Who is the Suffering Servant? The Battle between Jewish and Christian scholars for the Heart of their Faith.
The Jewish View of Israel as God’s Suffering Servant: antisemitism, dispossession, The Holocaust, Ghettos, Kristalnacht, Death Camps, and Persecutions.
It is one thing for Christians to claim New Testament texts as their own (although the first apostles and the first decades of the church were Jewish). It is another thing entirely for them to claim Old Testament texts as well. Jews resent Christian claims that many prophecies in the Jewish Bible identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. Yet Jesus interpreted them as such to his disciples (Luke 24:27).
Isaiah 53 speaks to Christians of the sufferings of Messiah, and does so in intricate detail. No wonder, then, that Isaiah 53 has become a biblical battleground between Jews and Christians!
The Christian View is that the Suffering Servant is fulfilled in Christ’s torture and crucifixion. It is a view that takes in the ‘mountain peaks’ of messianic prophecy, one of which is Isaiah 53. Christians view Isaiah 53:12 as the highest peak in Isaiah’s range of prophecies, which identifies Jesus as Israel’s promised Messiah. The Servant is mentioned in the first Servant Song of Isaiah, in 41:8,9, and in 42:1-4, 43:10; 44:1-2, 44:21, 44:26, and 48:20.
The first followers of Jesus were Jews who saw Israel as God’s servant nation in these texts but most quoted from Isaiah 53 when proclaiming Jesus as the promised Messiah.
So, the Jews saw themselves as a people, portrayed as the Suffering Servant, and the first Christians viewed Jesus as that Servant. The question is which view is the correct one?
New Testament references to Isaiah 53 are: Isaiah 53:1 with John 12:38 & Romans 10:16. Isaiah 53:2-3 with Mark 9:12. Isaiah 53:4 with Matthew 8:17. Isaiah 53:5,6 with 1 Peter 2:24. Isaiah 53:9 with Matthew 27:60. Isaiah 53:10 with Mark 10:45 and 14:24. Isaiah 53:12 with Mark 15:28. Isaiah 53:12 with Luke 11:22. Isaiah 53:7-8 with Acts 8:30-35. Isaiah 53:12 with Luke 22:37.
If Jesus was not the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, the Christian applications of these New Testament texts would be incorrect. This is why the battle between Jewish and Christian scholars is so important.
Those who deny that Isaiah 53 portrays Jesus as the Suffering Servant must reject quotes from it by the gospel writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, Philip the evangelist, the apostles Paul and Peter, and not least by Jesus himself. Christians believe that all scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16).
Rabbinical scholars see Isaiah 53 as picturing the sufferings of the Jewish people, and so interpret the first verses as exclamations of Gentile kings at “the end of days”. The sufferings of the Jewish people certainly are portrayed in the figure of the Servant (and in the other songs). But Christians see Jesus as the epitome of that suffering in his rejection by his own people and in his sacrifice on the Cross as the Lamb of God offered for the sins of the world.
• So, who is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 – is it the Jews, or is it Jesus?
• The Answer: It is both. But one rises and shines above the other.
• Only Jesus matches the description in every detail. He is the Greater Suffering Servant.