An educational book about Judaism and Christianity is intended to provide clarity on the differences from the understanding of the Old Testament. The focus, despite its decidedly minor importance, is Isaiah, chapter 53. Who is the “righteous servant” of God. Jesus Christ or the (physical) people of Israel?
Inhalt / Content
New book by Jewish biblical scholars
A book is intended to explain the differences in the interpretation of the Old Testament and the Tanakh by Christian and Jewish communities. The online magazine of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) presented a book by two Jewish biblical scholars from the USA, Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, which was published also in German under the title “Hebrew Bible and Old Testament”. (Source).
At this point it seems extraordinary that from the perspective of the Jewish communities the scripture is given the name “Bible”, even if it is given the attribute “Hebrew”. The Bible is a concept of Christianity. In the Jewish faith, the Old Testament largely corresponds to the Tanakh and the Book of Law Torah (Deuteronomy).
New Testament makes the difference
A key difference between the Jewish and the Christian view of the writings of the Old Testament is the approach to interpreting their content. Christians viewed the Old Testament through the “glasses of the New Testament,” which is not reflected in the Jewish faith due to the lack of a New Testament. But the Jewish interpretation of the Torah is not uniform. According to ancient rabbinic literature, the five books of Moses are also called “seventy faces.” The Hebrew language and its words also left room for different interpretations.
The two biblical scholars have set themselves the goal of bringing Jews and Christians into conversation. To do this, they sought out central passages from the Old Testament in order to analyze them and work out their original meaning from the perspective of Judaism and Christianity.
Isaiah 53 rather insignificant?
One such central passage is a depiction of the prophet Isaiah. He wrote about the “suffering servant of God” who takes the punishment through no fault of his own. For Christians, this passage represents the crucifixion of Jesus and the death for people’s sins. Most Jews are hardly familiar with this passage “because it plays a completely subordinate role in their religious history,” according to the statement.
What passage this is about is not mentioned in the report. However, it’s not difficult to “guess” either. It is Isaiah, chapter 53. Below are just the “highlights” from the wealth of descriptions and information in Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 53, verse 2
“For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.”
Jesus Christ was born and grew up in poor circumstances. His appearance appeared to be that of a servant, but never that of a king. A “poor tramp” in poor clothes. Jesus Christ is from the tribe of Judah, a descendant of David.
Also the statements in:
Jeremiah 23:5:
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.“
Jeremiah 33:15:
“In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.“
Isaiah 4:2:
“In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.“
Zechariah 3:8:
“Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.“
Isaiah 53, verses 3 and 4
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.“
Now a minority has accepted Jesus Christ for who he really was. The only begotten Son of God, made man. Until His baptism, Jesus Christ worked as a simple carpenter. Afterwards, for 3.5 years, He traveled through Israel with His disciples, healing, preaching and rebuking. He was persecuted, chased away, thrown out of synagogues, and almost pushed down a slope. Jesus Christ lived a humble, simple life and yet was further humiliated.
Isaiah 53, verses 5 and 6
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself and was “pierced” for it, i.e. nailed to the cross. Jesus Christ took upon himself the punishment that was actually due to us for misdeeds and crimes. All guilt fell on him; he became a substitute for sin.
Isaiah 53, verse 9
“And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.“
Jesus Christ was placed in a previously unused tomb belonging to the wealthy Judean Joseph of Arimathea.
Isaiah 53, verse 11
“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.“
Jesus Christ is repeatedly called “righteous servant” here. As a human being, completely obedient to the Father in Heaven, he himself was tempted, but remained guiltless until His death. Through His righteousness, even sinful man can be seen as righteous. This is the path of salvation described after the first fall, Genesis 3:15:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Interpretation of a Rabbi
All of these characteristics of the “righteous servant” described in Isaiah 53, as well as the statements of the other prophets, all point to Jesus Christ. The reports in the New Testament provide confirmation of the prophecies of that time in the Old Testament. The very New Testament that is not recognized by the Jewish faith. This confirmation therefore does not exist.
The two biblical scholars describe Isaiah 53 as “insignificant” and therefore “little known” in Judaism. However, it is not unknown, and when addressed, then from a controversial perspective. From the perspective of the Jewish faith, the “righteous servant” is (of course) not Jesus Christ, but the people of Israel (Source). The following is the excerpted viewpoint, represented by Rabbi Shimon Schwab.
About Isaiah 53, verse 2
“Furthermore the nations say: We never thought that anything good would come of this people; we considered them corrupt. They had no form and no beauty; and when we looked at them, these clothes, these beards, these hats, we felt disgusted.“
The “He” in verse 2 is Israel. Accordingly, in the eyes of other peoples, the residents were run down and had a “disgusting” appearance.
About Isaiah 53, verses 3 and 4
“We despised Israel, we did not want to be friends with her, we considered the Jews to be people of pain and illness; we did not like Israel.
We caused pain and illness to Israel, we thought the Jews were tormented by God, abandoned and destined to suffer pain because they clung to their outdated religion.“
Israel was therefore abandoned by “us”. The question arose here as to who is meant by “we” who refused to enter into a friendship with Israel. Israel and its people clung to an “outdated religion” and therefore “we”(?) inflicted pain on the people. Isaiah lived between 740 and 686 BC. Who was who back then that could be referred to as “we” today? Accordingly, Isaiah 53 is presented as a prophecy for the present time and also the near future, in which the nations would all show repentance.
