The Prophecy of Comfort and the Suffering Servant
about 550 BC to 539 BC, estimated dateEstimated date
Isaiah 40–55 tells the exiles that their punishment is over, names Cyrus as the Lord’s anointed who will send them home, and speaks of a servant who suffers for the sins of many.
Chapter 40 of Isaiah opens on a new scene. The chapters before it end with Isaiah warning King Hezekiah that his treasures and his descendants will one day be carried off to Babylon (Isaiah 39:5–8). The next words are spoken to a people for whom that has already happened: “Comfort, comfort my people”. The punishment of Jerusalem is over, a road is to be made through the desert, and God is coming back to Zion, carrying his flock like a shepherd (Isaiah 40:1–11).
The chapters that follow speak to exiles. Their God made the heavens and counts the nations as “a drop in a bucket”; the gods of Babylon are carved wood, loaded on to animals (Isaiah 40:12–26) (Isaiah 44:9–20) (Isaiah 46:1–2). Babylon will sit in the dust (Isaiah 47:1–5). The one who will bring this about is named. Cyrus the Great is called the Lord’s shepherd and his anointed, who will subdue nations and see Jerusalem and its temple rebuilt, though he does not know the God who calls him (Isaiah 44:24–45:7). The exiles are told to leave Babylon, and their journey is pictured as a second exodus through sea and wilderness (Isaiah 48:20) (Isaiah 43:16–21; 51:9–11).
Through these chapters runs the figure of the Lord’s servant. Often the servant is Israel by name (Isaiah 41:8–9) (Isaiah 49:3). In other passages he has a mission to Israel and to the nations, as “a light to the nations”, and is beaten without resisting (Isaiah 42:1–7) (Isaiah 49:5–6) (Isaiah 50:4–9). In the longest passage he is despised, “pierced for our transgressions”, led like a lamb to the slaughter and buried, and afterwards is vindicated, having borne the sin of many (Isaiah 52:13–53:12).
The servant has been read in more than one way. The New Testament applies these passages to Jesus. In Acts, Philip begins from the lamb led to the slaughter and tells an Ethiopian official “about Jesus”, and Matthew, Luke and 1 Peter quote the same chapters (Acts 8:27–35) (Matthew 8:17; 12:17–21) (Luke 22:37) (1 Peter 2:22–25). Origen, in the third century, records that Jewish teachers with whom he debated took the servant to be the whole people of Israel, suffering in its dispersion (Origen, Against Celsus 1.55).
All four Gospels use the opening of chapter 40, the voice crying in the wilderness, for John the Baptist (Matthew 3:3) (Mark 1:2–4) (Luke 3:4–6) (John 1:23).
How this is dated
Estimated date. A scholarly estimate from primary evidence, with a margin of years.
These chapters carry no date. They speak to people in Babylon (Isaiah 48:20), name Cyrus as a conqueror who has yet to free the exiles (Isaiah 45:1–4, 13), and look ahead to Babylon’s fall (Isaiah 47:1–5). That situation lies between Cyrus’s capture of Astyages and Ecbatana in 550 BC and his capture of Babylon in 539 BC (Nabonidus Chronicle ii.1–4; iii.12–18), and the timeline places the entry there.
Who wrote the chapters, and when, is disputed. The book opens with a heading that names Isaiah son of Amoz, who lived in the eighth century BC (Isaiah 1:1), and chapters 40–55 have no heading of their own. Ben Sira, about 180 BC, credits Isaiah with comforting the mourners in Zion (Sirach 48:22–25). The oldest complete manuscript, copied about 125 BC, has all sixty-six chapters as one book (Great Isaiah Scroll). Josephus says that Cyrus read his own name in what Isaiah had written long before (Josephus, Antiquities 11.5–6). On this view the chapters are prediction, written about 700 BC: see J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah (1993), and John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40–66 (1998).
Since the late eighteenth century most scholars have held that chapters 40–55 are the work of an unnamed prophet among the exiles, often called Second Isaiah, who wrote about 550–539 BC: see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40–55 (Anchor Bible, 2002). The date given here marks the situation the chapters address. It does not decide between the two views.
Primary sources
Scripture
- Isaiah 39:5–8
- Isaiah 40:1–11
- Isaiah 40:12–26
- Isaiah 44:9–20
- Isaiah 46:1–2
- Isaiah 47:1–5
- Isaiah 44:24–45:7
- Isaiah 48:20
- Isaiah 43:16–21; 51:9–11
- Isaiah 41:8–9
- Isaiah 49:3
- Isaiah 42:1–7
- Isaiah 49:5–6
- Isaiah 50:4–9
- Isaiah 52:13–53:12
- Acts 8:27–35
- Matthew 8:17; 12:17–21
- Luke 22:37
- 1 Peter 2:22–25
- Matthew 3:3
- Mark 1:2–4
- Luke 3:4–6
- John 1:23
- Isaiah 45:1–4, 13
- Isaiah 1:1
- Sirach 48:22–25
Against Celsus
- Origen, Against Celsus 1.55newadvent.org
Jewish Antiquities
- Josephus, Antiquities 11.5–6lexundria.com
In context
Grows out of
- 587/586 BC, estimated date
- about 740 BC, estimated date
Leads to
- 538 BC, estimated date
- AD 30 or 33, estimated date