Adam Sasbout's Commentary on Isaiah Chapter 50

 

Introductory Notes on the Translation:

1. Author: Adam Sasbout (Sasboutus) was a 16th-century Franciscan theologian and biblical commentator. His work reflects the Counter-Reformation era, emphasizing orthodox Catholic Christology against Jewish interpretations and critiquing earlier Christian commentators who deviated from the Messianic reading.

2. Theological Context:

   • Christology: Sasbout insists on a Christological interpretation of the "Servant" passages (Is 50:4-7), arguing against the Jewish interpretation (that it refers to Isaiah) and even critiquing Christian commentators (like the Pseudo-Thomas) who waver on this.

   • Divine Power:  Is 50:2-3 are interpreted as assertions of Christ's divinity (omnipotence), while Is 50:4-7 refer to His humanity (obedience and suffering).

   • Textual Variant (Is 50:10): Sasbout discusses the variant between quis (Who is among you...?) and qui (He who...). He prefers qui ("He who walked in darkness... let him hope"), arguing that the quis reading implies no one fears God, whereas qui offers hope to any who do. He suspects the Vulgate text available to him was "depraved" (depravatus) on this point.

   • Irony (Is 50:11): The command to "walk in the light of your fire" is interpreted as a bitter irony—a permission for the wicked to proceed in their self-destruction.

3. Style: Sasbout's commentary is concise and doctrinal. He frequently cites Jerome, Haymo, and Lyra. The translation preserves his direct exegetical style and his willingness to critique textual traditions.

4. Rhetorical Terms: Sasbout uses the term metalepsis (Is 50:1) to describe the "bill of divorce," indicating a complex metaphorical substitution where the divorce stands for the spiritual rejection caused by sin. This was translated by Qwen.

Father Adam Sasbout's Commentary on Isaiah 50:1-11

Is 50:1: "Thus says the Lord: Who is this bill of divorce of your mother, by which I have dismissed her? Or who is my creditor, to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you have been sold, and for your transgressions I have dismissed your mother."

"THUS SAYS THE LORD: WHO IS THIS..." &c. In the preceding chapter, He spoke to the congregation of saints up to the advent of Christ; now, however, omitting those, He speaks to the Jews who, called by Christ, were unwilling to receive Him. And He says: "You, who are about to reject Christ coming in His own person, shall suffer a long destruction, and so long that you may rightly suspect a bill of divorce was given to your mother."

Moreover, by "mother" He understands the synagogue; but in "bill of divorce" there is a metalepsis (a metaphorical substitution). The Prophet wishes to say this: "Why do you accuse God of injustice, as if He by His own hardness rejected your mother? You think a bill of divorce was given by Me to your mother. If this is so, show the bill of divorce. Or, if you cannot, say: 'Who is my creditor, to whom, demanding money when I had not enough to repay, I handed you over in compensation for the debt?' Certainly, you will be able to show neither. Therefore, I did not sell you, but your sins, which I found born among you, caused Me to permit you to be led away into exile, and to permit your mother, willing to depart as an adulteress, to depart."

Is 50:2: "Because I came and there was no man; I called and there was none who would listen. Has My hand become shortened and small, that I cannot redeem? Or is there no power in Me to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I will make the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers to dryness; the fish shall rot without water and die of thirst."

Is 50:3: "I will clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth their covering."

"BECAUSE I CAME AND THERE WAS NO MAN..." He expounds their sins and crimes. "I came," indeed, into the world, flesh having been assumed; "there was no man." In Hebrew this is said; but a Latin would say: "There was no one whatsoever." He notes the fewness of those who were attentive to the divine sermons of Christ—and such sermons of God and Man, which is worthy of admiration. "I called: 'Come to Me all you who are heavy laden,'" &c. (Matthew 11:28). And in another place: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me" (John 7:37). "And there was none who would listen" to Me calling and so blandishly alluring.

"HAS MY HAND BECOME SHORTENED...?" This verse signifies His divinity. For those things which are commemorated here are proper to God; in the following verses, however, He will signify His humanity in reproaches. The sense is: "That you did not hear Me calling, ought this to be ascribed to my impotence or my ignorance? It cannot be said, because I am God, in whom nothing can be required or desired. This hand of Mine, or power, which I have shown in various ways from the beginning of the world, has it become shortened so that I cannot redeem, whether from the Babylonian captivity or from the captivity of the devil or from any other?"

"BEHOLD, AT MY REBUKE..." It has the force of convincing. "He who can make the sea a desert, of him no one can suspect that He was the cause that the defect came from Him." Moreover, among the Hebrews the future is often a potential mood, just as among the Latins the subjunctive mood. And according to this mode, some expound what is said here: "Behold, I will make the sea a desert"—that is, "I am able to make the sea a desert, I am able to turn the rivers to dryness, I am able, if I please, to clothe the heavens with darkness," so that on account of the darkness they may seem as if covered.

But St. Jerome takes it as if He alleges past miracles, in this sense: "I who once did those marvels in the exit of the children of Israel from Egypt, even now absolutely can liberate. Sometimes I made the Red Sea passable for My people; I dried up the waters of the Jordan; I effected palpable darkness in Egypt, &c. And now I can do similar things or greater, if I wish."

Is 50:4: "The Lord God has given me a learned tongue, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary; He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught."

