Isaiah 53

[Guest]

This is in my opinion the most convincing prophecy concerning The Christ Jesus and is a frequently used verse when proselytizing to Jews. The most popular belief held by Rabbis and many in the Jewish community is, this verse was about the nation of Israel and not a messiah. Some have attributed it to other men of History like Akiba ben Joseph (Rabbi Akiva) who lived in the late first and early second century. Isaiah was thought to have lived around 600-700 B.C. . although the exact date for this book is not known.

I spoke with Emmet about commenting on this passage and offering his perspective, and I would hope to hear some comments on this passage from anyone who would like. I know Steve7150 has spent some time on this verse and would enjoy his comments as well.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.

[Guest]

Hey Chris, I'm in between dropping off and picking up at JFK , "oh what a night." You know like it says in the Declaration of Independence "We believe these truths to be self evident" certainly applies to this prophecy. It's truly beyond adequate words to describe but naturally if one is determined not to believe they will think of something won't they. Yes i've heard it's really Israel but just substitute Israel for "He" and see if it makes sense. The latest i've heard is that it's not a prophecy ,well Isaiah is having a vision about something and there's nothing in the OT that this can be identified with.
The only other explanation that a skeptic could use is that the NT is made up to match Jesus with this prophecy. But that would take the type of conspiracy that even the most hardened left winger would be embarrased about. The paradigm in judaism however is that man does not need anyone to save us from our sins therefore no need for a savior. So if you have that paradigm or tradition and all the Rabbis take this stance it takes a strong conviction to overcome this major stumbling block.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to post this Chris.

[Guest]

Hello,

I am interested in giving a serious and thoughtful response on this subject. I apologize, though -- it may be a few days before I get it together.

Thanks,
Emmet

[Guest]

Thank you Steve, I appreciate your comments as always .

Thanks Emmet, it will be here whenever you should feel to make it a priority in your schedule.

[Guest]

Hello, everybody,

Here’s my take on the passage in question.

To begin with, the translation one uses for the passage will make a difference in interpretation. It looks like chris used the NKJV above, which is not a favorite of mine. The translation below is my own; I’m open to correction on specific points. [to chris: this is part of why it took me a while to respond – it took a couple of days for me to translate] The translation is not smooth English; I chose to leave the structure closer to the Hebrew text.

Also, the prophecy at hand does not begin in 53:1, and so at least a few verses from chapter 52 are necessary as well.


First, an overview of the passage:

Behold, my servant will have understanding; he will be lifted up, and he will be uplifted, and he will be very high.

Just as many were appalled at you (as his appearance was marred beyond a man, and his form beyond the sons of Adam), even so he will spatter many peoples. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for that which had not been recounted to them, they have seen, and that which they had not heard, they have made themselves attentive to.

“Who has believed our news, and to whom has the arm of HSHM been revealed? And he has sprouted up like a shoot before him, and like a root from dry ground – no form to him, and no splendor. And we saw him, and there was no appearance, and we did not desire him; being despised and retiring from men, a man of pains and being known by infirmity, and like one hiding a face from us, being despised, and we did not consider him.

“But indeed he has borne our infirmity, and he has borne our pains; and we considered him having been stricken, being smitten of God and being brought low. And he being wounded from our transgression, crushed from our perversities; the discipline of our well-being upon him, and in his bruises it was healed unto us. All of us like sheep have wandered; we have turned, each one to his way; and HSHM has made the perversity of all of us to meet with him.

“He was pressed, and he being brought low; and he will not open his mouth – like a sheep to the slaughter, he will be brought along, and like a ewe before her shearers was silent, also he will not open his mouth. He was taken from arrest and from judgment, and who will contemplate his generation? Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; from the transgression of my people [came] a blow to him. And he was given his grave with the wicked ones, and with the wealthy one in his deaths, because he did not make violence, and fraud was not in his mouth.

“And HSHM desired to crush him; he sickened him. If you will appoint his life’s-breath a guilt-offering: he will see seed, he will prolong days, and the desire of HSHM will make progress in his hand. He will see [a result] from the trouble of his life’s-breath; he will be satisfied in his understanding. The righteous one will make righteous - my servant to many - and he himself will forbear their perversities. Therefore I will apportion for him amongst the many, and he will apportion the plunder with the mighty ones; because he poured out his life’s-breath to die and was counted with the transgressors – and he forbearing the sin of many, and he will meet for the transgressing ones.”

So: as Chris has noted, there are a number of different ways that this passage has been interpreted. It is highly preferential to understand the passage in terms of “servant” diction in the book of Isaiah itself. Some have felt that the “servant” in this passage represents the nation of Israel; other interpreters would nuance this to the righteous body of Israel. Both views can draw upon the “servant” motif in Isaiah (41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20; cf. 42:1). This servant is cherished by God, despite its shortcomings (42:18-43:13; 43:22-44:5).

