Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)
2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - P. H. R. van Houwelingen: Jeruzsálem, az anyagyülekezet. Az apostoli egyház fejlődése Jeruzsálem szemszögéből
THE SERVANT AND THE SERVANTS IN THE BOOK OF ISASA! I an already finished book.4 This single author thus had to be distinguished from the prophet who had been responsible for the other prophecies. According to Duhm the Servant within these four Servant Songs could not and should not be identified with the Servant the other texts of Isaiah talk about. Outside of these four Songs the Servant had to be identified as the people of Israel, but within these four Songs the Servant is a prophetic figure who is distinguished and distinguishes himself from Israel. This thesis of Duhm has been of great influence. Old Testament scholars like W. Rudolph, who supposed that Deutero-Isaiah had written these Songs, were certain that he himself could never have incorporated them into the book, for he would have done better than it is now.5 S. Mowinckel even thought that it was principally incorrect to try to identify the Servant with the help of the rest of the book, for he interpreted these Songs as representing another form of religious thinking.6 7 Christian interpretation too has made grateful use of Duhm’s thesis, excluding his late dating of the Servant Songs, by interpreting these four Songs straightaway as prophecies about Christ. Remarkably the Dutch Bible Society until recently even incorporated the Four Servant Songs theory of Duhm in its Bible translation by using headings which relied upon this assumption. The newest Dutch Bible Translation (2004) has abandoned this practice, and fortunately so, because there has been an important shift of paradigm in the study of Isaiah in the last several decades. Isaiah scholars no longer concentrate on the question of authorship and on studying the several parts of the book of Isaiah independently or even in isolation of each other, but rather try to understand the book of Isaiah as a literary and theological unity. In first instance this focus on the unity of the book effects how the link between the usual divisions of First, Second and Third Isaiah is understood. But this shift of paradigm also has consequences for the study of the Servant texts. The four prophecies that Duhm designated as Servant Songs can no longer be studied in sheer isolation from the other Servant texts within the book of Isaiah, speculating about their origins and way of incorporation within the book. They have to be studied as belonging to one single composition. Thirty years ago already Tryggve Mettinger wrote a book with the unmistakable title A Farewell to the Servant Songs. A Critical Examination of an Exegetical AxiomJ In practice, however, many scholars are still working within the parameters of Duhm’s outdated paradigm, setting apart and isolating the alleged Servant Songs. Hans Barstad even qualifies this Servant Song hypothesis as one of the biggest scholarly myths in the history of biblical exegesis’ and as a myth which ‘is long, long overdue for demolition.’8 4 B. Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia übersetzt und erklärt, Göttingen 1892. 5w W. Rudolph, ‘Der exilische Messias. Ein Beitrag zur Ebed-Jahwe-Frage’, ZAW 43 (1925), pp. 90- 114. 6 S. Mowinckel, ‘Zur Komposition des deuterojesajanischen Buches’, ZAW 49 (1931), pp. 87-112 / 242-260. 7 T.N.D. Mettinger, A Farewell to the Servant Songs. A Critical Examination of an Exegetical Axiom, Lund 1983. Cf. H.M. Barstad, ‘The Future of the “Servant Songs”. Some Reflections on the Relationship of Biblical Scholarship to its Own Tradition.’ In: S.E. Baientine & J. Barton (eds.), Language, Theology and the Bible. Essays in Honor of James Barr, Oxford 1994, pp. 261-270. 8 H.M. Barstad, ‘The Future of the “Servant Songs”: Some Reflections on the Relationship of Biblical 2012/3-4 Sárospataki Füzetek 35
