Investigation: The Missing Light, Isaiah 53:11

The Masoretic Text of 53:11 reads me'amal nafsho yir'eh yisba': "from the anguish of his soul he will see; he will be satisfied." "See" has no object, which is unusual in Hebrew; the KJV supplies "of the travail of his soul."

In the Great Isaiah Scroll (c. 125 BC) the line has one more word: "he will see light (or) and be satisfied" (described from a transcription). The second Cave 1 copy, 1QIsa-b, also has "light." The Cave 4 copy 4QIsa-d (4Q58) has the beginning of the word, with the rest restored by the editors. The Greek translation reads "to show him light" (Giguet: "de lui montrer la lumière").

The Vulgate (from Hebrew, c. AD 400) agrees with the Masoretic Text: "he will see and be satisfied." So do the later Greek translators Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, and the Targum (reported).

Variant or translation?

A variant is a difference in the text a scribe copied; a translation interpretation is a difference in how a translator rendered the same text. Here the Qumran copies show a variant in the Hebrew itself: the word or is written in the line. The Greek "light" could be a translation of a Hebrew text that had or, or (less likely) a translator's addition to complete the sense. Because the Hebrew copies independently contain the word, most scholars conclude that the Greek translator's Hebrew text had it too.

How could the word be lost or added?

Two explanations: (1) Loss: or (אור) could drop out by accident in copying, because the next word (yisba') follows closely, or because the line seemed complete without it; the Masoretic tradition then preserved the shorter text. (2) Addition: a scribe found "he will see" without an object and supplied "light," perhaps influenced by 9:2 ("have seen a great light") or by hope of life after death. The agreement of two independent lines of evidence (Hebrew copies at Qumran and the Greek of Egypt) makes accidental addition in both less likely than loss in one. Many modern translations (NRSV, NIV, ESV text or note) now read "light."

A likely ancient reading, not certainty

Three points keep the conclusion modest. First, the Qumran readings are read here in a published transcription; checking them against the photographs and the critical edition (DJD XXXII) is still open (ISA-C4), and 4QIsa-d's word is partly restored. Second, older copies are not automatically better: the Great Isaiah Scroll has many readings that are clearly secondary. Third, the oldest attainable text is not necessarily the very first text: all the witnesses are centuries later than the song's composition. The site's conclusion: "light" is a well-attested ancient reading, probably older than the Masoretic text at this point; the earliest wording cannot be known with certainty.

Does it change the meaning?

With "light," the line says the servant, after his suffering, "will see light": in Hebrew idiom, will live (Job 33:28, 30; Psalm 36:9; 49:19). Without it, "he will see" (perhaps "see offspring," from v. 10) still points to life after suffering. Christian readers have seen in "light" a hint of resurrection; Jewish readers have read the servant's restoration as Israel's. The variant sharpens, but does not create, the song's movement from death to vindication.