The suffering servant
The Old Testament
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5
Read the full text in a modern translation BSB
Read the full text (15 verses)
In the New Testament
Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Acts 8:35
BSB
Read the full text in a modern translation BSB
Read the full text (25 verses)
A servant of God is despised and rejected, a man of sorrows. He is wounded for our transgressions; the chastisement of our peace is upon him. He dies, is buried with the rich, and yet afterwards he will see his seed and prolong his days, and justify many.
The heart of all the predictions about the Messiah's suffering. A few facts worth knowing. First, the Great Isaiah Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls, written some hundred and fifty years before Jesus, contains this chapter in full; it was not adjusted afterwards. Second, Jesus applies Isaiah 53:12, 'he was numbered with the transgressors', to himself in Luke 22:37. Third, the Ethiopian official is reading exactly this text when Philip meets him, and asks: of whom speaketh the prophet this? Fourth, in Jewish interpretation since the Middle Ages, including Rashi, the servant is mainly seen as the people of Israel. In older Jewish sources, such as the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b), Isaiah 53:4 is applied to the Messiah.