Isaiah 43: 10 – 11
10 “You are My witnesses and My servant whom I have chosen,” declares the Lord, so that you may consider and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and after Me none will come.
11 I, yes I, am the LORD, and there is no Savior but Me.
Steefen
The Jesus of the gospels not only led people astray with his Last Supper (see Leviticus 17: 10-11), but Isaiah 43: 11 could be cited against Jesus with no persuasive defense. Jesus said he forgives sin, Pharisees countered with a claim of blasphemy: only God forgives sin.
Three strikes: Savior, forgiving sins, Suffering Servant when the Chosen People are the witnesses who are the servant according to the book of Isaiah.
A fourth strike: Jesus claims to be the Son of Man when Enoch is the Son of Man. Enoch did not promise a Son of Man kingdom. Again, Jesus misleads.
There seem to be some disagreements among Jewish scholars. Rabbi Singer says the Hebrew text of Isaiah 53:8 ends with “…for the sins of my people THEY were punished.” He slams the Christian bibles that have changed the “they” into “he”, twisting the meaning of the servant in question from being all Israel to being a single man (Jesus). However, the Hebrew bible that I’m relying on is the Jewish Publication Society TANAKH, copyright 1985, which arranges the verse differently and uses “he”. “For he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment.” This is talking about one man being punished instead of the nation as a whole. It goes on to say that he was innocent, “but the LORD chose to crush him by disease.” No mention of death by execution, though it does say “By oppressive judgement, he was taken away.” Whoever this man is, Isaiah is not forecasting Jesus crucified.
So Rabbi Singer may be right that Isaiah frequently speaks of the Jews as the Servant of God, but he is wrong about chapter 53, at least as the JPS translated it. I think we can assume that the JPS has no interest in making a translation that will support the idea that this is about Jesus, so, if they make it “he”, they must have solid textual reasons.
The chapter ends, “…he bore the guilt of the many and made intersession for sinners.” It is easy to see how Christians reading this can take it to be about their “suffering Messiah”.
Douglas said
There seem to be some disagreements among Jewish scholars. Rabbi Singer says the Hebrew text of Isaiah 53:8 ends with “…for the sins of my people THEY were punished.” He slams the Christian bibles that have changed the “they” into “he”, twisting the meaning of the servant in question from being all Israel to being a single man (Jesus). However, the Hebrew bible that I’m relying on is the Jewish Publication Society TANAKH, copyright 1985, which arranges the verse differently and uses “he”. “For he was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment.” This is talking about one man being punished instead of the nation as a whole. It goes on to say that he was innocent, “but the LORD chose to crush him by disease.” No mention of death by execution, though it does say “By oppressive judgement, he was taken away.” Whoever this man is, Isaiah is not forecasting Jesus crucified.So Rabbi Singer may be right that Isaiah frequently speaks of the Jews as the Servant of God, but he is wrong about chapter 53, at least as the JPS translated it. I think we can assume that the JPS has no interest in making a translation that will support the idea that this is about Jesus, so, if they make it “he”, they must have solid textual reasons.
The chapter ends, “…he bore the guilt of the many and made intersession for sinners.” It is easy to see how Christians reading this can take it to be about their “suffering Messiah”.
The video also says to read before that verse. What was it, one or two chapters before that?
jakejones said
“For the transgression of my people they were stricken”who is speaking here? And is the speaker part of “my people ” who are transgressing?
In Isaiah “my people” is always Yahweh speaking about Israel
Isaiah 63:8-9 “For He said: Surely, they are My people, children that will not deal falsely; so He was their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.“
The suffering servant of 53:4 “Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried; whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.“
While I agree with Tovia’s interpretation of the text, I think he is being too literal. It is a case of fundamentalist Jewish scholar attacking Christian fundamentalism.
Jesus of Nazareth can simply represent Israel in this case. A scape goat combined with a Passover lamb.
I’d like to propose a radically different interpretation of Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
Firstly, I propose that IF WE LOOK AT THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THIS PASSAGE FOR A POSSIBLE HISTORICAL FULFILLMENT, we actually DO find a candidate (for at least a partial historical fulfillment, that is). King Hezekiah.
It’s never recorded that Jesus physically got sick and bore our “diseases” in His own body. King Hezekiah, on the other hand, did. He was smitten with a deadly plague of boils (see Isa. 38:1 and 21) which marred his visage (Isa. 52:14). It was Hezekiah who physically bore the people of Jerusalem’s sins in his own body (Isa. 53:4; cf. Isa. 1:5-6). And of course, **King Hezekiah’s suffering foreshadowed that of Christ**.
Simply claiming that the fulfillment is all of Israel, doesn’t really fit the context. Isaiah 11 metaphorically describes two DIFFERENT servants: a king (vv. 1-9) and a redeemer to whom the people gather (vv. 10-16). The servant that best fits Isaiah 52:12-53:12 is a king who suffers on behalf of his people.
A not completely irrelevant aside but Isaiah 53 is one of the KJV translators’ finest hours.
He 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. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But 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. All 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.
At this point it is probably better to think of the KJV as an artifact in the history of English literature rather than as an adequate English translation of the Hebrew. But jeepers who cares if it’s accurate or not? That “acquainted with grief” is as subtle and as fine as the tip of surgeon’s blade. It is also perfectly legitimate to read this passage through a Christian lens of interpretation, as long as we keep in mind this was not the perspective of the original authors.
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