Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)

2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - P. H. R. van Houwelingen: Jeruzsálem, az anyagyülekezet. Az apostoli egyház fejlődése Jeruzsálem szemszögéből

Jaap Dlkker

But why - one might ask — did the church artist picture the prophet Isaiah dancing? I guess the reason is that Isaiah is known for the gospel-like character of his prophecies. The book of Isaiah has even been mentioned in the Early Church already, the Fifth Gospel. For his prophesying of Christ Chrysostom called Isaiah ‘the prophet with the loudest voice’, Jerome designated him as more a gospel-writer than a prophet, and in line with this Calvin understood Isaiah as a very noble ambassador of Christ’. The dancing of the Isaiah of Souillac probably reflects Isaiah’s joy concerning the coming of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of his prophecies. His well-known Immanuel prophecy, related by Matthew to the birth of Christ (Matt 1:22-23) and also his Servant prophecies, which are related to the mission and suffering of Christ throughout the New Testament, are examples of this.

When talking about the Servant of the Lord in the Book of Isaiah, the Christian understanding has always been in line with the preaching of Philip to the Ethiopian court official who had asked him whom the prophet Isaiah was talking about, about himself or about someone else. Philip did not hesitate to proclaim to him the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:35).

In the book of Isaiah, however, the figure of the Servant is a complex one. Sometimes it appears to have a more collective character than an individual one. In some texts the Servant is even explicitly identified as the people of Israel. Within biblical science the Servant texts of Isaiah have been studied intensely and scholars have developed numerous theories to interpret these texts and especially to establish the identity of the Servant within the book. Should the Servant be identified as a prophetic or as a royal figure, an ideal figure or an historical one? Should he be understood as an individual or as a collective? Redaction-critical studies have made it even more complex with hypothetic reconstructions of successive redactions with changing perspectives and identifications.1 No one is able any more to read all the articles and books on this particular subject.1 2

2. The Four Servant Songs

It has been the well-known Old Testament scholar Bernard Duhm especially who has stimulated many others to make study of the Servant texts. Duhm came to isolate four texts in particular which he called the Servant Songs: The first in Isa 42:1-4; the second in Isa 49:1-6; the third in Isa 50:4-9 and the fourth, the famous Song about the suffering Servant, in 52:13-53:12. Duhm argued that these so-called Servant Songs had a different style, content and composition from the other Servant texts within the book of Isaiah and could therefore be ascribed to a single author. In first instance Duhm thought the prophet had borrowed these songs from elsewhere and had incorporated them into his book.3 Ultimately Duhm suggested that these songs had been written by a single author in later times and had been incorporated into

1 Cf. C. Conroy, ‘The “Four Servant Poems” in Second Isaiah in the Light of Redaction-Historical Studies’. In: C. McCarthy & J.F. Healy (eds.), Biblical and Near Eastern Essays. Studies in Honour of Kevin J. Cathcart, JSOT.S 275, London 2004, pp. 80-94.

2 Cf. H. Haag, Der Gottesknecht bei Deuterojesaja, Darmstadt 1985.

3 B. Duhm, Die Theologie der Propheten als Grundlage für die innere Entwicklungsgeschichte der israelitischen Religion, Bonn 1875, pp. 288-289.

34 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 2012/3-1