James Trimm’s Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah Chapter 9
9:1-4
8:23 (9:1) For is there no gloom to her that was steadfast? Now the former has lightly afflicted the land of Z’vulun, and the land of Naftali, but the latter has dealt a more grievous blow by the way of the sea, beyond the Yarden, in the district of the nations.
9:1 (9:2) The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined.
9:2 (9:3) You have multiplied the nation [Gentiles], You have increased their joy; they joy before You according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
9:3 (9:4) For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder; the rod of his oppressor, You have broken as in the day of Midian.
(Isaiah 8:23-9:3 (9:1-4) HRV)
The Ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah (c. 250 CE) says:
פשרו בא משיח ונבואתו נגה. ארצה זבלון וארצה נפתלי הם היו הראשונים משוחררים מן התועים של הסופרים והפרושים. והוא נער את שכמיהם עול של גזרות חומרות. והאחרון כל נעשה גדול יותר ביד הבשורה של פולוס השליח אשר אחרון השליחים. הפרש הוא הנבואה ירבה. ולקצה הגוים ובדרך כל הים נגה את בשורה המשיח. בכן כל העולם אשר קודם הלך או ישב בחשך ואשר נשבה באסורים אשר לתרפים ולמוות הוא ראה את האור הצלול של בשורה
Its interpretation: Messiah came and his prophecy shined out, the Land of Zebulon and the Land of Naphtali were the first to be freed from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees. And he shook off from their shoulders, the yoke of heavy decrees. Later everything was made much greater through the goodnews of the emissary Paul, who was last of the emissaries. Its interpretation is that the prophecy multiplied. And to the most distant nations/gentiles and to the way of the whole sea, the goodnews of Messiah shined. Finally, the whole world, which before walked or dwelt in darkness, and which was imprisoned in bonds of idolatry and death, saw the clear light of the goodnews.
9:6-7
[Insert Isaiah 9:6-7 HRV]
… anti-missionaries including Tovia Singer LOVE to claim this must be past tense and refer to an event prior to Isaiah’s writing.
In reality there is no such thing as tense in Hebrew grammar. In reality Hebrew verbs do not take past, present and future forms, but perfect (completed action) or imperfect (incomplete action).
In Hebrew thinking, an action is regarded as
being either completed or incomplete. Hebrew,
therefore, knows no past, present, or future tenses,
but has instead a Perfect and an Imperfect. …
The Hebrew Perfect may be taken to represent
action in the past… the equivalent of the English
present tense is supplied by the participle…. and the
[equivalent of] the English future tense (with other
varieties) by the imperfect.
(A Practical Grammer for Classical Hebrew. 2nd Ed.
Clarendon Press; Oxford; 1959; J. A. Weingreen pp. 56-57)
To be strictly accurate we should speak of “forms” rather than “tenses” of the verb, since it is the completeness or otherwise of an action which is being expressed and not the time factor, as in English….
…Hebrew has no “tenses” in the normal sense of
the word. Instead there are two “states”…
(Teach Yourself Biblical Hebrew; R.K. Harrison;
1984; pages 68, 80)
Normally a verb in the perfect form would imply a past tense which is why Singer insists this must be past tense and that it therefore refers to Hezekiah.
In reality there is a special idiom in Hebrew called the “Prophetic Perfect” this is where prophet speaks of future events in the perfect form because he has seen them in the future where they have already happened.
Gesenius’ mentions the Prophetic Perfect idiom and describes it this way:
…he [the prophetic writer] describes the future
event as if it had been already seen or heard by him.
(Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar. 2nd edition
Translated by A. E. Crowley; Clarendon Press;
Oxford; 1956; Edited by E. Klautzsch; pp. 312-313)
There are many examples of the Prophetic Perfect in the Tanak:
Isaiah 5:13 “Therefore My people are gone into captivity, for want of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude are parched with thirst” (JPS)
In this verse (Is. 5:13) this verb is in the perfect form but it is clearly a future event because the captivity spoken of did not occur in Isaiah’s lifetime.
