What did the ancient rabbis say about Isaiah 53?
Several early Jewish sources read it about the Messiah: Targum Jonathan on 52:13 ("my servant the Messiah"), the Talmud's "leper" Messiah (Sanhedrin 98b), and later midrashim. The national reading (Israel) became the standard view after Rashi.
Targum Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase read in synagogues, opens Isaiah 52:13 with "Behold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper."
The Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) gives the Messiah's name as "the leper of the house of Rabbi", citing Isaiah 53:4: "Surely he has borne our sicknesses."
Both readings are old. Origen, writing in the 3rd century, says Jewish debaters read the servant as the nation. In the 11th century Rashi made the national reading the main one, and it's the usual Jewish view today.
We don't say anyone hid anything. We do say the messianic reading has deep Jewish roots, and many Jewish people have never been shown it.
In the Scriptures
13הִנֵּ֥ה יַשְׂכִּ֖יל עַבְדִּ֑י יָר֧וּם וְנִשָּׂ֛א וְגָבַ֖הּ מְאֹֽד׃
13Behold, My servant shall prosper, He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
Isaiah 52:13 (Hebrew & JPS 1917)
4אָכֵ֤ן חֳלָיֵ֨נוּ֙ ה֣וּא נָשָׂ֔א וּמַכְאֹבֵ֖ינוּ סְבָלָ֑ם וַאֲנַ֣חְנוּ חֲשַׁבְנֻ֔הוּ נָג֛וּעַ מֻכֵּ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים וּמְעֻנֶּֽה׃
4Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried; Whereas we did esteem him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:4 (Hebrew & JPS 1917)
The servant who carried our pain Were you misled? Ask about it
Sources
- Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13
- Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b
- Origen, Contra Celsum 1.55
- Rashi on Isaiah 52:13
