[103]
But I did not know what “root of Jesse” meant. The name, “Jesse,” I faintly remembered reading in the poems of David; but where it was I could not recall. Hence the phrase was obscure. I determined8 to put off the further study of Paul for the present, and to glance through the book of Isaiah in the hope of meeting this and other passages quoted above. Accordingly I unrolled the prophecy and began to read it from the beginning.
At first, the language was clear—though the Greek was as bad as in the poems of David. The “children” of God, said the prophet (meaning the ancient Jews or Hebrews, whom he often spoke9 of as “Israel”) had rebelled against their Father and were being punished with fire and sword by hostile nations executing God’s vengeance10 on their impiety11. Then came the sentence I quoted above, from Paul, about the “remnant.” After this, the prophet introduced “the Lord”—that is the God of the Jews—as saying that He cared no longer for their incense12 or their offerings because they came from hands stained with blood. This was somewhat like the saying of Horace about Phidyle mentioned above. But what followed was not like anything in Horace: “Wash you, make you clean; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek judgment13, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” If they would act thus, then, said God, “though your sins be red as scarlet14, they shall be as white as snow.” As though the nation were molten metal in a crucible15, and He Himself were refining them with fire, the Lord said to the whole people of Israel, “I will purge16 away thy dross17 … afterwards thou shalt be called the city of righteousness.”
I had begun to hope that I should be able to understand this author as easily as Euripides and much more easily than ?schylus. But now came obscurities. First I read of a golden age. People were to “beat their swords into ploughshares,” and not to “learn war any more.” Then I found a mention of general destruction as by a universal earthquake. Then came, without any chronological18 or other order apparent to me, the following pictures, or predictions:—a land without a ruler governed by children and women; a picture of luxurious19 ladies[104] of rank, a list of their dresses, ornaments20, jewels and cosmetics21; a “branch of the Lord, beautiful and glorious”; a purifying with a “spirit of burning”; “a song of my beloved touching22 his vineyard”—all confused together (so it seemed to me at the time) like the prophecies of the Sibyl.
As far as I could see, most of these prophecies dealt with the internal corruption23 of the nation. The “vineyard” of the Lord was the people of Israel. When He visited the vineyard, looking for fruit, said the prophet, “He looked for judgment but behold24 oppression.” After this, came a vision of the Lord’s glory, and then predictions of external calamities25, and invasions of foreign nations. But yet there was a promise of the birth of a Deliverer, a Prince of Peace, to sit “upon the throne of David.” Following this, at some interval26, were the words for which I was searching, about “the root of Jesse.” And now I could understand them, for they were preceded by this prediction, “There shall come forth27 a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.” Just before that, there had been a description of an invading army, coming as the instrument of the Lord’s wrath28 and “lopping the boughs29 with terror” and hewing30 down “the high ones of stature31.”
Then all was clear to me. I perceived the connexion between the “child” that was to sit on “the throne of David,” and the “shoot out of the stock of Jesse.” The two together brought back to my mind that passage which I could not before recall from the Psalms32, “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The words of Isaiah were like those of Sophocles where he is speaking of the destruction of the royal house of Laius. Sophocles calls the surviving child the “root,” and laments33 because the axe34 of Fate was destroying it just when a branch was on the point of “shooting up” from the “stock” so as to produce fruit. So now, but in an opposite mood of hope and joy, Isaiah said that the royal house of David the son of Jesse would not be exterminated35, though many of its scions36 would be cut off. A “branch” would “shoot up” and the succession to the kingdom would be maintained.
