or Moses, have likewise struggled to make sense of all of the diverse elements of the Servant Songs and have not been sufficiently persuasive to bring about a consensus. Additionally, it has been questioned what role the concept of vicarious suffering serves in either the text or the worldview. Finally, these issues are complicated by obscure references such as being with the rich in his death (v. 9) and seeing seed and prolonging days (v. 11), and are bogged down in the larger questions concerning the interrelationship of the Servant Songs and their role within the canonical book of Isaiah.2 It is my thesis that the imagery, background, and obscurities of the fourth song can be adequately resolved when the passage is read in light of the substitute king ritual motifs known from Mesopotamia as early as the Isin period (early second millennium) and as late as Alexander the Great. A peripheral awareness of the potential in this comparison has been evident in the literature for some time. The most substantial work was done in 1958 by J. Scharbert, who addressed the relationship between the Suffering Servant and ancient Near Eastern texts,3 On good evidence, Scharbert rejected the idea that Isa 53 represented an actual substitute king ritual. he observed that the reasons for the substitution were different, that the victim in the sarpuhi texts was not a willing victim, and that there was no sin-guilt-atonement matrix in the rituals. Nor was he convinced that the Assyrian victim was actually killed. In the end he concluded that Isa 53 could not be considered an actual case of a substitute king ritual because the magical worldview that was the premise on which the rituals were based stood in stark contradiction to the sophisticated theological foundation of the Servant Song.4 These are all valid concerns if the question is whether an actual substitute king ritual is being represented in Isa 53. M. A. Beek took up the topic in 1966 but dismissed the relationship in a brief paragraph because he saw no king in Isa 53 and doubted the death of the servant.5 B. Janowski explored the relationship between the substitute king rituals in Mesopotamian and Hittite texts and the substitution rituals in Israel (particularly Lev 16) but did not bring Isa 53 into the discussion.6 Elsewhere he indicates that the relationship between the substitute king ritual and Isa 53 could be traced, but he does not do so.7 A. R. W. Green, explored the sarpuhi in the context of human sacrifice but likewise did not bring Isa 53 into his investigation.8 Even as recently as 1998, a summary of the major work done on the concept of Stellvertretung in Isa 53 found no cause to mention the substitute king rituals.9 In the thesis developed here it is suggested not that the Isaiah text represents an actual substitute king ritual but that the motifs of those rituals provide a background for the theological points that the author of the song wishes to make to his audience. The extant texts are concentrated in seventh-century Neo-Assyrian documents connected to the reigns of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. We will first examine what is known of the substitute king ritual and then compare that to the textual data in the fourth Servant Song. I. Substitute King The substitute king materials received their earliest major treatment by Rene Labat, and the Assyrian texts have been most thoroughly addressed by J. …

Isaiah 61:1-3(4-9) 10-11 Transferor of privileges, an “identikit” of the servant of the Lord?

On the basis of the demarcation of the book of Isaiah into three distinct literary units, scholarly opinion has ruled out the possibility that Isaiah 61:1-4 (5-9) 10-11 (as part of Trito-Isaiah) might be given the status of a so-called Servant Song along with the other group of “genuine” Servant Songs (Isa 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-1; 52:13-53:12, as part of Deutero-Isaiah). The paper argues that Isaiah 61 should be integrated with the other four Songs, bringing the number of the Songs of the Servant to five. Arguments to support the case include a profile of the figure in chapter 61 in relation to the one described in the first four Songs; the application of what may be called a “democratization” concept; the mediating function of the figure referred to in Isaiah 61, and the role of the literary structure of the eleven chapters of Isaiah 56-66.

Hezekiah’s Boil

Hezekiah had a potentially fatal boil which suggests that he had bubonic plague. This also destroyed the Assyrian army threatening Jerusalem. The king made a miraculous recovery. Isaiah first predicted that the king would die for his sin (of destroying the high places) but he then promised recovery. The prophet’s two explanations of the king’s suffering inspired the Fourth Servant Song, which depicted the suffering servant first as a sinner and then as the sin bearer. This is evidence for a sin-bearing priest-king, and for Isaiah’s hostility to the so-called ‘reforms’ of the cult. Evidence from Lachish and ancient eclipses supports this reconstruction, and so calls into question the suggestion that it was a later fiction.

