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As a Christian you hear others often speak about Isaiah 53 and make connection with Yeshua as if this passage was prophetic for Yeshua. In fact, often you may encounter questions from Jews who are involved in or considering Christianity. Among the questions, one chapter of our Jewish Scriptures keeps coming up: Isaiah 53.
Answer for yourself: Wasn't the Prophet, in fact, referring to Yeshua in this chapter?
Answer for yourself: And didn't all Jews before the Middle Ages recognize this chapter as "messianic"?
We at Bet Emet Ministries hope to assist you in interpreting a chapter which has become a cornerstone of Christian theology and the impetus for evangelism to Jews.
Answer for yourself: After reading these articles please answer for yourself: should Isaiah 53 be used in such a manner any longer by Christians? On with the study.
Jewish sages teach that "whoever saves a single Jewish soul is considered as if he had saved an entire world." How precious is the human soul! We hope that you too will value your soul highly enough to prayerfully ponder that which follows. God's truth is not always easy to discern, but we are possessors of a Divine promise; "you will find Him if you search after Him with all your heart and all your soul" (Deut. 4:29). As faithful child of God you know that it's worth the effort. And now - on with the search!
Before engaging in an examination of Isaiah 53 itself, some preliminary issues must be considered.
First is the issue of circular reasoning. Even if we interpret the chapter as most Christians do (forgetting for a minute the mistranslations and distortions of context which will be noted below in the following articles), the most that could be said is this: Isaiah 53 is about someone who dies for the sins of others.
Answer for yourself: People may have seen Yeshua die, but did anyone see him die as an atonement for the sins of others?
Of course not; this is simply the meaning which the New Testament gives to his death, and that only many years later as his followers try to explain his death in light of the failure of his return as prophesied by him and others earlier. Only if you already accept the New Testament teaching that his death had a non-visible, spiritual significance can you than go back to Isaiah and say, "see - the Prophet predicted what I already believe." Isaiah 53, then, is in reality no "proof" at all, but rather a contrived confirmation for someone who has already chosen Christianity and chooses to read into the text what they wish regardless of what the Prophet intended to confer in his original message.
Second (and consistent with all Jewish teaching at the time), Yeshua’s' own disciples didn't view Isaiah 53 as a messianic prophecy. For example, after Peter identifies Yeshua as the Messiah (Matt. 16:16), he is informed that Yeshua will be killed (Matt. 16:21). His response: "God forbid it, lord! This shall never happen to you" (Matt. 16:22). See, also, Mk. 9:31-32; Mk. 16:10-11; Jn. 20:9. Evidently this was "news" to him and something that he was not aware of as an adult Jew which was most assuredly familiar with his own religion.
Even Yeshua didn't see Isaiah 53 as crucial to his messianic claims - why else did he call the Jews children of the devil for not believing in him before the alleged resurrection (Jn. 8:39-47)?
Answer for yourself: And why did he later request that God "remove this cup from me" (Mk. 14:36) - didn't he know that a "removal of the cup" would violate the Gentile understanding of Isaiah 53 which his church would come to realize later after his death?
Answer for yourself: And third, even if we accept the Gentile Christian interpretation of Isaiah 53, where is it indicated (either in Isaiah 53 or anywhere else in the Jewish Scriptures) that you must believe in this "Messiah" to get the benefits?
Since any portion of Scripture is only understood properly when viewed in the context of God's revelation as a whole, some additional study will be helpful before you "tackle" Isaiah 53.
Look at the setting in which Isaiah 53 occurs. Earlier on in Isaiah, God had predicted exile and calamity for the Jewish people. Chapter 53, however, occurs in the midst of Isaiah's "Messages of Consolation", which tell of the restoration of Israel to a position of prominence and a vindication of their status as God's chosen people. In chapter 52, for example, Israel is described as "oppressed without cause" (v.4) and "taken away" (v.5), yet God promises a brighter future ahead, one in which Israel will again prosper and be redeemed in the sight of all the nations (v.1-3, 8-12).
Chapter 54 further elaborates upon the redemption which awaits the nation of Israel. Following immediately after chapter 53's promise of a reward for God's servant in return for all of its suffering (53:10-12), chapter 54 describes an unequivocally joyous fate for the Jewish people. Speaking clearly of the Jewish people and their exalted status (even according to all Christian commentaries), chapter 54 ends as follows: "`This is the heritage of the servants of the L-rd and their vindication is from Me,' declares the L-rd."
In the original Hebrew texts, there are no chapter divisions, and Jew and Christian alike agree that chapter 53 is actually a continuation of the prophecy which begins at 52:13. Accordingly, our analysis must begin at that verse.
52:13 "Behold, My servant will prosper." Israel in the singular is called God's servant throughout Isaiah, both explicitly (Isa. 41:8-9; 44:1-2; 45:4; 48:20; 49:3) and implicitly (Isa. 42:19-20; 43:10) - the Messiah is not.
This is of major importance for our study.
Other references to "Israel as God's servant" include Jer. 30:10 (note that in Jer. 30:17, the servant Israel is regarded by the nations as an outcast, forsaken by God, as in Isa. 53:4); Jer. 46:27-28; Ps. 136:22; Lk. 1:54. The "servant" is the nation of Israel and not one individual!
Answer for yourself: Given the Christian view that Yeshua is God, is God His own servant?
52:15 - 53:1 "So shall he (the servant) startle many nations, the kings will stand speechless; For that which had not been told them they shall see and that which they had not heard shall they ponder. Who would believe what we have heard?" Quite clearly, the nations and their kings will be amazed at what happens to the "servant of the L-rd," and they will say "who would believe what we have heard?". 52:15 tells us explicitly that it is the nations of the world, the gentiles, who are doing the talking in Isaiah 53. See, also, Micah 7:12-17, which speaks of the nations' astonishment when the Jewish people again blossom in the Messianic age.
53:1 "And to whom has the arm of the L-rd been revealed?" In Isaiah, and throughout our Scriptures, God's "arm" refers to the physical redemption of the Jewish people from the oppression of other nations (see, e.g., Isa. 52:8-12; Isa. 63:12; Deut. 4:34; Deut. 7:19; Ps. 44:3).
53:3 "Despised and rejected of men." While this is clearly applicable to Israel (see Isa. 60:15; Ps. 44:13-14), it cannot be reconciled with the New Testament account of Yeshua, a man who was supposedly "praised by all" (Lk. 4:14-15) and followed by multitudes (Matt. 4:25), who would later acclaim him as a prophet upon his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Matt. 21:9-11). Even as he was taken to be crucified, a multitude bemoaned his fate (Lk. 23:27). Yeshua had to be taken by stealth, as the rulers feared "a riot of the people" (Mk. 14:1-2).
53:3 "A man of pains and acquainted with disease." Israel's adversities are frequently likened to sickness - see, e.g., Isa. 1:5-6; Jer. 10:19; Jer 30:12.
53:4 "Surely our diseases he carried and our pains he bore." In Matt. 8:17, this is correctly translated, and said to be literally (not spiritually) fulfilled in Yeshua’s healing of the sick, a reading inconsistent with the Christian mistranslation of 53:4 itself.
53:4 "Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of G- D and afflicted." See Jer. 30:17 - of God's servant Israel (30:10), it is said by the nations, "It is Zion; no one cares for her."
53:5 "But he was wounded from (NOTE: not “for”) our transgressions, he was crushed from (AGAIN: not “for”) our iniquities." Whereas the Gentile nations had thought the Servant (Israel) was undergoing Divine retribution for its sins (53:4), they now realize that the Servant's sufferings stemmed from their OWN actions and sinfulness against the nation. This theme is further developed throughout our Jewish Scriptures - see, e.g., Jer. 50:7; Jer. 10:25. ALSO: Note that the Messiah "shall not fail nor be crushed till he has set the right in the earth" (Isa. 42:4). This is serious business, as you can see; when Messiah comes he will a major bone to pick with the Roman Church which spawned both anti-Semitic Catholicism and his child Protestantism.
