Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)

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

In Hebrew poetry we have a bicolon here with a metre of 3 + ,3 feet, in which the device of an ellipsis is used. This ellipsis refers to the words“ii'iísO that are not repeated in the second line. Instead of repeating these words the second line is extended with the relative clause thus filling out the second line

making it a three feet colon and creating a verse with so-called pivot parallelism (a-b // b’-c; cf. Isa 45:1). Interpreting the name of Israel as a predicate the translation then becomes: ‘And he said to me, “You are my Servant. (He said to me:) Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Or more specified as a second predicative: ‘You are my Servant. You are Israel in whom I will be glorified’(c f. Isa 44:21: "Mfon > *6 ll HF1ÍÍ '7*138

my Servant, o Israel, You will not be forgotten by me.) This means that the prophetic figure who is talking here, understands himself as being appointed by the Lord to be his Servant and to be Israel.14 Here the name of Israel that we missed in Isa 48:20 is surprisingly applied to this prophetic figure. By way of paraphrasing God has said to him: You are my Servant. Now, you are Israel. And you are the one in whom I will be glorified, as I promised before to Israel (Isa 44:23). Now, you are destined to fulfill the mission of Israel, which it could not fulfill by itself because of its blindness. When Isa 49:3 is interpreted in this way, as referring to a prophetic figure appointed by the Lord to be his new Servant and destined to fulfill the mission of Israel, then it is at once clear why the Servant in the verses 5 and 6 immediately is distinguished from Jacob and Israel. This has always been embarrassing for exegetes of the Servant texts. But when a new Servant, a prophetic one, is appointed here, then this distinction becomes clear. It can also be clarified then why in verse 6 this prophetic Servant is promised to become a light to the nations and in verse 8 to become a covenant to the people, after this had already been said to Servant Israel in Isa 42:6. This indicates that the Lord sticks to the mission for which He has called Israel. He is not abandoning Israel now. But this new appointed Servant has to embody Israel and in fact has to fulfill Israel’s mission.

5. Identity and Function of the Prophetic Servant

When we try to understand these Servant texts against the exilic background that constitutes the historical context of this part of the book, the question arises as to who this prophetic Servant might be. The Servant says about himself that he has labored in vain and has spent his strength for nothing and to no avail (Isa 49:4). This suggests that he is a prophetic figure that has worked for some time among the exiles in Babylon, but without obtaining the results that he had hoped for. For that reason it is possible, in line with Ibn Ezra, to think of the exilic prophet (or prophetic group eventually) who has often been called Deutero-Isaiah, and who may be the one that addressed Israel and Jacob in the prophecies of the preceding chapters, as the supposed prophetic Servant.15

The Servant and the Servants in the rook of Isaiah

14 Cf. P. Wilcox & D. Paton-Williams, ‘The Servant Songs in Deutero-Isaiah’, JSOT 42 (1988), pp. 79-102: ‘It is the prophet who is called Israel here.’ (p. 91)

15 See for example J. Goldingay, The Message of Isaiah 40-55. A Literary-Theological Commentary, London-New York 2005.

2012/3-4 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 39