In the same way, I perceived, the great Julius, or the[105] Emperor Augustus, being descended37 from Iulus, the son of ?neas, might be called “the shoot out of the stock of Anchises,” transported from Asia to Europe so as to “shoot up” into a new kingdom more glorious than the old. This, too, explained the word “remnant” used by Paul. As the Trojan followers38 of ?neas were a “remnant,” so too must be the Jewish followers of this “child,” a remnant left from defeat, disaster, and captivity39, after a great “lopping of the boughs with terror.” Virgil sang about the empire of the house of Iulus not as a prophet, but as a poet, prophesying40, so to speak, after the event. Isaiah appeared merely to predict empire as a prophet, and a false prophet, prophesying what had not been, and never would be, an “event.” The tree of the empire of Rome was erect42 for all the world to look on. The tree of the kingdom of Jesse appeared to me as extinct as the house of Laius. So I thought then.
Yet I knew that Paul looked at the matter differently and regarded these prophecies as having been, or as about to be, fulfilled. And when I looked more closely into the sayings of Isaiah about the future kingdom, I saw that many of them were capable of two meanings. Sometimes the prophet appeared to be contemplating43 a kingdom established in the ordinary way by force of arms—a conquest achieved, or at all events preceded, by fire, sword, and desolation. But, for the most part, it seemed to be an empire of peace to be brought about by some kind of persuasion44, or feeling. A sudden conviction was to take hold of all the nations of the earth, so that they were to exclaim, with one consent, as at the sound of a trumpet45, “Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,” meaning the Temple in Jerusalem.
In this kingdom, however brought about, the Lord was to be King, and there was to be a “covenant46” between Him and all the citizens or subjects, a covenant of righteousness. The subjects were to obey the King and the King would give them a righteous spirit. In some respects the covenant of obedience47 was to resemble that philosophic48 oath which Epictetus had enjoined49 on us, namely, to consult our own interests, to be true to ourselves (meaning, to the spirit of righteousness within us).[106] But the prophet regarded righteousness as loyalty50, or truth, not to ourselves, but to our King.
That seemed to me one great difference between the Greeks and the Hebrews in their notions of worship. The Greeks, when they lifted their thoughts above themselves, looked, in the first place, each man to his several city, and in the next place, to the Gods. They did not think in the first place of the Gods. For the Gods were many, while the City was one. But the ancient Jews, the men of Israel, or at least their prophets, looked to their Lord God as their King—the Father, or sometimes the Husband, of Israel. Although they were many tribes, they had but one God, the Lord God, who had delivered them from the land of Egypt. This Lord God was a God of justice and truth, hating oppression, a defender51 of the widow and the fatherless. To be loyal to Him was righteousness.
And herein—as I soon began to perceive—was the great difference between the view of righteousness or justice taken by Isaiah and that taken by our Roman lawyers, or any lawyers bound to a written law. The lawyer’s righteousness was legality; the prophet’s was loyalty. Epictetus and Isaiah agreed together in aiming at loyalty, not legality. Both disliked obedience paid to mere41 rules and commandments of men. But the former for the most part inculcated loyalty that seemed like loyalty to oneself; the latter, loyalty to God. This precept52 of Isaiah agreed with the fundamental law prescribed in the code of Moses that the men of Israel were to “love” the Lord their God.
After searching carefully to see what the prophet said concerning the immortality54 of the soul (about which Moses seemed to be silent) I could find little of a definite kind. In one passage I read “The dead shall arise and they that are in the tombs shall be roused up.” But the preceding lines said “The dead shall assuredly not see life”; so that it was not clear whether the words meant that one nation should be destroyed for ever and another nation should be raised up from destruction to life. The prophet appeared to be thinking of the nation collectively, more often than of separate citizens. The metaphor55 of the Vine of Israel seemed to be almost always[107] in his thoughts. And his hope seemed to be, not concerning separate branches, that every branch should remain; but that, in spite of being cruelly pruned56 and cut down almost to the ground, the tree, as a whole, would yet grow up and bear fruit. I noticed also that a certain king called Hezekiah, when praying to be delivered from a disease likely to prove fatal, spoke as though there were no life after death.
