This idea of a vicarious penal suffering of Israel for the Gentile world, in order to bring salvation to the latter, is so extraordinary and unique that one can easily understand how it has called forth all kinds of explanations, and that ever and anon voices are still raised in support of the contention that the direct reference of this passage to the vicarious suffering of Christ (cf. 1 P 2##:) is the only one that meets the necessities of the case. And, as a matter of fact, the Church is entitled to see the complete fulfilment of this very remark- able prophecy only in the person of Christ. But nothing is taken from its significance in that direction through our interpreting the Servant of Jahweh, so far as the mind of the prophet was concerned, primarily of Israel. Only, we must be careful not to limit his meaning to the idea that the Gentiles, touched by the spectacle of the patience of Israel amidst all its sufferings, are moved to a ready acceptance of its message of sal- vation, and thus brought to adopt its religion ;
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
for the prophet expressly emphasizes the fact that the Servant of Jahweh has fulfilled his high calling by bearing the sins of many and making intercession for the transgressors. e speaks thus of a high-priestly intercession performed by Israel, in conjunction with its vicarious sufferings. In this way he gives his readers a view into the depths of the Divine counsel of salvation, such as is offered by scarcely any one of his fellow- prophets—a view of the truth that the seeming disturbance of God’s saving purpose by man’s sin, and the sufferings introduced in consequence, are really made to serve the end of realizing His saving purposes. But from the beginning all other purposes have been subordinated to this one: ‘The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall fade like a garment... but my salvation shall be for ever’ (51%). Behind and above the temporary, perishing world there is another, which offers higher, eternal blessings. That the entrance to it should be open even to all the heathen, was a notion still beyond the hori- zon of any Israelitish mind of the time. But the prophet understood the word of his God: ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways; but, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts’ (55).
VII. REMAINING EXILIC PROPHECIES, POST- EXILIC PROPHECY, AND THE BEGINNINGS OF APOCALYPTIC.
i, THE SOURCES. —To the time of the Exile may, further, be assigned with some confidence Is 2119 and 13-14, and perhaps also chs. 34 and 35, which are closely akin to Deutero-Isaiah. On the other hand, it is difficult to decide whether a portion of the later additions (noted below) to pre-exilic Prophets are as early as the Exile. At all events, this view is not sufficiently proved by the (very frequent) allusions to the gathering and bringing back of the exiles. For, apart from the fact that such expectations are more than once put into the mouth of the earlier prophets from the standpoint of fulfilment, and indeed for the pur- pose of softening their denunciations, the number of Jews living in all quarters of the Diaspora even after 537 and 458 was still very great, and the expectation of their return might hence become very readily an indispensable element in the hopes of the future.
To the earliest post-exilie period belong: Haggai (520), Zechariah (520-518), and the Book of Malachi (probably before 458), as well as Ob 2°21 and the so-called Trito-Isaiah (Is 56-66, probably about 440). To the beginning of the 4th cent. we assign Joel and Jonah; towards the end of the 4th, if not in the 3rd or even the 2nd cent., we would place the so-called Apocalypse of Isaiah (Is 24-27) and Zec 9-14. Of the additions to the older pro- phets which cannot be more precisely dated, a not inconsiderable portion may come down to the 4th and even the 3rd cent. B.c. Passing over some isolated verses, we give the following as almost universally acknowledged later additions :—
Is 22-4 (Mic 41-4) 42-6 Q9f. 1 (20-23 1] 10-196 131-1428 (see above) 187(?) 1918-25 211-10 (see above) 2315-18 2G 78s ESA DOH Eee (2) elo a2 ase faites above).
Jer 314-18 101-16 1618-21 1719-27 9916-20 3010F- SAAS (2) 3138-40 3917-28 3314-26 chs, 46-49 (?) 501-5158,
Hos 213 35(?; in any case, the words ‘and David their king’) 142-16 (2).
Am 98-15,
Mic 41-4 6-8. (?) 11-13 "7-20.
Hab 3
Zeph 24-15 34-2,
RELIGION OF ISRAEL