«Ein erratischer Block». The Pre-Jesus and the Pre-Christian Exegesis of Isaiah 53, in «Henoch»...

Hen 32(12010)

ESSAYS SAGGI

ldquoEIN ERRATISCHER BLOCKrdquo THE PRE-JESUANIC AND THE PRE-CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS

OF ISAIAH 53

EMILIANO RUBENS URCIUOLI University of Turin and University of Geneva

ldquoEin erratischer Blockrdquo this is how Klaus Koch more than forty years

ago defined the Fourth Song of the Servant in relation to its specific ideology and its exegetical vicissitudes in the history of the middle Jewish thought previous to the New Testament1 The purpose of this paper is to certify that statement by means of a brief systematic analysis of the documentation used ndash in different ways and by different scholars ndash to deny the issue in question and its repercussions in a Christological domain Three preliminary observations are in order to facilitate the introduction of the topic

First a straightforward statement of intentions I will not spare even a line on the vexata quaestio of the identification of the vebed YHWH that is one of the most ponderous dossiers of biblical criticism as more than one century has passed since the proposal ndash in Bernhard Duhmrsquos groundbreaking comment on Isaiah ndash of the thesis of the redactional alterity of the four ldquoSongs of the Lordrsquos Servantrdquo (die Ebedlieder) in relation to the rest of the Deutero-Isaiah2 Therefore regarding the status quaestionis of the issue of the ldquooriginalrdquo identity of the Servant I refer to the Isaianic commentaries or to the pages that most introductions to the Old Testament dedicate to it3 I am interested in the interpretations and the middle Jewish applications of the prophecies of the Servant the so-called

1 Cfr K Koch ldquoSuumlhne und Suumlndenvergebung um die Wende von der exilischen zur

nachexilischen Zeitrdquo EvT 265 (1966) p 237 2 B Duhm Das Buch Jesaja (Goumlttingen Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht 1892) Here it is

stated for the first time that the book of Isaiah is a collection of originally independent textual units Nowadays this thesis is highly controversial and rejected by those who believe that the Song of the Servant is perfectly framed in the context and in the message of the Deutero-Isaiah to whom the paternity is attributed see Ettore Franco ldquoLa morte del Servo sofferente in Is 53rdquo in Gesugrave e la sua morte Atti della XXVII Settimana Biblica ed Associazione Biblica Italiana (Brescia Paideia1984) p 220 Also PE Bonnard Le Second Isaiumle Son disciple et leurs eacutediteurs Isaiumle 40-66 (Paris Gabalda 1972)

3 The bibliography about the Songs of the Servant is almost endless For a comprehensive consultation see P Grelot ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo in Suppleacutement au Dictionnaire de la Bible eds J Briend and E Cothenet (Paris Letouzey amp Aneacute 1992) vol 12 esp pp 969-972 and J Blenkinsopp Isaiah 40-55 (AB 19A New York Doubleday 2002) vol 2 pp 166-174

Urciuoli ndash Pre-Jesuanic and Pre-Christian Exegesis of Isaiah 53

67

Wirkungsgeschichte rather than in the person or the community that inspired their conception and composition

Second a methodological observation that concerns a series of elements that cannot be disregarded while interpreting these passages I quote from Joachim Jeremiasrsquo entry ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo in the Theologisches Woumlrterbuch zum Neuen Testament4 bull The distinction no longer widely agreed upon and the highly debatable

delimitation of the ldquoSongs of the Servantrdquo within the Deutero-Isaianic corpus of the Book of Consolation has been established by contemporary biblical criticism and was back then completely unknown

bull ldquoSodann muss man sich vergegenwaumlrtigen dass bei der atomistischen Art der damaligen Exegese eine einheitliche Deutung der Ebed-Gestalt nicht vorausgesezt werden darfrdquo5 Every interpretation is to be linked to the main passage it refers to and cannot be generalized

bull Although both are noteworthy it is important to distinguish between the mere allusions and the direct quotations as well as obviously to tell them apart from the widespread circumstances of thematic assonance and contextual likeness Last but not least I will refer to the structural approach of my research

which follows a chronological criterion rather than a geographical cultural one In this aspect I follow the line adopted by Pierre Grelot both in Les Poegravemes du Serviteur6 and in the entry ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo which he edited for the Dictionnaire de la Bible instead of the geographically-structured criterion used by Jeremias in ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo The latter in his choice of approach takes a double risk that of establishing too drastic a separation between ldquoHellenisticrdquo and ldquoPalestinianrdquo Judaism7 and that of dating too early the implications inferred from evidences that are later though belonging to the same geographical and cultural background8

4 J Jeremias ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo in Theologisches Woumlrterbuch zum Neuen Testament ed G

Friedrich (Stuttgart W Kohlhammer 1954) vol 5 p 681 5 Ibid 6 P Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur De la lecture critique agrave lrsquohermeacuteneutique (Paris

Editions du Cerf 1981) 7 A distinction that by virtue of the terms used resembles the one that Martin Hengel

once denounced as fallacious in Judentum und Hellenismus Studien zu ihrer Begegnung

unter besonderer Beruumlcksichtigung Palaumlstinas bis zur Mitte des 2 Jhsv Chr (Tuumlbingen Mohr-Siebeck 1968)

8 Actually as it will be seen later the main reason behind Jeremiasrsquo comprehensive approach to the research is his profound belief in the existence of a significant ideological Jewish background related to the idea of an eschatological-salvific figure in whom the prophecies of the Servant would be fulfilled This would obviously be a valid argument to support the thesis of an undoubted Messianic self-understanding by Jesus which is what Jeremias strongly states in his Neutestamentliche Theologie Die Verkundigung Jesu (Gutersloh Gutersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn 1971) vol 1

Essays Saggi 68

1) The Oldest Interpretation of the Suffering Servant Thus was headlined more than fifty years ago a Harold Louis

Ginsbergrsquos paper9 regarding a specific passage of the apocalyptic book of Daniel (ca 168-164 BCE) namely Dan 123

ldquoThose who are wise [wcedilhammaWKilOacutem]10 shall shine like the brightness of the sky and those who lead many to righteousness [˚macDOacuteq hAraBBOacutem] like the stars forever and everrdquo (Dan 123) Scholars agree on taking Danielrsquos designation of maWKilOacutem as a specific

reference to the vebed YHWH which is in Isa 5213 emphatically introduced by God in the following way hinnEh

yaWKOacutel vabDOacute (ldquoSee my servant shall be wiserdquo)11 Further confirmation of this is the fact that Danielrsquos wise men are presently referred to as macDOacuteq hAraBBOacutem according with as it seems another Deutero-Isaianic passage concerning the Servant namely Isa 5311 (yaJcDOacuteq caDDOacuteq vabDOacute lAraBBOacutem ldquoThe righteous one my servant shall make many righteousrdquo) Danielrsquos wise men therefore function like Isaiahrsquos Servant12 the glorious fate of the maWKilOacutem is an actualisation of the prophecies of the vebed bearing in mind the fact that previously in Dan 1133-35 ldquoa man clothed in linenrdquo the provider of the last vision of the book had foretold their violent death by the sword

ldquo33 The wise [˚maJWKOacutel] among the people shall give understanding to many [yAbOacuten˚ lAraBBOacutem] for some days however they shall fall by sword and flame and suffer captivity and plunder 34

When they fall victim they shall receive a little help and many shall join them insincerely 35 Some of the wise [˚min-hammaWKOacutelOacutem] shall fall so that they [BAhem] may be refined purified and cleansed until the time of the end for there is still an interval until the time appointedrdquo (Dan

1133-35)

9 HV Ginsberg ldquoThe Oldest Interpretation of the Suffering Servantrdquo VT 34 (1953) pp

400-404 10 From now on all the quotations of the Masoretic Text (MT) are from Biblia Hebraica

Stuttgartensia 27th ed eds K Elliger and W Rudolph (Stuttgart Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft 1997) Unless otherwise stated the English translation is taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible ed Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America (Glasgow Collins 1989)

11 My translation in this case The NRSV translates ldquoSee my servant shall prosperrdquo choosing the other meaning of the hifil form of the verb Wkl that is precisely ldquoto prosperrdquo ldquoto succeedrdquo The Danielic text as seen before leans towards this reading as well as the LXX which features Ἰδοὺ συνήσει ὁ παῖς μου

12 Thus also HW Wolff Jesaia 53 im Urchristentum (Berlin Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 1950) pp 38-39


69

At this point some scholars ldquostretchedrdquo the text beyond what is right thus establishing the reference to that main element of the Servantrsquos prophecies that constitutes the object of this research the issue of death (violent death) as a factor of vicarious atonement Ultimately a far-fetched link has been forced between the martyrdom of the ldquowiserdquo and their aforesaid action of ldquoleading many to righteousnessrdquo and between the latter and the ldquopurificationrdquo from which many will benefit ldquountil the time of the endrdquo suggesting that it is precisely their death by the hand of their persecutors that determines the everlasting purification (vad-vEt qEc) of the others13 The BAhem in v 35 unnoticed by the NRSV translation is not meant as a partitive (ldquoamong themrdquo) but as an instrumental (ldquothanks to themrdquo) inasmuch as ldquoil ne semble pas que lrsquoauteur veuille eacutevoquer par ces mots la chute de certains drsquoentre eux qui auraient fleacutechi dans lrsquoeacutepreuverdquo14 However the fact that both the LXX (ἐκ τῶν συνιεντῶν)15 and Theodotion (ἀπὸ τῶν δικαιῶν τῶν πολλῶν) translate with the partitive leads me to draw a clear distinction between the idea of purification ndash which concerns only the martyrs or part of them ndash and the action of justification that they perform on behalf of the masses The latter in fact does not follow from a vicarious and sacrificial characterisation of the death of the maWKilOacutem but just from their teachings I thus agree with John J Collins who in his commentary on Daniel categorically rules out the possibility of purification referring to the raBBOacutem16 and does not hide his perplexity regarding a sacrificial interpretation of the martyrsrsquo death17 Therefore what can be positively concluded from the analysis of Danielrsquos evidence is that it confirms the existence of a collective interpretation of the vebed YHWH whose divine reward is expressed in the unambiguous terms of a glorious resurrection in explicitly eschatological times On the other hand the issue of the vicarious atonement remains under a shadow without any identifiable thematisation18

13 Both Ginsberg (ldquoThe Oldest Interpretation of the Suffering Servantrdquo p 402) and Grelot (ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo p 1003) conduct their own exegesis along these lines Also A Lacocque Le Livre de Daniel (Paris Delachaux et Niestle 1976) p 170 More cautious but yet inclined towards an expiatory reading of the death of the maWKilOacutem are M Hengel ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53 in the Pre-Christian Periodrdquo in The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 53 in Jewish and Christian Sources eds B Janowski and P Stuhlmacher (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 2004) p 98 and J Blenkinsopp Opening the Sealed Book Interpretations

of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 2006) pp 262-263 14 P Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur p 121 15 Unless otherwise stated the quotations from the LXX are taken from Septuaginta id

est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes ed A Rahlfs (Stuttgart Privilegierte Wuumlrttembergische Bibelanstalt 1935)

16 ldquoThe death of the martyrs is not vicarious They are the ones who are purifiedrdquo thus J J Collins A Commentary on the Book of Daniel (Hermeneia Minneapolis Fortress 1993) p 386

17 Ibid p 393 18 Similarly SK Williams Jesusrsquo Death as Saving Event The Background and Origin of

a Concept (Missoula University of Montana 1975) p 112

Essays Saggi 70

2 The vebed YHWH in the LXX The first systematic assessment of the Fourth Song of the Servant must

be traced back to the Isaianic pages of the LXX fairly dated around the mid-II century BCE19 There are two relevant peculiarities in a translation that Grelot perhaps too freely qualifies as a ldquotargoum grecrdquo20 from very likely a synagogal background This liturgical reading preceded its writing and must therefore be understood in the light of this public communitarian dimension That was a public and a community with unique religious requirements which are expressions of an historical and cultural milieu that was necessarily different from those to which the Hebrew document was primarily addressed

Above all the term vebed is translated as παῖς in almost all occurrences and only in three cases as δοῦλος (Isa 4935 5311)21 an option that will survive for a long time in Greek Jewish literature Being intrinsically ambiguous in its double-meaning of ldquoservantrdquo and ldquosonrdquo δοῦλος will entail a huge number of hermeneutical puzzles22

However the element of the Deutero-Isaianic text of the LXX that deserves the highest interest for our purposes is its manifest tendency to apply the collective interpretation of the Servantrsquos passages even where the Hebrew turns out to be less explicit if not altogether suitable for an individual reading Places where unlike in the MT23 there is an explicit identification of the vebed with Israel (Isa 421) or where the noun appears in the plural rather than in the singular (Isa 4219a-d) are the most evident

19 The entire issue of the dating of the Greek Isaiah turns around the interpretation of two passages namely Isa 231 (Ὀλολύζετε πλοῖα Καρχηδόνος ὅτι ἀπώλετο) and 2310 (ἐργάζου τὴν γῆν σου καὶ γὰρ πλοῖα οὐκέτι ἔρχεται ἐκ Καρχεδόνος) A complete discussion about this can be found in G Dorival M Harl and O Munnich La Bible Grecque des Septante Du judaiumlsme helleacutenistique au christianisme ancient (Paris Editions du Cerf 1988) pp 93 ff where the chosen date varies between 170 and 132 BCE in any case after the translation of the Twelve Prophets as stated by J Ziegler Untersuchungen zur Septuaginta des Buches Isaias (Muumlnster Aschendorff 1934) pp 104-105

