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The ‘Plain Meaning’ of Isaiah 42.1–4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Ralph Marcus
Ralph Marcus
Affiliation:
Jewish Institute of Religion; and Columbia University
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Extract

The expression ‘plain meaning’ is here used in the sense of Hebrew peshat, since this paper is not primarily a study in the higher criticism of Deutero-Isaiah. But I may perhaps be allowed to make three brief preliminary statements of belief concerning the relation of the passage under discussion to the rest of the book: First: that the conception of the Servant found in 42.1–4 is closer to that found in the whole of Deutero-Isaiah than it is to that in the last of the so-called Servant-poems, 52.13–53.12. Second: that the first Servant-poem describes the people of Israel, as do chs. 40–55 generally, and not an individual. Third: that the suffering of the Servant has been unduly emphasized from the early Christian period onward, largely because the sublime portrayal of humility and suffering in ch. 53, which is strikingly different from most of the book, has obscured the predominantly consolatory and triumphant aspects of the Servant as God's instrument. With this introduction I should like to comment on the Masoretic text.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , October 1937 , pp. 249 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1937

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References

1 Literature consulted:

Budde, K., Das Buch Jesaja. Kap. 40–66 (Kautzsch, Heilige Schriften d.A.T.). 4th ed. 1922.

Cornill, C, Der israelitische Prophetismus. 6th ed. 1906 (1st ed. 1894).

Driver, G., Linguistic and Textual Problems: Isaiah xl-lxvi. JTS, xxxvi, 1935, pp. 396–406.

Duhm, B., Das Buch Jesaja (Göttinger Handkom. z.A.T.). 3rd ed. 1914.

Ehrlich, A., Randglossen zur hebräischen Bibel. Vol. 4. 1912.

Eissfeldt, O., Der Gottesknecht bei Deuterojesaja (Beiträge zur Religionsgeschichte d. Altertums, H. 2). 1933.

Feldmann, F., Das Buch Isaias (Exeg. Handbuch ed. Nikel-Schulz). Vol. 2. 1926.

Fischer, J., Isaias 40–55 (Alttest. Abhandlungen ed. Nikel, B. vi, H. 4/5). 1916.

Giesebrecht, F., Der Knecht Jahwes des Deuterojesajas. 1902.

Glazebrook, M., Studies in the Book of Isaiah. 1910.

Gressmann, H., Der Messias (Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur d. Alten und Neuen Testaments, N.F. 26, H.43). 1929.

Köhler, L., Deuterojesaja. 1923.

König, E., Das Buch Jesaja. 1926.

Levy, R., Deutero-Isaiah. 1925.

Marti, K., Das Buch Jesaja (Benzingers Kurzer Handkom. z.A.T.). 1900.

Mowinckel, S., Der Knecht Jahwes. 1921.

Perles, F., Analekten z. Textkritik d.A.T. N. F. 1922.

Praetorius, F., Bemerkungen zu d. Geschichte vom Knecht Jahwes. ZAW, xxxvi, 1916, pp. 8 ff.

Rudolph, W., Die Ebed-Jahwe Lieder als geschichtliche Wirklichkeit. ZAW, xlvi, 1928, pp. 156–166.

Sellin, E., Tritojesaja, Deuterojesaja u. d. Gottesknechtsproblem. NKZ, xli, 1930, pp. 145 ff.

Skinner, J., The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Chapters xl-lxvi (Cambridge Bible). 1916.

Smart, J., A New Approach to the Ebed-Yahweh Problem. Exp. Times xlv, 1933/4, pp. 168–172.

Smith, G. A., The Book of Isaiah. II. 1927.

Torrey, C, The Second Isaiah. 1928.

Volz, P., Jesaja II. 1932.

Zillessen, A., Review of Giesebrecht (see above) in Theol. Literaturzeitung, 1908, Sp. 131–134.

2 The linguistic parallels between 42.1–4 and chs. 40–55 are conveniently summarized by Fischer, p. 138.

3 Torrey and Eissfeldt have admirably presented the case for the shifting aspects of the Servant as a collective term.

4 For some time I have believed what Smart has recently well expressed, p. 168, ‘The nations are to be brought into subjection to Israel not by any meek and suffering Servant, but by Yahweh's strong right arm.’