Resurrection in the Scrolls? You Decide.

Is the servant resurrected in the Dead Sea Scrolls’ version of Isaiah 53? You be the judge.

This is the translation included in my forthcoming book with Paternoster Press and Logos Bible Software. Variants between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the traditional Hebrew Text, the Masoretic Text, are in bold.

10 Yet Yahweh was pleased to crush him and1 he made [him] sick. If she/you2 places his life a guilt offering,3 he will see his offspring and4 he will prolong days and the will of Yahweh [is] in his hand, [it] will succeed.

11 From [the] trouble5 of his life he will see light6 and7 he will be satisfied.8 And9 in his knowledge, his10 righteous servant11 shall make the many righteous and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide to him [a portion] among the many, and with [the] strong ones he shall divide bounty, because he exposed his life to death and was counted with transgressors, and he carried [the] sins12 of many and will intercede for their transgressions.13

What say you? Is the servant resurrected?

1 This variant is supported by 1QIsaa
2 This could be translated as a second, masculine singular or a third, feminine, singular.
3 The variants in this line are discussed in chapter three. These variants are translated in the following tables.
4 This variant is supported by 1QIsaa.
5 May be translated as “suffering.”
6 This variant is supported by 1QIsaa, 1QIsab and 4QIsad (Questionable).
7 This variant is supported by 1QIsaa and 4QIsad (Questionable).
8 May be translated as “find satisfaction.”
9 This variant is supported by 1QIsaa.
10 This variant is supported by 1QIsaa. 4QIsad reads “my servant.”
11 May also be translated as “the righteous one, my servant.”
12 This variant is supported by 1QIsab and 4QIsad.
13 This variant is supported by 1QIsaa, 1QIsab and 4QIsad.