20 P Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur p 84 Also in ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo Grelot talks about an ldquoadaptation targoumique grecquerdquo (p 1001) He grounds this statement on his conviction that the Greek Isaiah is the result of an attempt to adapt the original text to the main needs (linguistic cultural and ideological) of the community to which the prophetic message was addressed Therefore the Greek version constitutes a targum inasmuch as it constitutes an interpretation either deliberate or unconscious of the Hebrew Vorlage This of course is not to be understood as a way to maintain that the Greek text of Isaiah as any other book of the LXX is acquainted with the procedures and the exegetical solutions that characterize the Aramaic targumim

21 In this last case in the form of the participle δουλεύοντα 22 An eloquent example of such uncertainties is provided by Wis 213 where παῖς

κυρίου is read as a self-proclaiming formula of the ldquoRighteousrdquo The following reference to the fact that he ldquoboasts that God is his fatherrdquo (Wis 216) is enough to see that the option of ldquoSonrdquo is better than that of ldquoServantrdquo

23 In the Hebrew text there are nine passages where the Servant is explicitly identified with Israel-Jacob (Isa 418a-b 4310 44 1 2 21 444 454 4820 493)


71

ldquotextual cluerdquo of what is being said Only what is currently defined as the ldquoThird Song of the Servantrdquo (Isa 504-11) which subject is characterized by a series of almost-material personal features can escape this general hermeneutical perspective and lends itself to be understood as a testimony of the persecution suffered by Isaiah himself (both ldquoSuffering Righteousrdquo and ldquoPersecuted Prophetrdquo)

In any case beyond the ascription to Isaiah of this specific experience of grief and oppression expressed in the concrete terms used for martyrdom in the later haggadic tradition24 in those that we define nowadays as the First (Isa 421-9) Second (Isa 491-6) and Fourth Songs (Isa 5213 - 5312) of the Servant of YHWH the comprehensive understanding of the text seems to suggest a systematic application of the prophecies regarding this enigmatic character to a collective corpus bearing determined qualifications a ldquoRighteous Israelrdquo to paraphrase the compelling terms of Grelotrsquos proposal25 However in the context of the wider picture it is sensible to focus the attention on the Fourth Song where the presence of a long and dense testimonial speech regarding the sacrificial meaning of the sufferings and the death of the vebed begs for a closer examination of the hermeneutical approach identifiable in the Deutero-Isaianic page itself It is necessary to warn about the stylistic complexity and the roughness of the Greek text partly due to the textual difficulties of the Hebrew Vorlage which problematic situation sometimes resulting from corruptions unlikely to be solved as we will see later has been confirmed by the discovery at Qumran of scrolls 1QIsaa and 1QIsab 26 These scrolls record a consonantal text which is surprisingly similar to the MT and consequently constitutes an important argument if one wants to attribute (as Grelot does) the many significant Greek differences with the MT to a massive intervention with the purpose of re-adapting a Hebrew which was from the beginning analogous to the textus receptus In this case therefore it is difficult to presume the existence of a version of the prophetic book different from the tradition that blooms in the Codex Leningradensis

Getting right to the point as a whole the lack of explicit identifications of the vebed with the holy people notwithstanding there do not seem to be

24 Suffice it to mention the haggadic material gathered in the Jewish-Christian document

of the Ascensio Isaiae Regarding this issue see E Norelli LrsquoAscensione di Isaia Studi su un

apocrifo al crocevia dei cristianesimi (Bologna EDB 1994) 25 The Servant as an example of ldquoCorporate Personalityrdquo About this concept see H W

Robinson ldquoThe Hebrew Conception of Corporate Personalityrdquo in Werden und Wesen des Alten Testaments eds Paul Volz Friedrich Stummer and Johannes Hempel (Berlin A Topelmann 1936)

26 The two Qumran manuscripts of Isaiah (1QIsaa and 1QIsab) have been edited for the first time respectively by M Burrows The Dead Sea Scrolls of St Markrsquos Monastery The

Isaiah Manuscript and the Habakkuk Commentary (New Haven American Schools of Oriental Research 1950) vol 1 and EV Sukenik The Dead Sea Scrolls of the Hebrew

University (Jerusalem The Hebrew University 1955) The former will be explored in detail in this research

Essays Saggi 72

elements that might allow us to presuppose an interpretation of the Servant different from the collective one explicitly expressed in the first two Songs If there is a minor evidence in this sense it is because ldquola distinction entre la masse dont font partie les lecteurs et auditeurs contemporains du traducteur et le groupe des justes souffrants qui subissent leur peine agrave la place des coupables srsquoimpose ici plus que preacuteceacutedemment rdquo27

Therefore to talk about an individual hermeneutics of the Deutero-Isaianic character is in my view an operation lacking in textual justification Some of the most significant peculiarities of the Greek text will be underlined later on for the time being my interest is focused on vv 10-12 where it is easier to identify clues regarding the LXXrsquos understanding of the death of the Servant its consequences and its eventual eschatological results

ldquo10 καὶ κύριος βούλεται καθαρίσαι αὐτὸν τῆς πληγῆς ἐὰν δῶτε περὶ ἁμαρτίας ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν ὄψεται σπέρμα μακρόβιον καὶ βούλεται κύριος ἀφελεῖν 11 ἀπὸ τοῦ πόνου τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς καὶ πλάσαι τῇ συνέσει δικαιῶσαι δίκαιον εὖ δουλεύοντα πολλοῖς καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν αὐτὸς ἀνοίσει 12 διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὸς κληρονομήσει πολλοὺς καὶ τῶν ἰσχυρῶν μεριεῖ σκῦλα ἀνθrsquo ὧν παρεδόθη εἰς θάνατον ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνόμοις ἐλογίσθη καὶ αὐτὸς ἁμαρτίας πολλῶν ἀνήνεγκεν καὶ διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν παρεδόθηrdquo ldquo10 And it pleased the Lord to purify him from the plague If you give an offering for the sin your soul shall see a long-lived seed And it pleased the Lord to spare 11 his soul from the suffering showing him the light and forming him with the knowledge proclaiming the righteousness of Him who is a good servant of many And he shall bear their sins 12 Therefore he shall inherit many and shall divide the spoils of the mighty because his soul has been handed over to death and he has been numbered with the wicked he has borne the iniquities of many and has been delivered regarding their sinsrdquo (Isa 5310-12 my translation) Main elements to be noticed

bull As Eugene Robert Ekblad pointed out in his excellent study of the LXXrsquos version of the Ebedlieder in v 10 ldquothe MTrsquos description of the Lordrsquos delight in crushing the Servant is radically transformed into part of Lordrsquos justification for retribution against the wicked and the richrdquo28 Here God is not associated with the persecution of the Servant as his

27 Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur p 110 28 ER Ekblad Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems according to the Septuagint An Exegetical and

Theological Study (Leuven Peeters 1999) p 241


73

desire is mostly that of purifying the Servant from the inflicted sufferings 29

bull Also in v 10 the abrupt shift to the second person plural (δῶτε) nonexistent in the MT implies that the Servant no longer offers himself as AHAm thus obtaining a fair reward from God but it is the community to which the text is addressed the one that has to offer a sacrifice περὶ ἁμαρτίας30 if it wants to secure a prosperous offspring The vicarious sacrifice of the Servant becomes a sacrifice offered by the community with the purpose of securing for themselves the divine reward

bull In v11 it stands out as obvious that ldquotrois actions verbales sont reporteacutees sur Dieu au lieu drsquoecirctre attribueacutees au Serviteur souffrantrdquo31 God is the one who ldquoshows the lightrdquo to the Servant (δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς)32 ldquoforms [the Servant] with the knowledgerdquo (πλάσαι τῇ συνέσει)33 and above all justifies him as ldquothe good servant of manyrdquo

29 Isa 5310 is the only Septuagint passage where καθαρίζω is found in correspondence

with the Masoretic dk (ldquoprostraterdquo ldquoannihilaterdquo) Hengel hypothesized a misunderstanding between the verbs dk and zkh (precisely at piel ldquokeep pure intactrdquo) although as Ekblad has opportunely noticed ldquoκαθαρίζω never appears as semantic equivalent for zakah in the LXXrdquo (E R Ekblad Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems p 241 contra M Hengel ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 125) Grelotrsquos proposal (Les poegravemes du Serviteur p 107) more convincing states that the LXX rather than vocalizing DaKKUgrave (infinitive construct piel form ) as the MT here reads DuKUgrave qal infinitive construct from the Aramaic root dkh which means precisely ldquoto purifyrdquo

30 I want to point out that the expression δῶτε περὶ ἁμαρτίας is a Septuagintic hapax

and that this is the only Isaianic passage where the LXX translates AHAm as περὶ ἁμαρτίας (a phrase that by the way only rarely appears in the biblical text to render AHAm being preferentially used to translate xaXXAt) Regarding the exegesis of the passage I follow Hengelrsquos interpretation of v 10b-c as an exhortation addressed to the congregation with the aim of allowing it to participate in the salvation that God promised to the Servant See Hengel ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo pp 125-126

31 Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur p 108 Similarly Hengel ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 126 and Ekblad Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems p 250

32 Here the MT has only yireh (ldquoshall seerdquo) referred to the Servant However since the variant Or (ldquolightrdquo) after the verb is clearly recorded at Qumran (1QIsaa 1QIsab and 4Q58) some scholars as for example Dominique Bartheacutelemy have stated that the absence of the direct object in the MT is due to an accidental omission see D Bartheacutelemy Critique textuelle

de lrsquoAncient Testament (Fribourg Editions Universitaires 1986) vol 2 pp 403-407 Ekblad (Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems p 251) instead supposes that the Qumran phrases as well as those of the Septuagint should they not reflect a different Vorlage testify to a ldquolater scribersquos attempt to clarify the shorter more difficult Hebrew verb without object attested by the MTrdquo In that regard the verb δεῖξαι can be sufficiently explained if it is assumed that the LXX reads the hifil that is yareh (precisely ldquoto showrdquo ldquoto make visiblerdquo) rather than the qal imperfect of rh (yireh)

33 Also in Ekbladrsquos work I have found that in Isaiah twelve out of fifteen times πλάσσω translates the qal of ycr (ldquoto shaperdquo ldquoto formrdquo) while this is the only passage in the entire LXX where the Greek verb is found in correspondence with the Masoretic yiWBAv which refers to the Servant and means literally ldquoshall be satisfiedrdquo (see Ekblad Isaiahrsquos Servant

Poems p 252) It is difficult to imagine how the idea of a shaping action performed by God came to be Hengel (ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 127) reckons that it is likely that

Essays Saggi 74

(δικαιῶσαι δίκαιον εὖ δουλεύοντα πολλοῖς)34 In this way the work of justification a crucial element in the action of vicarious atonement of the vebed according to the MT is attributed only to God the sole master of the fate of humankind

bull The terms of the post mortem retribution from which the Servant will profit remain largely undefined both in v11 a-b and in v12 a-b Here the act of ldquogiving of manyrdquo (middotxalleq-lUgrave bAraBBOacutem) is matched by the yet more ambiguous and cryptic κληρονομήσει πολλοὺς35

Moreover in the Greek text the Servant will not be summoned to ldquoshare the spoils with the mightyrdquo (wcedilet-vmiddotc˚mOacutem ycedilxallEq JHAlAl) as stated in the MT but to share their spoils (καὶ τῶν ἰσχυρῶν μεριεῖ σκῦλα)36 The eschatological datum is here so unstable and ambiguous that speaking of true eschatology could be considered arbitrary or at least careless Grelot is right again when he claims that ldquola perspective drsquoavenir ainsi ouverte est tout agrave fait impreacutecise et il serait abusif drsquointroduire ici une perspective proprement eschatologiquerdquo37 In conclusion what would be safe to say about the LXXrsquos interpretation of the Servantrsquos redemptio vicaria is that it lacks elements that might allow for an understanding of the vebed YHWH in terms of an individual character whose action of vicarious atonement ndash on behalf of the ldquomanyrdquo ndash produces explicit eschatological outcomes

________________________ ldquothe translator found the Hebrew meaning lsquoto be satisfiedrsquo or lsquofilledrsquo to be inappropriate and instead inserted his favorite word πλάσσω lsquoto formrsquordquo

34 The MT says yacDOacuteq caDDOacuteq vabDOacute lAraBBOacutem Obviously here the translator has read the consonants of vabDOacute (ldquomy Servantrdquo) without the suffix yod as the qal participle of vbd (vObEd ldquoHe that servesrdquo) Thus also Hengel (ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 128) and Ekblad (Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems p 255)

35 The Masoretic expression equally obscure means literally ldquoI shall give to Him part of the manyrdquo Isa 5312a is the only Septuagint passage in which κληρονομέω is found in correspondence with the piel of xlq whereas the Greek verb is generally used to translate the qal of yrH (ldquoto take possessionrdquo but also ldquoto inheritrdquo) Ekblad (Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems p 262) suggests that the variant of the LXX could be explained on the grounds of a Vorlage with yaxmiddotlOq-lUgrave (therefore the qal imperfect of yrH instead of the Masoretic piel) and by the fact that the third person singular probably ldquoreflects contextual exegetical harmonizing with 5310-11 where in the LXX the Lord and the servant are spoken of in the third personrdquo Regarding the quaestio related to the identification of the ldquomanyrdquo see the discussion in ibid pp 262-263

