Incidentally, p.95 par.8 makes reference to Isaiah 56:4, 5 in a footnote. Isaiah 56:4-7 says:
For this is what Jehovah has said to the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths and that have chosen what I have delighted in and that are laying hold of my covenant: 5 "I will even give to them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name, something better than sons and daughters. A name to time indefinite I shall give them, one that will not be cut off. 6 "And the foreigners that have joined themselves to Jehovah to minister to him and to love the name of Jehovah, in order to become servants to him, all those keeping the sabbath in order not to profane it and laying hold of my covenant, 7 I will also bring them to my holy mountain and make them rejoice inside my house of prayer. Their whole burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be for acceptance upon my altar. For my own house will be called even a house of prayer for all the peoples.. . . (NWT)
The NICOT-Isaiah commentary (John N. Oswalt, Vol II, pp.460-1) had some interesting thoughts about this passage, made more interesting by comparing them with long standing WT 'understanding.' Concerning the "eunuchs" (vv. 4, 5) and the "foreigners" referred to in verses 6 and 7, he says:
The first phrase [of verse 6] increases the shock value of this passage because the word used, saret, minister, refers typically to cultic service (60:7, 10; 61:6). The idea of foreigners performing such service seems to have been so repugnant to the scribe of 1QIs a that he omitted it (See Rosenbloom, Dead Sea Isaiah Scroll, pp. 62-63).
[Compare this with the Society's explanation that the 'great crowd's' serving God in the "temple" (Greek naos) has to be in some outer courtyard because only the 144,000 would be allowed in the temple sanctuary. In other words, the WT has the same predjudicial view as the Dead Sea Scroll scribe mentioned above. Note also that the term "cultic" above is used in reference to the preistly and Levitical service. - Bobcat]
. . . They [the foreighners and eunuchs] do this [service] as an expression of the astounding fact that the last bastion of Jewish pride, the covenant, has been breached and every living person is invited to become a partaker of eternity's most amazing offer: God committing himself to the good of his people no matter what it may cost him. Again, the links with chapters 49 - 55 are instructive. The Servant has sealed a new covenant available to all who love his name (49:8, 54:10; 55:3).
[Note that Isa 49:8 is linked to the great crowd in Rev 7:16 which quotes from Isa 49:10. Isa 55:3 is part of the context quoted in Rev 22:17 and offered to "anyone that wishes."]
. . . God had not chosen Israel and given them all that he did in order to shut out the world, but to bring in the world. All of Israel's separation from the world was in order to keep Israel from being absorbed into the world and thus losing the ability to call the world out of itself into the blessings of God. But should Israel ever come to believe that its separation was so that Israel could keep her God and his blessings to herself, then all was lost. It is precisely this attitude that infuriated Jesus (Matt. 21:13).
[Note the similar attitude of the WT attempting to keep the new covenant to itself. In Matt. 21:13 Jesus quotes from Isa 56:7. Also noteworthy is a comparison of the commercializing of the service in the temple in Jesus' day with the gathering evidence that the WT is fleecing its flocks via Assembly Halls, RBCs, and other arrangements.]
[End of quotes. All material in brackets is Bobcat's.]
Overall, the WT wants the great crowd to make eunuchs of themselves but still denies them what Jehovah has promised those eunuchs and foreigners: A place within his new covenant arrangement.