Is 50:5: "The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward."

"THE LORD GOD HAS GIVEN ME..." &c. It is a perpetual sentence and one context with the preceding, in this sense: "Neither is there anything to be required in Me of wisdom or erudition or anything else which can be compared to doctrine, because the Lord gave to Me, Christ, as man, a learned tongue, that I may know how to sustain him who is weary"—that is, who is not raised with erect spirit to divine things. "There did not fail Me," He says, "the commodity of the word, so that neither on this part can I be blamed."

"HE AWAKENS MORNING BY MORNING..." That "mane" (morning) repeated, according to the Hebraism, signifies "every morning." In this sense: "Daily, therefore, nothing could be lacking to me which is required in a good preacher, since I have so learned a Master. When did this happen? In those times then best, and they preach much better who hear than while they draw all things from books."

"THE LORD GOD HAS OPENED MY EAR..." In these things Christ is acknowledged as man. "And I was not rebellious"—that is, whatever He commands me, this I undertake. "I turned not backward"—that is, I did not flee lest I should set it forth.

Is 50:6: "I have given my body to strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked and spat upon me."

Is 50:7: "The Lord God is my helper; therefore I am not confounded; therefore I have set my face as a hardest rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded."

"MY BODY I GAVE TO STRIKERS..." &c. The Jews, whom the scandal of the cross offends, prefer to interpret these things of Isaiah intervening than of Christ, just as they do with that part: "The Lord has given me a learned tongue." Thomas [Aquinas] also does this, which is much to be wondered at, since almost all Christian interpreters expound this whole chapter concerning Christ.

"THE LORD GOD IS MY HELPER..." &c. Amid these evils, scourges, spittings, &c., the Lord will help Me. "Therefore I have set my face as a hardest rock"—that is, I feared no one, neither Annas nor Caiaphas nor anyone else. Moreover, this confidence is to be imitated and retained by us in the Catholic faith and in Christ.

Is 50:8: "He who justifies me is near, who will contradict me? Let us stand together, who is my adversary? Let him come to me."

Is 50:9: "Behold the Lord God is my helper, who is he that shall condemn me? Behold they shall all be worn out as a garment, the moth shall eat them."

"HE WHO JUSTIFIES ME IS NEAR." The sense is: "If anyone thinks I was justly affixed to the cross and committed some sin, He is at hand who will defend me from this calumny, who will protect My cause and pronounce it just."

"LET US STAND TOGETHER." The greatest confidence of a good conscience is signified. "Who shall condemn?"—that is, "Who of you shall convict Me of sin?"

"THEY SHALL ALL BE WORN OUT AS A GARMENT..."—that is, both nobles and ignobles who did not receive Christ coming in His own person, shall be worn out like a garment. "I," He says, "now seem abject and contemptible; but they, great and held in honor, shall be worn out like a garment, and the moth"—that is, the conscience of sin—"shall consume them gradually." Thus nearly St. Jerome.

Is 50:10: "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that hears the voice of his servant? He that walked in darkness and has no light, let him hope in the name of the Lord and lean upon his God."

Is 50:11: "Behold all you who kindle a fire, who encompass yourselves with sparks, walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks which you have kindled; from my hand this has happened to you, you shall lie down in sorrow."

"WHO IS AMONG YOU THAT FEARS THE LORD..." &c. Jerome in the latter place reads "qui" (he who) and not "quis" (who is), and thus interprets: "Who," He says, "among you fears the Lord and hears the voice of the servant or boy"—that is, Christ? "Who Christ walked in darkness because He had no appearance nor splendor nor glory." Likewise, Haymo reads "qui" and thus interprets: "He who, the Son of God, walked in darkness." The commentary also of Thomas, falsely ascribed, also reads "qui". But Lyra has "quis" in both places; but it is likely his book is faulty, because from the commentaries he seems to have read "qui" in the latter place, in this sense: "Who is among you fearing the Lord, who walked in the darkness of ignorance? If he believes the words of Christ..." As if to say: None.

Therefore, this place in our Bibles is depraved, and for "quis" ought to be read "qui ambulavit in tenebris" (he who walked in darkness), in this sense: "Who is among you who is not a hypocrite or given to his vices, but fearing the Lord and hearing the voice of Christ, who hitherto walked in darkness to whom hitherto there was no light?"

"LET HIM HOPE IN THE NAME OF THE LORD..." "He will easily receive Me if, hope in this world having been cast away, he turn himself to God and lean upon his God."

"BEHOLD ALL YOU WHO KINDLE A FIRE..." Moreover, what follows has the force of an adversative, in this sense: "I indeed propose these things, but I propose in vain, because all you kindle the fire of My wrath." "Girded with flames"—that is, with cupidity inflaming Me to wrath. "The cause why you did not receive Me coming in My own person is that you are too given to the things of this world and vices, because you indulge too much your evil cupidity; therefore you always inflame the wrath of My Father upon you."

"WALK IN THE LIGHT..." It is an irony: "Proceed, since you wish it so; proceed, I say, as you have begun, and always be miserable and perpetually blind."

"FROM MY HAND THIS HAS HAPPENED TO YOU"—that is, "This blindness on account of your vices shall happen to you with Me permitting."

"AND THEREFORE YOU SHALL SLEEP IN YOUR SORROWS."

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CONTINUE