36 Thus Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur p 109 This reading of μερίζω as ldquosharing the spoilsrdquo is contested by both Ekblad (Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems p 261) and Hengel (ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 124) who translate (more literally) ldquohe will divide the spoilsrdquo While the former sees ldquoa clear connectionrdquo between this Deutero-Isaiah image and the passages of the Trito-Isaiah where the nations and the kings of the Earth are described as they bring their riches to Jerusalem (Isa 605-7 16-17 616 see Ekblad Isaiahrsquos Servant

Poems p 263) the latter adds this ldquopromise of dominationrdquo to the well-known vision of the ldquoSon of Manrdquo of Dan 714 (see M Hengel ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 124)

37 Grelot ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo p 1002 Similarly Blenkinsopp Opening the Sealed

Book p 261


75

3) The Servant at Qumran In accordance with the chronological criterion that I have followed I

will now open the dossier dedicated to the evolution of the exegesis of the Servant in the light of the almost endless documentary material about Qumran In this specific section of my research I mean to deal exclusively with texts that came to be known after what has been fairly called the most significant archaeological and documentary discovery of the twentieth century and for sure ldquothe most important manuscripts found in modern timesrdquo38

The texts I will now introduce are then Qumran texts not because they are all to be held as the authentic expression of the theology the anthropology the eschatology and in sum the Weltanschauung of whoever copied read learnt and kept them but because they have been found in Qumran caves and belong to the community ldquolibraryrdquo They are not by and large the ultimate word of the Qumranites but without any doubt they all remain an integral part of the wider ideological discourse which constitutes the background of the sect As such they are invaluable witnesses to the history or the prehistory of the community39

Obviously among the more than eight hundred manuscripts found in the eleven caves nearby the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran written over almost three centuries of the common era I will take into account only those susceptible of real interest in the context of my research Therefore my analysis will concern a few texts namely a) 4Q541 (also known as 4QaaronA 4QAhA or 4QTLevid) b) 1QIsaa and c) some texts referring to

38 This is the title of a chapter contributed by Florentino Garciacutea Martiacutenez in idem and J

Trebolle Barrera The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden Brill 1995) p 6 39 More than forty years have passed since the beginning of the debate over the definition

of the connection between the Qumran ldquowordrdquo and the wider ldquodiscourserdquo (Enochic Hasidic Essene Sadokite and even Babylonian) within which the ldquowordrdquo is contained and about the identification of the ldquohistoryrdquo and the ldquoprehistoryrdquo of the community Regarding the oldest (or rather traditional) hypotheses see H Stegemann ldquoThe Qumran Essenes-Local Members of the Main Jewish Union in the Late Second Temple Timesrdquo in Proceedings of the

International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls Madrid 18-21 March 1991 ed J Trebolle Barrera ndash V Vegas Montaner (Leiden Brill 1992) pp 83-166 M Delcor ndash F Garciacutea Martiacutenez Introduccioacuten a la literatura esenia de Qumraacuten (Madrid Ediciones Cristianidad 1982) pp 28-35 F Garciacutea Martiacutenez ldquoThe Origins of the Essene Movement and of the Qumran Sectrdquo in The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls pp 77-91 For further information regarding the ldquoGroningen hypothesisrdquo (nowadays followed by the leading experts in Qumran) and its development see F Garciacutea Martiacutenez ndash A van der Woude ldquoA Groningen Hypothesis of Qumran Origins and Early Historyrdquo RevQ 143 (1990) pp 521-554 and G Boccaccini Beyond the Essene Hypothesis The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic

Judaism (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1998) Finally for a global overview of the connection between Enochic literature and the origins of the Qumran community see G Boccaccini (ed) Enoch and Qumran Origins New Light on a Forgotten Connection (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 2005)

Essays Saggi 76

the persecutions endured by the ldquoTeacher of Righteousnessrdquo in particular 1QHa a) 4Q54140

Scholars have devoted special attention to two extremely interesting

fragments ndash frgs 9 and 24 ndash of a text which palaeographic dating assigns to the end of the II century BCE For the sake of clarity I will refer to it by the technical term 4Q541

4Q541 9 I ldquo1 [hellip] the sons of his generation [hellip] 2 [hellip] his wisdom [hellip] And he will atone for all the children of his generation [wykpr vl kwl bny drh] and he will be sent to all the children of 3 his [people] His word is like the word of heavens and his teaching according to the will of God His eternal sun will shine 4 and his fire will burn in all the ends of the earth above the darkness it will shine Then darkness will vanish 5 [fr]om the earth and gloom from the dry land They will utter many words against him and an abundance of 6

[lie]s they will fabricate fables against him and utter every kind of disparagement against him His generation will be evil and changed 7 [and hellip] will be and its position of deceit and of violence The people will go astray in his days and they will be bewilderedrdquo

40 The denomination of the text has aroused an intense debate The first to study this

document ndash before it was ever published ndash was Jean Starcky more than forty years ago In an article that appeared in Revue Biblique dedicated to the internal evolution of Qumran Messianism he called it provisionally 4QAhA In his article Starcky described the document for the first time and then working on the few useful fragments available he put forth the following suggestion ldquoIls [the readable fragments of the text] nous paraissent eacutevoquer un messie souffrant dans la perspective ouverte par les poegravemes du Serviteurrdquo see J Starcky ldquoLes quatre eacutetapes du messianisme agrave Qumranrdquo RB 704 (1963) p 492 The text was only published thirty years later in 1992 by Eacutemile Puech with the name of 4QTestLevid and added to the set of seven or eight manuscripts of Qumran origin classified (some of them quite debatably) as Aramaic Testaments of Levi belonging to the same literary and thematic galaxy of the Greek Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs cf E Puech ldquoFragments drsquoun apocryphe de Leacutevi et le personnage eschatologique 4QTestLevic-d() et 4QAJarsquordquo in Proceedings of the International Congress pp 449-501 However when he published the definitive Edition of 4Q541 for the Textes Arameacuteens of the DJD Puech himself opted for the new title of 4QApocryphe de Leacutevib see E Puech (ed) Qumracircn Grotte 4 XXII Textes

Arameacuteens premiegravere partie 4Q529-549 (DJD 31 Oxford Clarendon 2001) pp 225-256 Further analogies with the Greek text of the Testament of Levi have been highlighted by George J Brooke ldquo4QTestament of Levid() and the Messianic Servant High Priestrdquo in From Jesus to John Essays on Jesus and New Testament Christology in Honour of Marinus de Jonge ed MC De Boer (Sheffield JSOT 1993) pp 83-100) who in a most detailed contribution regarding this issue follows Puechrsquos lead while Garciacutea Martiacutenez (The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated pp 269-270) goes back to the Aaronic title (4QAaronic Text A) that Starcky had proposed on the grounds of the relevance which in the text is given to a particular eschatological figure who appears in one of the several visions described


77

4Q541 24 II ldquo 1 [hellip] hellip [hellip] hellip [hellip] 2 Do [n]ot mourn for him [hellip] and do not [hellip] 3 [And] God will establish many [hellip] many [hellip] will be revealed and []4 Examine ask and know what the dove has asked do not punish it by the sea-mew and [hellip] hellip [hellip]41 5 do not bring the night-hawk [wcc] near it And you will establish for your father a name of joy and for your brothers you will make a [tested] foundation rise 6 You will see and rejoice in eternal light And you will not be of the enemy Blankrdquo Certainties when they exist must be stated straightaway here we are

dealing with a clearly Messianic character42 whose future coming is announced in a clearly eschatological dimension The fact that he is a ldquoPriestly Messiahrdquo is made explicit by the reference to an expiatory action of a universal nature matched by a teaching activity of equal power and extension The Messianic nature of this eschatological high priest at least ldquoshows us that the presence of this priestly figure in the Testaments of the XII Patriarchs should not simply be ascribed to interpolations or Christian influence Rather it is a development which exists already within Judaismrdquo43

The analogies with the ldquonew priestrdquo in the Greek Testament of Levi44 do not exhaust the topic The uniqueness of the Servant is all in his being the object of affront slander and offence of every imaginable kind he is by all means a suffering Messiah the lack of physical violence notwithstanding (only verbal abuse is mentioned) He suffers mostly the stubborn rejection of his own generation At this point it is of the essence to answer two questions Is this a Messianic interpretation of the vebed YHWH Is the death of the Servant understood in a vicarious and expiatory sense The

41 Unless otherwise specified the English translation of the Qumran texts is that of F

Garciacutea Martiacutenez ndash EJC Tigchelaar (eds) The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (2 vols Leiden Brill vol 1 1997 vol 2 1998) Here the publishers refrain from translating the closing words of l4 but a translation of the Aramaic into ldquohangingrdquo has been first proposed by Puech (ldquopendaisonrdquo in ldquoFragments drsquoun apocryphe de Leacutevirdquo p 476) and later adopted also by Garciacutea Martiacutenez (ldquoestar colgadordquo in Textos de Qumraacuten p 319) Brooke (ldquohangingrdquo in ldquo4QTestament of Levirdquo p 90) and albeit with some reservations by J Zimmermann Messianische Texte aus Qumran koumlnigliche priestliche und prophetische Messiasvorstellungen in den Schriftfunden von Qumran (Tuumlbingen Mohr-Siebeck 1998) p 264 (here ldquoAufhaumlngenrdquo) Geza Vermes instead opts for a vague ldquotroublesrdquo see G Vermes The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London Penguins Books 1997) p 527

42 L Monti Una comunitagrave alla fine della storia (Brescia Paideia 2006) p 36 is more cautious in this regard stating that one can only ldquopartiallyrdquo talk about a fulfilled Messianic conception in relation to 4Q541

43 Garciacutea Martiacutenez ndash Trebolle Barrera The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls p 172 Further information will be given regarding the connection between the Jewish ldquohandrdquo and the Christian ldquohandrdquo in the wording of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

44 See T Levi 18 1-4 in HC Kee ldquoTestaments of the Twelve Patriarchsrdquo in The Old

Testament Pseudepigrapha ed JH Charlesworth (London Darton Longman amp Todd 1983) vol 1 p 794

Essays Saggi 78

second possibility according to the available textual elements must be utterly excluded The expiation mentioned in 4Q541 9 I 2 has a cultic dimension45 and does not seem to have any connection with the hostilities to which the Priestly Messiah was subjected from l5 onwards ultimately he performs an expiatory ritual of universal value some kind of eschatological yUgravem haKiPPurOacutem while there is no evidence at all that might suggest a connection between the expiatory effect and a violent death The link between the Priestly Messiah of 4Q541 9 I and the reference to a hypothetical crucifixion suggested in 4Q541 24 II is yet more arbitrary since even admitting that the so-far-unknown Aramaic word cc could be translated as ldquonailrdquo46 (according to its Syriac meaning) and therefore suggest this type of capital punishment it would be extremely unlikely that the subject of both fragments would be the same one Moreover I even doubt the existence of any kind of connection between the two passages at issue As a result I agree with Collins on the fact that ldquoif we may assume however that the text does refer to crucifixion there is still no question of a Messianic figure being crucifiedrdquo47

Regarding the relation with the Servant both Eacutemile Puech and George J Brooke agree on attributing to 4Q541 the oldest individual interpretation of the vebed YHWH48 It has to be assumed that there are no direct quotations and that there is no physical abuse against the Servant It is therefore true as Collins remarks that the type of abuse inflicted on him remind us of that suffered by the ldquoTeacher of Righteousnessrdquo persecuted by the ldquoMan of Liesrdquo and thus corresponds to an undetermined model of passio iusti Besides after the opinion of Puech and especially after that of Brooke there has been a tendency to assume perhaps too hastily that some loci regarding the Priestly Messiah in 4Q541 9 I were the reflection of undeniable literary contacts with the Deutero-Isaianic passages of the

45 The phrase KIiPPer val (literally ldquoto perform the rite of atonement forrdquo) is classic in the

Bible recorded since the Priesterschrift as an indication precisely of the expiatory rite carried out by the priest and connected with some specifically sacrificial performances

46 This translation has been first proposed by Puech (Fragments drsquoun apocryphe de Leacutevi p 476) and later adopted by Garciacutea Martiacutenez (ldquoclavordquo in Textos de Qumraacuten p 319) and Zimmermann (ldquoNagelrdquo in Messianiche Texte aus Qumran p 264) in virtue of the analogy with the Syriac ssrsquo that is ldquonailrdquo but also ldquotiprdquo ldquoextremityrdquo In the version he edited for the DJD Puech made yet more explicit the connection between the tly of 4Q541 24 II 4b and the cc of 5a translating the former as ldquopendaisoncrucifixionrdquo (Puech Qumracircn Grotte 4 p 253) Vermes (The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls p 527) instead refrains from translating the entire l 5a while as it can be seen in the text copied above the not contextual reference to the ldquonight-hawkrdquo as well as the former concerning the other bird that is the ldquosea-mewrdquo ndash is unique to the Garciacutea Martiacutenezrsquos and Tigchelaarrsquos English translation

47 JJ Collins The Scepter and the Star The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature (New York Doubleday 1995) p 125

48 See Puech ldquoFragments drsquoun apocryphe de Leacutevirdquo p 500 Similarly Brooke ldquoif 4QTLevid is indeed speaking of an eschatological high priest servant we may have in this text the earliest individualistic interpretation of the Isaianic servant songs in a particularly cultic directionrdquo (Brooke ldquo4QTestament of Levid()rdquo p 95)


