The Suffering Servant 'sees light'

What's at stake

In the Suffering Servant song, the Masoretic Hebrew reads 'out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.' The Great Isaiah Scroll and the Septuagint instead read 'he shall see light and be satisfied' — a richer image of vindication after death.

A small but theologically charged variant. Adds 'light' as the object of 'see', suggesting the servant's resurrection or post-suffering vindication. Modern translations (NIV, NRSV, ESV note) follow the scroll over the medieval Masoretic text — direct evidence that the Dead Sea Scrolls actually changed our Bible, in places.

Witnesses