Other examples are:
Isaiah 10:28-32 “He is come to Aiath, he is passed through Migron; at Michmas he layeth up his baggage; They are gone over the pass; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah trembleth; Gibeath-shaul is fled. Cry thou with a shrill voice, O daughter of Gallim! Hearken, O Laish! O thou poor Anathoth! Madmenah is in mad flight; the inhabitants of Gebim flee to cover. This very day shall he halt at Nob, shaking his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.” (JPS)
Jeremiah 23:2 “Therefore thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds that feed My people: Ye have scattered My flock, and driven them away, and have not taken care of them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.” (JPS)
Amos 5:2 “The virgin of Israel is fallen, she shall no more rise; she is cast down upon her land, there is none to raise her up” (JPS)
In fact the Targum Jonathan to Isaiah 9:6-7 clearly identifies the figure spoken of in Is. 9:6-7 as the Messiah.
“The prophet says to the house of David, A child has been born to us, a son has been given to us; and he has taken the law upon himself to keep it, and his name has been called from of old, Wonderful counselor, Mighty God, he who lives forever, the Messiah, in whose days peace shall increase upon us”
(Targum Jonathan Is. 9:6)
And we read in the Midrash Rabbah:
Rabbi Jose the Galilean says: The name of the Messiah too is
“peace”; as it is written: “God the mighty, the everlasting Father,
the ruler of peace” (Quoting Is. 9:5-6 (6-7))
(PEREK HA SHALOM; NUMBERS RABBAH XI, 16-20)
He said to him: ‘I have yet to raise up the Messiah,’ of whom it is written, For a child is born to us (Isa. IX, 5). Until I come unto my Lord unto Seir (Gen. XXXIII, I4). R. Samuel b. Nahman said: We have searched all the Scriptures and we have nowhere found [it stated] that Jacob ever came together with Esau at Seir. What then is the meaning of, ‘Unto Seir’? Jacob [meant] to say to him: ‘I have yet to raise up judges and saviours to exact punishment from you.’ Whence this? For it is said, And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau (Obad. I, 21). Israel asked God: ‘Master of the Universe, how long shall we remain subjected to him?’ He replied: ‘Until the day comes of which it is written, There shall step forth a star out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel (Num. XXIV, 17); when a star shall step forth from Jacob and devour the stubble of Esau.’
(Midrash Rabbah – Deuteronomy I:20)
And we read in the Zohar:
“As for the expression El Gibbor, the whole verse in which this occurs in an epitome of the holy supernal faith. The word “Wonderful” alludes to the supernal Wisdom, which is wondrous and concealed beyond the reach of all; “Counsellor” is the supernal stream which issues forth perennially and counsels all and waters all; “El” refers to Abraham, “Gibbor” to Issac, and “Everlasting Father” to Jacob, who lays hold of both sides and attains perfection. The “Prince of Peace” is the Zaddik, who brings peace to the world, peace to the House, peace to the Matrona.”
(Zohar 3:31a)
So even the ancient sages understood Isaiah 9:5-6 (6-7 in some editions) to refer to a FUTURE MESSIAH. Why would they do this if this passage supposedly obviously speaks of the past? Obviously it does NOT have to be in the past tense. Like Isaiah 5:13 it is written in the prophetic perfect.
Singer’s argument that the figure described in Isaiah 9:6-7 is Hezikiah actually contradicts the Rabbinic position as stated in the Talmud.
Before going further there are two things the reader needs to know.
First off the Hebrew letter MEM is always written as a closed mem when it is written at the end of a word, but as an open mem when it is written at the beginning of the word.
Secondly there is a traditional anomaly which is preserved in the Massoretic Text.
The letter MEM in the word L’MAR’BEH (“of the increase”) is written as a closed final MEM when it should be written with an open MEM.