Another option from precedent in Isaiah is that the servant at hand is the prophet himself (44:26; 43:5-6, 7; 49:1-12; 50:4-11). The sense of having been abused and of the servant’s redemptive mission is present in this motif. However, the context of our passage at hand may lend itself more strongly to one or another of the Israel interpretations. Because of the mention of the arm of HSHM (53:1), which is a figure of his redemptive power for the nation (e.g., 51:9ff.; 52:10), and because the prophecy follows a string of materials on the redemption from exile, my comments below will follow the "Israel" vein of interpretation.

So, if the servant is Israel, then who is the speaker of the “speech” in 53:1-12? There are two options. First, the speech has been attributed by some to the nations who abused the servant; as such, their speech vindicates the truth they have recognized about Israel’s existence (42:15). Alternately, the speech can be attributed to the people of Israel, speaking to/about their corporate identity as the servant of God. Some might feel the structure of such a dialogue is peculiar, but it seems to me that it would not be unnatural. We in this country can speak as Americans about America as “she whom our materialism has tarnished,” recognizing that the whole is simultaneously something that we share in, yet are distinct from.


Moving, then, briefly through the verses:

Behold, my servant will have understanding; he will be lifted up, and he will be uplifted, and he will be very high.

Israel will come to understand the significance of what it has endured, and it can look forward to a restored ascendancy.

Just as many were appalled at you (as his appearance was marred beyond a man, and his form beyond the sons of Adam), even so he will spatter many peoples. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for that which had not been recounted to them, they have seen, and that which they had not heard, they have made themselves attentive to.

[trans. note: “Adam” could be translated “humanity”]

The horrific devastation underwent by Israel will have a purpose, “spattering many peoples.” This spattering is a reference to the blood-spattering that was part of the sacrificial ritual in the sanctuary.

This introduces the motif of the servant as sacrificial victim, which psychologically redeems the humiliation and sorrow endured by the nation. Its theological meaning depends in large part upon one’s understanding of the meaning to the sacrificial ritual, which is itself a complex problem. I will mention only one possibility: that the sacrifice is (at least in part) a poetic object lesson that acknowledges and viscerally emphasizes that sin leads to death. Through the strong experiential linking of death and sin, the audience/participants may be reminded of the serious significance to their choices.

Accordingly, the terrible circumstances endured by Israel could be portrayed as an object lesson to the surrounding nations: an object lesson about the outcome of cruelty, covetousness, oppression, and ambition (sins that were present in Judah before the fall of the monarchy, and sins of other nations that led to the horrors inflicted on Israel). Hopefully, the object lesson could motivate the other nations to turn from their life-destroying ways.

Who has believed our news, and to whom has the arm of HSHM been revealed? And he has sprouted up like a shoot before him, and like a root from dry ground – no form to him, and no splendor. And we saw him, and there was no appearance, and we did not desire him; being despised and retiring from men, a man of pains and being known by infirmity, and like one hiding a face from us, being despised, and we did not consider him.

The redemption of the pathetic remains of Israel is unexpected. Its position as a shadow of its former self has hardly attracted people’s consideration.

“But indeed he has borne our infirmity, and he has borne our pains; and we considered him having been stricken, being smitten of God and being brought low. And he being wounded from our transgression, crushed from our perversities; the discipline of our well-being upon him, and in his bruises it was healed unto us. All of us like sheep have wandered; we have turned, each one to his way; and HSHM has made the perversity of all of us to meet with him.

[trans. note: notice “from our transgression/from our perversities”; the common Christian rendering “for our…” is an interpretive move.]

The speaker recognizes their own complicity in the fate of the nation. “Borne” here may also be understood as “underwent” or “endured,” depending upon how one is identifying the speaker. In any case, God has allowed the speaker’s own failings to impact the nation, and the nation’s sufferings will lead to the repentant well-being of the speaker.

“He was pressed, and he being brought low; and he will not open his mouth – like a sheep to the slaughter, he will be brought along, and like a ewe before her shearers was silent, also he will not open his mouth. He was taken from arrest and from judgment, and who will contemplate his generation? Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; from the transgression of my people [came] a blow to him. And he was given his grave with the wicked ones, and with the wealthy one in his deaths, because he did not make violence, and fraud was not in his mouth.

[trans. note: “generation” here refers to the servant’s time/peer group]

The nation went to its humiliation with a whimper; there were no heroic Maccabees, and there was no David to assail the uncircumcised. There was no resort to clever diplomatic ruse.

