Date
11-13-2025
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Bible Exposition (PhD)
Chair
David Maas
Keywords
Atonement, Holiness, Transcendent Holiness, Holy One of Israel, Relational Holiness, Obduracy, Exalted, Intertextuality
Disciplines
Christianity | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Recommended Citation
Whitfield, William Anthony, "Atonement as the Path to Holiness: The Suffering Servant of The Fourth Servant Song as the Missing Sacrifice of Isaiah 6" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7608.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7608
Abstract
This study argues that the Suffering Servant of the Fourth Servant Song (SS4, Isaiah 52:13-53:12) is the missing sacrifice of Isaiah 6. This conclusion is supported by the multitude of intertextual links between these two hallmark texts of Isaiah, including language of exaltation, messianic imagery, and, most notably to the current study, atonement imagery, specifically as it relates to being an avenue to holiness. This study addresses the necessity for a sacrifice in Isaiah 6, although no sacrifice is explicitly mentioned. Atonement is the central theme of SS4, where the Suffering Servant is depicted as being given as a guilt offering. Critical to Isaiah 6 is the concept of holiness, not only as it relates to Yahweh’s transcendence but also with respect to his immanence. Within the theme of holiness is the concept of atonement, which in the Call vision and SS4 is portrayed as the pathway to enter the holiness of Yahweh. The prophet, in the Call vision, is only addressed by Yahweh and commissioned into his service after his sins are atoned for. SS4 depicts how the barriers between God and his people are removed through the sacrifice of the Suffering Servant. The argument is made that the Supernatural nature of the atonement in Isaiah 6 correlates to the atoning work of the Servant detailed in SS4. This conclusion is laid out through this dissertation in the presentation of five panels: The Problem created by Yahweh’s transcendent and relational holiness, the Sanctity of Blood, the Inadequacy of the Levitical system of Atonement, Supernatural atonement, and the Intertextuality present between the Call vision and SS4. These panels collectively support the central argument of this study, that the Suffering Servant is the missing sacrifice of Isaiah 6.
