The Suffering Servant
The servant would be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, and by his wounds we are healed.
The Prophecy
Isaiah 52:13β53:12
~700 BCE
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain... He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed... He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.
Manuscript Attestation
Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaα΅, c. 125 BCE) preserves the complete text. In 53:11, the Dead Sea Scroll adds the word "light," supported by the Septuagint, implying resurrection hope. In 52:14, a scribal variant appears to read "I have anointed" (mashakhti), reflecting deliberate messianic interpretation. All codices.
Ancient Jewish Interpretation
Talmud Sanhedrin 98b names the Messiah "the leper scholar" based on Isaiah 53. Targum Jonathan on 52:13 reads "Behold My servant the Messiah shall deal wisely." The Zohar and multiple Midrashim apply the passage to the Messiah. The Pesiqta Rabbati describes the Messiah's suffering in language drawn from this chapter.
The Fulfillment
Acts 8:32-35; Matthew 8:17; Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 2:21-25
The Ethiopian eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter..." Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. (Acts 8:32-35)
Narrative Context
This is the most extensively quoted Old Testament passage in the New Testament. The early church saw Jesus' trial, crucifixion, death among criminals, and burial in a rich man's tomb as the precise fulfillment of Isaiah's Suffering Servant.
The Evidence
The Great Isaiah Scroll is the single most important manuscript witness. Of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, only one word (three letters β "light" in verse 11) differs substantially between the Dead Sea Scroll and the Masoretic Text after a millennium of transmission. The additional word "light" in 53:11 "signifies the hope of something more β life beyond death, or resurrection." Scribal variants in the Qumran Isaiah scroll reflected "deliberate alteration of the Hebrew text in order to produce the desired messianic interpretations."