Isn't Isaiah 53 about Israel, not Jesus?
Isaiah repeatedly names the servant of the LORD as Israel (Isaiah 41:8; 44:1; 49:3). In Isaiah 52:13-53:12 the kings of the nations are astonished to realize that the despised Jewish people, whom they persecuted, suffered because of the nations' sins. Reading Jesus into the passage ignores its context.
— The national reading of medieval commentators such as Rashi; a modern presentation is Tovia Singer, Let's Get Biblical (2014)
Isaiah does call Israel God's servant, but he also describes a servant who is sent to restore Israel, who is innocent, who suffers silently and willingly for 'my people', dies, is buried and then lives again. Those details fit an individual who represents Israel better than the nation as a whole. Several ancient Jewish sources applied the passage to the Messiah, and Jesus fulfils it in remarkable detail.
What Scripture says
52:13Behold, My Servant will prosper; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 52:14Just as many were appalled at Him — His appearance was disfigured beyond that of any man, and His form was marred beyond human likeness— 52:15so He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For they will see what they have not been told, and they will understand what they have not heard. 53:1Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 53:2He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him. 53:3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. 53:4Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 53:5But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 53:6We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. 53:7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. 53:8By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people. 53:9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 53:10Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 53:11After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. 53:12Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
The fourth Servant Song: the servant is exalted, rejected, pierced, killed and finally vindicated.
3He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, in whom I will display My glory.” 4But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength in futility and vanity; yet My vindication is with the LORD, and My reward is with My God.” 5And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, that Israel might be gathered to Him— for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and My God is My strength— 6He says: “It is not enough for You to be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the protected ones of Israel. I will also make You a light for the nations, to bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
The servant is called 'Israel', yet his mission is to bring Jacob back and restore Israel, and to be a light to the nations.
8By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.
He was cut off from the land of the living 'for the transgression of my people'.
9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
He had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.
4Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.
Isaiah's own description of Israel: a sinful nation laden with iniquity.
30So Philip ran up and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth. 33In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.” 34“Tell me,” said the eunuch, “who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
An Ethiopian reader asks whether the prophet speaks of himself or someone else; Philip begins from this passage to tell him about Jesus.
37For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.”
Jesus applies Isaiah 53:12, 'numbered with the transgressors', to himself.
The case
A passage worth reading slowly
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is one of the most debated texts between Jews and Christians, and it deserves an honest reading. Christians should begin by acknowledging two things. First, the national interpretation is serious and ancient. Origen, writing in the third century, already records a Jewish scholar who applied the passage to the whole people (Against Celsus 1.55), and Rashi and other great medieval commentators read it that way. Second, the Jewish people have, tragically, suffered at the hands of nations, including nations that called themselves Christian. Any Christian reading of Isaiah 53 must be offered with humility.
Even so, a careful reading of the text points toward an individual.
Five features of the servant
1. The servant restores Israel
In Isaiah 49:3 God calls the servant "Israel." But two verses later the servant's task is to bring Jacob back to God and gather Israel (49:5-6). The servant cannot simply be the nation he is sent to restore. He is Israel in the sense that he embodies Israel's calling, its faithful representative.
2. The servant suffers for "my people"
In 53:8 he is cut off "for the transgression of my people." Throughout Isaiah, "my people" refers to Israel (Isaiah 1:3; 40:1; 51:16). If the servant suffers for Israel, he is not Israel.
3. The servant is innocent
He had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth (53:9). Isaiah does not describe the nation that way. He opens his book by calling Israel a "sinful nation" (1:4), and the exile is explained as the result of Israel's sins (40:2). The prophets never present Israel's suffering as that of an innocent party.
4. The servant suffers willingly and silently
He is like a lamb led to the slaughter who does not open his mouth (53:7), and he "poured out his soul to death" (53:12). This is voluntary self-offering.
5. The servant dies, is buried and lives again
He is cut off from the land of the living and assigned a grave (53:8-9), yet afterward he sees his offspring, prolongs his days and is exalted (53:10-12; 52:13). The passage moves through death to vindication.
How the readings compare
| Feature of the text | Israel as a nation | An individual Messiah |
|---|---|---|
| Restores Israel (49:5-6) | Difficult | Fits |
| Suffers for "my people" (53:8) | Difficult | Fits |
| Innocent, no deceit (53:9) | Difficult | Fits |
| Silent, willing suffering (53:7) | Partly | Fits |
| Dies, buried, then lives on (53:8-10) | Metaphorical | Fits |
| Called "Israel" (49:3) | Fits | Fits as Israel's representative |
Jewish voices that saw the Messiah here
The messianic reading is not only Christian. The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic paraphrase of the Prophets, renders the first line as "my servant, the Messiah," although it transfers the suffering to others. The Babylonian Talmud says one of the Messiah's names comes from Isaiah 53:4 (Sanhedrin 98b). The 19th-century collection by Driver and Neubauer gathers many rabbinic and medieval interpretations, showing that the messianic reading continued for centuries alongside the national reading.
Jesus and the servant
The New Testament does not apply Isaiah 53 to Jesus only through a few proof-texts. Jesus understood his mission in its terms: he came to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45) and expected to be numbered with the transgressors (Luke 22:37). He was silent before his accusers (Mark 15:5), executed with criminals (Mark 15:27), buried in a rich man's tomb (Matthew 27:57-60), and raised to life.
