by Ptr. Art Calaguas<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shalom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As mentioned last week, the theme of a suffering servant\/messiah was not a strange new thing to the Second Temple Judaism of the Lord\u2019s time. Aside from the 4 Isaiah Servant Songs, there were other extant ancient writings on this, as shown in some manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For review, here is Isaiah 49:7 (from the ESV):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
7<\/sup>Thus says the Lord,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,<\/mark><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n the servant of rulers<\/mark>:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The last 2 lines highlighted above feed into Isaiah 50:6 below (from the ESV):<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6<\/sup>I gave my back to those who strike,<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I hid not my face<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n from disgrace and spitting.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The picture of a suffering servant is clearly shown by these Isaiah verses. Now let us take a look at some DSS manuscripts that are parallel with Isaiah 49:7b and 50:6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, there is \u201cManuscript C\u201d that had been, at first, wrongly identified as part of the DSS \u201cWar Scroll\u201d but later on turned out to be a version of a part of the DSS \u201cThanksgiving Hymns\u201d (Hodayot<\/em>). This is identified now as 4Q491 Manuscript C Frag. 11 Col 1; a version of Hymn 34 of 1QHa<\/sup> where we can listen to the voice of one (the \u201cTeacher of Righteousness\u201d?) or the messiah himself suffering:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8<\/sup><\/em>[…<\/em>] marvelous, wondrous deeds <\/em>[…] 9<\/sup><\/em>[… in the pow<\/em>]er of His might let the a<\/em>[ng<\/em>]els rejoice and the holy ones shout in exaltation <\/em>[…<\/em>]\u00a0 justly 10<\/sup><\/em>[… I<\/em>]srael. He established His truth from of old, and the mysteries of His cunning in eve<\/em>[ry…<\/em>] might 11<\/sup><\/em>[…<\/em>] and the company of the oppressed shall become an eternal congregation <\/em>[…<\/em>] blameless of 12<\/sup><\/em>[…<\/em>] eternal, a mighty throne in the congregation of angels, None of the ancient kings shall sit on it, and their nobles <\/em>[shall<\/em>] not <\/em>[… There are <\/em>no]ne comparable <\/em>13<\/sup>[to me in<\/em>] my glory, no one shall be exalted besides me; none shall come against me. For I have dwelt on <\/em>[high,…<\/em>] in the heavens, and there is no one 14<\/sup><\/em>[…<\/em>] I am reckoned with the angels and my abode is in the holy congregation. <\/em>[My<\/em>] desire is not according to the flesh, <\/em>[…<\/em>] everything precious to me is in the glory <\/em>15<\/sup>[of] the holy <\/em>[habit]ation. <\/em>[Wh]o has been considered contemptible like me?<\/em><\/mark> Who is comparable to me in my glory? Who of those who sail the seas <\/em>(?) shall return telling <\/em>(?) <\/em>16<\/sup>[of] my equal? <\/em>Who has <\/em>born[e] troubles like me?<\/em><\/mark> And who like me <\/em>[has refrain<\/em>]ed from evil? I have never been taught, but no teaching compares <\/em>17<\/sup>[with my teaching.<\/em>] Who then shall assault me when <\/em>[I<\/em>] <\/em>ope[n my mouth?<\/em>] Who can endure the utterance of my lips? Who shall challenge me and compare with my judgment? 18<\/sup><\/em>[…<\/em>Fo]r I am <\/em>reck[oned] with the angels, <\/em>[and<\/em>] my glory with that of the sons of the King.\u2026 <\/em>(Square brackets surround lost\/damaged portions of the scroll. Superscript numbers refer to line number, not verse number, within the column. All translations and conventions from Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls<\/em> A New Translation<\/em> (HarperCollins, 2005), 169).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note that line 15 above has a version with slightly different wording in the DSS Thanksgiving Hymn 34 Col. 26, line 1 which says:\u00a0 1<\/sup>[\u2026 my abode is in the<\/em>] holy<\/em> [congregation<\/em>.] W<\/em>[ho is<\/em>] despised like m<\/em>[e?<\/em><\/mark> Who<\/em>]\u2026(All translations and conventions from Wise, Abegg Jr. and Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls<\/em> (HarperCollins, 2005), 203).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The highlighted portions above (lines 15-16), from the DSS 4Q491 Manuscript C; and line 1 from Hodayot<\/em> Hymn 34 resonate with Isaiah 49:7b and 50:6. The authors themselves remark that because of these (highlighted) lines and context, \u201csome scholars have provocatively suggested that this hymn is evidence that some ancient Jews were expecting a suffering messiah before the time of Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A second example from the DSS speaks about persecution through falsehoods and slander in accusations against a future figure, a priest (who may be the expected messiah). \u201cThe Words of Levi,\u201d 4Q541 Frag. 9 Col. 1, describes this coming figure from the priestly tribe of Levi, the third of the twelve sons of Jacob\/Israel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2<\/sup><\/em>[…<\/em>] his wisdom. And he shall make atonement for all those of his generation, and he shall be sent to all the children of his <\/em>3<\/sup>[peo<\/em>]ple. His command is like the command of Heaven, and his teaching is like the will of God. The Sun everlasting will shine <\/em>4<\/sup><\/em>and its fire will give warmth to all the ends of the earth. It will shine on darkness; then will darkness vanish <\/em>5<\/sup>[fr<\/em>]om the earth, and mist from the land.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n They will speak many words against him, and many <\/em>6<\/sup>[falsehood<\/em>]s; they will concoct lies and speak all kinds of slander against him. His generation is evil and perverse;<\/em><\/mark>…<\/em>(All translations and conventions from Wise, Abegg Jr. and Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls<\/em> (HarperCollins, 2005), 313).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The highlighted portions (lines 5-6) certainly seem like a prelude to suffering. Again, we see parallels with Isaiah 49:7b and 50:6. The Isaiah prophecies as well as these ancient non-biblical DSS manuscripts were extant and circulating during the time of our Lord Jesus. From hindsight then, it seems the idea of a suffering messiah was not so strange after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We will continue next week to study the verses of Isaiah 52:13-53:12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God bless us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Ptr. Art Calaguas Shalom. As mentioned last week, the theme of a suffering servant\/messiah was not a strange new thing to the Second Temple Judaism of the Lord\u2019s time. Aside from the 4 Isaiah Servant Songs, there were other extant ancient writings on this, as shown in some manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6,7,18,9,8,5],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ptr-art-calaguas","tag-church-of-the-risen-lord","tag-crl","tag-jesus","tag-spiritual-refreshment-of-the-day","tag-upcemi","tag-upcrl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}