2nd Isaiah 49:6

by peacefulpete 19 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  peacefulpete

  6 And He said, It is too small a thing that Thou shouldest be Servant to Me to raise up the sons of Jacob, and to bring back the Netzurei Yisroel (Preserved of Israel,); I will also give Thee for Ohr Goyim, that Thou mayest be My Yeshuah unto the ketzeh ha’aretz.

  2nd Isaiah, actually an anonymous prophet at the time of Cyrus, did his best to inspire and hearten his fellow countrymen. Many Judahites had lost hope and even lost faith. The explanations offered by previous prophets, namely that their own sins had resulted in their situation, were not adequate nor convincing. Now a voice arose that had an alternative explanation. Their suffering was for the sake of the Gentiles. God had a larger plan in mind. He used Israel as his servant to bring his glory and salvation to the nations, i.e. Babylon and Egypt and nations all around.

  It was a novel idea, and not many found it persuasive, but some apparently did.

  Fast forward a few centuries and again (or still) facing foreign domination many of these passages and many others were reinterpreted as Messianic.

  It just struck me earlier today how this particular passage may have contributed to 2 elements. The self identification of the Qumran community as the Nozrei ha-Brit (preservers/guardians/watchers of the covenant) might be the first.

  Variations of this word and derivatives are many, e.g. Nozrei, Notzri, Netzurei, Nazar, Nazarite, Nazorean or Nazarene. All have a root meaning of watch over, guard and preserve.

  The Qumran community and subsequent Christian Jews took this name. Might this passage explain why? I have not exhaustively researched this so any comments welcome.

  Secondly the name Jesus/Joshua was not accidental. A number of Jewish movements had the clear expectation that the greatest warrior of their mythic past would return to liberate them again. This is explicitly referred to in a number of writings from the last centuries BCE. In addition, the Zechariah 6 text had contributed to this connection between the "branch" and the name Jesus/Joshuah/Yeshuah.

  I wonder if this Isaiah verse might have as well.

  Note that Yahweh's 'Yeshuah' (salvation) is in the very section discussing Israel's fate to be the suffering servant, that Christians reinterpreted to be typologically in reference to Jesus (salvation).
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  PioneerSchmioneer

  What might surprise many Christians is that the Jewish messianic concept developed largely after the time of the Maccabean Revolt (167 BCE) that led to the first celebration of Hanukkah. This occurred after the books of the Prophets were largely completed.

  Many Christians do not realize that after the success of the Jews over their Seleucid counterparts, the Jews once again had a line of Jewish kings ruiling over them and thus freedom from Gentile influence. This, oddly enough, is what may have led to the messianic concept...and this is why.

  The line of Jewish kings of that specific era were in the line of Judas Maccabeus, and even though they had won a great victory for their Temple and Jewish worship, corruption soon set in. The Hellenism that the Maccabees fought against was soon adopted by their rulers, and they also made a marriage pact with an odd family that had ties with a small and seemingly insignificant country at the time--Rome. The family? The Herods.

  You probably know the rest of the story and what happened next.

  The Jews blamed the problems that came next on the fact that Judas Maccabeus was of the tribe of Levi. The Jewish Law states that rulership is to come from Judah. As Rome grew, and the Heords devoured the line they married into and took over the rulership of the Jews, the priesthood and scribes, studying the Law and the Prophets, noted that the anointed one was promised to rise from the house of David. Thus an expectation for a future "anointed" one came about.

  "Anointed" in Hebrew is of course where you get the English word "messiah."

  While there are no direct prophecies in the Hebrew texts that talk about the Jewish messiah (including the above from Isaiah 49), the Jews did start to hope for a future monarch that would restore the Kingdom of Israel and overthrow both the Herods and release them from Gentile intererence. But the Jews did not believe in a "suffering" messiah. Where did that come about?

  When Jesus of Nazareth was arrested and subsequently crucified by the Romans, the Christians would later apply the Suffering Servant Songs of Isaiah (which are personifying Israel as a slave suffering at the hands of Babylon during the Exile) to what Jesus went through and claim it was a forecast of events to what he went through on Good Friday. These Songs have been traditionally sung as a series of haftorahs in synagogue services as lessons mouring the events of Jewish persecution--not only the Exile, but today they are now also used by the Jews to mark the Spanish Inquistion, the pogroms, the Crusades, and the Holocaust.
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  raymond frantz

  The 70 weeks prophesy of Daniel started with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and entered its last week in 29AD , all Jews at the time based on that prophesy alone anticipated the Messiah.If not Jesus who was then the Messiah.
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  PioneerSchmioneer

  raymond frantz wrote:

  The 70 weeks prophesy of Daniel started with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and entered its last week in 29AD , all Jews at the time based on that prophesy alone anticipated the Messiah.If not Jesus who was then the Messiah.

  A common teaching among Jehovah's Witnesses with some in American Fundamentalism also favoring this approach, it is actually not a teaching found in the majority of Christianity.

  The Book of Daniel is in the Writings (Ketuvim) instead of being found among the writings of the Prophets (Nevi'im). This is due to the fact that it is an apocalypse (a genre of Jewish writing that inspires hope for divine intervention in current events going on during the author's political and world history), which was during the period of Antiochus IV Epiphanes' persecution of the Jews and the Maccabean Revolt (c. 167 CE).

