Chapter
four.
Isaiah and the Servant.
The theological influence of Isaiah.
We have seen that the prophecy of Isaiah
is probably the major influence on Paul’s thinking.[1] The prophet clearly determined his
theology of salvation. For Isaiah, the key figure in his message of hope was
someone known as the Servant of the Lord. I want now to explore the extent to
which Paul was influenced by the prophet’s perspective of the Servant figure.
The prophet’s theological understanding on this issue was supreme amongst the
OT writers, especially his contribution to understanding Israel's call to
servanthood. Porteous has noted that: “Isaiah is the theologian par excellence
of the Old Testament, but his importance for theology lies, not so much in any
abstract formulations he may have reached about the oneness and creative power
of God, as in the way in which he seems to have given living embodiment to his
understanding of Israel’s call to be God’s servant in the world.” [2]
The reason for choosing to examine this
theme at this point in the study is that it illustrates how Hellenism has
determined the way the NT is read. We will see that once the Greek control has
been appreciated, previously unrecognised OT theology breaks out of the NT
text. This discovery ought then to give us confidence and hopefully appetite
for exploring other strands of OT theology in the writings of Paul.
The concept of the servant in the Old
Testament.
Because Isaiah’s understanding of the
Servant of the Lord gives embodiment to the concept of Israel being God's
servant in the OT, I shall limit our investigation to that book. Furthermore
Isaiah is the ideal place to begin for, as we have seen, it had a profound
influence on the understanding on Paul's doctrine of salvation of which the
Servant figure was an essential part.
An examination of the OT Hebrew text of
Isaiah shows that ebed, servant, was a title applied to a wide range of
people. There were no alternative titles available for the OT writers, so the
variations in meaning had to be derived from the context in which the
individual word was used. Ebed was used for kings,[3] prophets,[4] the nation of Israel,[5] the Messiah[6] and even ordinary Israelites.[7] What can be said of ebed is that
it spoke of someone who was subordinate in some way to another, whether to God
or man, as master.
The source of confusion.
Confusion
arose when the OT was translated into Greek. A study of the
[1] Dinter, “Paul”, 48 says that: “In this matter, above all, his searching of the prophet Isaiah enabled him to understand the words of the prophet as directly revelatory of his own life and as the essential factor in his framing of “God’s gospel promised beforehand through his prophets.”
[2] Porteous, art Theology, PCB, 157. The influence of Isaiah on the NT is evident in that Isaiah is quoted more often in the NT than all the other OT prophets put together, Young Introduction 205.
[3] Isa. 37:24.
[4] Isa. 20:3.
[5] Isa. 41:8, 9.
[6] Isa. 42:1.
[7] Isa. 65:13-15.