79

Servant49 In fact apart from the reminiscences grounded on the shared experience of refusal and oppression which makes both characters fit the wider typos of the ldquoSuffering Righteousrdquo the only explicit textual quotation of Isa 53 indicated by Brooke is the verb ytzh in 4Q541 9 I 4 However such linkage has no reason to be there the proposed explanation suggests that the Aramaic verb in question (most likely a derivation from zh ndash ldquoto burnrdquo ldquoto blazerdquo) can be read also as a Hebraism from nzh (ldquoto sprinklerdquo usually translated into Aramaic as ndh) and therefore connected to Isa 5215 The rest of the allusions regard fragments different from 9 and therefore cannot be easily connected to our Messiah If they actually refer to him they do so in reference to other passages of the book of Isaiah (ex Isa 602-3) where the idea of a redemptio vicaria through suffering and violent death does not find any expression50 Therefore I am extremely reluctant to assume that Isa 53 ldquopossa aver fornito allrsquoautore di 4Q541 un modello per descrivere la sorte di un giusto ingiustamente perseguitato51 and to disagree with Collins when he states that ldquothere are no solid grounds for supposing that there is any reference to Isaiah 53 in 4Q451 fragmentsrdquo52

Ultimately it is my impression that the character featured in 4Q541 is a Messianic figure of a priestly type subjected to all kinds of verbal abuse whose description however has not been drawn from the Deutero-Isaianic ldquoMan of Sorrowsrdquo in a larger extent than from other biblical and extra-biblical models of the ldquoSuffering Righteousrdquo Based on the analysis of the few legible fragments of the Qumran manuscript I feel it safe to rule out both the possibilities of finding traces of any kind of death inflicted on the Servant (let alone an expiatory one) and that of possessing a clear testimony of a Messianic interpretation of the vebed YHWH53

b) 1QIsaa

ldquoWir koumlnnen nicht behaupten dass Jes 53 im vorchristlichen Judentum

keinerlei Wirkung gehabt haberdquo54 Martin Hengelrsquos statement that pre-Christian Judaism interpreted Isaiah 53 in a Messianic sense is founded among other things on a particular textual evidence contained in 1QIsaa

49 Monti Una comunitagrave p 34 note 1 50 Information drawn from Brooke ldquo4QTestament of Levid()rdquo pp 92-94 51 Monti Una comunitagrave p 34 note 1 However Monti too agrees on the fact that 4Q541

is not as a whole a document that lends itself to justify the thesis of the existence of a Messianic interpretation of the Servant at Qumran

52 Collins The Scepter p 126 53 Contrary to Garciacutea Martiacutenez I do not see a characterization of the ldquoPriestly Messiahrdquo

with the Deutero-Isaianic features of the ldquoSuffering Servantrdquo (Garciacutea Martiacutenez ndash Trebolle Barrera Gli uomini di Qumran p 172)

54 M Hengel ldquoDer stellvertretende Suumlhnetod Jesu Ein Betrag zur Entstehung des urchristlichen Kerygmasrdquo in Studien zur Christologie Kleine Schriften IV (Tuumlbingen Mohr-Siebeck 2006) p 174

Essays Saggi 80

that is the first of the two scrolls of the book of Isaiah found in Qumran55 The document almost intact and dated on palaeographic grounds circa 100 BCE is extraordinarily important for the identification of a Qumran hermeneutics of the figure of the Servant especially because there is no fragment regarding Isa 53 among the many Isaianic pesharim56 found in the caves The consonantal text of 1QIsaa which in general matches perfectly the MT records this noteworthy variant to Isa 5214b

ldquoKHr Hmmw vlyKh rBym Kn mHxTy myH mrhwrdquo (1QIsaa XLIV 2) That is ldquoAs many were astonished at you so I anointed his countenance

beyond anyone elserdquo (my translation) where the MT says ldquoKamiddotHer HAmcedilmU vAlkA raBBOacutem KEn miHxat mEOacuteH marEh˚rdquo

meaning ldquoAs many were astonished at him so was his countenance marred beyond anyone elserdquo (my translation)

At a first sight it is difficult to escape the impression that we are dealing with a text that presents the vebed YHWH as an anointed of God that is a Messiah In fact following the first edition of the Isaianic manuscript by Millar Burrows in 195057 this variant had caught the interest of the scholars always eager to explore any Qumran data likely to disclose a better understanding of the origins of Christianity58 The first one to highlight the Deutero-Isaianic variant was Dominique Bartheacutelemy in a contribution on Revue Biblique published in 195059 He was puzzled at the

55 Blenkinsopp (Opening the Sealed Book p 91) notes that in the fourth Qumran cave

parts of eighteen manuscripts of Isaiah (dating from the period between the beginning of the I century BCE and the second half of the I century CE) were identified Three of these documents (4Q55 4Q56 4Q57) contain hundreds of verses while the remaining fifteen consist only in a few very short and barely legible fragments

56 A detailed analysis of the contents of six pesharim to Isaiah found in Qumran can be found in ibid pp 106-128

57 Burrows The Dead Sea Scrolls of St Markrsquos Monastery A newer edition of 1QIsaa has

been edited by DW Parry and E Qimron The Great Isaiah Scroll (IQIsaa) A New Edition

(Leiden Brill 1999) 58 The result of this approach was often a methodological and scientific squint which

induced the reading of the Qumran texts with Christian eyes and finding within them inevitably Christianity Therefore the warning voiced by Garciacutea Martiacutenez some fifteen years ago (ldquothe Dead Sea Scrolls do not explain Christianity to us but help us know the Judaism from which Christianity was bornrdquo in ldquoThe Dead Sea Scrolls Jesus Christ and the Origins of Christianityrdquo in idem and Trebolle Barrera The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls p 198) still sounds very useful

59 D Bartheacutelemy ldquoLe grand rouleau drsquoIsaiumle trouveacute pregraves da la Mer Morterdquo RB 57 (1950) pp 530-549 As I have been unable to find the article in question I have drawn all the information regarding the arguments put forth by Bartheacutelemy from WH Brownlee ldquoThe Servant of the Lord in the Qumran Scrolls Irdquo BASOR 132 (1953) p 10 Also F Noumltscher ldquoEntbehrliche Hapaxlegomena in Jesaiardquo VT 14 (1951) p 301 follows Bartheacutelemy After


81

possibility of 1QIsaa XLIV 2 being the authentic reading of the passage but in any case he reckoned that a reading connected with the root of ldquoanointingrdquo (mHx) was better than a reading connected with ldquomarringrdquo or more generally with ldquodestructionrdquo Hxt) The reason would be first the syntactic and meaning-wise simplifications that this reading provided to a text plagued by several difficulties and most likely corrupted

The Qumran reading did indeed contribute to eliminate two cruces that so far had martyred this passage whose exegetical troubles are tightly linked to its syntactic difficulties bull It allowed us to understand the Masoretic expression of the following

line that is yazzeh GUgraveyim raBBOacutem (literally ldquowill sprayrdquoldquowill sprinkle many peoplerdquo) At the same point the LXX records θαυμάσονται60 a reading that could be explained with a reference to the context (Isa 525 14a 15b 531) while the critical apparatus of the MT ventures various conjectures about a different Hebrew Vorlage of the Greek verb none of which is really convincing61 The underlying idea is that the Servant-Messiah as Godrsquos anointed can in his turn anoint others

bull It removed a Masoretic hapax legomenon (miHxat) which presented harsh difficulties in grammatical explanation a) construct of the noun miHxAh (ldquoanointingrdquo) b) absolute form of the biblically unknown noun miHxAt (in the sense of ldquodestructionrdquo) c) corrupt form reconstructed from Syriac of moHxat (ldquomarredrdquo ldquodisfiguredrdquo) hofal participle of Hxt62 In this regard the LXX opts for an equally strange and unusual ἀδοξήσει (ldquohe will be ill-famed) a Septuagintic hapax that Hengel explains as ldquodeliberate wordplay on the δοξασθήσεται

________________________ more than thirty years the Swiss scholar goes back to the issue in an excursus included in the second volume of his Critique textuelle de lrsquoAncien Testament which presents an extremely valuable status quaestionis besides a vast documentation of the textual and exegetical history of the Deutero-Isaianic passage (see D Bartheacutelemy Critique textuelle de lrsquoAT vol 2 pp 385-395)

60 Both Aquilarsquos and Theodotionrsquos versions and the Vulgate are heavily dependent on yazzeh (the former two record ῥαντίσει that is ldquowill sprinklerdquo and the latter records ldquoaspergetrdquo) Symmachus reads ἀποβαλεῖ (ldquohe will drive awayrdquo) the Targum yBDr (ldquohe will scatterrdquo)

61 Among them yibzuh˚ (ldquo[many people] will despise himrdquo thus J Leveen ldquoyzh in Isaiah LII 15rdquo JJS 71-2 1956 p 94) and yirGcedilz˚ (ldquo[many people] will tremblerdquo ldquowill be worriedrdquo see M Hengel ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 104 note 96) Ziegler instead conjectured that the LXX read yexEgravez˚ qal imperfect of xzh which has among its possible meanings also ldquoto contemplaterdquo (see J Ziegler Untersuchungen zur Septuaginta p 163) However as Ekblad points out ldquothere are no places in the LXX where this matching occursrdquo (Ekblad Isaiahrsquos Servant Poems p 188)

62 Some scholars for example CC Torrey Second Isaiah (Edinburgh T amp T Clark 1927) pp 415 ff read miHxAt as a combination of the nifal participle (niHxat) and the hofal participle (moHxAt)

Essays Saggi 82

σφόδρα of verse 13rdquo63 The Vulgate translates quite sensibly ldquoinglorius eritrdquo64 In an annotation to his impressive Critique textuelle de lrsquoAncien

Testament Bartheacutelemy clarifies his position confirming what had been stated more than thirty years before the Qumran mHxty is lectio facilior of an original noun linked to the root mHx (perhaps the same miHxAt construct of miHxAh that is ldquoanointingrdquo)

However the pre-Masoretic interpretation of the term as a derivation from Hxt must have been so deeply rooted that the Massorah opted for the ambiguous vocalization miHxat ldquochoisi comme un mot ambigu qui dit lsquoonctionrsquo et qui eacutevoque lsquodestructionrsquordquo65 The interpretation sways therefore between the two roots of ldquoto anointrdquo and ldquoto destroyrdquo although the former was probably the original one recorded for the first time in Qumran66

The importance of such evidence notwithstanding Paolo Sacchi67 pointed out how since the mid-fifties the scholars had lost interest in this Qumran variant and had either underestimated it or ignored it altogether The greater responsibility should not be pinned on the persistent favouring of the Masoretic interpretation but rather on the weakness of the arguments

63 Hengel ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 122 Similarly also Ekblad Isaiahrsquos

Servant Poems p 185 64 The quotations of the Vulgate are taken from Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem

ed R Weber (2 vols Stuttgart Privilegierte Wuumlrttembergische Bibelanstalt 1969) With the Peshitta instead there is a return to the idea expressed by the root Hxt (mhbl means precisely ldquodestroyedrdquo ldquomarredrdquo) The Targum reads xHwK (ldquo[his appearance] was darkrdquo)

65 Bartheacutelemy Critique textuelle de lrsquoAT vol 2 p 392 Also Brownlee insists on this ambiguity (see Brownlee ldquoThe Servant of the Lordrdquo p 11)

66 Bartheacutelemy (Critique textuelle de lrsquoAT vol 2 p 388) informs of at least five Jewish commentators who between the XII and the XVI centuries ldquoont proposeacute de lire ici lrsquoideacutee drsquoune onctionrdquo The original texts with translations of three of them (namely Jacob ben Reuben the Karaite Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency Rabbi Shrsquolomoh Astruc of Barcelona) could be found in A Neubauer and SR Driver The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah according to the

Jewish Interpreters (New York KTAV 1969) Yehuda Komlosh states in this regard that although the three interpretations are wrong in determining the possible origins of miHxat ldquothey bring us nearer to a solution of this difficulty than all other commentators because by giving a positive meaning to the word the subject matter of the passage lii 13 15 is rendered uniform so that there is no longer any need to transpose Verse 14 and transfer it to follow Verse liii 2rdquo see Y Komlosh ldquoThe Countenance of the Servant of the Lord Was It Marredrdquo JQR 654 1975 p 219) In his opinion miHxat would derive from the Aramaic miHxA meaning ldquomeasurerdquo which appears several times in the targumim referring to a very tall person and as a consequence he suggests to read ldquomiHxAtUgrave his stature more than any man and his visage and his form unlike the sons of menrdquo (ibid p 220) This reading would be he reckons supported by the Qumran variant of IQIsaa since it is difficult to tell the yod in several parts of the scrolls (ו) from the waw (י)

67 I refer to P Sacchi ldquoIdeologia e varianti della tradizione ebraica Deut 27 4 e Is 52 14rdquo in Bibel in juumldischer und christlicher Tradition Festschrift fuumlr Johann Maier zum 60

Geburtstag ed H Merklein ndash K Muumlller ndash G Stemberger (Frankfurt am Main Hain 1993) pp 26-32


