Isaiah's Suffering Servant

Isaiah 52 and 53 involve a lengthy passage about the "suffering servant". Christianity considers this a prophesy about Jesus, but could it instead refer to the nation of Israel?

It should be noted that Christians are not alone in seeing the text as a prophesy for a messiah; this was a popular belief among Jews around the time of Jesus. However, that does not prove that Isaiah considered it to be a prophesy. So let us consider two completing scenarios.

In the first scenario, Isaiah is prophesying the arrival and crucifixion of Jesus.

In the second, Isaiah is bemoaning the fate of Israel. Later, his words are re-interpreted as a prophesy of a messiah, and later still Jesus' life is remodelled to fit that text.

Isaiah 41

When Isaiah has God talking about his servant in earlier chapters, is that referring to Jesus or to the nation of Israel? Let us see:

Isaiah 41:8 ‘But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    you descendants of Abraham my friend,
9 I took you from the ends of the earth,
    from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, “You are my servant”;
    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

Isaiah 44:1 ‘But now listen, Jacob, my servant,
    Israel, whom I have chosen.
   
Isaiah 44:21  ‘Remember these things, Jacob,
    for you, Israel, are my servant.
I have made you, you are my servant;
    Israel, I will not forget you.

Isaiah 49:3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.’
   
Isaiah 49:7 This is what the Lord says –
    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel –
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
    to the servant of rulers:
‘Kings will see you and stand up,
    princes will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’

In that last verse, when it says "him who was despised and abhorred by the nation", was that about Jesus or Israel? Who will the Princes bow down to? It is pretty clear that the servant in chapters 41 through to 49 refers to the kingdom of Israel, and not to some prophesied messiah.

Isaiah 52

Here are the first two verses of Isaiah 52.

Isaiah 52:1 Awake, awake, Zion,
    clothe yourself with strength!
Put on your garments of splendour,
    Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled
    will not enter you again.
2 Shake off your dust;
    rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
    Daughter Zion, now a captive.

There is no doubt (and no dispute) that this is talking about the people of Israel, who at that time were the captives of Babylon (in fact, it was the nobles and priesthood who were captives, but they were the ones who wrote the books, so it is easy to think it was the entire nation).

Later in the chapter we get the start of the supposed prophesy of Jesus:

13 See, my servant will act wisely;[b]
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him[c] –
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness –
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,[d]
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Is this talking about Jesus or the nation of Israel? Was Jesus so badly disfigured? I do not recall that mentioned at all in the NT, and painting of Jesus do not portray him as disfigured (or Jewish, admittedly).

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

The nation of Israel was shunned, but Jesus never was. In fact, the NT says he was very popular.

4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

The message behind Isaiah is an explanation for why the Jews were suffering so much, in particular during their captivity in Babylon. This is a response to the Problem of Evil - why does God let bad things happen to good people. The answer is that God is punishing them, as as they are God's chosen people, he is punishing them not just for their own sins, but for everyone's.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

The Jews suffered in silence; they did not open their mouths. In contrast, Jesus preached frequently, he certainly did open his mouth. And if the NT is top be believed, he was not assigned a grave with the wicked but an unused family grave.

The Jewish priests and nobles were taken away, to Babylon, from "the land of the living". And by the sound of it there was not much protest from those who remained (possibly because they suddenly gained all the property the priests and nobles had owned).

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied;[e]
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Here God is saying that because his servant has suffered for the sins of all he will make his servant great in the afterlife. But if the servant is part of the holy godhead, he is great already! This cannot be about Jesus.

Instead, this is again rationalising why bad things happen to good people. The Jews are suffering now, and their suffering is great because they suffer for the sins of all. But they are God's chosen people, so they can expect to be well rewarded in the afterlife.

Origen

In fact, Origen noted that this was the Jewish belief in 248:

"Now I remember that, on one occasion, at a disputation held with certain Jews, who were reckoned wise men, I quoted these prophecies; to which my Jewish opponent replied, that these predictions bore reference to the whole people, regarded as one individual, and as being in a state of dispersion and suffering, in order that many proselytes might be gained, on account of the dispersion of the Jews among numerous heathen nations."

Pierced by a spear

Christians will point to Jesus being pierced by a spear on the cross as being a clear fulfillment of this verse:

Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.

A far more likely explanation is that the author of the Gospel of John added the verse about Jesus being pierced by the spear to fullfil the prophesy. It is telling that this is absent from the earliest account in Mark.

Narrative built from prophesy?

This is, perhaps, indicative of the entire Easter narrative. The disciples had fled after Jesus' arrest (not surprisingly), and were not around to witness events. They did not see the trial, they did not see the crucifixion. So they built a story based on what they supposed happened. With some knowledge of Roman customers and based on what was expected from scripture, a passion narrative was put together.

Even some Christian scholars, such as John Dominic Crossan hold to this view, and it certainly has the ring of truth to me.

Isaiah 52 and 53 is not a prophesy of a messiah, but it was the framework from which a messiah myth was created.

See also:
http://www.outreachjudaism.org/articles/rabbinic-53.html