About Isaiah 53, verses 5 and 6
“But that is not the case, rather we are to blame for all of this. We murdered Israel through our crimes when we accused them of poisoning the wells. We oppressed the Jews, burned them as child murderers. These are our sins. We thought it would bring us peace, we thought we were acting according to God’s plan when we persecuted the Jews.
Like sheep without a shepherd, we went astray. Every nation found its own reason to persecute the Jews. Christians and Muslims persecuted the Jews because they did not want to convert, nationalists accused the Jews of belonging to the socialists, capitalists, the communists and vice versa. Jews were constantly accused of being on the wrong side. Now we see that the Eternal allowed our freedom of will, he allowed Israel to be defeated at our hands, for which we are now held accountable.“
Isaiah 53:5 describes him as being pierced because of our transgressions. In this verse according to Isaiah, the reference to “us” is clear, for it is sinful humanity. But here the blame is placed on those who, from a prophetic perspective, oppressed Israel and falsely accused its inhabitants. In verse 6, Isaiah shows that “the Lord cast all the blame upon him.” According to interpretation, the Lord caused “us” to enslave Israel so that “we” could be punished by him. The naming of Israel’s opponents shows that this is not an interpretation from the time of Isaiah, but from more recent times, at the earliest 1917 (Russian Revolution).
About Isaiah 53, verse 9
“Jews were accused of murder or other violent crimes even though they were innocent. Yet they were killed and buried next to criminals who committed real acts of violence.“
Isaiah describes in verse 9 that “his grave will be with the wicked, but with a rich man” because he did no wrong and no deceit was found in him.
About Isaiah 53, verse 11
“Now Isaiah speaks to Israel again in the name of the Eternal: Israel has successfully endured all hardships. Self-forgetting, raising the gaze of their soul above their own suffering and feeling full of satisfaction when progress towards the success of their mission can be seen Through Israel’s word and example, it spreads knowledge and homage to God among humanity, does not strive for its own greatness and position of power, leaves the shaping of its destiny to God and feels happy in absolute obedience to the requirements of the divine moral law of its Torah, whose rule it is submits without a fight with the most intense love.“
The soul that suffered hardship described in Isaiah 53:11 is also Israel. The “righteous servant” of God, Israel, will make many righteous and bear their sins. According to this interpretation, Israel will rise and serve as a shining example teaching the Torah to other nations.
Dispute over Galatians 6:16
A statement from the Bible regarding this very controversial comparison of the two interpretations has been under debate for some time, Galatians 6:16:
“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God“
The controversial core of this statement is the question, “who or what is Israel?” While the traditional Christian interpretation speaks of a spiritual Israel, Judaism and, relatively recently, the evangelical communities assume a literal, physical Israel. The latter are characterized by the fact that there will be a messianic kingdom of peace on earth (Info). This also includes a so-called pre-rapture of Christians before the tribulation occurs (Info).
Martin Luther made the following comment on Galatians 6:16:
“Here Paul attacks the false apostles and Jews who boasted about their fathers, their election, the law, etc. (Romans 9:4-5). As if to say: ‘The Israel of God are not the physical ones Descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, but those who believe with the believing Abraham in the promises of God, which are now revealed in Christ, whether they are Jews or Greeks.’”
(“The Israel of God” (Year 2000), O. Palmer Robertson)
Jewish professor describes difference
Gershom Scholem, professor of Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, stated in “The Messianic Idea in Judaism (1971)” that the visions of the future of Jews and Christians differ substantially (Source):
“Judaism, in all its forms and manifestations, has always maintained a conception of redemption: an event that occurs publicly on the scene of history and within society. It is an event that takes place in the visible world and that cannot be imagined without a visible manifestation.
In contrast, Christianity sees salvation as an event in a spiritual and invisible sphere, an occurrence reflected in the soul – in the personal world of the individual, producing an inner change and not a correspondence with anything in the external world needed.“
In “all its forms and manifestations” includes so-called Messianic Judaism. This religious group also expects a Messiah who will bring peace to earth and therefore cannot be identical with the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. Rather, there are serious overlaps with the views of a pre-rapture within the framework of futurism and dispensationalism.
The decision is free and individual
Neither the pre-rapture of the Christian community nor the kingdom of peace on earth will occur. This is made clear in the New Testament (especially Revelation). To do this, however, you would first have to acknowledge and read the New Testament.
Classifying Isaiah 53 as “not significant” is obviously due to efforts within ecumenism to dilute the striking difference between recognition of Jesus Christ and his complete rejection. Rabbi Shimon Schwab lived between 1905 and 1995, belonged to Orthodox Judaism, and taught in Germany (Bavaria) and in New York City. The interpretation of Isaiah 53 that he “developed” can therefore, from a prophetic perspective of the 7th century BC, certainly contain elements of the 20th century AD. After all, Schwab was a witness to this time
Everyone is free to accept Isaiah 53 as the Christian interpretation, with the New Testament as the confirmation, or the Jewish interpretation. The pierced “righteous servant” of God, Jesus Christ, who took on all sins, or the (physical) people of Israel. At least the comparison clearly shows that this passage in the book of Isaiah has far more significance than the two biblical scholars are trying to portray in their “explanatory book”..
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
1 Corinthians 1:23
Bible verses from King James Version
