The Text and Canon Institute has launched a new series of articles on several of the crucial textual problems in Isaiah's Fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13–53:12). The series will focus on the problems that affect translation such as the following:
- Does the servant startle the nations because he is disfigured or sprinkle them after being anointed? (Isa. 52:14–15)
- Is the servant stricken to death for the people’s rebellion, or are they? (Isa. 53:8)
- Is the servant’s death or his tomb with the rich? (Isa. 53:9)
- Who and what does the servant intercede for? (Isa. 53:12)
- Is the resurrection of the servant anticipated in what he sees? (Isa. 53:11)
Peter Gentry, co-blogger Anthony Ferguson, and myself have written up the articles on these problems in an accessible way to put them back on the radar of commentators and Bible translators as well as guide the interested layperson who has probably heard that their translation contains mistakes (and maybe their translation does). You can read the Introduction article here and follow the unfolding of the series over the next few weeks until Easter.