therefore, sought for; and these were so much the more easily
found, that the Jews had, in this matter, already opened up the way.
All that was necessary, was only to appropriate their arguments and
counter-arguments, and to invest them with the semblance of solidity by
means of a learned apparatus.

The non-Messianic interpretation among Christians, like those among the
Jews, may be divided into two main classes: 1. Those which are founded
upon the supposition that a collective [Pg 322] body is the subject of
the prophecy; and 2, those which, by the Servant of God, understand any
other single individual except the Messiah. The first class, again,
falls into several sub-divisions: (_a._), those interpretations which
refer the prophecy to the whole Jewish people; (_b._), those which
refer it to the Jewish people in the abstract; (_c._), those which
refer it to the pious portion of the Jewish people; (_d._), those which
refer it to the order of the priests; (_e._), those which refer it to
the order of the prophets.

1. (_a._) Comparatively the greatest number of non-Messianic
interpreters make the whole Jewish people the subject of the prophecy.
This hypothesis is adopted, among others, by _Doederlein_, (in the
preface and annotations, in the third edition of Isaiah, but in such a
manner that he still wavers betwixt this and the Messianic
interpretation, which formerly he had defended with great zeal); by
_Schuster_ (in a special treatise, Goettingen 1794); by _Stephani_
(_Gedanken ueber die Entstehung u. Ausbildung der Idee von inem
Messias_, _Nuernberg_ 1787); by the author of the letters on Isaiah
liii., in the 6th vol. of _Eichhorn's Bibliothek_; by _Eichhorn_ (in
his exposition of the Prophets); by _Rosenmueller_ (in the second
edition of his Commentary, leaving to others the interpretation which
referred the prophecy to the prophetic order, although he himself had
first recommended it), and many others. The last who defend it are
_Hitzig_, _Hendewerk_, and _Koester_ (_de Serv. Jeh._ Kiel, 38).
Substantially, it has remained the same as we have seen it among the
Jews. The only difference is, that these expositors understand, by the
sufferings of the Servant of God, the sufferings of the Jewish people
in the Babylonish captivity; while the Jewish interpreters understand
thereby the sufferings of the Jewish people in their present exile.
They, too, suppose that, from vers. 1 to 10, the Gentile nations are
introduced