[b-hebrew] Isaiah 53 as Zerubbabel's eulogy
LM Barre
l_barre at yahoo.com
Sun Feb 1 17:44:46 EST 2009
We know from the prophet Haggai that the building of the temple excited intense messianic fever:
2 Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judea, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, 3 Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? 4 Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says Yahweh; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says Yahweh; work, for I am with you, says Yahweh of Armies, 5 according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear. 6 For thus says Yahweh of Armies: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; 7 and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the Yahweh of Armies. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says Yahweh of Armies. 9
The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says Yahweh of Armies; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Yahweh of Armies.
And also this prophecy from Haggai:
20 The word of Yahweh came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, 21 "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders; and the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his fellow. 23 On that day, says Yahweh of Armies, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of She-al'ti-el, says Yahweh, and make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the Yahweh of Armies."
Needless to say, the expectation of Zerubbabel's political Messianism did not materialize.
***
It appears that we have a text that relates to the proto-apocalyptic movement discussed above in Isaiah 53:
1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised and we held him of no account. 4 Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is
led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. 9 They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no , and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of Yahweh shall prosper. 11 Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my Servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to , and was numbered with
the transgressors; yet he [actually] bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
A key observation I wish to make is that Zerubbabel is called, "my Servant," a term that is applied in Isaiah to several parties. I would identify this servant with Zerubbabel because the literary genre of this Isaiah text seems to be one of an official, state eulogy over the fallen ruler. Verse 8 most clearly indicates that the subject of the eulogy was arrested, tried and executed for sedition under the Persians just as Jesus was by the Romans. Thus, as with Jesus, we have an earlier instance of failed messianic proto-Apocalypticism that is remarkably similar. In both cases, the Temple played an important and necessary role. While for Zerubbabel, the building of the Second Temple signaled the fulfillment of his apocalyptic expectations, for Jesus the Temple did not need to be rebuilt but rather only cleansed. In both cases, the readiness of the Temple was a prerequisite for the coming Messianic rule.
The Isaiah eulogy not only provides a parallel experience to that of Jesus, it also significantly contributes to the Christian view of Jesus. According to Isaiah, the Messianic Age failed to materialize because of the sins of the people. As a result, Zerubbabel significance was not to be found ultimately in his life but in his death . The Isaiah text explains that he died to compensate for the sins of his people, and while these sins stopped the coming of the Messianic Kingdom, it removed an important obstacle, making the way clear for the coming of the Kingdom at some future time. The whole experience has left the author of 2 Isaiah with hope, although no longer an urgent hope. His emphasis was rather upon the certainty of the realization of that hope, rather than its imminence, a shift in thought that is entirely understandable in light of his historical circumstances.
Comments?
Lloyd Barré
http://freewebs.com/lmbarre
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