Interpreting old testament prohetic literature in Mathhew: Double fulfillment

Trinity Journal, Spring 2002 by Blomberg, Graig L

IV. ISA 53:4 IN MATT 8:17

With Matthew's next quotation of Isaiah, we find ourselves in the thicket of controversy over the servant passages and especially this fourth, "suffering" servant text which spans Isa 52:13-53:12 (the three earlier ones are 42:1-4; 49:1-6; and 50:4-9). As with the virginal conception, much of the debate could be bypassed if we recognized a "both-and" solution to the classic crux. On the one hand, both within and in between these four servant passages Isaiah equates the servant with Israel: "But now listen, 0 Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen" (44:1); "Do not be afraid, 0 Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen" (44:2); and "He said to me, 'You are my servant Israel, in whom I will display my splendour'" (49:3). See also 41:8-10 and 45:4.38

Of course, it is not necessary for each of the servant texts to have the identical referent, but that is a natural initial assumption given the recurring imagery throughout the various passages about one who is God's chosen (42:1; 49:1), who will bring justice (42:1, 4; 53:11) and blessing (49:3-5; 53:10-12), even for the Gentiles (42:1, 4; 49:6; 52:15), despite appearing not to triumph at first because he does not speak out or quarrel (42:2-3; 50:5-7; 53:7), and because he is mocked, despised, and rejected (49:7; 50:6; 53:3). Yet in the end he will be vindicated (42:4; 50:8-9; 53:10-12).

At the same time there is progression of revelation and understanding from one servant passage to the next.39 Isaiah 42:14 could be speaking of an individual, but it is coherent when taken merely as a reference to Israel corporately. Isaiah 49:1-6, while again calling Israel the servant, pushes the boundaries of a collective interpretation further, for how can Israel restore Israel (v. 6)? A separate person seems to be required to fit the description of one "who was despised and abhorred by the nation" (v. 7). In 50:4-9 the description of the servant's rejection becomes more detailed and explicit-mocked, beaten, spat upon-language that most readily suggests the treatment of an individual but could still be a striking metaphor for a nation. By the time we come to 52:13-53:12, there is nothing that requires Israel as a nation to be in view at all, even though parts of this text could fit such an interpretation. But only an individual makes sense of those verses that speak of substitutionary sacrifice for the nation, including 53:4, the verse quoted in Matthew (cf. also vv. 5-6, 10-12). Similarly, the significant sections of the passage that refer to the servant's disfigured appearance (52:14, 53:2) or call him "a man of sorrows" (53:3) or refer to his death and vindication (53:8-9, 11) prove far more intelligible when taken of a specific person within Israel.40

We ought not be surprised, therefore, that the more we scrutinize the subsequent history of interpretation of Isa 52:13-53:12, the more we find hints that a pre-Christian Jewish understanding of this Scripture as messianic did in fact exist, even if it was not widespread.41 Martin Hengel's essay in the recent Tubingen symposium provides the fullest collection of these hints, as he calls particular attention to 1QIsaiah(a), 4Q491, Testament of Levi II, Testament of Benjamin 3:8, and the Septuagint ad loc.42 The postChristian Targum to Isaiah explicitly takes the servant in these chapters as Messiah, as do a variety of other late rabbinic sources. Again, it seems unlikely that a messianic interpretation would have been first suggested in an environment that already knew of Christianity's use of these verses, even if it is important to stress that the Targum has so changed the details of this passage that the Messiah no longer suffers or dies in the latter part of the text.43