I need a Hebrew scholar to help me with a passage in Isaiah
If you are reading this blog and you are a scholar of Hebrew — or know someone who is — please get in touch (or have your friend get in touch) with me. I’m interested in the following passage, which I am going to present in three different English versions: first, a Jewish translation, then two Christian renderings. The passage in question is Isaiah 45:4-5.
For the sake of My servant Jacob,
Israel My chosen one,
I call you by name, I hail you by title,
though you have not known Me.
I am the LORD and there is none else;
Beside Me, there is no god.
I engird you, though you have not known Me…
— Jewish Publication Society Translation
For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me…
— New Revised Standard Version
For the sake of Jacob my servant,
of Israel my chosen,
I summon you by name
and bestow on you a title of honor,
though you do not acknowledge me.
I am the LORD, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me…
— New International Version
Here is my question: These three translations all suggest slightly different connotations of the breakdown of human knowledge of the Divine. Is God “not known,” “not knowable,” or “not acknowledged”? The implications for apophatic mysticism are fairly evident: does Isaiah’s prophecy point to God’s essential hiddenness, or merely to humanity’s stubborn failure to “acknowledge” God? What would the sense of the original Hebrew text suggest? Or is it sufficiently rich enough that each of these translations is “correct,” implying that Isaiah brilliantly zeroes in on the relationship between God’s hiddenness and humanity’s incapacity (or unwillingness) to know God?
Any insight that any Hebrew scholar could provide would be most appreciated. If you’d rather not leave a comment on the blog, please email me at mccolman <at> anamchara <dot> com. Thank you!
Addendum: My friend Linda, who has a Jewish studies degree, points out that in this passage, God is not addressing Israel, but rather Cyrus, king of the Persians. I came across the passage this morning because Isaiah 45:5-8 is the reading for morning prayer on the first Thursday of Advent in the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours. Talk about a classic example of lifting a passage out of context.
My friend asked me, “I’m assuming you are saying that this verse is lifted out of context and used in Christian mysticism as a text relating to the relationship between God and humanity?” I can’t speak to its usage through the tradition as a whole, but certainly this “out of context” usage is what appears in the Liturgy for today. Mysticism, heaven knows, has a long history of using scriptural passages out of context. Be that as it may, I’m still curious to hear what other folks might have to say about Biblical ideas about the knowability/unknowability of God — in this passage, or elsewhere.
Given my interest in the relationship between the particularity of the community of believers, and the universality of God’s love and grace for all beings, I suppose even out of context this question remains interesting. What does God have to say to the “outsider”? The passage suggests that God can complete God’s purposes even through those who do not “know/acknowledge” God. But what causes that failure of knowing? Is it our sinfulness, or God’s hiddenness? Always seems to go back to that question.
