The servant in Isaiah 52 and 53 is one of the most intriguing figures in the prophetic Scriptures. The questions are many, the interpretations are diverse, and the answers always seem to be different. Some have looked to this text in search of Jesus, others to reclaim Israel’s role in the world, and some to find a historical explanation for this prophetic text that seems to have no precedence.
Many have stood in awe of the prophecy about the servant in Isaiah 52:13–53:12—either because of its lack of theological precedence in ancient literature, or because of the parallels between the servant and the portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels.
However, in the past thirty years, there has been little examination of the servant’s possible resurrection in Isaiah 53:10–12. Harry M. Orlinsky and R. N. Whybray’s interpretations, in particular, have been cited as disproving the resurrection in Isaiah 53. Despite Orlinsky’s and Whybray’s interpretations being cited multiple times as as evidence again resurrection in Isaiah 53:10–12, participant reference in discourse analysis, a method pioneered since their works were written, suggests otherwise. The Resurrected Servant in Isaiah re-evaluates the scholarly consensus about the resurrected servant and proposes a new interpretation.