Jesus and the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins

and the Suffering Servant: and Christian Origins, ed. William H. Bellinger, Jr., and William R. Farmer. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International,1998. Pp. ix + 325. $25 (paper). This collection of sixteen essays is the outcome of the colloquy held at Baylor University in February 1996, which dealt with Isaiah and Christian Origins. consortium of scholars presents its interpretations of the critical issues involved in the historical, intertextual, and theological relationships between the servant of and in the NT. editors succinctly pose the focal question in the introduction (p. 1): Did the influence of 52:13-53:12 upon Christian faith begin with Jesus? In response, some answer yes and others no, while others conclude with modified answers or offer alternative approaches to this subject. Altogether, these essays provide insightful interpretations of the relationship between the meaning of vicarious suffering and their implications for Jesus, a significant topic for the study of the relationship between the two testaments. first four essays are contributions of Hebrew Bible scholars. Paul D. Hanson, in The World of the Servant of the Lord in (pp. 9-22), utilizes a historical-- critical study for the setting of 40-55, where the returning exiles were inspired to envision a new era with a new covenant and community, which would no longer be governed by human kingship but by God's reign with justice and righteousness. In Basic Issues in the Interpretation of 53 (pp. 23-38), Henning Graf Reventlow presents a valuable review of the redactional processes of the Servant Songs, in which he highlights both the compositional coherence and poetic uncertainties of the Songs. With this awareness, Reventlow examines the background implications of the unheard-of motif of vicarious suffering, which he finds indirectly in psalmic and other parallel traditions where a king or prophet assumes an intercessory and representative role. R. E. Clements, Isaiah and the Restoration of Israel (pp. 39-54), essentially correlates the Servant Songs to the rest of 40-55 and underscores the fluctuation between the individual and collective aspects of the Servant. This fluctuation implies both the embodiment of the king, prophet, and Moses as intercessor and victim in the individual Servant and, more vividly, the concept of the collective Servant-Israel's suffering as the sin-offering. In On Reading as Christian Scripture, Roy F. Melugin (pp. 55-69) calls for a new hermeneutical focus that moves beyond the limitations of historical reconstructions and that rather appreciates manifold implications of the Servant, including that of vicarious suffering, in dialogue with the symbolic world of the reader. It is with the performative purposes of imaginative biblical interpretation, Melugin argues, that intertestamental dialogue provide enriching readings and scholarship for modern readers and believers. next two articles set the poles, if not foundations, of two contending interpretive positions. In and 53 (pp. 70-87), Otto Betz engages in a constructive approach to prove that the notion of Jesus' vicarious suffering displays pre-Pauline characteristics, with its origin traced back to 53. Betz argues that just as the Targumist reinterpreted the text of 53, so Paul constructed his understanding of Christ based on 53. Likewise, textual evidence from Mark 10:38, 45; 14:22-24 and other Synoptic passages indicates that conscientiously took over the role of the sacrificial Servant. Morna D. Hooker's article asks the question, Did the Use of to Interpret His Mission Begin with Jesus (pp. 88-103), and concludes that, from the striking lack of Jewish interpretations of this chapter in the intertestamental period, she can find no convincing evidence to suggest that played any significant role in Jesus' own understanding of his ministry (p. …

The Servant Songs in Deutero-Isaiah

Replacant les chants du serviteur dans leur contexte immediat, deutero-isaien (chapitres 40-55), l'auteur propose une double identification de la figure du serviteur anonyme : aux chapitres 40-48, il s'agit d'Israel, incapable d'accomplir sa vocation du fait de ses souffrances. Aux chapitres 49-55, le serviteur est le prophete, investi d'une double mission envers Israel et les Nations. Il remplit sa mission en depit de ses souffrances (49 :1-6 | 50 :4-9) et finalement a cause d'elles. Ce dernier est le paradigme et le modele du premier et ce qui est vrai du serviteur prophete devrait l'etre du serviteur-peuple

A Farewell to the Servant Songs: A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom

