In the Acts of the Apostles we read of a remarkable encounter between Philip and an Ethiopian eunuch on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. The eunuch was in his chariot, reading the Book of the Prophet Isaiah:
Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: “As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. Acts 8:32-35 RSVCE
The Songs of the Servant of YHWH
The passage read by the Ethiopian is taken from a portion of one of the “Songs of the Servant of YHWH” in the book of Isaiah. General consensus lists four such songs or poems in that book, although some scholars list up to seven. (Bergsma and Pitre 752-753) The four most often cited are (Stuhlmueller, C.P. 330-331):
- Isaiah 42:1-7 – The Servant, a Light to the Nations
- Isaiah 49:1-7 – The Servant’s Mission
- Isaiah 50:4-9 – The Servant’s Humiliation and Vindication
- Isaiah 52:13-53:12 – The Suffering Servant
While the Old Testament is known for its emphasis on just retribution (see Proverbs 13:6; Proverbs 26:27; Sirach 16:1-21 and Wisdom 3:10) which is critiqued by the Book of Job and Ecclesiastes (Geyser-Fouchè and Munengwa 4), the concept of “redemptive suffering”, so central to the Gospel, makes its very first appearance in the Songs of the Servant of YHWH (Geyser-Fouchè and Munengwa 5). This is especially true in the fourth song read by the Ethiopian eunuch.
Who was the Servant of YHWH?
While the phrase “servant of YHWH” is only used in Isaiah 42:19, the phrase “My servant” is found in 42:1, 49:3, 49:6, 52:13, 53:11 and the phrase “His servant” is employed in 44:26; 48:20; 49:5; and 50:10 (Ward 433). “YHWH”, of course, is the tetragrammaton, the four consonants of the ineffable Divine Name.
Who was the Servant of YHWH? When seeking the answer to that question, we should first remember St. Augustine’s maxim: “The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 129)
We should also remember that the Sacred Scriptures often have layers of meaning called “types”, where one layer often prefigures another.
When we take an honest look at the literal sense of the text in the Book of Isaiah we see the Servant clearly identified as Israel, also known as “Jacob”. For example, in Isaiah 41:8-9:
But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
Or Isaiah 44:1-2:
“But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jesh′urun whom I have chosen.
The third Song of the Servant of YHWH, Isaiah 50:4-9, is spoken in the first person, so one could plausibly say that the prophet Isaiah considers himself to be the servant.
In the New Testament, St. Paul identifies himself and his collaborator, Barnabas, as the servants in Acts 13:47:
For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’”
This should not be surprising if one remembers that Israel prefigures the Church represented by St. Paul and Barnabas.
First and foremost, however, the Servant of YHWH prophetically refers to the Lord Jesus. God Himself identifies Him as the Servant in Matthew 12:18.
“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
And Jesus identified himself as the Servant (Luke 22:37):
For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, ‘And he was reckoned with transgressors’; for what is written about me has its fulfilment.”
There is some evidence that the Songs of the Servant of YHWH once were an independent work that was inserted by the inspired author of Isaiah (Stuhlmueller, C.P. 331). Whether or not this is the case, the Songs of the Servant of YHWH cannot be interpreted outside of their context in the book of Isaiah. I have, however, extracted the four Songs of the Servant of YHWH into this PDF document to clearly highlight its prophetic connection to the Gospel, perhaps in the way that Philip did in explaining those passages to the Ethiopian eunuch.
The first column of the table provides the text of the songs from the Revised Standard Version – Catholic Edition (RSVCE). The second column provides the text of the songs from an English translation of the Septuagint, the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures favored by the inspired authors of the New Testament. In the last column I indicate the direct quotations from the Songs used in the New Testament in magenta. Allusions to the songs I indicate in blue.
Quotations marked NETS are taken from A New English Translation of the Septuagint, ©2007 by the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, Inc. Used by permission of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Works Cited
Bergsma, John Sietze, and Brant James Pitre. A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament. Ignatius Press, 2018.
Catechism of the Catholic Church: Complete and Updated. Random House Publishing Group, 1995.
Geyser-Fouchè, Ahanda, and Thomas M. Munengwa. “The concept of vicarious suffering in the Old Testament.” HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies [Online], vol. 75, no. 4, 2019, pp. 1-10. HTS | Theological Studies, https://hts.org.za/index.php/HTS/article/view/5352. Accessed 16 February 2025.
Hahn, Scott. “Typing Tutor by Scott Hahn – St. Paul Center.” St. Paul Center, 2 September 2015, https://stpaulcenter.com/typing-tutor-by-scott-hahn/. Accessed February 17 2025.
Pietersma, Albert, and Benjamin G. Wright, editors. A New English Translation of the Septuagint and the Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included Under that Title. New York, Oxford University Press, 2007.
Stuhlmueller, C.P., Carroll. “Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah.” The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond Edward Brown, et al., Prentice-Hall, 1990, pp. 329-348.
Ward, James M. “The Servant Songs in Isaiah.” Review & Expositor, vol. 65, no. 4, 1968, pp. 433-446.
