Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Deutero-Jesaia, 3. Lied vom Gottesknecht;

Kurzinhalt: The task of the Servant is fulfilled when every man has become a limmud of God, as the prophet is now

Textausschnitt: 147/13 In the Third Song the prophet characterizes his status as that of a limmud, of "one who is taught," of a disciple. Martin Buber has strongly stressed the fact that only in the context of Isaiah does the word limmudim appear with the meaning of "disciples." In Isaiah 8:16 the prophet binds up the testimony, and seals the instruction, "in the heart of my disciples"; and in Isaiah 50:4 his successor speaks with the tongue of the limmudim. Has the instruction sealed in the heart of Isaiah's disciples broken forth at this late hour in a member of the circle? And does the second Isaiah indeed speak with the tongue of a disciple of his master? The observation is astute and the assumption tempting, for Deutero-Isaiah uses indeed the language of the master and prophesies the advent of the kabhod of Yahweh. Nevertheless, I think Buber's assumption must be qualified. The passage Isaiah 8:16 is not quite clear in its content. The phrase "my disciples" may refer to the disciples of Isaiah, but the "my" may also refer to God: The prophet is perhaps ordered to seal the message in the hearts of God's disciples, who, to be sure, are at the same time Isaiah's disciples. And that also seems to be the meaning of limmudim in Isaiah 50:4, where the prophet presents himself as the man who is endowed by God with the disciples' tongue, as the man who morning by morning hears God as disciples do. Moreover, this conception of the limmud as the man who is taught by Yahweh pervades the work of Deutero-Isaiah. In the Prologue it is one of the attributes of God that he is not "taught" by anybody with regard to mishpat and da'ath (40: 14). God is the untaught teacher who says of himself (48:17): (511; Fs)
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148/13 And in the Epilogue Israel is promised: "All your sons shall be limmudim of Yahweh" (54:3). The task of the Servant is fulfilled when every man has become a limmud of God, as the prophet is now. That is not to deny that the conception originates with Isaiah. But a disciple of Isaiah is at the same time a disciple of God; and the essence of discipleship, the being taught by God, must be stressed in order to avoid even the shadow of a "sociological" transmission of a message within a circle. (511; Fs) (notabene)
149/13 The prophet as the limmud is the man who has a word for the weary, however adverse the circumstances may be. And the pathos of his own existence is obedience in adversity. He does not rebel or turn backward (probably aimed at the questioning and complaining of Jeremiah); he will not be confounded by ill-treatment of his person; but trusting in God will he continue to speak with a disciples' tongue what he has been taught by God. (512; Fs) (notabene)
150/13 The prophetic autolouange of the Third Song is followed by prophetic action. Isaiah 50:10 is an exhortation to the weary, and 50:11 a prophecy of dire fate to the wicked. Isaiah 51:1-52:12 is a chain of oracles and hymns which resume the leitmotifs and elaborate them.