‘About Whom, May I Ask You?’ (Acts 8:34): Isaiah’s Servant Songs in Luke-Acts

“‘About Whom, May I Ask You?’ (Acts 8:34): Isaiah’s Servant Songs in Luke-Acts”
SVD Mission in Contexts: Creative Responses in a Wounded World
vănThanh Nguyễn, SVD 

The question asked by the Ethiopian Eunuch to Philip in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:34) is continually probed by scholars, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”[1] This simple question raises various issues. Do all four Isaiah’s Servant Songs refer to the same servant figure? If so, is it Israel? Is it a king (Cyrus perhaps)? Is it the prophet? Is it an historical individual or possibly an ideal person still to come, like a future Messiah? A definitive answer to the servant’s identification has not been reached.

This essay examines the four servant songs of Isaiah and the possible identity of the servant. While the servant’s identity is still a mystery to many biblical scholars, for Luke, Jesus of Nazareth is that messianic figure whose life and mission, especially his death, fulfill the messianic expectation described in the four servant songs of Isaiah. The question is: Was this aspect of servant Christology derived from Jesus’ self-understanding or was it introduced later by the early Christians, possibly by Luke, to make sense of Jesus’ tragic death? Before addressing this crucial question, it is necessary to briefly examine the content of the four servant songs.

[1] The passage that the eunuch is reading comes from Isaiah 53:7-8, which is part of the fourth Servant Song of Isaiah.