Isaiah 53

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Isaiah 53 "The Suffering Servant" (KJV)

52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal
prudently, he shall be exalted
and extolled, and be very high.

52:14As many were astonied at thee;
his visage was so marred
more than any man, and his form more
than the sons of men:

52:15So shall he sprinkle many nations;
the kings shall shut
their mouths at him: for that which had
not been told them shall they see;
and that which they had not heard
shall they consider.

1Who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the arm
of the LORD revealed?

2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant
, and as a root out of a dry ground:
he hath no form nor comeliness;
and when we shall see him,
[there is] no beauty that we should desire him.
3He is despised and rejected of men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were [our] faces from him;
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4Surely he hath borne our griefs,
and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted.

5But he [was] wounded
for our transgressions, [he was]
bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.

6All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth:
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so he openeth not his mouth.

8He was taken from prison and from judgment:
and who shall declare his generation?
for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9And he made his grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death;
because he had done no violence,
neither [was any] deceit in his mouth.

10Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him;
he hath put [him] to grief:
when thou shalt 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.

11He shall see of the travail of his soul,
[and] shall be satisfied:
by his knowledge shall
my righteous servant justify many;
for he shall bear their iniquities.

12Therefore will I divide him [a portion]
with the great, and he
shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he hath poured out his soul unto death:
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the
transgressors.

Isaiah 53, taken from the Book of Isaiah, is the last of the four Songs of the Suffering Servant, and tells the story of "The Suffering Servant". The passage is famous for its interpretation by many Christians to be prophesy of the coming of Jesus, being written over 700 years before his birth. This interpretation is strongly rejected by Jewish theologians, who believe the servant to be the nation of Israel for more information concerning the jewish view point please see *Instances in which isaiah uses the word servant to mean israel it shows how several verses in isaiah literally call israel a servant in the singular .[1][2] Many Christians view the entire chapter, and particularly this passage to refer to the suffering Jesus faced as well as the absolution of sins believed to be made possible by his death.[3]

5But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

The passage actually begins with Isaiah 52:13, because the original Hebrew had no chapters and Jewish and Christian scholars alike agree that 52:13 is the beginning of the chapter.[4] The speaker from 52:13 to the chapter's end is God himself, whereas beginning with 53:1 it is considered to be Isaiah speaking, or more broadly the Jewish people. This is due to the use of the word "our" instead of "my" or any other possessive pronoun. The speaker changes again to the Lord in verse 11, when the servant is referred to as "my" servant. [5]

Contents

[edit] Isaiah 53 in the New Testament

Probably the first known claim of Isaiah 53 to be a prophecy of Jesus comes from the Book of Acts, in which its author, Luke, describes a scene in which God commands Philip the Apostle to approach an Ethiopian eunuch who is sitting in a chariot, reading aloud to himself from the Book of Isaiah. The man explains that he does not understand what he is reading, which turns out to be Isaiah 53, and Philip explains to him that it is Jesus to whom it refers. "The eunuch answered Philip, "And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."[6]

[edit] Israel theory

Citing a number of Biblical verses that refer to Israel as the "servant", many of them from the Book of Isaiah,[7] many scholars, particularly Jewish Scholars, have argued that the "servant" in question is actually Israel.[1] Scholars also argue that verse 10 is inconsistent with the actual life of Jesus. The verse states that the servant will live a long life and have many children, which, when taken literally, contradicts the short, childless life of Jesus.[1]

10he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong [his] days

The reason that the Servant is referred to in the third person is not readily known, but it is speculated that it is written from the point of view of Gentile nations amazed at Israel's restoration, or that it is mere figurative language.[8][1] Supporters of this theory argue that the reason for the use of past tense is based on the differences between Proto-Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah. Chapters 40-55 of Isaiah are referred to as "Deutero-Isaiah" because the themes and language are different from the rest of the book, leading many to believe it was written by another author. Deutero-Isaiah differs from Proto-Isaiah in that it refers to Israel as already restored, which could account for the past-tense of the passage.[1] However most ancient Jewish scholars believed that Isaiah 53 referred to the Messiah, and it was not until the 10th century that another view was offered.[9][10] The Babylonian Talmud is said to have offered the "earliest indisputable, firsthand evidence of a rabbinic interpretation of Isaiah 53 which takes the servant as the Messiah, and attributes suffering to him"[11]

[edit] Arguments against the "Israel" theory

Christians argue that the "servant" could not have been Israel because of Scriptural contradictions that would arise. Primarily, the servant is described as "innocent and guiltless", but Isaiah 1:4 declares Israel to be "...a people laden with iniquity. A brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters!"[12], along with countless other verses that declare Israel's iniquity. In addition, Christians argue that if the "servant" were Israel, verse 10 ("It pleased the LORD to bruise him") would thereby be illogical because it entails God enjoying the sufferings of his people (whereas the suffering of Jesus would ultimately mean an absolution of sin and victory for mankind).[12] It has also been argued that Israel, even through all of its suffering and torment can not have "atoned" for the sins of mankind.[12] Christian theologians also point out that the verse 10 is not to be taken literally, where the "children" referred to are the Church, and the "long life" refers to the Resurrection.[12]

In addition, Some Christians draw a line between the servants in the first 3 Songs of the Suffering Servant and the last, Isaiah 53. The subject of the first 3 is sinful[13]

What is more, some Christians who espouse the 'new perspective' on Jesus, hold that the immediate referent of the passage is indeed the nation of Israel, but that Jesus Christ's ministry is directed precisely at summing up the vocation/mission of Israel in himself. Thus the passage would refer derivately to Jesus, but immediately to Israel. Israel does not fulfill her mission of redemptive suffering, but that vocation is taken up and completed by her representative.[14]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e Jewish viewpoint #1. Jews for Judaism. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.
  2. ^ Jewish viewpoint #3. Truthnet.org: The Messiah. Retrieved on 2006-08-03.
  3. ^ Christian viewpoint 2. grebeweb. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
  4. ^ http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/4229/isaih.html
  5. ^ http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/m.sion/shul53-3.htm
  6. ^ Acts 8:34-35
  7. ^ Isaiah 41:8-9, Isaiah 44:1, [Isaiah 44:21, and Isaiah 49:3
  8. ^ as in Isaiah 52:15
  9. ^ http://www.amfi.org/ABOUTWHOM.htm
  10. ^ E. W. Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, Vol. 2 of 4 vols. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1956), 260-342.
  11. ^ Sydney H. T. Page, “The Suffering Servant Between The Testaments,” New Testament Studies, 31 (1985): 491-492.
  12. ^ a b c d Christian viewpoint 1]. Chaim. Retrieved on 2006-07-05.
  13. ^ Isaiah 44:22 "I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins."
  14. ^ The Servant and Jesus by N.T. Wright Originally published in Jesus and the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins, ed. William H. Bellinger, Jr. and William R. Farmer. 1998, Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International. 281–297.

[edit] External links

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