The Talmud discusses the use of the abnormal closed final MEM in this passage as follows:
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end (Is. 9:6). R. Tanhum said: Bar Kappara expounded in Sepphoris, Why is every mem in the middle of a word open, whilst this is closed? — The Holy One, blessed be He, wished to appoint Hezekiah as the Messiah, and Sennacherib as Gog and Magog; whereupon the Attribute of
Justice said before the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! If Thou didst not make David the Messiah, who uttered so many hymns and psalms before Thee, wilt Thou appoint Hezekiah as such, who did not hymn Thee in spite of all these miracles which Thou wroughtest for him?’ Therefore it [sc. the mem] was closed. Straightway the earth exclaimed: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! Let me utter song before Thee instead of this righteous man [Hezekiah], and make him the Messiah.’ So it broke into song before Him, as it is written, From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. Then the Prince of the Universe said to Him: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! It [the earth] hath fulfilled Thy desire [for songs of praise] on behalf of this righteous man.’ But a heavenly Voice cried out, ‘It is my secret, it is my secret.’ To which the prophet rejoined, ‘Woe is me, woe is me: how long [must we wait]?’ The heavenly Voice [again] cried out, ‘The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously: which Raba — others say, R. Isaac — interpreted: until there come
spoilers, and spoilers of the spoilers.
(b.San. 94a)
Here the Talmud specifically tells us that Hezikiah was not the Messianic figure mentioned in Isaiah 9:6-7 because of the closed final mem and because of a secret of Elohim which is revealed by the use of a final MEM in this word.
Now it is important to understand that in Rabbinic thought, the MEM is associated with the womb. As we read in the Sefer Yetzirah:
“Three Mothers Alef, Mem, Shin are in the body of male and female: Fire and Water and Air. Head was created from Fire, and Womb was created from Water, and Chest was created from Air, balancing the scales between them.”
(Sefer Yetzirah 3:6)
Furthermore the Zohar teaches that the final MEM in ADAM represents the female side which was taken from Adam to make woman:
Further, the words “let us make man” may be taken to signify that Elohim imparted to the lower beings who came from the side of the upper world the secret of forming the divine name “Adam”, which embraces the upper and the lower in virtue of its three letters, aleph, daleth, and final MEM. When these three letters descended below, together in their complete form, the name Adam was found to comprise male and female. The female was attached to the side of the male until Elohim cast him into a deep slumber, during which he lay on the site of the Temple. God then sawed her off from him and adorned her like a bride and brought her to him, as it is written, “And he took one of his sides and closed up the place with flesh.” (Gen. 2:21).
(Zohar 1:34b)
The Bahir elaborates that not only does a MEM represent a womb, but an open MEM represents an open womb amd a closed MEM represents a closed womb:
“The open Mem. What is the open Mem ? It includes both male and female. What is the closed Mem ? It is made like a womb from above. But Rabbi Rahumai said that the womb is like the letter Teth . He said it is like a Teth on the inside, while I say that it is like a Mem on the outside.
What is a Mem? Do not read Mem, but Mayim (water). Just like water is wet, so is the womb always wet. Why does the open Mem include both male and female, while the closed Mem is male? This teaches us that the Mem is primarily male. The opening was then added to it for the sake of the female. Just like the male cannot give birth, so the closed MEM cannot give birth. And just like the female has an opening with which to give birth, so can the open MEM give birth. The MEM is therefore open and closed.”
(Bahir 84-85)
While Singer claims that Hezikiah was the figure described in Isaiah 9:6-7 the Talmud states that Hezikiah was not this figure because of the “secret” of the closed final MEM. What is the secret of the closed final MEM? the MEM represents the WOMB and the the closed MEM points the birth of Messiah to a woman with a closed rather than an open womb! This points us to the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son…”
Messiah would be born to the closed womb of a virgin. The closed MEM (closed womb) birth described in Isaiah 9:6-7 points us back to the virgin birth described in Isaiah 7:14. Hezikiah could not have been the figure born in Isaiah 9:6-7 because he was not born of a virgin.