The Servant-Messiah and the Messiah's servants in Targum Jonathan Isaiah

Abstract

In Targum Jonathan Isaiah, the Suffering Servant (who is explicitly identified as the Messiah) does not suffer. The passages regarding the Suffering Servant have been systematically rewritten to accord with expectations of a triumphant messiah. These facts are well known and have been explored numerous times in the past. What has not been explored are the implications of this rewriting for the theme of the servants. In the Masoretic Text, the characteristics of the servants are determined by those of the Suffering Servant. The servants emulate the servant to the extent that they suffer in their own right. For Targum Jonathan of Isaiah, the relationship between the Servant and the servants is reconfigured as champion–and–righteous rather than progenitor–and–offspring. This demonstrates that neither the interpretation of the “Servant(s)” theme nor the exegetical construction of community identity were monolithic in Jewish antiquity. In the minority tradition represented in Targum Jonathan, the Servant does not suffer; he protects the suffering, and, one way or another, the Servant-Messiah will assure that most (if not all) Israelites are included among his servants.