Sárospataki Füzetek 16. (2012)
2012 / 3-4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - P. H. R. van Houwelingen: Jeruzsálem, az anyagyülekezet. Az apostoli egyház fejlődése Jeruzsálem szemszögéből
Jaap Dekker The problem with Israel however is that it itself suffers from blindness and deafness. This is stated immediately in the next Servant text of Isa 42:19 and elaborated upon in the following chapter (Isa 43:8-13). The Lord tries to break through their darkness by announcing his willingness to pay a ransom for his blind Servant, to buy them off and turn them into his witnesses. He also promises to pour out his Spirit to renew his Servant (Isa 44:1-4). For the sake of his Servant Israel God even calls the Persian ruler Cyrus, making him his anointed, to overthrow the Babylonian Empire and free Israel from its exile (Isa 45:4). But in chapter 48 the Lord concludes that Israel still has not listened to Him. Within this chapter the Lord says to Israel that its neck is an iron sinew and its forehead brass (Isa 48:4). They could have heard and they could have seen how the Lord set the world in motion to free them, but they are still not susceptible to it. In Isa 48:18-19 you can sense God’s own disappointment when by way of concluding summary He states: ‘O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me. ’ His disappointment, however, does not discourage the Lord from redeeming his Servant Jacob. He explicitly calls them to go out of Babylon and proclaim to the world that He has redeemed his Servant Jacob (Isa 48:20). But the Lord apparently does change his strategy now. That’s what the Servant text of chapter 49 is indicating and what Isa 48:20 is already preparing for by surprisingly not mentioning the name Israel, though Jacob and Israel were always mentioned together. In Isaiah 49 a new Servant presents himself to the world. This is the first Servant text in first person language. He claims that the Lord himself has called him already while he was still in his mother’s womb. In the preceding chapters things like this were also said already about Servant Israel (cf. Isa 44:2, 24), but now the Servant appears to be a prophetic figure. The Lord made the Servant’s mouth like a sharp sword and so prepared him completely for his mission. He even hid his new Servant in the shadow of his hand and in his quiver to be able to present him at the moment He would require him. Crucial for understanding the Servant Story in the book of Isaiah then is verse 3 of Isaiah 49. In many Bible translations this verse is translated as if the name of Israel again functions to identify the Servant here as being Israel, just as in the preceding chapters. The name Israel is then understood as in apposition to Servant or as a vocative.13 The Hebrew text of Isa 49:3 is: “iKsrx ■p’Tűií nntmaj? -b -ük*! The New Revised Standard Version for example translates this as: ‘And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Syntactically this translation is correct of course. But the colometry of this verse is: nnx-Haji 'b -iöKh TT ■ : “ ixarR 13 In the past many exegetes suggested eliminating the name Israel considering it to be a later interpolation, but there is no serious text critical support for that. 38 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZE ('EK 2012/3 .í
