Suffering Servant, n.All

The Suffering Servant (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠Israel, whose pain is not a sentence but an honor and an offering, its meaning held back until the day of redemption.

The Suffering Servant (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not a ritual sacrifice but the kind of spontaneous, collective, legally sanctioned event from which all ritual is derived.

The Suffering Servant (n.) of ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠Isaiah is a human scapegoat with the one trait no myth allows its victim: he is innocent, with no connection to violence and no taste for it.

The Suffering Servant (n.) belongs ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠to an unstable, in-between religion: the truth of the scapegoat almost spoken, then neutralized by formulas that make God want the bruising.