{"id":68156,"date":"2020-01-05T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T12:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=68156"},"modified":"2023-07-30T09:24:03","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T06:24:03","slug":"meaningful-suffering-is-sometimes-all-we-ask-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/meaningful-suffering-is-sometimes-all-we-ask-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaningful Suffering Is Sometimes All We Ask For"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[478,753,500,491],"acf":{"old_id":"68156","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36147,"related_cahpter":"387","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The identity of the suffering servant\u00a0","content":"

Ah, the Suffering Servant! <\/span><\/p>\n

So marred was his appearance, unlike that of man, form, beyond human semblance!\u201d \u201cHe was despised, shunned by men, A man of suffering\u2026 \u2013 Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, Our suffering that he endured. \u2026 Wounded because of our sins!<\/span><\/p>\n

This passage (52:13-53:12), relatively modest in its influence in Jewish life and literature, looms large in Christian eyes. For who could this suffering servant be, if not Jesus?<\/span><\/p>\n

The claim is made explicitly and repeatedly in the New Testament. 1 Peter asserts, \u201cChrist \u2026 committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth \u2026 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed\u201d (2:21-25). What are Jews to do with this?<\/span><\/p>\n

For historical scholars, the identity of the servant is less exciting: as Brettler and Levine put it recently, the text \u201cmost likely originally referred to one of the prophet\u2019s exilic contemporaries, whom he viewed as vicariously atoning for the guilt-ridden exilic (or early post-exilic) community. We know neither this individual\u2019s name nor anything about him beyond what this passage says.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Already in antiquity, the Jews read differently. The Church father Origen, who died in 253 CE, reported that learned Jews say that \u201cthese prophecies referred to the whole people as though of a single individual.\u201d This line of interpretation is most famously found in the commentary of Rashi on 53:3:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the way of the prophet to refer to all of Israel as a single person, as in, \u2018Do not fear, my servant Jacob\u2019 (Jeremiah 46:27-28), and here too \u2013 \u2018Indeed, My servant shall prosper\u2019 (Isaiah 52:13) \u2013 this refers to the House of Jacob.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The claim that the servant is the collective Jewish people is particularly powerful for Jews who are suffering in exile. Not only does it avoid the question of the messiah\u2019s identity, but it gives meaning and religious significance to their own suffering. For a people accustomed to suffering, meaningful suffering is sometimes all we ask for.<\/span><\/p>\n

For further reading:
\n<\/span><\/i>The bibliography on this chapter is huge. For a wonderful and helpful overview, see Marc Zvi Brettler and Amy-Jill Levine, \u201c<\/span>Isaiah\u2019s Suffering Servant: Before and After Christianity<\/span><\/a>,\u201d <\/span>Intepretation<\/span><\/i> 73 (2019), 158-173. On the Jewish side, see in particular Elliott Horowitz, \u201c<\/span>Isaiah\u2019s Suffering Servant and the Jews: From the Nineteenth Century to the Ninth<\/span><\/a>,\u201d in <\/span>New Perspectives on Jewish-Christian Relations: In Honor of David Berger<\/span><\/i> (ed. Elisheva Carlebach and David Berger; Leiden: Brill, 2012), 419-436.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Tragic mask on the fa\u00e7ade of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden, 2008 \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":68157,"id":68157,"title":"is53-suffering","filename":"is53-suffering.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/is53-suffering.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/meaningful-suffering-is-sometimes-all-we-ask-for\/is53-suffering\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is53-suffering","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":68156,"date":"2020-01-05 12:53:24","modified":"2020-01-05 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