In Isaiah 53, where it talked about the servant "suffering", I believed that most Christians believed these parts referred to Jesus.
For instance, according to what I remember of Christian or church teachings, Jesus suffered for their sins, when he was beaten and crucified, in order to save them. Sort of like sin offering. Jesus was atoning for us mere mortals.
I think that's the main reasons why Christians believed that Jesus was the Suffering Servant. It could be the case.
However, I believed that the Suffering Servant could symbolize something else, other than the Christian interpretation.
Now, I preferred to reading narrative (drama or adventure) because I find it interesting. :yes: :yes: I know, I'm addicted to storytelling, like myths. But my point is that I prefer to reading narratives than reading about law, morality or poetry, or in the case of religious scriptures, what they called prophecy. The problem I have with writings of law, morality or ethics is they can be downright boring, :sleep: especially when the scriptures goes on and on about sins...sorry, but I'm not obsessed with sins. And then there are so-called prophecies, which are often confusing, and can mean any number of things; to sum it up - prophecy is open interpretation - and 9 out of ten times, your will interpretation sucks if you're wrong.
Anyway getting back to my point, is that Moses introduced a law or custom (don't really know which it is...or it could be both) for the Levite to use.
I am referring to the sin offering...but more to the point - the Day of Atonement.
Sin offering is way of atoning. And this usually involved the sacrifice of a goat (see Leviticus 3:12-16, 4:1-28 (where either bull or goat being used), 5:2-6; Leviticus 9, 10, etc.)
The most interesting one is sin-offering where 2 goats were used; see Leviticus 16.
Here, one goat was offered as a sacrifice to God, while the other goat was to be used as atonement for the sins of all the tribes of Israel. This 2nd goat was the scapegoat. In JPS, it was offering to Azazel:
Leviticus 16:7-10 said:
7Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; 8and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel. 9Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the Lord, which he is to offer as a sin offering; 10while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.
Who this Azazel is, I don't know.
Other translations leave out Azazel, and just called it scapegoat, because Azazel means "scapegoat".
But anyway, like Jesus or the Suffering Servant bearing the sins of others, so does this scapegoat.
The scapegoat was to be presented to God first, before sending into the wilderness:
Leviticus 16:20-22 said:
20 When he has finished atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. 22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.
Am I saying that the Suffering Servant is the goat?
:no: What I am saying the Suffering Servant bear the sins of his people (Israelite), just as the goat to Azazel did, as form of atonement for the people. The Suffering Servant is a symbol for sin offering and atonement. So is the scapegoat (being the symbol of Israelite's sins) in Leviticus 16.
In the case of Isaiah's Suffering Servant, I don't think it should be taken too literal.
Am I making any sense? I do tends to get "sidetracked" or ramble off. :sorry1: