Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
Recently, a friend asked me, who is the “suffering servant’ in the prophecies of Isaiah?
Here is my answer:
Second Isaiah, was an anonymous prophet who lived just before or after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. His writings (chapt.40-55) have been added to those of the First Isaiah who lived in ancient Israel in the 8th cent. BCE. Chapters 56-66 are usually ascribed to a group of unknown authors called Third Isaiah.
The chapters assigned by critics to Second Isaiah include four “Servant Songs” that seem to form a literary unity, even though they are spread within chapters 40-55. It is not clear who was the author of these songs. In 53: 3, he describes the servant as an individual who is “despised, shunned by men; a man of suffering, familiar with disease.” Hence, the reference to a “suffering servant.”
The question is : whom did the prophet have in mind when he wrote these lines? As the Jewish Study Bible puts it, this is “one of the most difficult and contested passage in the Bible” (p. 890). As expected, throughout the centuries, various opinions have been advanced in order to solve this problem. We can break them down to three different types of suggestions:
A. A collective interpretation: according to some critics the reference is to the people of Israel.
B. An individual interpretation: according to others, the reference is to an historic personality of the past. Some argued that it referred to Moses , or king Jehoiachin, or the prophet Jeremiah or even the prophet himself.
C. A theological/mythological interpretation: The New Testament says that Isaiah’s prophecies were fulfilled in the life of Jesus. (See, the Letter to the Hebrews, chp. 5) Others, including some medieval Rabbis and the Aramaic Targum, maintain that it refers to an idealized king or to a future Messiah.
In reality, it must be admitted, as Boadt did, that “we may never know all that Second Isaiah actually intended by his servant” (Reading the OT, p. 429).