Why it matters
Isaiah 53 is good news for Israel and the nations alike. It promises one who carries our sins and makes many righteous (53:11). Christians who read it with Jewish friends should not lecture; we should read it together, ask honestly who the servant is, and share why we have come to believe he is Jesus of Nazareth, Israel's Messiah.
Word study
hebrew · “my servant” · Isaiah 52:13
ʿEbed means servant or slave, and in Isaiah 40-55 it describes both the nation of Israel and an individual. The individual servant bears the name Israel (49:3) yet is distinguished from the nation he restores (49:5-6). Many interpreters, Jewish and Christian, speak of a 'fluid' servant figure: the faithful one who embodies what Israel was called to be.
hebrew · “to lift, carry, bear (guilt)” · Isaiah 53:12
The servant 'bore' the sin of many. In the Torah, nāśāʾ ʿāwōn ('to bear iniquity') is the language of sacrifice and substitution: the scapegoat bears the people's iniquities (Leviticus 16:22). The servant does what the sacrifices pictured.
“But what about…?”
Doesn't 'lamo' in Isaiah 53:8 mean 'to them', so the servant is plural?
Lamo is a poetic form that is usually plural, but Hebrew grammarians recognize that it can refer to a singular or collective subject; Isaiah 44:15 is a frequently cited example. The meaning of 53:8 is debated, and the surrounding verses consistently use singular forms for the servant: he, his grave, his soul.
Isn't the 'we' in Isaiah 53 the Gentile kings of 52:15?
That is the traditional Jewish reading. But in 53:8 the speaker says the servant was stricken for the transgression of 'my people', and throughout Isaiah 'my people' is Israel (Isaiah 1:3; 40:1). The most natural speaker is the prophet, speaking with repentant Israel.
Didn't Christians invent the messianic reading?
No. The Targum Jonathan on Isaiah, an ancient Aramaic paraphrase used in synagogues, opens the passage with 'my servant, the Messiah' (on 52:13), though it reinterprets the suffering. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) names the Messiah from Isaiah 53:4. Both readings, national and messianic, are found in Jewish tradition.
Jesus didn't have 'offspring' or 'prolong his days' (53:10).
The servant dies (53:8-9) and then 'prolongs his days' (53:10), which implies life after death, that is, resurrection. 'Offspring' (zeraʿ) is used figuratively elsewhere in Isaiah for spiritual descendants (Isaiah 1:4; 57:4). The risen Jesus has countless spiritual children.
Where Christians differ
Go deeper
- book · 2012The Gospel According to Isaiah 53Darrell L. Bock & Mitch Glaser (eds.)
- book · 2003Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Vol. 3: Messianic Prophecy ObjectionsMichael L. Brown
- book · 1877The Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish InterpretersS. R. Driver & A. Neubauer
- book · 2014Let's Get Biblical: Why Doesn't Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah?Tovia Singer
- book · 1993The Prophecy of IsaiahJ. Alec Motyer
Sources (5)
- Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13: 'my servant, the Messiah'
- Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b: the Messiah named from Isaiah 53:4
- Rashi (1040-1105), commentary on Isaiah 52-53: the servant as the people of Israel
- Origen, Against Celsus 1.55: a Jewish interlocutor applies the passage to the whole people as one individual
- S. R. Driver & A. Neubauer, The Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters (Oxford, 1876-77)
Related questions
Didn't Jesus escape crucifixion?
The crucifixion of Jesus is one of the best-attested facts of ancient history. It is reported by Christian, Roman and Jewish sources, including writers hostile to Christianity, and is accepted by virtually all historians, whatever their faith. Jesus predicted his death, the Hebrew prophets foresaw a suffering servant, and the cross was not God's defeat but his plan to deal with sin. God vindicated Jesus, not by sparing him from death, but by raising him from it.
Jesus didn't bring world peace—how can he be the Messiah?
The objection is right that Jesus has not yet finished the Messiah's work. But the Hebrew Bible itself describes the Messiah in two ways: humble and suffering, and glorious and reigning. Some rabbis also noticed this tension. Jesus fulfilled the first set of promises, opened the knowledge of Israel's God to the nations, and promised to return to complete the rest. A Messiah who comes twice is not a Christian evasion; it is how the scriptural portraits fit together.
Does Daniel 9 point to the time of the Messiah?
Interpreters honestly disagree about the details of Daniel 9: the starting point, the calendar, and how the weeks divide. But on almost any traditional reading the passage expects an 'anointed one' to be cut off before the city and sanctuary are destroyed, and it promises an end to sin and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness. Jesus was cut off a generation before the Temple fell in AD 70, and his death is explained as atonement for sin.
Did Jesus fulfill Old Testament prophecy, or did the Gospel writers make it fit?
Some fulfillments in the Gospels are direct predictions; others are patterns, where Israel's history foreshadows the Messiah. Recognizing this answers many objections. And the central fulfillments could not easily be staged or invented: a Messiah from David's line who would suffer, be pierced and die for others' sins, and then be vindicated. A crucified Messiah was a scandal, not something anyone would invent to fit expectations. Jesus himself taught that the whole of Scripture points to him.
This entry is a draft and has not yet been theologically reviewed.