“And HSHM desired to crush him; he sickened him. If you will appoint his life’s-breath a guilt-offering: he will see seed, he will prolong days, and the desire of HSHM will make progress in his hand. He will see [a result] from the trouble of his life’s-breath; he will be satisfied in his understanding. The righteous one will make righteous - my servant to many - and he himself will forbear their perversities. Therefore I will apportion for him amongst the many, and he will apportion the plunder with the mighty ones; because he poured out his life’s-breath to die and was counted with the transgressors – and he forbearing the sin of many, and he will meet for the transgressing ones.”

[trans. note: “forbear” could also be rendered “forgive,” in the sense of bearing with the insult and letting it go (cf. Genesis 50:17); somewhat unlikely, but possible, is an alternate translation “lift away,” which would refer to the offenses being forsaken due to the sacrificial role of the nation (for which see discussion below and above)]

The sufferings of the nation may serve the same didactic/experiential role as the sacrificial offering (as discussed above). If that role bears fruit, then the nation will see a positive outcome from the tragic series of events, and will be consoled.

Such are my skimpy comments for the moment; I imagine that somebody will seek to dialogue on various points. The whole thing is a work-in-progress for me. I am not terribly concerned about the religion of the prophets, and I am far from an expert on the monarchical period. But it is my general stance that prophecies engage the problems of their own time and place; although I may not grasp the significance of a particular prophecy in those circumstances, I find it more believable that the message has to deal with its own milieu than with some other circumstances at least five centuries removed.

Thanks,
Emmet

P.S.: I'm sorry - I've edited this a few times to improve the translation.

[Guest]

Thanks Emmet for your comments and translation, which I think makes a stronger case for a messianic prophecy by the way . Naturally I disagree, so I just wanted to make a few points, with verse 53:9. It says, and this is from the MT.

"And they made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich his tomb; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.'"

The ending of this verse can not be applied to Israel, and the beginning could not be applied to Isaiah.

It just seems to me one would have to ignore pretty convincing parallels between this passage and Jesus to come to any other conclusion, than, it is about Jesus. There is no one person, or nation for that matter, in history this verse could be applied to more consistently and accurately than Him.

Thanks again.

[Guest]

Hello, Chris,

Thank you for your response.

The ending of this verse can not be applied to Israel, and the beginning could not be applied to Isaiah.

The ending of the verse may be applied to Israel as a whole, in the sense that the nation made no military sortie against Babylon, nor did it engage in diplomatic trickery to save its hide (2 Kings 25); Jerusalem appears to have been starved out, and the army melted away.

Alternately, if the figure is supposed to represent the righteous body of Israel (as opposed to the nation as a whole), then there is even less objection to applying the latter half of the verse.

On the other hand, for what it is worth, there is no reason the first part of the verse could not be applied to Isaiah. We are not knowledgeable about the appointments for the prophet's demise or the disposal of his remains.

It just seems to me one would have to ignore pretty convincing parallels between this passage and Jesus to come to any other conclusion, than, it is about Jesus. There is no one person, or nation for that matter, in history this verse could be applied to more consistently and accurately than Him.

I can understand Christians seeing parallels here. However, in order to apply this passage to Jesus: (1) one must overlook that the precedent in Isaiah is for the servant to represent either the people of God or Isaiah himself; (2) one must overlook the meaning of the prophecy to its audience in their own context; (3) one must overlook the meaning of the prophecy to the prophet and his ministry within his own context; and on the other end of things, (4) one must overlook that Jesus himself was not silent before his attackers (if one accepts John 18:23).

Christians generally articulate that the unclear things in the text should be understood in light of the clear things in the text. What is clear to me, as an exegete, is that prophecies are generally lucid and relevant to their immediate audiences; even the apocalyptic materials were more-or-less decipherable to their contemporary listeners. It is apparent to me that God speaks to people in their own setting and circumstances, as part of interacting with their lives. It is also apparent to me that Jewish interpreters around the time of Jesus applied scripture to their contemporary events, without scruple for original context. This interpretive mode, I suppose, was natural for a culture that lacked a prophetic office. Without a prophet, some people must have felt the need to turn to past prophets to hear the voice of God speaking to them. But the people of Jesus' time were wrong if they imagined that the voice of God was not available to them within their own time and place. There was no need for them to pirate treasures that were theirs only secondarily, not primarily.

I will flatly admit a bias against the prophets engaging events several hundred years removed from the plights of their contemporaries. It provides no discernible benefit to Isaiah's contemporaries to tell them that if they make a person's trials a guilt-offering, there will be redemptive value to it - when that person will not even be born until several centuries after they are moldering in the ground. In the meantime, Isaiah's listeners would be pathetically trying to apply his words to their own lives and times, and potentially wandering into diverse falsehoods as a result.

So each prophecy should be allotted to its own time and circumstance. In this way, the people of a prophecy's time receive what they need, and the people who are not of a prophecy's time do not pirate what they do not need.

Thank you again for your response, Chris!

Shalom,
Emmet