Ecco il mio servo

Piotr Bartoszek launches a dialogic reading of Isa 42:1–4 and the corresponding quotation in Matt 12:18–21 in a pragmatic perspective. The evident intertextual link permits to evaluate the attitude of the Servant of YHWH from two perspectives, taking advantage of two interrelated interpretive frameworks offered both by Isaiah’s and Matthew’s contexts. The silent and inoffensive attitude of the Servant (cf. Isa 42:2-3a; Matt 12:19–20a), though commonly understood as his virtue, in the light of the contextual data should be rather seen as clearly incompatible with his election and the mission which he is destined to fulfil (cf. Isa 42:1.3b; Matt 12:18.20b). The pragmatic arrangement of Isaiah’s and Matthew’s discourse highlights the uncompleted nature of servant’s mission and the urgency of fulfilling his task towards the nations. Interacting with these dynamics, the reader is challenged to adopt the point of view proposed by both textual strategies and to embrace the ideal to be fulfilled, that of the Servant of YHWH.