But there was one passage, of very mysterious import, which seemed to point to a different conclusion. It spoke about a “servant of God,” of mean aspect but destined57 to be a great Deliverer—such as Epictetus had described—“bearing upon him the cares” of multitudes. He was to grow up “as a root in the thirsty ground,” which suggested that he was to be “the root of Jesse” above mentioned. But he was not to be like ?neas, “the root” of Anchises. For ?neas divided the spoils in Italy as the prize of his sword. But this Deliverer—so the prophet declared—was “despised and reckoned as naught58.” He was “delivered over” to the enemies of his nation as a ransom59 to save his fellow-countrymen, and it was by their wickedness that “he was led to death.” Yet in the end, said the prophet, “He will inherit many men, and will divide the spoils of the strong, because his soul was delivered over to death, and he was reckoned among criminals, and he carried the sins of many and he was delivered over on account of their crimes.”
This was altogether beyond my comprehension at the time. But I saw that I should have to return to this prophecy hereafter; for I recognised its last words as having been quoted by Paul in writing to the Romans. I found afterwards that the passage in Paul spoke about “believing in Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered over for the sake of our transgressions60, and was raised up for the sake of our being made righteous.” For the present, however, the passage in Isaiah about the “servant” of God seemed to me important, for this reason mainly, because it indicated a belief in a life after death. And so did another difficult passage—if Paul had interpreted it rightly. My copy of the prophecy said, “Death by its strength hath swallowed up”; but the margin61 said[108] “Death is swallowed up in victory,” and these latter words, too, I recognised as being quoted by Paul; and this, or some similar, sense appeared to be required by the context.
It was growing late and I was obliged to break off. But I resolved to return to the book next morning before lecture. So far as I had read, it appeared to me that the prophet did not formally recognise the immortality of the soul in general. But in the case of the Suffering Servant he did seem to recognise it. Having the Servant in my mind, I unrolled the book of Isaiah to other passages using the same word, such as, “for my servant David’s sake,” “But thou, Israel, art my servant,” “My servant whom I have chosen.” At last I came to “the seed of Abraham my friend.” In all these passages, God was supposed to be speaking. Then it occurred to me, “Did the prophet make an exception for the Suffering Servant only? Did he not also believe that Abraham’s soul was immortal53?” It seemed to me impossible that if the God of the Jews were asked, “Where is Abraham thy friend?” He would reply—or that the prophet would regard Him as replying—“Resolved into the four elements.” On the whole, I was led to the conclusion that Isaiah implied, though he did not express, some kind of doctrine of human immortality dependent on the relation between man and God.
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1
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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foretold
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| v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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gainsaying
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| v.否认，反驳( gainsay的现在分词 ) | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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8
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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10
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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11
impiety
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| n.不敬；不孝 | |
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12
incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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13
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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14
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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15
crucible
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| n.坩锅，严酷的考验 | |
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16
purge
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| n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁 | |
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17
dross
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| n.渣滓；无用之物 | |
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18
chronological
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| adj.按年月顺序排列的，年代学的 | |
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19
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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21
cosmetics
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| n.化妆品 | |
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22
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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24
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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25
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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26
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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28
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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29
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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30
hewing
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| v.（用斧、刀等）砍、劈( hew的现在分词 )；砍成；劈出；开辟 | |
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31
stature
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| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
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32
psalms
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| n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的) | |
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33
laments
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| n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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34
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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35
exterminated
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scions
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| n.接穗，幼枝( scion的名词复数 )；（尤指富家）子孙 | |
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37
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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38
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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39
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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40
prophesying
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的现在分词 ) | |
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41
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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42
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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43
contemplating
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| 深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想 | |
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44
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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45
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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46
covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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47
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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48
philosophic
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| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
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49
enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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51
defender
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| n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人 | |
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52
precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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53
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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54
immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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55
metaphor
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| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
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56
pruned
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| v.修剪（树木等）( prune的过去式和过去分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
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57
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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58
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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59
ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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60
transgressions
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| n.违反，违法，罪过( transgression的名词复数 ) | |
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margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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