  Apocalypse attempts to encourage the Jews facing persecution by employing prophetic tropes that encourage divine retribution for injustices being suffered. For example, the oft misused (or abused) tree dream of Daniel chapter 4 (by the Watchtower) is actually a type of commentary towards the Seleucid ruler, claiming that Judas Maccabeus (whose name meant "the hammer") would strike him down, and because something similar happened to Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon (as recorded in the Prayer of Nabonidus, 4Q242). The Jews believed God brought judgment upon Nabonidus, and so, as an apocalypse does, used a mixture of motifs, historical figures and prophetic tropes to "encode" a judgement for Antiochus.

  Before the discussion of the 70 weeks, the author of Daniel actually gives the setting for what is being spoken of. Instead of being a prophecy about a coming "messiah," or being set for the far future, the events have to do with the threat of Hellenization that the Jews were facing at the time that started with the mark of the Greeks. Daniel sets the events for the "70 weeks" following the death Alexander the Great and the time period where his four generals divide his territory among themselves.--Daniel chapter 7.

  Chapter 8 talks about the rise of the Seleucid kingdom and how under Antiochus the offerings in the Temple were halted. (Vss 11-12) The author explains how long until the oppression ends: 3 and a half years. (Vss 13-14) This appears to be a series of redactions, after the fact, and not a prediction.

  They continue until the "70 weeks" with the "vision"--claiming that the Maccabees. victory was by divine hand. (Daniel 9:24-27) The players are Cyrus, sponsoring the restoration of Jerusalem, the "anointed" in verse 25 is Joshua the high priest (or possibly even Zerubbabel).--Zec 4:14; see also Ezra 2:2; 3:2; Hag 1:12-14)

  The other "anointed" in verse 26 was the high priest Onias III who was murdered in 171 BCE.--2 Macc 4:16. And "the prince" is Antiochus Epiphanes. And the "covenant" of verse 27 is the one mentioned at 1 Macc 1:11 between Antiochus, Jason the high priest and the Judean upper class.

  See The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, NRSV 5th Edition; the Catholic Study Bible, NABRE, Third Edition, Oxford, and The SBL Study Bible, NRSV Update Edition, Including Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books, HarperCollins.
  
  
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  peacefulpete

  PioneerSchmioneer....There is a lot of good stuff in that review. Your comment

  But the Jews did not believe in a "suffering" messiah. Where did that come about?

  is passionately insisted amongst Jewish commentators.

  However, I find that a splitting of hairs and a debate about semantics.

  As you probably know a number of texts from Qumran describe what most readers would describe as messiah figures that do endure derision and suffering, even death. In fact they make allusions to the very Isaiah suffering servant passages. Various Talmudic references similarly describe the experiences of Rabbis using the words of the suffering servant in parallel. IOW, we have extant a number of diverse usages of the suffering servant description used in parallel with real or idealized figures of religious importance. IMO, the distinction drawn between these examples and the later Christian usage to be one of semantics, parallel vs. typology.
  
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  PioneerSchmioneer

  Peacefulpete:

  You are talking specifically about Bavli Sanhendrin 98b from the Talmud (which many do) and the Qumran texts 4Q541 and 11QMelchizadek.

  First, I was referencing the period of the writing of the Hebrew texts prior to the Maccabean Revolt and the subsequent Herodian rise to power that caused the Jews to begin to search their scriptures for the very first time as they founded and would start to develop their Messianic theology. I was not talking about the theology that would develop later into writings like the Syblline Oracles, the Gemara, the Midrash, and subsequently the Talmud.

  By the time Bavli San. 98b was composed, it was about 600 CE, a very long time after Isaiah was composed and the concept of the Jewish concept of the Messiah was matured. It is not claiming that the Jews believe in a suffering messianic figure (as the Christians did by this point in history). A lot of Christians tend to mistake that this text is discussing this. It would be very illogical if it did this very late in competition with Christianity.

  And while 4Q541 and 11QMelchizadek are quite interesting, neither say anything about a "messianic figure." These texts, like the Book of Daniel, were written by the Hasmoneans/Maccabees, and are fragments of (like Daniel) an apocalyptic text (not a prophecy). Since they were priests, of the line of Levi, they were also ruiling as kings, and thus they saw themselves as prefigured by Melchizedek. 4Q541 highlights one of their rulers, priests, and or Judas Maccabeus in the text.
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  Phizzy

  Thank you both for your contributions to this Site, PP has for many years made excellent Thread subjects, adding to my knowledge and sending me on quests for more !

  P.S, welcome (belatedly) to this rather unique place, and you as well have kindly added to my knowledge and given me impetus to research further, thanks. Long may you both grace these Pages !

  By writing for us a correct understanding of Scripture, based upon real, honest, Exegesis and Hermeneutics you expose the paucity of knowledge that the JW Org. writers have, how wrong ( and in my view, Infantile) their approach to understanding the Scriptures is. This is all a tremendous help to those leaving the Org. Thanks again.
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  Sea Breeze

  2nd Isaiah, actually an anonymous prophet at the time of Cyrus

  @PP

  I don't think so. Here's a refutation of the belief that there was more than one Isaiah.:

  Were There Two Different Isaiahs?
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  Phizzy

  About the Writer of that Article " Phil is a Bible teacher and evangelist ".

  I think we need take no notice of what is a mere opinion, from someone whom is not an accredited Scholar of O.T texts , with qualifications from a real University and well respected in that Field of Study.

  Please try harder.
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  Sea Breeze

  @Phizzy

  I'm not trying at all. The facts speak for themselves. Instead of employing logical fallacies like you did above (no true scotsman)., next time try commenting on the evidence.