by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
The Gospel of Matthew 12:15-21 contains the longest Old Testament (OT) quotation in this Gospel. This particular quotation, from the Prophet Isaiah is unique to Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew 12:18-21 are the actual verses that quote from Isaiah. Before we look at these verses in the Gospel and in Isaiah, we take note of the immediate context.
Chapters 10-12 of the Gospel of Matthew are part of the 2nd of the 5 great discourses in the Gospel; i.e., the one that speaks of the Messiah who was to come. It starts with the Sending out of the Twelve to announce that the kingdom of heaven is near. The context includes our previous discussion about John the Baptist’s questions about our Lord Jesus if he indeed was the One Coming, the Awaited/Expected One, found in chapter 11. In chapter 12, the Lord continues to heal the sick, even on the Sabbath, which infuriates the Pharisees and drives them to plot his killing. In verses 15-17, Matthew makes the assertion that the Lord Jesus was doing all of these signs and yet not trumpeting them to all to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah spoke of.
Here are the verses of Matthew 12:18-21 (ESV translation):
18“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
19He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
20a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
21and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
The subject here is the Spirit-filled chosen servant of the LORD God who would fulfill his mission in quietness and gentleness while bringing justice and hope to the Gentiles (or the nations). This is in keeping with Matthew’s objective of presenting the Lord Jesus to his original Jewish audience as the fulfillment of OT prophecies about the Davidic King of the Jews, the Messiah, and Savior.
The verses of Matthew 12:18-21 come from Isaiah 42: 1-4. Here are these Isaiah verses (ESV translation from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT)):
1Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4He will not grow faint or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law.
Scholars recognize this as part of the first of Isaiah’s 4 Servant Songs that point to the Messiah as the chosen servant of the LORD. The term “servant” here really means more like a “trusted envoy” or “confidential representative” doing the king’s royal bidding in the Ancient Near East context (as per NIV Study Bible study notes). The LORD had referred to individuals he had worked with in the past like “my servant Moses” (see Numbers 12:7); “my servant David” (see 2Samuel 3:18); or many people like “my servants the prophets” (see 2Kings 17:13). The Isaiah Servant songs, depending on the context, speaks of the “servant” as the entire nation of Israel; or a specific individual; the Messiah.
In other Isaiah verses, the messiah (meaning “anointed one”) is not the Jewish Messiah himself but another, such as the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, who defeated the Babylonians in 539 BC and then allowed the Jewish exiles to return and rebuild Jerusalem’s Temple (see Isaiah 41:2, 25; 44:28-45:5, 13; and 46:11).
If one studies the Isaiah Servant songs and other surrounding chapters and verses further, the Prophet contrasts and highlights the difference between 2 different designated or chosen servants of the LORD: unrighteous Israel vs. the righteous remnant of Israel; unrighteous Israel vs. the righteous messiah in the Persian king Cyrus (and perhaps, also Darius and Artaxerxes); or unrighteous Israel vs. the Messiah himself.
But going back to Matthew 12:18-21 and Isaiah 42:1-4, one cannot help but notice some differences. For one, the Gospel does not seem to quote the Prophet exactly. I have checked out the various English translations of Matthew 12:18-21 and Isaiah 42:1-4 and the different Bible versions are essentially convergent, except for Matthew 12:21 vs. Isaiah 42:4. Upon checking with the Greek Septuagint (LXX) version, I found that Matthew 12:21 is closer to the LXX version of Isaiah 42:4. Here is the LXX translation of Isaiah 42:1-4 from (NETS) A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford University Press, 2009), including corrections and emendations made in June 2014 in the electronic edition (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/):
1Iakob is my servant; I will lay hold of him;
Israel is my chosen; my soul has accepted him;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth judgment to the nations.
2He will not cry out or send forth his voice,
nor will his voice be heard outside;
3a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoking wick he will not quench,
but he will bring forth judgment for truth.
4He will blaze up and not be overwhelmed
Until he has established judgment on the earth,
and nations will hope in his name.
Obviously, the LXX of Isaiah 42:1 has a different first line of the verse compared to the MT. In this case then, Matthew 12:18 is closer to the MT than to the LXX.
In the last LXX line of Isaiah 42:4 note that “and nations will hope in his name” means the same as Matthew 12:21 (“and in his name the Gentiles will hope”) even if they differ in word order in the English translation. The LXX has the Greek ἔθνη (“ethne”) translated as “nations” while Matthew 12:21 uses exactly the same word but is translated (by the ESV) as “(the) Gentiles.” Other English Bible translations use either “nations” or “(the) Gentiles.”
We will continue next week.
God bless us all.