Book Review| December 01 1985 A Farewell to the Servant Songs: A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom A Farewell to the Servant Songs: A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom, Tryggve N. D. Mettinger. R. N. Whybray R. N. Whybray Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1985) 104 (4): 706–707. https://doi.org/10.2307/3260695 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation R. N. Whybray; A Farewell to the Servant Songs: A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom. Journal of Biblical Literature 1 December 1985; 104 (4): 706–707. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3260695 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSBL PressJournal of Biblical Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Suffering Servant between the Testaments

Traditionally Christians have interpreted Isaiah 52. 13–53. 12 as a prophecy of the passion of Christ,1but modern biblical scholars have disagreed about how this identification of the suffering servant with Jesus arose. In particular, those who have investigated the question of whether Jesus saw himself as occupying the role of the servant have reached conflicting conclusions.2In the background of this discussion is another contentious issue, namely, whether a messianic interpretation of the suffering servant had already been adopted in pre-Christian Judaism. Representative of a negative response to this question is H. H. Rowley, who writes: ‘There is no serious evidence … of the bringing together of the concepts of the suffering servant and the Davidic Messiah before the Christian era.’3A much more positive assessment is given by Jeremias, who has championed the view that the first and fourth servant songs were consistently interpreted messianically in Palestinian Judaism, and that it is highly probable that a messianic interpretation of the sufferings of the servant was associated with this.4

A Farewell to the Servant Songs. A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom

A Farewell to the Servant Songs. A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom

The Effect of Repetition in the Suffering Servant Song

Isaie 52: 13-53: 12. Sur les 202 mots du Chant du Serviteur Souffrant, 118 apparaissent plus d'une fois. L'A. examine l'effet produit par ces repetitions.

The Servant-City: A New Interpretation of the "Servant of the Lord" in the Servant Songs of Deutero-Isaiah

Research Article| September 01 1975 The Servant-City: A New Interpretation of the “Servant of the Lord” in the Servant Songs of Deutero-Isaiah Leland Edward Wilshire Leland Edward Wilshire Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of Biblical Literature (1975) 94 (3): 356–367. https://doi.org/10.2307/3265158 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Leland Edward Wilshire; The Servant-City: A New Interpretation of the “Servant of the Lord” in the Servant Songs of Deutero-Isaiah. Journal of Biblical Literature 1 September 1975; 94 (3): 356–367. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/3265158 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveSBL PressJournal of Biblical Literature Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 1975 Society of Biblical Literature1975 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Mispat: The First Servant Song and Its Context

Mispat: The First Servant Song and Its Context

The Concept of the Servant of God and Isaiah’s Connection: A Politico-Theological Response to Recession

To say that Nigeria is yet to be met with great and good news of feats and development since after independence is not an exaggeration. The true face is that the little the colonial masters did before they handed over is what we have enjoyed. Now most of them have dilapidated. There is no sign of a better future. One wonders what happened to Nigerian Telecommunications. There was a time we have phone boots on the streets. With a coin one can conveniently make calls. Fax machines were available in offices for private and public use. One can even send a telegram. To say that GSM and internet replaced them is an escapist manoeuvre. Think of Lagos Main Land Bridges, Niger Bridge, trains etc. People attribute the cause to corruption. The leaders are singled out as corrupt. But who are the leaders? People tend to limit their searchlight to the President, Senators and Governors. Evidently, they are not the managers of parastatals. They are not the law enforcement agencies etc. Yet, the truth is still obvious that a good leader can always push his subjects to a set vision and mission. What Nigeria needs is a servant leader. This paper is structured to examine in the main, the concept of the Servant of God, a servant leader as envisioned by Prophet Isaiah in what is popularly known as the Servant Songs. It is the belief of the researcher that a leader of such calibre is what Nigeria needs even in her recession to move forward.

The Servant Songs in Isaiah

The Servant Songs in Isaiah

The Servant Song of Philippians

The Servant Song of Philippians

Wisdom of Solomon 2:10-5: A Homily Based on the Fourth Servant Song

Wisdom of Solomon 2:10-5: A Homily Based on the Fourth Servant Song