the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah is regarded by actually all christians as a
key text prophesying the coming of the Messiah who would suffer and die for the sins of the world and
be risen again on the third day . this is probably the most frequently cited book of the hebrew bible
when it comes to messianic prophecies about Jesus and what he came to earth to do in Christianity . so
i thought it'd be worth just having a look at what biblical scholars have said about Isaiah 53
and what the text actually says . and to do that , i will refer again to this book "The Bible:
A Historical and Literary Introduction" by Professor Bart Ehrman who is an expert on
the bible . this is published by Oxford University Press . and an example of the reviews on the back
from Baylor University in the united states . it says : this book is a high quality work of current scholarship
and thoughtful presentation , the textbook presents a wealth of information in a style
that engages students and encourages them to go to the primary text (meaning the bible) . and i
can certainly agree that it is very readable . now , i'm going to look at Bart Ehrman's comments
on Isaiah . i just want to stress one thing , he's not just giving his personal opinions here , what
he says (i happen to know represents the probably the most widely held view in biblical scholarship ,
so it's not a maverick view or a liberal view it's a very standard view that's held by experts
across the spectrum although you of course you're free to query and disagree if you wish
so he offers his comments on isaiah 53 which i think are really important
as i say representing probably the majority view the consensus view of biblical studies
and uh he says on uh this in a section headed the suffering servant
no passage of second isaiah has intrigued readers and interpreters especially among christians
more than the four passages that are dedicated to describing a figure known as the suffering servant
some commentators have called these passages songs or songs of the suffering servant the passages
are isaiah 42 1-4 isaiah 49 1-6 isaiah 50 4 to 11 and famously isaiah 52 13 through to isaiah 53 12.
scholars debate whether these passages were composed at the same time as the rest of the book
or whether instead they existed independently of the book
possibly composed by the author himself and were then incorporated into the book in four places
in these passages the servant of yahweh is said to have suffered horribly for the sake of others but
god will vindicate him he in fact is the delight of yahweh and will be used by him to accomplish
his will on earth quote i have put my spirit upon him he will bring forth justice to the nations
he will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice on the earth isaiah 42 1 and
4. the author believes that this unnamed servant shall prosper he shall be exalted and lifted up
isaiah 52 13. but the most important impressive and well-known comments about the servant
involve his horrible suffering for the sake of others these comments have been highly important
since the times of the new testament because christian readers have widely thought that
isaiah was describing the crucifixion of jesus for the sins of the world and then bart ehrman
quotes some isaiah 53 and i'll read it for my new revised standard version and it says this
he was despised and rejected by others a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity
and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised and we held him of no account
surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases yet we accounted him stricken struck
down by god and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions crushed for our iniquities
upon him the whole the punishment that made us whole and by his bruises we are healed all we
like sheep have gone astray we have all turned to our own way and the lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all end quote and bar ehrman continues the author goes on to say
that the servant was silent before his oppressors that he was cut off from the land of the living
and that he made his tomb with the rich and that it was the will of the lord to crush him with pain
doesn't this sound exactly like jesus isn't this a prophecy about what would happen to the messiah
in response to that common christian interpretation several important points are
to be made he says number one it is it is to be remembered that the prophets of the hebrew bible
were not predicting things that were to happen hundreds of years in advance they were speaking
to their own contexts and delivering a message for their own people to hear about their own immediate
futures two in this case the author is not predicting that someone will suffer in the future
for people's sins at all many readers fail to consider the verb tenses in these passages they
do not indicate that someone will come along at a later time and suffer in the future they are
talking about a past suffering the servant has already suffered although he will be vindicated
and so this is not about a future suffering messiah three in fact it is not about the
messiah at all this is a point frequently overlooked in discussions of the passage
if you will look you will notice that the term messiah never occurs in the passage this is not
predicting what the messiah will be for if the passage is not referring to the messiah
and is not referring to someone in the future who is going to suffer whom is it talking about here
there really should be very little ambiguity as i mentioned this particular passage isaiah 53 is
one of the four servant songs of second isaiah i'll just pause here why does by herman refer
to second isaiah now this is to do with uh the fact that uh biblical uh historians have noticed
uh the following about the whole book of isaiah that even though most of the text is rooted in
the prophet called isaiah who lived in judah during about 800 years bc it's also widely
believed the prophet did not write the entire book and some of the reasons for this is that
chapters 40 through to 55 if you read them they seem to presuppose that jerusalem has already
been destroyed and they're not framed as prophecy and the babylonian exile has already happened
they speak from a present in which the exile is about to end so that wouldn't be 800 years bc
and chapters 56 to 66 assume an even later situation in which the temple uh in which the
people have already returned to jerusalem and are rebuilding the temple and also strangely isaiah's
name suddenly stops being used after chapter 39. so scholars have and there are other reasons as
well uh to do with the style and content of the theology uh which seems to be quite different
later on than it is from isaiah chapters 1 to 39. so that first block isaiah 1 through
to 39 is called first isaiah in biblical scholarship second isaiah are the other
chapters after that written by an unknown scribe probably centuries later who added his words
added the text to the prophet isaiah's original prophecy anyway that's a a short diversion
so uh to continue from bart ehrman as i mentioned this particular passage isaiah 53 is one of the
four servant songs of second isaiah and so the question is whom does second isaiah himself
indicate that the servant is and this is the question who is this servant a
careful reading of the passages makes the identification quite clear says bart ehrman
but now here o jacob my servant israel whom i have chosen isaiah 44 verse 1
remember these things o jacob and israel for you are my servant isaiah 44 21
and he said to me you are my servant israel in whom i will be glorified isaiah 49 verse 3.
the second the book of second isaiah itself indicates who the servant of the lord is
it is israel god's people isaiah 53 when the author describes the servant's past sufferings
he is talking about the sufferings they have experienced by being destroyed and exiled by
the babylonians this is a suffering that has come about because of sins
but the suffering will be vindicated because god will now restore israel and bring them back
to the land and enter into a new relationship with them it may be fairly objected that the servant
is said to suffer for our sins not for his sins scholars have resolved that problem in a number
of ways it may be that the author is thinking that the portion of the people taken into exile
have suffered for the sins of those in the land some of them suffering for the sins of all those
who have been taken into captivity have suffered displacement loss and exile for the sake of the
sins of the nation but now the servant israel will be exalted and restored to a close relationship
with god and will be used by him to bring about justice throughout the earth there
may be problems with this interpretation as there always are with every interpretation
but the fact remains that the suffering servant is never described as the messiah
his suffering is portrayed as a past instead of future event and he is explicitly identified on
several occasions as israel later readers who have taken the passage as a reference to the messiah
then have seen jesus have seen jesus as one who fills out or fulfills
its original meaning giving it a new meaning that it did not originally have
and quote so there we have it i know from my own research that what bar ehrman is
explaining there is the standard scholarly view there are some scholars who identify the suffering
servant as jeremiah or even isaiah himself but it's not seen as a prediction of jesus christ
messiah from the future because that's not what the passage says so i hope you find
that of interest um and i do welcome your comments and criticisms until next time