83

proposed and on an undeservedly superficial approach68 As far as I am concerned even sharing Sacchirsquos suggestion for a fair assessment of this Qumran unicum I still believe that the arguments put forward by Bartheacutelemy interesting as they might be do not suffice since bull The verb nzh generally used in the biblical text in the form hificircl

(yazzeh) as in the case under consideration is the technical term of the ritual sprinkling with blood oil or water Now in all the biblical places where the object or the subject that receive the sprinkled liquid are specified the object or person is preceded by prepositions like el o val (above on) and they are never in an accusative relation with the verb69 Therefore v15a (= 1QIsaa XLIV 3) still shows a difficult grammatical construction and given the lack of parallels in the wider context it allows for the suspicion of being a corrupt locus Moreover the idea of a ldquochain anointingrdquo so to speak in which God anoints the Servant and the latter in his turn sprinkles other people is unheard of This opens the way for the hypothesis contrary to that of Bartheacutelemy it is possible that the need to understand Isa 5215a has determined the reading mHxty of the verb in the previous line

bull Bartheacutelemyrsquos reading replaces an hapax legomenon by another one As a matter of fact if it is real that the unusual expression mAHax min (ldquoanoint more thanrdquo) is recorded also in Ps 45770 many scholars have observed how ldquothe idea of anointing a personrsquos appearance [mAHax marEh˚] seems intrinsically unlikelyrdquo71 This evidence e contrario above all makes me rather inclined to reject any reading that calls for the assumption of any term connected to the semantic sphere of anointing

bull Neither the immediate context of this passage nor the broader one seems to favour the reference to the anointing What has been introduced by the first KEn (Isa 5214b-c) is simply parenthetical and anticipates the explanation of the general astonishment (HAmcedilmU vAlkA raBBOacutem)72

68 Sacchi talks about ldquola viscositagrave della tradizione accademica che tende a creare vere e

proprie tradizioni interpretativerdquo (ibid p 27) thus hindering the possibility of a real debate to be conducted regarding this important Qumran evidence

69 Cfr Bonnard Le Second Isaiumle p 266 note 15 and Hermisson ldquoThe Fourth Servant Song in the Context of Second Isaiahrdquo in The Suffering Servant p 29 note 42

70 Ps 457 says ldquo[] KEn mcedilHAxmiddotkA EgravelOhOacutem EgravelOhkA [] mExmiddotbErkArdquo (ldquo[hellip] God your God has anointed you [] beyond your companionsrdquo)

71 Burrows The Dead Sea Scrolls of St Markrsquos Monastery vol 1 p 314 See also J Reider ldquoOn MAŠHTY in the Qumran Scrollsrdquo BASOR 134 (1954) p 27 and A Guillaume ldquoSome Readings in the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiahrdquo JBL 761 (1957) p 41 he explains both miHxat and mHxTy as deriving from the homonymous Arabic root mHx (in the sense of ldquotormentingrdquo ldquoexhaustingrdquo)

72 Bartheacutelemy instead contests the ldquodogmaticrdquo statement that declares the first KEn to be parenthetical and only the second one to correspond to the initial KAmiddotHer he suggests considering both the ken as ldquocorrespondant tout deux agrave la particule comparativerdquo(Bartheacutelemy Critique textuelle de lrsquoAT vol 2 p 386)

Essays Saggi 84

aroused by the Servant The glorification of the vebed causes so much wonder (Isa 5214a 15b 531-2 ) because everyone still remembers his former state of pain and prostration and cannot forget how many humiliation he suffered and how much he was marred Regarding this last point Sacchi has a diametrically opposed opinion

and it is my intention to examine closely his interpretative hypothesis Contrary to Bartheacutelemy Sacchi deems authentic as well as correct the reading mHxty of 1QIsaa 73 and translates v14 as follows

ldquoCome le moltitudini sono restate stupite davanti a te [hellip] allo stesso modo io ho unto il suo volto (rendendolo) al di sopra dellrsquouomo e il suo aspetto al di sopra di quello dei figli dellrsquouomordquo 74 MM mHxty is precisely the verb in the first person expected to be found after

v13 (ldquoSee my Servant shall prosperhelliprdquo) but mainly upturning the meaning of the whole passage provides also these positive values that the beginning of the Song seems to require The Messianic anointing is the crowning of a status of exaltation and glorification following the events of suffering and violent death to which the vebed has been subjected in the place and in favour of many Nonetheless the most engaging element in Sacchirsquos proposal is the individuation of precise political and ideological reasons behind the authentic damnatio memoriae to which this particular Messianic figure has been condemned a sentence which has been unanimously acknowledged by all the textual tradition As Grelot had done before Sacchi identifies the Servant with Zerubbabel75 in view of an ancient corruption of the text This corruption took place previous to the drawing up of the LXX and responding to the priestly ideology which is expression of a class that held the power after the defeat and extinction of the House of David ldquolrsquoeliminazione della yod finale di mHxty sfigurograve il testo secondo lrsquoideologia che voleva lrsquoidentificazione del Servo con Israele e che soprattutto rifiutava funzioni messianiche alla dinastia davidicardquo76

73 Other scholars that consider mHxTy as the original reading are I Cardellini ldquoΜΙŠAT

Un termine controverso in Isaia 52 14rdquo in Fedeli a Dio fedeli allrsquouomo ed A Gasperoni (Bologna EDB 2004) pp 41-47 and G Pulcinelli La morte di Gesugrave come espiazione La concezione paolina (Cinisello Balsamo San Paolo 2007) pp 130-132

74 Sacchi Ideologia e varianti p 30 75 With respect to Grelotrsquos thesis see the already mentioned Les poegravemes du Serviteur and

ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo regarding Sacchi see ldquoLrsquoesilio e la fine della monarchia davidicardquo Hen 112-3 (1989) pp 131-148 The proposal to identify the Servant with Zerubbabel already put forth in the end of the XVII century by Ernst Sellin in Serubbabel Ein Beitrag

zur Geschichte der messianischen Erwartung und der Entstehung des Judentums (Leipzig A Deichert 1898) was revisited eighty years later by Henri Cazelles whose thought was still divided between the two options of Haggairsquos and Zechariahrsquos king and his predecessor Yehoyakin king of Judah exiled in Babylon see H Cazelles Le Messie de la Bible

Christologie de lrsquoAncien Testament (Paris Desclee 1978) 76 Sacchi Ideologia e varianti p 30


85

I have two observations to make regarding Sacchirsquos analysis Both add to the above-said arguments against the plausibility of an original reading linked to the idea of ldquoanointingrdquo bull even introducing a verb in first person singular as demanded by the

beginning of the Song the roughness linked to the syntactic concordances of the passage still remains The suffix of second singular in Isa 5214a (KamiddotHer HAmcedilmU vAlkA raBBOacutem) ndash which according to Sacchi refers directly to Israel and not to the Servant to which the following third person possessives do refer instead ndash sounds strikingly out of place Nothing here justifies such a distinction though To begin with no manuscript inserts here the explaining gloss yiWrAEl (should the intention be to constrain the reader or the listener to a collective interpretation of the passage) while the correction in vAlA(y)w (ldquo[were astonished] at himrdquo) suggested by the versio Siriaca the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and the Theodotion (ἐπrsquo ἀυτὸν) points towards the opposite direction that is to the homologation of the pronominal suffixes As a consequence I am afraid that any attempt at harmonizing and giving coherency to such a hard and corrupt passage is almost inevitably doomed to failure

bull The identification of the vebed with Zerubbabel while being one of the most enticing hermeneutic hypotheses in the one-century-old debate on this issue is far from being definitely acquired and it could be hazardous to make it the basis of a new exegetical proposal In this regard I recall that Grelot being aware of the ideological difficulties that would result from such an operation77 avoided the extension of his individual hermeneutics of the Servant to the Fourth Song78 The risk then is that instead of being confirmed by the history of the text outlined on the basis of the Qumran data such identification could become a presupposition for a circular argument that finds in itself its motive and its confirmation In conclusion without pretending to reconstruct the textual history of

this passage and lacking further elements means and probably also the needed skills for such an attempt I shall confine myself to stating my

77 The ideological difficulties are connected in the first place to the fact that if the

Fourth Song is read in reference to Zerubbabel then it would be difficult to avoid a reading of Isa 5310-12 in terms of a prophetic place related to the ultra-mundane survival of the king (see especially 5310b 11a) In fact the same applies to Isa 5213-15 since the passage clearly suggests that the exaltation-glorification of the vebed has to be understood as following the mortal abuse to which he was subjected Now such a hypothesis collides not only against the unlikelihood of the idea of individual survival post mortem being recorded in such an ancient Jewish text but also ndash and above all I would say ndash against the absence of any term in both 5213-15 and 5310-12 that could be traced back to the semantic sphere of resurrection or immortality of the soul The eschatological profile of the final verses of the Servantrsquos vicissitudes is already elusive enough the idea of an individual defeat of death would only deepen the gap between what one could be prone to read in the text and what it really says

78 See Grelot ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo p 999

Essays Saggi 86

preference for a reading linked to the idea of the physical ldquomarringrdquo and to the ldquodisfigurementrdquo of the Servantrsquos face rather than one connected to the Messianic concept of ldquoanointingrdquo It is likely to a large extent that the original text from which the Qumran document was copied presented a verbal or noun form of Hxt maybe written with the same four consonants recorded by the MT (mHxt) and that the variant mHxty of 1QIsaa XLIV 2

could be explained as Eduard Yechezkel Kutscher proposes as ldquoan example of an atomistic explanation [hellip] because the copyist did not understand mšhtrdquo79 All this might be confirmed by the fact that the second scroll of Isaiah (1QIsab) some decade older than 1QIsaa does not record the addition of that crucial yod

Nevertheless once the case has been labelled as a simple error of transcription it is sensible to wonder what could have made this possible should the ideological presuppositions for this actually exist80 As a matter of fact at a theoretical level it would be possible even due to a simple error of transcription which in any case determined an extraordinarily relevant modification in the semantics of the passage to trace back the ideology of the group that transmitted this text with this unique variant The Qumran scrolls it is worthy to remember consisted mainly in documents of a normative nature read and re-read by the members of the community who were extremely well-acquainted with every single word that they contained However being aware of the lack of Qumran evidence regarding a Messianic hermeneutics of the character and the fate of the vebed it would be reckless to set this ldquoprobablerdquo mistake within any wider ideological milieu It is in any case frustrating to be left without any other option than to attribute such a significant textual datum to human carelessness

c) The ldquoTeacher of Righteousnessrdquo and Isaiah 53

Although more than sixty years have passed since the day in which the

curiosity of the young Mohamed Adh-Dhib ended up in the sensational discovery hailed by a great specialist as ldquoa dream that has come truerdquo81 and even when by now all the manuscripts found in the eleven Qumran caves

79 EY Kutscher The Language and Linguistic Background of the Isaiah Scroll (Leiden

Brill 1974) p 262 Both Joseph Reider ldquoOn MAŠHTYrdquo p 28 and Ariel Rubinstein ldquoIsaiah LII 14 ndash משחת ndash and the DSIa Variantrdquo Bib 354 (1954) pp 475-479 read the Qumran variant as a hofal participle in the construct state and with a yod added (as OhabTOacute in Hos 1011) but as Kutscher points out ldquothere does not seem to be a single sure instance of such a yod in the Scrollsrdquo (Kutscher The Language and Linguistic Background p 262) Brownlee puts forward the same argument in his response to Reider ldquoOn MAŠHTYrdquo p 28

80 As suggested by Hengel ldquoDer stellvertretende Suumlhnetod Jesurdquo p 174 In ldquoThe Effective History of Isaiah 53rdquo p 105 he reaffirms that ldquothis interesting variant in 1QIsaa

could be based on a conscious interpretation of Isaiah 5214 in Qumranrdquo 81 G Vermes The Dead Sea Scrolls Qumran in Perspective (London Collins 1977) p

10


87

have been published and studied the character of the ldquoTeacher of Righteousnessrdquo (mUgraverEh cedeq) remains still to a large extent a mystery

That figure has not yet been historically identified in a fashion that is both precise and satisfying82 and even the chronological extremes of his life and his ministry within the community calculated according to the scarce information found in the texts remain blurry83 What can be stated with a sufficient degree of certainty is that he was a Zadokite priest probably the high priest for a brief period close to mid-II century BCE a charismatic leader of the Qumran community ldquoraised uprdquo (the verbal form with which he is introduced in CD-A I 11 wayyAqem is that of the prophets and the chosen ones in general) by God for the purpose of leading it close to the Highest to such an extent that he enjoyed a particular divine enlightenment the keeper of the one and only halakah and of the sole right interpretation of the Scripture The Teacher finally is also the likely author of many Qumran hymns84 that bear testimony to the glorious vicissitudes of his life his election his constant closeness to the divine but also of his suffering rejection and persecution Such a profile would suit my research provided that it comes along with two further and detailed premises bull based on what can be deduced from the manuscripts the Teacher did not

perceive himself as a Messiah nor was he ever perceived as one by the community The identification Teacher-Messiah put forward by several scholars after Andreacute Dupont-Sommer85 is therefore categorically rejected

82 Nowadays scholars generally try to avoid suppositions regarding the identity of the

Teacher and his identification with well-known or less-known historical figures of that time Until some decades ago however the approach was opposed and every now and then led to embarrassing conclusions as the ones proposed by Barbara E Thiering for example who identified the Qumran leader with John the Baptist See BE Thiering The Gospel and

