The Suffering Servant

Justin Martyr, a second-century Father and apologist, introduces in his First Apology the prophecies of the Servant as foretelling that Christ, made man for our sakes, would suffer dishonour and come again with glory. It shows the passage applied to Christ in the literal sense by the early Church.

But that, having become man for our sakes, He endured to suffer and to be dishonoured, and that He shall come again with glory, hear the prophecies which relate to this

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons and Father of the Church, recalls in Against Heresies that Philip preached to the Ethiopian eunuch, who was reading Isaias, and asks of whom the prophet spoke. The scene in Acts is the apostolic use of the passage. It bears on the literal sense as the apostles answered it.

Whom did Philip preach to the eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians, returning from Jerusalem, and reading Esaias the prophet, when he and this man were alone together? Was it not He of whom the prophet spoke: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before the shearer, so He opened not the mouth?” “But who shall declare His nativity? for His life shall be taken away from the earth.” [Philip declared] that this was Jesus, and that the Scripture was fulfilled in Him

Origen, in Against Celsus, recalls a disputation with Jewish teachers who held that the prophecy referred to the whole people, regarded as one individual, dispersed and suffering so that proselytes might be gained. He reports their reading plainly. It is the principal alternative in the literal sense.

Now I remember that, on one occasion, at a disputation held with certain Jews, who were reckoned wise men, I quoted these prophecies; to which my Jewish opponent replied, that these predictions bore reference to the whole people, regarded as one individual, and as being in a state of dispersion and suffering, in order that many proselytes might be gained, on account of the dispersion of the Jews among numerous heathen nations.

Origen answers that reading from the words “because of the iniquities of my people was he led away unto death”: if the people is the subject, how can he be led to death for the iniquities of the people of God, unless he be other than that people? It tests the literal sense against the text.

But we seemed to press them hardest with the expression, “Because of the iniquities of My people was He led away unto death.” For if the people, according to them, are the subject of the prophecy, how is the man said to be led away to death because of the iniquities of the people of God, unless he be a different person from that people of God?

Athanasius, Father and Doctor of the Church, writes in On the Incarnation of the Word that Scripture does not pass over the death of the Word but names its cause: he suffers it not for his own sake but for the immortality and salvation of all. It reads the Servant’s suffering in the literal sense as for others.

Nor is even His death passed over in silence: on the contrary, it is referred to in the divine Scriptures, even exceeding clearly. For to the end that none should err for want of instruction in the actual events, they feared not to mention even the cause of His death,—that He suffers it not for His own sake, but for the immortality and salvation of all, and the counsels of the Jews against Him and the indignities offered Him at their hands.

Cyril of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church, preached his Catechetical Lectures to candidates for baptism. Here he applies “numbered with the transgressors” to the two robbers crucified with Jesus. It shows one phrase of the prophecy fulfilled at the cross.

Concerning the robbers who were crucified with Him, it is written, And He was numbered with the transgressors. Both of them were before this transgressors, but one was so no longer. For the one was a transgressor to the end, stubborn against salvation; who, though his hands were fastened, smote with blasphemy by his tongue. When the Jews passing by wagged their heads, mocking the Crucified, and fulfilling what was written, When they looked on Me, they shaked their heads, he also reviled with them.

Chrysostom, Father and Doctor of the Church, is cited in the Catena Aurea of Aquinas on the evangelist’s “that the saying of Isaias might be fulfilled”. He says it expresses the event, not the cause: they did not disbelieve because Isaias said so, but he said so because they would. It bears on how the prophecy is said to be fulfilled.

That the saying of Esaias might be fulfilled: that here is expressive not of the cause, but of the event. They did not disbelieve because Esaias said they would; but because they would disbelieve, Esaias said they would.

Chrysostom, in the Catena Aurea, says that in crucifying Jesus between the thieves they fulfilled the prophecy “he was numbered with the transgressors”: what they did in wickedness served the truth. It points to a detail of the Passion foretold in the prophet’s words.

They crucified Him with the thieves: And two others with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst; thus fulfilling, filling the prophecy, And He was numbered with the transgressors. What they did in wickedness, was a gain to the truth. The devil wished to obscure what was done, but could not. Though three were nailed on the cross, it was evident that Jesus alone did the miracles; and the arts of the devil were frustrated.

Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church, explains in the Catena Aurea why Joseph of Arimathea is described as rich: only such a man could approach Pilate for the body. It bears on the literal fulfilment of “with the rich in his death” in the burial.

He is described as rich, not out of any ambition on the part of the writer to represent so noble and rich a man as Jesus’ disciple, but to show how he was able to obtain the body of Jesus from Pilate. For poor and unknown individuals would not have dared to approach Pilate, the representative of Roman power, and ask the body of a crucified malefactor.

Chrysostom, in his homily on Acts, imagines the Ethiopian having witnessed the rent veil and the darkness, and says Philip needed only to take his text from the prophet. It shows how the passage was used to explain the recent events.

It is likely he had seen the riven rocks there (on the spot), and (had heard) how the veil was rent, and how there was darkness, and so forth: and all these things Philip mentioned, merely taking his text from the Prophet. It is a great thing, this reading of the Scriptures! That was fulfilled which was spoken by Moses, “Sitting, lying down, rising up, and walking, remember the Lord thy God.” ( Deut. vi. 7.)

Rabanus Maurus is cited in the Catena Aurea for the gloss that “he took our infirmities” means he took them away from us, and bore what we were too weak to bear. It states what the verb means in the literal sense.

Rabanus “Took” them not that He should have them Himself, but that He should take them away from us; “and bare our sicknesses,” in that what we were too weak to bear, He should bear for us.

Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, distinguishes in the Summa Theologiae the intention of the Jews in crucifying the thieves with Christ from God’s ordaining, and cites Chrysostom. It reads “reputed with the wicked” in the literal sense as both a human intention and a divine ordering.

Christ was crucified between thieves from one intention on the part of the Jews, and from quite another on the part of God's ordaining. As to the intention of the Jews, Chrysostom remarks (Hom. lxxxvii in Matth.) that they crucified the two thieves, one on either side, "that He might be made to share their guilt. But it did not happen so; because mention is never made of them; whereas His cross is honored everywhere. Kings lay aside their crowns to take up the cross: on their purple robes, on their diadems, on their weapons, on the consecrated table, everywhere the cross shines forth.

The Roman Catechism, issued after the Council of Trent for parish priests, observes that the oracles of Isaias on the Passion are so clear and graphic that he seems rather to have recorded a past than predicted a future event. It gives the Church’s judgment on the clarity of the passage.

As to the Prophets, how many there were who foretold Christ's Passion and death is too well known to require development here. Not to speak of David, whose Psalms embrace all the principal mysteries of Redemption, the oracles of Isaias in particular are so clear and graphic that he might be said rather to have recorded a past than predicted a future event.

Pope John Paul II, in the apostolic letter Salvifici Doloris, calls the Fourth Song of the Suffering Servant among the most touching of the messianic texts, and names the prophet “the Fifth Evangelist”. It places the passage among the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

There were many messianic texts in the Old Testament which foreshadowed the sufferings of the future Anointed One of God. Among all these, particularly touching is the one which is commonly called the Fourth Song of the Suffering Servant, in the Book of Isaiah. The Prophet, who has rightly been called "the Fifth Evangelist", presents in this Song an image of the sufferings of the Servant with a realism as acute as if he were seeing them with his own eyes: the eyes of the body and of the spirit.