Who is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53?
The scriptures talk plainly about the Son of David, the Messiah who would come to establish an everlasting kingdom. Of this Rabbinic Jews, Messianic Jews, and Gentile Christians will agree. But do the scriptures also talk of a Messiah who will come to suffer and die for the sins of the world? On this prophecy of the scriptures Christians of Jewish or Gentile descent will disagree with most Rabbinic Jews. While there are many scriptures to support this concept, ranging from the very first prophecy found in Genesis 3:15 to the Messianic prophecies of Zechariah and Malachi, the cornerstone of this view of the Messiah is found in Isaiah 53. Rabbinic Jews have struggled for millennia over this difficult passage. In most modern Yeshivas this scripture is simply glossed over If discussed at all. And when it is discussed it is said to be a prophecy of Israel suffering in the Shoah (Holocaust). If this was a prophecy of the Holocaust one would think that it would be a subject of enthusiastic study. But it is hardly mentioned at all because the message is so clear that this is the promised Messiah of G-d.
In fact the ancient Rabbis who formulated the Shabbat Reading list for Torah and Haftorah readings left out the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. They give no explanation for such an important omission and we can only speculate on their intent. Is this the chapter that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from his chariot when he met Phillip and told him that there was no man to interpret it? If it is that chapter then we can understand why the eunuch accepted Y’shua as Messiah upon hearing the truth.
As believers in Y’shua we should make sure that we are familiar with this important prophecy because it not only details the identity of Y’shua’s ministry but also the purpose for which He died.
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of haShem revealed? For 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.
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 haShem hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He 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. He 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. And 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.
Yet it pleased haShem 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 haShem shall prosper in his hand. He 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.
Therefore 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.
In recent years there has been much controversy concerning this passage and the interpretation of the sages that it refers to a Messiah who is a suffering servant. It is popular today to interpret this verse as Israel herself and not as Messiah benYosef. Yet that interpretation does not bear witness with the interpretations of the sages.
Babylonian Talmud: "The Messiah --what is his name?...The Rabbis say, The Leper Scholar, as it is said, `surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God and afflicted...'" (Sanhedrin 98b)
Midrash Ruth Rabbah: "Another explanation (of Ruth ii.14): -- He is speaking of king Messiah; `Come hither,' draw near to the throne; `and eat of the bread,' that is, the bread of the kingdom; `and dip thy morsel in the vinegar,' this refers to his chastisements, as it is said, `But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities'"
Zohar: "`He was wounded for our transgressions,' etc....There is in the Garden of Eden a palace called the Palace of the Sons of Sickness; this palace the Messiah then enters, and summons every sickness, every pain, and every chastisement of Israel; they all come and rest upon him. And were it not that he had thus lightened them off Israel and taken them upon himself, there had been no man able to bear Israel's chastisements for the transgression of the law: and this is that which is written, `Surely our sicknesses he hath carried.'"
Rabbi Moses Maimonides: "There shall rise up one of whom none have known before, and signs and wonders which they shall see performed by him will be the proofs of his true origin; for the Almighty, where he declares to us his mind upon this matter, says, `Behold a man whose name is the Branch, and he shall branch forth out of his place' (Zech. 6:12). And Isaiah speaks similarly of the time when he shall appear, without father or mother or family being known, He came up as a sucker before him, and as a root out of dry earth, etc....in the words of Isaiah, when describing the manner in which kings will harken to him, At him kings will shut their mouth; for that which had not been told them have they seen, and that which they had not heard they have perceived." (From the Letter to the South (Yemen), quoted in The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters, Ktav Publishing House, 1969, Volume 2, pages 374-5)
As we can see the concept that Isaiah 53 is not Messianic does not bear the witness of the sages, but more importantly, as we shall see, it does not bear witness with the content of the passage.
We can not honestly say that Israel has never done violence, nor that their is no deceit within her mouth for even as the chosen people of G-d we have been a rebellious and stiff-necked people from the beginning. The deaths of the Shoah can also not be the death referred to in this passage, for the victims of the holocaust were not buried with the wicked or the rich. In fact, most of them were given no grave at all.
We should examine this passage carefully to see if it can be applied to our people or to one individual whom the sages say is the Messiah.
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief
Throughout this passage the masculine is used, but in most prophetic literature, haShem refers to Israel in the feminine and as His wife. But in this specific case the suffering servant is referred to plainly as "a man", indicating not only a masculine character but a specific individual.
He 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.
This passage is often used to defend the position that the suffering servant is Israel during the Shoah. And while it is true that many of the victims of the Holocaust did not fight back or attempt to defend themselves, the same can not be said for other Jews throughout the world who loudly protested the activities of the Nazi regime. If this is simply Israel and not a specific person, we can not say that Israel as a whole did not open her mouth. In fact many of the Resistance fighters active within Eastern Europe during World Was II were Jews who had escaped to fight the Nazis
for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
The Babylonian's took the house of Judah into captivity because of their sin. But what was the sin of the Jewish people that brought about the Shoah? It was not their sin, but the hatred of others that murdered six million of our brethren. Yet the prophet Isaiah said that the suffering servant will be "cut off" for "the transgression of my people." This is similar to the words of Daniel 9, where it states that the Messiah will be "cut off, but not for himself."
Yet it pleased haShem to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin
The death of the suffering servant is called a sin offering. Since the Torah explicitly restricts human sacrifice, how can the death of any man, or even a people be called a sin offering? In Genesis 22, our father Abraham was called to perform a sin offering of his only son. But Praise be to haShem his hand was stayed and G-d, Himself, provided a lamb for that sacrifice. It shall not be so with the suffering servant because, according to this passage, it is haShem's pleasure to receive his soul as an offering for sin.
The simple fact is that Y’shua’s sacrifice on the second day of Pesach (Passover) qualifies as a Chag haMoztot sacrifice where a lamb without blemish was sacrifced along with a sheaf of barley, outside the gate as specified in Leviticus 23:12. This second, little Passover is as much a Paschal lamb as the lambs that were slaughtered for the individual homes… but this sacrifice was one lamb for all of Israel as a first fruit offering.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and haShem hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
His suffering servant was not only an acceptable sacrifice for sin, but one for all iniquity. The Chag haMotzot sacrifice is a peace offering unto God. The sacrifice of Messiah was a sacrifice that brought peace between G-d and man and atoned for the sins of Adam.
Given the long history of interpretation that a Messiah would suffer and die, how can we view this passage as anything other than Messianic?
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. Zecheriah 12:10
With their understanding of the precept of Messiah the sages interpreted this verse as referring to his sacrifice:
What is the cause of the mourning--...It is well according to him who explains that the cause is the slaying of Messiah the son of Joseph, since that well agrees with the Scriptural verse, "And they shall look upon me because they have thrust him through, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son." Sukkah 52a
The concept of Mosahich benYossef is found throughout the writings of the sages. Today the Rabbis interpret this as two separate men, one who dies and one who reigns, but obviously the sages of old knew better. They knew that the Suffering Servant was not Israel, but the promised King and Redeemer, Messiah.