Isaiah 53:11 — what does the servant see?
Isaiah 53:11 is transmitted with both יראה אור (he shall see light) and יראה (he shall see without an object). The MT leaves the seeing unspecified, while three Qumran scrolls and the Greek include light.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
What a blind committee did here.
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.
The committee record has no rationale note that matches this crux, and the pericope audit verdict is 'flagged'. The APB’s Isaiah 53:11 renders the verb as he shall see and then continues with and be satisfied. That rendering does not print light as the verb’s object. The record supplies no further explanation.
The case for each reading.
If “sees light”
Reading A gives the servant’s seeing an expressed object: light. The Great Isaiah Scroll, a manuscript dated c. 125 B.C., reads יראה אור. Its row says that three Qumran scrolls contain the added אור. The Septuagint, a translation dated c. 2nd century B.C., has δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς, translated in the packet as to show him light. Together these witnesses make the question more specific: the verse would say what the servant sees, while the surrounding line still speaks of satisfaction, knowledge, righteousness, and bearing iniquities.
If the object is absent
Reading B follows the Masoretic Text (Westminster Leningrad Codex), which reads יראה, rendered in the packet as he shall see with no object. Its witness row explicitly says that the received text leaves the seeing without an object. On this wording, Isaiah 53:11 names seeing and then satisfaction but does not identify light as what is seen. The difference is therefore not whether the verse includes seeing, satisfaction, knowledge, righteousness, or bearing iniquities; those elements remain in the supplied verse text and APB rendering. The question is whether light is expressed at the verb.
What remains uncertain is whether light belonged to the wording at Isaiah 53:11 or whether the verb stood without an object. The supplied evidence records both forms but does not settle that question here. The change concerns the object of seeing; the verse still contains satisfaction, knowledge, righteousness, and bearing iniquities. The packet provides no basis for making this variant decide doctrine, and doctrines rest on many passages.
Asked plainly.
Does Isaiah 53:11 say the servant shall see light?
Some witnesses do: the Great Isaiah Scroll reads יראה אור, and the Septuagint includes φῶς. The MT reads יראה without an object.
Which witnesses support light in Isaiah 53:11?
The Great Isaiah Scroll supports יראה אור, and its row says that three Qumran scrolls include אור. The Septuagint also supplies light in Greek.
What changes if light is absent?
Without light, the verse still says that the servant shall see and be satisfied, but it does not state the object of seeing. Satisfaction, knowledge, righteousness, and bearing iniquities remain in the supplied text.
More places where the manuscripts argue.
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.
Weigh it yourself.
The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.