Qumran A New Hypothesis The Gospel and Qumran (Sidney Theological Explorations 1981) idem The Qumran Origins of the Christian Church (Sydney Theological Explorations 1983) and idem Jesus the Man A New Interpretation from the Dead Sea Scrolls (London Doubleday 1992) or by Robert Eisenman who opted for James Jesusrsquo brother cf R Eisenman Maccabees Zadokites Christians and Qumran (Leiden Brill 1983) and idem James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher (Leiden Brill 1986)

83 The attempts to reconstruct the chronological coordinates of the life and the ministry of the Teacher are usually grounded on what can be read in the first lines of the Document of Damascus (CD-A I 5-11) In any case it is generally agreed that the Qumran leader operated in the period ranging from the years of Jonathan Maccabeus to those of John Hyrcanus that is from 160 to 104 BCE

84 The distinction made by G Morawe Aufbau und Abgrenzung der Loblieder von

Qumracircn Studien zur gattungsgeschichtlichen Einordnung der Hodajocirct (Berlin Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 1961) between Danklieder and Bekenntnislieder is still valid The former are generally attributed to the Teacher

85 See A Dupont-Sommer Aperccedilus preacuteliminaires sur les manuscrits de la Mer Morte (Paris A Maisonneuve 1950) and idem Les eacutecrits esseacuteniens deacutecouverts pregraves de la Mer

Morte (Paris Payot 1959)

Essays Saggi 88

bull The statement according to which the Teacher would have died a violent death perhaps martyred remains a hypothesis without the slightest shred of evidence ever found in the entire documentation available To venture (as Dupont-Sommer did86) to talk about a crucifixion of the Teacher would imply an utterly improper interpretation since none of the two texts that refer to such type of torture (4Q169 3-4 I 6-8 and 11Q19 LXIV 7-987) mentions the figure of the Qumran leader Coming to the point that is the analysis of the eventual relationship

between the Teacher and the yet more cryptic figure of the vebed YHWH it is appropriate to say that since there is no mention of a vicarious passion of the Teacher in any document found in the Qumran caves what could actually be compared are the events of suffering and persecution that both characters have in common The Qumran passages that were once deemed a hint at an undeniable literary contact between the character of the Teacher and the Deutero-Isaian OacuteJH makObUgravet have been inevitably conspicuous wherever a reference to the persecutions of the Qumran leader was identified the presence of the Servant was detected every passage referring to the violence and the intimidations to which the Master was subjected meant for William H Brownlee and above all for Dupont-Sommer blatant evidence of the fact that he was truly the reproduction (la reacuteplique) of the ldquoMan of Sorrowsrdquo of the Fourth Song of the Servant88

Nonetheless what Samuel Sandmel claims in his masterpiece of methodology article ldquoParallelomaniardquo89 namely that a thematic parallelism does not necessarily imply a literary dependence stands out as obvious just by examining the text in question I do not intend to dwell on

86 I refer to A Dupont-Sommer ldquoLe maicirctre de justice fut-il mis agrave mortrdquo VT 13 (1951)

pp 200-215 87 The Nahum Pesher says ldquo6 [hellipAnd concerning what he says Nah 213 lsquohe fills] his

cave [with prey] and his den with spoilsrsquo Blank Its interpretation concerns the Angry Lion 7

[who filled his cave with a mass of corpses carrying out rev]enge against those looking for easy interpretations who hanged living men 8 [from the tree committing an atrocity which had not been committed] in Israel since ancient times for it is [hor]rible for the one hanged alive from the treerdquo(4Q169 3-4 I 6-8) Here the reference is probably to Alexander Jannaeus he is the ldquoAngry Lionrdquo known for having ordered the crucifixion of about eight hundred Pharisees (see Josephus Ant 13 380) In the Temple Scroll instead it can be read ldquoIf 7 a man passes on information against his people or betrays his people to a foreign nation or does evil against his people 8 you shall hang him on a tree and he will die On the evidence of two witnesses or on the evidence of three witnesses 9 he shall be put to death and they shall hang him on a treerdquo (11Q19 LXIV 7-9)

88 Dupont-Sommerrsquos statement is drawn from V Moraldi Il Maestro di giustizia (Fossano Editrice Esperienze 1971) p 211 Concerning Brownlee see The Meaning of the

Qumran Scrolls for the Bible with special Attention to the Book of Isaiah (New York Oxford University 1964) Sydney HT Page instead sees unequivocal proof of an identification of the entire Qumran community Teacher in primis with the Deutero-Isaianic Servant see SHT Page ldquoThe Suffering Servant between the Testamentsrdquo NTS 314 (1985) pp 484-485

89 S Sandmel ldquoParallelomaniardquo JBL 811 (1962) pp 1-13


89

the well-known passages of the Pesher of Habacuc (IQpHab XI 5-8) and the Pesher of the Psalms (4Q171 II 17 IV 8-9) that describe how the Master and his community were constantly subjected to threats and tension since they do not contain a single word that could be significant for my purpose I will rather quote a passage from the great scroll of the Hymns (1QHa) nowadays attributed with less certainty to the Teacher himself90

ldquoBut I have been the target of sl[ander for my rivals] cause for quarrel 23 and argument to my neighbours for jealousy and anger to those who have joined my covenant for challenge and grumbling to all my followers Ev[en those who e]at my bread 24 have raised their heel against me they have mocked me with an unjust tongue all those who had joined my council the men of my [congrega]tion are stubborn 25 and mutter round about [] 29 [] They have overtaken me in narrow places where there is no escape and not They announce 30 the charge against me with the harp their grumblings with verses in harmony with demolition and destruction Resentment has taken hold of me and pangs like the labours of 31 a woman giving birth My heart is in turmoil within me I have dressed in black and my tongue sticks to my palate because they surround me with the calamity of their heart and their intention 32 appeared to me in bitterness The light of my face has become gloomy with deep darkness my countenance has changed into gloom Blank And you my God 33 have opened a broad space in my heart but they have increased the narrowness and have wrapped me in darkness I am eating the bread of weeping 34 my drink is tears without end For my eyes are blinded by the grief and my soul by the bitterness of the day Agony and pain 35 surround me shame covers my face my bread has turned into quarrel and my drink into argument They have entered into [my] bones 36 to make my spirit stagger and make an end of strength in accordance with the mysteries of offence they who by their guilt have altered the deeds of God rdquo (1QHa XIII 22-25 29-36) This is the magnificent cry of grief of a man who knows that his own

mission divinely inspired goes through a series of indescribable distresses afflictions and grievances and who also knows the bitterness of betrayal coming from enemies within his own community The man who speaks his mind is a ldquoSuffering Righteousrdquo well-acquainted with the model provided by Psalm 4191 which features a sick man subjected to lies hypocrisy and

90 The text of 1QHa dates from the beginning of the I century CE It is one of the texts

published by E V Sukenik in The Dead Sea Scrolls Other six manuscripts of the Hodayocirct the longest poetic text found at Qumran have been reconstructed out of extremely fragmentary material

91 ldquo3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed in their illness you heal all their infirmities [hellip] 5 My enemies wonder in malice when I will die and my name perishes 6 And when they come to see me they utter empty words while their hearts gather mischief When they

Essays Saggi 90

enmity alone with God in a desert of affection and solidarity where not even his closest friends accompany him This man who cries for his own pains surely knows another mizmUgraver lcedildAwid Psalm 3192 in which the psalmist declares his faith in the Lord and celebrates His glory and mercy regardless of the heinous calumnies violence and offences to which he has been subjected These typoi and similarities are to be found undoubtedly all over the weaving of the text while Isaiah 53 could be present only inasmuch as it represents a further model of passio iusti among the many that are available In short it constitutes a mere thematic consonance lacking textual support and as such unlikely to be used as a precise and deliberate textual reference that could justify the eventual equation ldquoTeacher = vebed YHWHrdquo because as Sandmel points out ldquoit is the distinctive which is significant for identifying the particularrdquo93 and here there is absolutely nothing ldquodistinctivelyrdquo Isaianic

Finally it remains to be said that among the many passages of the Hodayot examined by Brownlee and Dupont-Sommer the only one which still stands as a possible indicator of a literary re-reading is 1QHa

XVI 3694 connected with Isa 504 a passage currently attributed to the prophet Isaiah regarding a double-experience of election and oppression of limited interest and not at all distinctive of the Servant95

To conclude this brief review of the Qumran material regarding the Teacher of Righteousness I have to state that I have not found any evidence of the elements of suffering or of the vicarious and expiatory death of the Righteous that could justify the existence of an individual exegesis of Isa 43 Therefore nothing in Qumran hints at a hermeneutics of the

________________________ go out they tell it abroad 7 All who hate me whisper together about me they imagine the worst for me [hellip] 9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted who ate of my bread has lifted the heel against merdquo (Ps 413-9)

92 ldquo9 Be gracious to me O Lord for I am in distress my eye wastes away from grief my soul and body also 10 For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing my strength fails because of my misery and my bones waste away 11 I am the scorn of all my adversaries a horror to my neighbors an object of dread to my acquaintances those who see me in the street flee from me 12 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead I have become like a broken vessel 13 For I hear the whispering of many ndash terror all around ndash as they scheme together against me as they plot to take my liferdquo (Ps 319-13)

93 Sandmel ldquoParallelomaniardquo p 3 94 Both Grelot and Jeremias surely refer to the same passage while the former wrongly

identifies it as 1QHa XV 36 the latter refers to it according to another type of classification the same adopted by Moraldi that is 1QHa VIII 35-36 1QHa XVI 36 says ldquo35 [hellip] it is impossible to silence 36 the voice of [the tong]ue of my instruction hellip to give life to the spirit of those who stagger and to support the fatigued with a wordrdquo In this case the reference to Isa 504 (ldquoThe Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher that I may know how to sustain the weary with a wordrdquo) seems a highly probable hypothesis

95 See Moraldi Il Maestro di giustizia p 211 Moraldi talks about Isaian resonances also for 1QHa XV 10 (according to him 1QHa VII 10) Also here the reference to Isa 504 seems likely but less tenable than the one in the previous note


91

mUgraverEh cedeq as a fulfilment of the prophecies of the Servant that could herald what is said in the NT96

4) Isaiah 53 in the Psalms of Solomon and in the Book of Parables

The meagre booty obtained so far in this diachronic research on the

middle Jewish exegesis of Isaiah 53 is insignificantly increased by the analysis of two apocryphal texts namely the Psalms of Solomon and the Enochic Book of Parables Rather occasionally the former and more frequently the latter are considered relevant for the development of the argument in question

Two words about the first book although Hans Walther Wollf talked of ldquodeutliche Erinnerungen an Jes 53rdquo97 there is only one passage in the Psalms of Solomon (mid- I century BCE) which deserves attention in virtue of its thematic assonance with Isa 506a (ldquoI gave my back to those who struck merdquo) However the reference to the future purification of ldquoThe one who prepares (his) back for the whiprdquo98 (Pss Sol 102) sounds like a precept of wisdom as suggested by Grelot99 Moreover even wanting to read a deliberate connection to the Servant nihil sub sole novi as it would constitute yet another record of an attribution to the Righteous of words that are likely to be an autobiographical testimony of the biblical prophet There is no mention of death there is no atonement that is nothing to do with what is meant when referring to Isa 53

Regarding the Book of Parables identified as it is widely known in the material contained in chapters 37-71 of the Book of Enoch and wrongly considered as Christian for a long time the situation is definitely more complex The reason behind the huge interest with which the scholars of the New Testament look at this text is rather simple it does not only bear witness to the highest development of superhuman Messianism before Jesusrsquo preaching and the beginnings of Christianity100 but more specifically it represents the nearest possible reference (the text most likely dates from the period between mid-I century BCE and the first decades of the I century CE) 101 for the identification of an ideological and conceptual

96 Thus Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur p 128 and J Carmignac Les textes de Qumracircn

(Paris Letouzey amp Aneacute 1961) vol 1 p 144 ldquoJamais un seul mot ne permet de supposer que lrsquoauteur voit dans la souffrance une reacutedemption pour les fautes du prochain cet aspects des poegravemes du Serviteur [hellip] qui sera repris dans le Nouveau Testament semble lui avoir complegravetement eacutechappeacuterdquo

97 Wolff Jesaia 53 p 45 98 The English translation of the Psalms of Solomon is that of RB Wright ldquoPsalms of

Solomonrdquo in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha ed JH Charlesworth (London Darton Longman amp Todd 1985) vol 2 p 661

99 See Grelot ldquoLe Serviteur de YHWHrdquo p 126 100 P Sacchi Storia del Secondo Tempio (Torino SEI 1994) p 370 101 The quaestio of the dating of the BP has literally exploded following a series of

publications dedicated to it by Joacutezef T Milik between 1951 and 1959 among them the

Essays Saggi 92

milieu closer to the foundations of the Jesus eschatological concept of the ldquoSon of Manrdquo Soon after the opening of the second parable it can be read

ldquo1 At that place I saw the One to whom belongs the time before time And his head white like wool and there was with him another individual whose face was like that of human being His countenance was full of grace like that of one among the holy angels 2 And I asked the one from among the angels who was going with me and who revealed to me all the secrets regarding the One who was born of human beings lsquoWho is this and from where is he who is going as the prototype of the Before-Timersquo 3 And he answered me and said to me lsquoThis is the Son of Man to whom belongs righteousness and with whom righteousness dwellsrdquo (1 En 461-3)102 This powerful figure (1 En 464-6 485 8 10 524-9) pre-existent and

superhuman (482-3 6) of an eschatological judge (463 4847 494 554) to whom many titles are given ndash among them the ldquoRighteousrdquo the ldquoChosen Onerdquo (the most frequent) and precisely the ldquoSon of Manrdquo ndash has to be placed between the collective and symbolic characterization of Danielrsquos Son of Man (Dan 713 see also 727)103 and the individual characterization found in the gospels The figure in the Book of Enoch possesses undoubted Messianic connotations besides being defined explicitly as ldquoMessiahrdquo in 1 En 4810 and 524

