Date of Award

Summer 1967

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Theology

Abstract

Statement of purpose: to discover whether Jesus thought of himself as the servant of God. Method: to examine the synoptic gospels, especially the Gospel according to Luke, and to assess the data given there regarding Jesus as servant; then determine how much (if any) of this originates with Jesus himself. Limitation of the subject: Since our study is exclusively, or almost exclusively, with the synoptics, especially Luke, our study is obviously limited. The servant idea as it occurs in the Old Testament, especially as it occurs in Deutero-Isaiah, is merely summarized in this paper and these conclusions are based on the work of others. The fact that the Lucan use of the servant idea is only paralleled with the other synoptics is limiting enough. But the whole of the paper considers the servant notion with the most minimal references to the Johannine and Pauline uses. Special Difficulties: Besides the narrowness of our approach to the subject, there are a number of other intrinsic problems in considering Jesus as servant. First, the tremendous problem of even surveying the vast literature about the servant in Deutero-Isaiah. The identity of the Isaiahan servant is beyond the scope of this pa.per. What is even a greater complexity in this regard is the question which is not even asked by most scholars: what is the connection between the general servant idea (especially in the first three servant poems) and the more specifically mentioned suffering-servant in the fourth poem? Although most scholars do not seem to make very much of the distinction, it seems to me that the concept of servant in Deutero-Isaiah extends beyond the exclusive notion of suffering servant...

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