{"id":1849,"date":"2026-09-27T16:25:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/?p=1849"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:29:17","slug":"isaiah-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/2026\/09\/27\/isaiah-53\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah 53"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Rabbinic Sources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Isaiah 53 Is A Nightmare For Rabbinic Judaism | Deep Dive\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4irbalVK35E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13<\/strong><br>Aramaic synagogue paraphrase: \u201cBehold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper; he shall be high and increase and be exceedingly strong.\u201d Oldest surviving Jewish identification of the servant as an individual Messiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a<\/strong><br>Messiah sits among the sick at the city gate, changing his bandages one at a time so he can rise immediately when summoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b<\/strong><br>\u201cWhat is his name? \u2026 The Rabbis said: \u2018the leper scholar\u2019 (\u1e25iwvara debe Rabbi), as it is written, \u2018Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him a leper, smitten of God and afflicted\u2019\u201d (Isa 53:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ruth Rabbah 5:6 (on Ruth 2:14)<\/strong><br>\u201cHe is speaking of the King Messiah: \u2018Come hither\u2019\u2014draw near to the throne; \u2018eat of the bread\u2019\u2014the bread of the kingdom; \u2018dip your morsel in the vinegar\u2019\u2014these are the chastisements, as it is said, \u2018He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Midrash Tanhuma, Toldot (on Zech 4:7)<\/strong><br>\u201cWho are you, O great mountain? This is the King Messiah. Why \u2018great mountain\u2019? Because he is greater than the patriarchs, as it is said, \u2018My servant shall be high and lifted up and lofty exceedingly\u2019\u201d (Isa 52:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Pesikta Rabbati 36\u201337<\/strong><br>Longest midrashic treatment. Messiah (often called Ephraim \/ son of David) agrees before creation to bear Israel\u2019s iniquities. Iron beams are loaded on his neck for seven years; he cries to heaven; God applies Psalm 22 to him. Explicit substitutionary language drawn from Isaiah 53.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Zohar (II 212a and related passages)<\/strong><br>Messiah summons every pain and chastisement of Israel onto himself; \u201cSurely our sicknesses he has carried.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Yalkut Shimoni (on Isa 52\u201353 \/ Zech 4)<\/strong><br>Repeats the Tanhuma exaltation-after-suffering reading and links the servant\u2019s loftiness to Davidic Messiah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rabbinic Sources Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13Aramaic synagogue paraphrase: \u201cBehold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper; he shall be high and increase and be exceedingly strong.\u201d Oldest surviving Jewish identification of the servant as an individual Messiah. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98aMessiah sits among the sick at the city gate, changing his bandages one at a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-bible"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions\/1851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglasgilliland.com\/theology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}