This however is not the proper place to assess the depth of the influence of the Enochic ideas on the Messianic concept developed by Jesus himself and by his first followers104 This being said it is sensible to move ________________________ article ldquoThe Dead Sea Scrolls Fragment of the Book of Enochrdquo Bib 323 (1951) pp 393-400 and the book Ten Years of Discovery in the Wilderness of Judaea (London SCM 1959) On the grounds of a series of arguments the first of them being the lack of fragments of the BP among the Qumran scrolls (quite noteworthy if compared to the plentiful testimonies about the rest of the Enochic documents) Milik proposed a return to the Christian attribution of the BP and a clear post-dating of the writing at least to the III century CE Milikrsquos thesis gave rise almost immediately to a remarkable series of polemical answers For a comprehensive overview of this still heated debate see S Chialagrave Libro delle parabole di Enoc (Brescia Paideia 1997) pp 39-51 The ldquoThird Enoch Seminarrdquo held in the hermitage of Camaldoli 7 to 9 July 2005 has been devoted to a comprehensive re-reading of the book and its historical and cultural context The acts have been published in G Boccaccini (ed) Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man (Grand Rapids Eerdmans) 2007

102 The English translation of the BP is that of E Isaac ldquo1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) ENOCHrdquo in The OT Pseudepigrapha vol 2

103 The thesis of a Danielic ldquoprogression or rather a differentiationrdquo in the use of this expression a progression that is from the mere symbol to the real and individual character on the occasion of its second appearance Dan 1016 18 is supported for instance by Chialagrave Libro delle parabole p 311

104 Not surprisingly the bibliography about the Son of Man is almost endless For general indications see Chialagrave Libro delle parabole p 305 The same scholar in appendix to his edition of the BP has included a precious excursus dedicated precisely to the examination of


93

away as soon as possible from authentic interpretative acrobatics as those that had overestimated the analogies between the Son of Man of the gospels and that of 1Enoch identifying in the BP blatant traces of a Suffering Messiah The punctum dolens is found in correspondence with 1 En 471

ldquoIn those days the prayers of the righteous ascended into heaven and the blood of the rigteous from the earth before the Lord of the Spiritsrdquo

It stands out as obvious that here the righteous is collective and it is not a Messianic attribute105 bull The Son of man has been just introduced (1 En 461-7) and depicted as

being powerful the One who God has chosen whose eschatological action is bound to overthrow the king dispossess the strong and break the teeth of the sinners Not exactly a suitable context for the idea of Messianic suffering or shedding of the blood of the Chosen One as much as the rest of the book where there is no hint at the slightest adversity encountered by the Servant

bull In the following line the same concept is picked up with an explicit indication of plural There is a reference to the ldquoblood of the righteous ones which has been shedrdquo In the whole of the BP the evangelical motif of a Son of Man who

suffers until death does not find any kind of expression106 The eschatological judge of this Enochic document is a powerful Messiah figura gloriae without the slightest trace of humiliation and suffering107

Being aware of that I will now focus on the analysis of some of the passages that some scholars have deemed to be explicit or implicit references to the Servant of the corpus isaianum Joachim Jeremias

________________________ the evolution of the expression ldquoSon of Manrdquo from the Major Prophets to the Testament of

Abraham (ldquolsquoIl figlio dellrsquouomorsquo evoluzione di un espressionerdquo ibid pp 303-340) 105 V Fusella ndash P Sacchi ldquoLibro di Enocrdquo in Apocrifi dellrsquoAntico Testamento ed P

Sacchi (Torino UTET 1981) vol 1 p 528 note to v 1 The possibility of a Messianic interpretation of the passage is suggested by Page ldquoThe Suffering Servantrdquo p 483

106 See MD Hooker Jesus and the Servant The Influence of the Servant Concept of

Deutero-Isaiah in the New Testament (London SPCK 1959) p 54 ldquoIf some of the attributes of the Son of Man have in fact been taken from the Servant therefore the absence in Enoch of the idea of suffering which is the most distinctive feature of the Servant is the more remarkablerdquo

107 See G Vermes Jesus der Jude (Neukirche-Vluyn Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsvereins 1993) p 156 ff Vermes is well-known for his conviction that before the interpretation advanced by the NT Christology the Biblical-Aramaic phrase ldquoSon of Manrdquo had never been used as a Messianic title This also applies to the BP (which he dates after 70 CE and therefore reckons as useless for the purpose of going back to the Jesuanic thought) where the expression ldquoSon of Manrdquo although already clearly Messianic in meaning always required further explanation being it a reference to the original vision or any other determinative clause without such qualifications it is not clear enough to function as a separate title (ibid p 159)

Essays Saggi 94

especially has detected in the Messianic concept typical of the BP a ldquovollzogene Kombinationrdquo108 of the Danielic Son of Man and the vebed YHWH referring to a Messianic presentation characterized by a most remarkable broadness of features drawn from the Deutero-Isaiah According to the great German scholar then these unique features of the Enochic eschatological figure had a decisive influence on the concept that Jesus had of his own mission109 Jeremiasrsquo certainties110 setting aside some passages that seem to denounce none other than an insignificant thematic assonance and disregarding his arguable recognition in the title of ldquothe Chosen Onerdquo of an unequivocal reference to the Servant and his Messianic calling are mainly grounded on links glimpsed between two Enochic passages that is 1 En 482-6111 and 1 En 623-5112 and Isa 491-12 Yet again therefore there is nothing that might concern the idea of redemptio vicaria in the aforesaid texts but only passages and in the former solely related to the designation of the Son of Man as ldquolight of the gentilesrdquo Moreover in both of them there is reference to his pre-existent nature kept secret by God and mainly to the description of the phenomenon tremendum et fascinans displayed before the eyes of the king and the powerful of the Earth when confronted with the glory and the power of the enthroned Messiah in the day of their doom

I am no longer interested in assessing the perspicuity of these references I confine myself to the examination of the extreme vagueness with which this second aspect (ldquoFear and Tremblingrdquo along with awe before the glory and the power of the Messiah) could be connected with what is described in

108 Jeremias ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo p 687 TW Manson ldquoThe Son of Man in Daniel Enoch and the Gospelrdquo in Studies in the Gospels and Epistles (Manchester University of Manchester 1962) pp 140-141 shares this idea seeing in the whole of the BP a ldquoswayrdquo between the individual and collective dimensions of the expression ldquoSon of Manrdquo Contra Jeremias see R Bultmann Theologie des Neuen Testaments (Tuumlbingen Mohr-Siebeck 1948) vol 1 p 31

109 Jeremias ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo p 687 110 Equally puzzling is the certainty grounded on the use of the titles ldquoRighteousrdquo and

ldquoChosen Onerdquo with which Page states that ldquothere can be little doubt that the author of the Parables consciously adopted an individual and Messianic interpretation of the servantrdquo (Page ldquoThe Suffering Servantrdquo p 483)

111 ldquo2 At that hour that Son of Man was given a name in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits the Before-Time 3 even before the creation of the sun and the moon before the creation of the stars he was given a name in the presence of the Lord of the Spirits 4 He will become a staff for the righteous ones in order that they may lean on him and not fall He is the light of the gentiles and he will become of those who are sick in their hearts 5 All those who dwell upon the earth shall fall and worship before him they shall glorify bless and sing the name of the Lord of the Spirits 6 For this purpose he became the Chosen One he was concealed in the presence of (the Lord of the Spirits) prior to the creation of the world and for eternityrdquo (1 En 482-6)

112 ldquo3 On the day of judgment all the kings the governors the high officials and the land lords shall see and recognize him ndash how he sits on the throne of his glory [hellip] 5 One half portion of them shall glance at the other half they shall be terrified and dejected and pain shall seize them when they see that Son of Man sitting on the throne of his gloryrdquo (1 En 623 5)


95

Isa 5214-15 This passage as it has been said before belongs to Isa 53 but even wanting to read a link with what is expressed in 1 En 482-6 and 1 En 623-5 it would be impossible to detect the motif (absolutely ldquodistinctiverdquo to put it in Sandmelrsquos words) of the extremely humble features to the extreme of physical marring of the Servant In fact should this be possible then it would be safe to say that there is evidence of the fact that the author of the BP bore in mind the model offered by Isa 53

In conclusion as a result of the previous considerations and of the evidence e contrario obtained from the examination of this specific Enochic document I agree with Grelotrsquos opinion that it would be extremely reckless to recognize in the BP an overtly individual and Messianic hermeneutics of the vebed of Isa 53113

5) Finally an individual application of Isaiah 53 The Testament of Benjamin

In order to avoid lingering or worse getting lost in the weave of one of

the most enigmatic dossiers of middle Jewish thought that is that regarding every single aspect of the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs I shall appeal to the bluntest Occamism and reason as much as possible ldquorazor-likerdquo There are three possible ways to approach this issue The first is that of Marinus de Jonge114 who attributes the whole work to a Christian hand and dates it at III CE In his opinion to talk about Christian interpolations meaning secondary and removable textual insertions is incorrect inasmuch as the passages thus labeled happen to be extremely well-fitted for the context in which they are found and could not be removed without a dramatic alteration of the writing and the meaning of the text Therefore the Testaments have to be considered a Christian composition tout court in Greek language whose author was acquainted with the Hebrew and Aramaic texts belonging to the same testamentary ldquofamilyrdquo

Contrary to this the second approach was adopted by Dupont-Sommer and Mark Philonenko and has been influenced by the Qumran discoveries of Testaments and the like It leans toward an entirely Jewish and Qumran

113 See Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur p 136 114 De Jonge is one of the scholars whose names are immediately connected with the

study of the Greek text of the Testaments Apart from the critical edition of the text The

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Leiden Brill 1978) I recall some others among De Jonges many contributions The Testaments of Twelve Patriarchs A Study of their Text

Composition and Origin (Assen Amsterdam 1953) ldquoChristian Influence in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchsrdquo NT 43 (1960) pp 182-235 ldquoOnce more Christian Influence in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchsrdquo NT 54 (1962) pp 311-319 Moreover he has edited the book Studies on the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Leiden Brill 1975) Among those who have accepted the ldquoChristianrdquo thesis put forth by de Jonge is J Danieacutelou Les manuscrits de la Mer Morte et les origines du christianisme (Paris Editions de lrsquoOrante 1957)

Essays Saggi 96

origin of the Hebrew or Aramaic Grundschrift of the Greek Testaments115 The third solution ex opinio communis already put forth by Robert H Charles and Emil Schuumlrer among others is resumed by Juumlrgen Becker116 Howard C Kee117 and with some noteworthy divergences by Sacchi the writing of the text in question is stratified as interpolations manipulations and sometimes systematic remaking at Christian hands have been added to a Jewish original with the aim of making it fit into a certain ideology (a Christology to be exact) of obvious alien provenance118

Even when the original language of the document its dating and above all the quality form and extent of the Christian intervention remain open for and are the object of debate119 it is this third perspective the one I chose as suitable for an examination of a specific passage of the Greek Testaments drawn from the Armenian version of the Testament of Benjamin

The third chapter of the Testament of Benjamin a document that has survived in very poor conditions is closed by a blessing of Jacob of his son Joseph According to the Greek text the blessing says

ldquoThrough you will be fulfilled the heavenly prophecy concerning the Lamb of God the Saviour of the world because the unspotted one will be betrayed by lawless men and the sinless one will die for impious men by the blood of the covenant for the salvation of the Gentiles and of

115 See Dupont-Sommer Aperccedilus preacuteliminaires p 116 e Les eacutecrits esseacuteniens pp 313-

318 Regarding Philonenko see Les interpolations chreacutetiennes des Testaments des douze

Patriarches et les manuscrits de Qumracircn (Paris Presses Universitaires 1960) 116 J Becker Untersuchungen zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Testamente der zwoumllf

Patriarchen (Leiden Brill 1970) Becker identifies three main key-instances of the textual tradition two Jewish and one Christian that are however very difficult to recognize as true editorial strata

117 Kee ldquoTestaments of the Twelve Patriarchsrdquo pp 775-828 Kee has focused mainly on the ethical dimension of the Testaments and on the examination of some key-concepts with the aim of providing precious information about the Vorlage of the document Concerning this see HC Kee ldquoThe Ethical Dimensions of the Testaments of the XII Patriarchs as a Clue to Provenancerdquo NTS 242 (1978) pp 259-270 According to his indications the Jewish Urtext must have been written in Greek around the end of the II century BCE

118 See P Sacchi ldquoTestamenti dei Dodici Patriarchirdquo in Apocrifi dellrsquoAT ed idem vol 1 p 731 a brief status quaestionis can be found in pp 755-757 For a wider though chronologically limited perspective see M de Jonge ldquoThe Interpretation of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs in Recent Yearsrdquo in Studies on the Testaments pp 183-192 See also JH Charlesworth The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament (Cambridge University of Cambridge 1985) pp 94-102

