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Presentation
The Editors

Our intention in presenting this issue of the SIDIC Review on the last of the Servant Songs of Isaiah (also known as the Suffering Servant Song) is to show, among other things, how various interpretations, be they Jewish or Christian, do not exclude, but rather complement one another. While it is certainly true that a Christian will read the "Old Testament" in the light of fulfilment and election in Jesus Christ, according to the Notes on the Correct Way to Present Jews and Judaism in Preaching and Catechesis in the Roman Catholic Church (cf. ch. II, 1) - subject of the next issue to be published in June - it is also true that the Notes speak of the profit to be gained by a Jewish reading, a profit stressed, moreover, by the official presentations and explanations of this important text of the Church.
At the basis of our reading of this moving Song is the very notion of prophecy - not a word given once and for all, nor a fixed interpretation in its Sitz im Leben, but a dynamic word, open to ever new interpretations as God's plan for humanity continues to unfold until that day when his kingdom will be fully manifested for all the world to see.
This Song is not meant to be isolated from the three preceding, as the article of Professor Merendino will show, nor from its epilogue, according to the presentation of Rabbi Finkel. What is important for all of us is the identity of the Servant, as the Word of God continues to unfold its mystery.
In the interplay of this unfolding Word - ever ancient and ever new - we can perceive how all of our authors, be they Jew or Christian, dialogue with one another, represent one another's views in a striking complementarity, as they wrestle with the text and with the mystery of the identity of the Lord's Servant. This is true whether one sees text as indicating chapter and verse, or text as portrayed by an artistic vision of Marc Chagall, for instance. The very mention of this artist leads us to a most important evolution in our interpretations of the Servant: what do they tell us, Christians especially, about our understanding of the great cataclysm that befell the Jewish people in our own day, and which may be identified by the one word - Auschwitz!
Let us, from this perspective, give the final word to Franz Mussner in his Tractate on the Jews (London, SPCK; Philadelphia, Fortress 1984, p. 43) who, in addressing Christians who have interpreted Isaíah 53 solely in relation to Christ, has this to say:
"Jesus of Nazareth with his atoning suffering and death is in the view of the primitive Church the `servant of God' seen by the prophets... The Church must ask itself when it reads the sentence of Paul in Col. 1:24: 'Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church,' whether Israel, who is seen with the servant of God in Deutero-Isaiah in a mysterious joint view, must not also endure a 'supplementary' atoning suffering in the world, not only for its own sins, but also for the sins of the whole world.
There are enough Jewish voices which understand the frightful suffering of Auschwitz and elsewhere as representative atoning suffering for the sins of the Gentiles . . . Can the Christian remain indifferent to such explanation? If according to the apostle there is a supplementary participation in the afflictions of Jesus, with what right then dare the Christian exclude a participation of Israel in such a 'supplement'? The Christian should be filled with reverence when the Jews understand the fearful suffering which has come over Israel in the course of the centuries as 'the sufferings of the servant of God' by which they assist in the redemption of the world."
Since the biblical renewal is calling Christians to appreciate the unity of God's plan in both Testaments, should we not be prepared then to see in the Servant of Isaiah those who bear witness to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - Jews and Christians alike. May we be united in one same consciousness of being the Servant for the whole of humanity.