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Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2) For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3) He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4) Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5) But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
6) All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
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.
8) By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9) His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10) But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as 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.
11) As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.
12) Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.
The Ancient Rabbis Speak
Prior to the 12th century the Jewish teaching on this section clearly refers to the suffering and subsequent glorified Messiah. Here are a few excerpts:
In Targum Jonathan (the Jewish paraphrase Bible, c.100 BC) we see the beginning of 53:1 translated, “Behold, My Servant the Messiah shall prosper; he shall be exalted and great and very powerful.”
This same chapter is referred to in the Talmud (Rabbinical Commentary on the Law) ,“The Rabbis said: His name is 'the leper scholar,' as it is written, Surely he hath borne our
griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Sanhedrin 98b, & 98a).
The early rabbinical commentaries ('midrashim', AD 200- 400) viewed it the same way: “(This) interpretation makes it refer to Messiah’ (and) refers to his sufferings, as it is said, ‘But he was wounded because of our transgressions (Isa. 53:5).’”
(Midrash Rabbah on Ruth, p. 64).
“Patriarchs and prophets will say, ‘Messiah, our righteousness, You suffered for our sins. ‘He will say, ‘Yes, so you could know the goodness of God.’”
(Pisquata Rabbathi on Isa. 61:10, c. 700 AD):
Even after this early period many rabbis, though they didn’t believe in Yeshua, saw this portion as referring to Messiah:
“Jonathan Ben Uzziel interprets it in the Targum of the future Messiah, and this is also the opinion of our learned men in the majority of the
Midrashim.”--Isaac Abrabanel (15th century).
“Our rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of King Messiah.”
(Alshech, Rabbi Mosheh el Sheikh, 2nd half of 16th century)
“The meaning of 'He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities,' is that since the Messiah bears our iniquities, which produce the effect of his being bruised, it follows that whoever will not admit that the Messiah thus suffers for our iniquities must endure and suffer for them himself.”
(Eliyya de Vida, AD 1575).
Enter ‘Rashi’
So, with a historic, Rabbinical messianic understanding of Isaiah 53, why do some modern rabbis interpret it differently? In the 11th century AD, Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben
Issac, an influential French rabbi) began to teach that Isaiah 53 did not refer to Messiah but to the nation Israel! But not all rabbis accepted this “new” view:
Mosheh Kohen ben Crispin of Cordova & Toledo (14th century), answering
Rashi: “The interpretation of Rashi distorts the passage from its natural meaning,” and “it was given of God as a description of the Messiah, whereby, when any should claim to be the Messiah, to judge by the resemblance or non-resemblance to it whether he were the Messiah or no.” “Also, 'the doors of the literal interpretation of this portion were shut in their face, and that they wearied themselves to find the entrance having forsaken the knowledge of our teachers and inclined after the stubbornness of their own
hearts and of their own opinions.'”
Naphtali ben Asher Alltschuler (c. 1500) “I will proceed to explain these verses of our own Messiah, may he come soon, I am surprised that Rashi and Kimchi have not with the Targums applied it to Messiah likewise.”
Though the language of the portion clearly speaks of one dying for our sins, Rashi's view caught on -- perhaps because it seemed to provide some answer to refute the believers’s claims in Yeshua. In his comments on Zechariah 12:10 and Psalm 2:1, Rashi certainly admitted to differing with the Messianic interpretation held by the ancient Jewish sages --but with Isaiah 53 he differs not merely with the sages of our people, but with the clear teaching of our Scriptures!
Whatever Rashi’s reasons were, many people accept Rashi's view perhaps because it seems to “answer the believers in Yeshua”. If that's all you want then perhaps any answer will do. But if you want to know the truth, won't you consider the Scripture itself as providing the final answer? If you (along with “the majority of the Midrashim”) accept the Scriptures' clear teaching, you will see that Isaiah is promising that Messiah will die for our sins, and rise from the dead to reign forever. The New Covenant speaks of Yeshua (Jesus) as that Messiah who fulfills this very promise (Jn. 12:38; Rom. 10:16; Mt. 8:17; 1 Peter 2:24,25; Acts 8: 32-33).
Isaiah also says that the LORD will exalt Messiah for becoming our atonement--won't you do the same? Trust in Yeshua as God's provision for your sins and experience the new life in Him! Shalom.
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