119 Contrary to Kee Sacchi (Testamenti dei Dodici Patriarchi pp 738-739 and 749-750) talks about two distinct Jewish strata dating respectively from mid-II century BCE and from the second half of the I century BCE and suggests the existence of an Urtext in Hebrew Moreover he refuses to talk in terms of ldquoChristian editionrdquo as in his view the Christian hand has not proceeded to re-write the work entirely but has only glossed it in a circumstantial and rhapsodic fashion (ibid p 738)


97

Israel and the destruction of Beliar and his servantsrdquo120 (T Benj 38 greek text) Here the appeal to Johnrsquos Christological terminology (περὶ τοῦ ἀμνοῦ

τοῦ Θεοῦ121) is just the most flashy element of a typically Christian typological reading However the Armenian text122 edited by Sacchi in this case instead of the Greek one is shorter and seemingly free from Christian interpolations In James H Charlesworthrsquos Pseudepigrapha it is placed by Kee side by side with the correspondent passage of β one of the two Greek textual families The Armenian text records a less triumphalistic and verbose variant

ldquoIn you will be fulfilled the heavenly prophecy which says that the spotless one will be defiled by lawless men and the sinless one will die for the sake of impious menrdquo (T Benj 38 armenian text) Now right to the point if there was absolute certainty that this reading

of the Armenian Testament is not a Christian interpolation and therefore does not refer to Christ we would have before us the only one pre-Christian record of an individual application of Isa 53 In this case in fact the idea of vicarious atonement clearly expressed could not be related with anything else than the fate of the suffering and the violent death of the Deutero-Isaianic vebed YHWH123

Obviously this would not be a textual quotation but an overt allusion to the sole Scriptural prophecy devoted to a Righteous absolutely sin-free man (Isa 539) subjected to mortal oppression (535 8 9 12) with the purpose of justifying and redeeming the ldquomanyrdquo (534-12)To a large extent according to the words of Jacob it is his son Joseph the one who will fulfill the prophecy of the ldquoMan of Sorrowsrdquo of Isaiah 53

However there is no such certainty due to two very simple reasons bull The Armenian Testaments are not gloss-free although they have been

less manipulated than the rest of the textual tradition In any case they have suffered manipulations and re-elaborations at the hands of the Christians

120 The English translation is that of Kee Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs p 826 121 The Greek text is the one edited by de Jonge in The Testaments of the Twelve

Patriarchs p 170 122 So far there are more than fifty Armenian manuscripts of the Testaments Concerning

this see C Burchard ldquoZur armenische Uumlberlieferung der Testamente der zwoumllf Patriarchenrdquo in Studien zu den Testamenten der zwoumllf Patriarchen eds CBurchard JJervell and JThomas (Berlin Toumlpelmann 1969) pp 1-29 and M de Jonge ldquoThe Greek Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Armenian Versionrdquo in Studies on the Testaments pp 120-139

123 According to Eduard Lohse the Armenian version of T Benj 38 is the only pre-Christian record of the theologumenon of the expiatory and vicarious death The German scholar does not identify in the Armenian text any clear evidence of a Christian interpolation see E Lohse Maumlrtyrer und Gottesknecht Untersuchungen zur urchristlichen Verkuumlndigung

vom Suumlhntod Jesu Christi (Goumlttingen Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht 1963) pp 85-87

Essays Saggi 98

bull Analogous to the Greek (ἀναμάρτητος ὑπὲρ ἀσεβῶν ἀποθανεῖται) also the Armenian text of T Benj 38c closely resembles the ldquosoteriological oxymoronrdquo in Paulrsquos 2 Cor 5 21 (τὸν μή γνόντα ἁμαρτίαν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἁμαρτίαν ἐποίησεν) In the light of these two considerations arises an extremely uncertain

picture that honestly does not support the idea of the Armenian text of T Benj 38 as being reliable evidence of an individual and non-Christological application of the prophecies of Isa 53124 Conclusion

Having arrived to the end of this diachronic research into the actual

places of the texts biblical and extra-biblical that constitute references de rigueur when trying to understand the genesis and development of the middle Jewish exegesis of Isa 53 previous to the NT it is now the time to conclude with a synthetic reflection about the results obtained Bearing in mind two of Hengelrsquos peremptory statements namely ldquoWir koumlnnen nicht behaupten dass Jes 53 im vorchristlichen Judentum keinerlei Wirkung gehabt haberdquo and ldquoDass Jes 53 auf die Entstehung und Ausgestaltung des fruumlhesten Kerygmas eingewirkt hat sollte man dagegen nicht mehr bestreitenrdquo125 I will try to summarize what has effectively emerged from the previous pages bull According to what is possible to reconstruct on the basis of the available

testimonies surely non-exhaustive Isa 53 has not ever been the object of any Messianic interpretation in all middle Jewish thought previous to the NT126 The only record of a suffering Messiah has been found in a Qumran document 4Q541 where the character of an eschatological priest is subjected to deceitful slanderous hatred and to the stubborn and abusive rejection of his generation However there is neither

124 Regarding this I totally agree with Blenkinsopp ldquoif the Armenian version of the

Testament of Benjamin represents the original text we would have a pre-Christian prediction that a descendant of Joseph one without blemish or sin would die for impious men (TBen 38) But the language in which the prediction is made sounds very Christian and both the idea and the language are without parallel in any Jewish text from the late Second temple periodrdquo (Blenkinsopp Opening the Sealed Book p 266)

125 Hengel ldquoDer stellvertretende Suumlhnetod Jesurdquo p 174 126 Thus GF Moore Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era The Age of

Tannaim (Cambridge Harvard University 1927) vol 1 p 551 Bultmann Theologie des NT pp 31-32 HH Rowley The Servant of the Lord and Other Essays on the Old Testament (Oxford Blackwell 1955) p 90 Giorgio Jossarsquos opinion is similar ldquoNon sembra perciograve che si possa parlare dellrsquoesistenza al tempo di Gesugrave dellrsquoidea di un messia sofferente se non eventualmente in una vena sotterranea che non riusciva mai ad emergere interamenterdquo see G Jossa Dal Messia al Cristo (Brescia Paideia 1989) p 34 This reference to that ldquounderground veinrdquo which in my view has no documentary basis whatsoever is what distinguishes my conclusions from the more cautious opinion of Jossa regarding the existence in Jesuanic age of such a Messianology


99

reference to physical violence nor to a persecutory action conducted until the death of the Messiah let alone to any vicarious and redeeming connotation of the sufferings inflicted on this figure By and large it is not possible to identify a specific and direct influence of the model offered by the vebed YHWH

bull The idea that Isa 53 has had a determinant influence on the genesis of the Christian announcement regarding Christrsquos vicarious and expiatory death finds some noteworthy element of dispute when considering that a) out of the four Songs of the Servant Isa 53 has been most certainly the ldquoless usedrdquo in terms of exegesis b) apart from the problematic passage of the Armenian text of the Testament of Benjamin (T Benj 38) there is no other known evidence of an individual application of the model of redemptio vicaria offered by the Deutero-Isaianic Servant In other words among the many individualities of ldquosuffering Righteousrdquo that can be found in middle Jewish literature there is not even one where the sufferings share the meaning of the Servantrsquos burden127 Therefore if an allusion to Isa 53 is not intended on the one hand as a

mere reference to a suffering Righteous to a man (or a kind of man) unfairly offended humiliated and beaten to death or on the other hand as a clear reference to the Chosen One who is extremely close to God exalted before the kings and the powerful of the Earth and instead it is intended to allude to the vebed YHWH as a sin-free individual who in virtue of a divine design meets a fate of suffering and death on behalf and for the benefit of many then the idea of Isa 53 being an ldquoerratic blockrdquo in the midst of the middle Jewish literary production previous to the NT seems to be definitely confirmed all the sources examined are surprisingly silent about this character a silence which is even more puzzling when considering the extensive128 or at least open and easy usage of the Servant of God that will characterize the upcoming Christology

127 Against Hengel is also de Jonge ldquoThe ideas found in this passage [Isa 53] are

unparalleled in the Old Testament and its influence on early Jewish texts is negligiblerdquo see M de Jonge ldquoJesusrsquo Death for Others and the Death of the Maccabean Martyrsrdquo in Text and Testimony Essays in Honour of AFJ Klijn ed T Baarda ndash A Hilhorst ndash GP Luttikhuizen ndash AS van der Woude (Kampen Kok 1988) p 146

128 Von Harnack had already reflected on the fact that although Isa 53 has been promptly interpreted as a prophecy about Christ παῖς θεοῦ did not ever become a well-rooted Christological designation He pointed out that in the period of time between 50 and 160 CE it is recorded only fourteen times in four writings (Clement of Romersquos First Letter to

the Corinthians the Epistle of Barnabas and Justin Martyrrsquos Apologia prima and Dialogue with Trypho) a surprisingly exiguous number compared with the hundreds of times that titles such as κύριος and υἱὸς θεοῦ do appear see C Markschies ldquoJesus Christ as a Man before Godrdquo in The Suffering Servant p 230

Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT

When in 1966 Klaus Koch defined the Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 53) as an ldquoerratischer Blockrdquo he was referring to its particular ideology and exegetical tradition within the history of the Second Temple literature and thought More than forty years after this paper surveys biblical and extra-biblical texts usually related by scholars with the Isaianic prophecy with the aim of establishing the accuracy of this statement and assessing its repercussion in a true Christological domain It is a sensible and widely-shared assumption that a close examination of the hermeneutics of the Servant could foster a better understanding of the Christian theologumenon of Jesusrsquo vicarious and expiatory death as well as suggest a thorough evaluation of the actual theological novelty introduced by the announcement of that salvific event


67

Wirkungsgeschichte rather than in the person or the community that inspired their conception and composition

Second a methodological observation that concerns a series of elements that cannot be disregarded while interpreting these passages I quote from Joachim Jeremiasrsquo entry ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo in the Theologisches Woumlrterbuch zum Neuen Testament4 bull The distinction no longer widely agreed upon and the highly debatable

delimitation of the ldquoSongs of the Servantrdquo within the Deutero-Isaianic corpus of the Book of Consolation has been established by contemporary biblical criticism and was back then completely unknown

bull ldquoSodann muss man sich vergegenwaumlrtigen dass bei der atomistischen Art der damaligen Exegese eine einheitliche Deutung der Ebed-Gestalt nicht vorausgesezt werden darfrdquo5 Every interpretation is to be linked to the main passage it refers to and cannot be generalized

bull Although both are noteworthy it is important to distinguish between the mere allusions and the direct quotations as well as obviously to tell them apart from the widespread circumstances of thematic assonance and contextual likeness Last but not least I will refer to the structural approach of my research

which follows a chronological criterion rather than a geographical cultural one In this aspect I follow the line adopted by Pierre Grelot both in Les Poegravemes du Serviteur6 and in the entry ldquoServiteur de YHWHrdquo which he edited for the Dictionnaire de la Bible instead of the geographically-structured criterion used by Jeremias in ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo The latter in his choice of approach takes a double risk that of establishing too drastic a separation between ldquoHellenisticrdquo and ldquoPalestinianrdquo Judaism7 and that of dating too early the implications inferred from evidences that are later though belonging to the same geographical and cultural background8

4 J Jeremias ldquoΠαῖς θεοῦrdquo in Theologisches Woumlrterbuch zum Neuen Testament ed G

Friedrich (Stuttgart W Kohlhammer 1954) vol 5 p 681 5 Ibid 6 P Grelot Les Poegravemes du Serviteur De la lecture critique agrave lrsquohermeacuteneutique (Paris

Editions du Cerf 1981) 7 A distinction that by virtue of the terms used resembles the one that Martin Hengel

once denounced as fallacious in Judentum und Hellenismus Studien zu ihrer Begegnung

unter besonderer Beruumlcksichtigung Palaumlstinas bis zur Mitte des 2 Jhsv Chr (Tuumlbingen Mohr-Siebeck 1968)

8 Actually as it will be seen later the main reason behind Jeremiasrsquo comprehensive approach to the research is his profound belief in the existence of a significant ideological Jewish background related to the idea of an eschatological-salvific figure in whom the prophecies of the Servant would be fulfilled This would obviously be a valid argument to support the thesis of an undoubted Messianic self-understanding by Jesus which is what Jeremias strongly states in his Neutestamentliche Theologie Die Verkundigung Jesu (Gutersloh Gutersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn 1971) vol 1

Essays Saggi 68








1133-35)







69









Essays Saggi 70











71











Essays Saggi 72








73













Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 68








1133-35)







69









Essays Saggi 70











71











Essays Saggi 72








73













Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



69









Essays Saggi 70











71











Essays Saggi 72








73













Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 70











71











Essays Saggi 72








73













Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



71











Essays Saggi 72








73













Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 72








73













Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



73













Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 74










Book p 261


75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



75










Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 76










77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



77










Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 78









79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



79



b) 1QIsaa








Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 80















81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



81









Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 82














83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



83











Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 84












85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



85








Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 86











10


87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



87












Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 88












89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



89







Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 90











91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



91













Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 92









93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



93














Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 94









95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



95











Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 96













97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



97













Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 98











99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT



99








Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


Essays Saggi 100

ABSTRACT


«Ein erratischer Block». The Pre-Jesus and the Pre-Christian Exegesis of Isaiah 53, in «Henoch»...

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Transcript of «Ein erratischer Block». The Pre-Jesus and the Pre-Christian Exegesis of Isaiah 53, in «Henoch»...