53:7 "He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth." Note that in the prior chapter (Isa. 52), Israel is said to have been oppressed and taken away without cause (52:4-5). A similar theme is developed in Psalm 44, wherein King David speaks of the corporate nation of Israel and her faithfulness even in the face of gentile oppression (44:17- 18) and describes Israel as "sheep to be slaughtered" in the midst of the unfaithful gentile nations (44:22,11).
Regarding the claim that Yeshua "did not open his mouth" when faced with oppression and affliction, see Matt. 27:46, Jn. 18:23, 36-37.
53:8 "From dominion and judgment he was taken away." Note the correct translation of the Hebrew. The Christians are forced to mistranslate, since - by Yeshua’s own testimony - he never had any rights to rulership or judgment, at least not on the "first coming." See, e.g., Jn. 3:17; Jn. 8:15; Jn. 12:47; Jn. 18:36.
53:8 "He was cut off out of the land of the living."
53:9 "His grave was assigned with wicked men." See Ez. 37:11-14, wherein Israelis described as "cut off" and God promises to open its "graves" and bring Israel back into its own land. Other examples of figurative deaths include Ex. 10:17; 2 Sam. 9:8; 2 Sam. 16:9.
53:8 "From my peoples' sins, there was injury to them." Here the Prophet makes absolutely clear, to anyone familiar with Biblical Hebrew, that the oppressed Servant is a collective Servant, not a single individual. The Hebrew word "lamoh", when used in our Scriptures, always means "to them" never "to him" and may be found, for example, in Psalm 99:7 - "They kept his testimonies, and the statute that He gave to them."
53:9 "And with the rich in his deaths." Perhaps King James should have changed the original Hebrew, which again makes clear that we are dealing with a collective Servant, i.e., Israel, which will "come to life" when the exile ends (Ez. 37:14).
53:9 "He had done no violence." See Matt. 21:12; Mk. 11:15-16; Lk. 19:45; Lk. 19:27; Matt. 10:34 and Lk. 12:51; then judge for yourself whether this passage is truly consistent with the New Testament account of Yeshua.
53:10 "He shall see his seed." The Hebrew word for "seed", used in this verse, always refers to physical descendants in our Jewish Scriptures. See, e.g., Gen. 12:7; Gen. 15:13; Gen. 46:6; Ex. 28:43. A different word, generally translated as "sons", is used to refer to spiritual descendants (see Deut. 14:1, e.g.).
53:10 "He will prolong his days."
Answer for yourself: Not only did Yeshua die young, but how could the days be prolonged of someone who is alleged to be God?
53:11 "With his knowledge the righteous one, my Servant, will cause many to be just." Note again the correct translation: the Servant will cause many to be just, he will not "justify the many."
The Jewish mission is to serve as a "light to the nations" which will ultimately lead the world to a knowledge of the one true God, this both by example (Deut. 4:5-8; Zech. 8:23) and by instructing the nations in God's Law (Isa. 2:3-4; Micah 4:2-3). This mission, however, has been tragically circumvented by the Roman Church throughout history by the editing and adulterating the documents we call the New Testament today. What was once a Torah centered faith has become a religion based upon “believing in the identity of a man” instead of “living a life in obedience to the Law/Commandments of God.” Today “grace” had completely nullified “personal accountability before God.” Needless to say the “light” of Divine Truth as been replaced by Gentile Christianity’s Catholic Church Council’s decisions upon the “identity” of Yeshua as it evolved over the first 500 years of the church. The identity of the Servant of God, the Jewish People, who paid in their blood the price that I might know God today, has been completely obliterated by Christian theology whereby “one man” has replaced an entire nation.
53:12 "Therefore, I will divide a portion to him with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty."
Answer for yourself: If Yeshua is God, does the idea of reward have any meaning?
Answer for yourself: Is it not rather the Jewish people - who righteously bore the sins of the world and yet remained faithful to God (Ps. 44) - who will be rewarded, and this in the manner described more fully in Isaiah chapters 52 and 54?
In the following articles in this series we will examine in depth many of the above items for your study and evaluation. When we finish you will no longer have any doubt or confusion regarding the correct interpretation of Isaiah 53 and whether it refers to Yeshua or not. Who Is The Servant of God? We address that next.