By Bart D. Ehrman, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
All of the prophecies that Christians over the centuries have said point to Jesus, originally referred to something else. Christians later understood them to refer to the messiah Jesus. But before the Christians came along, these passages were never interpreted to refer to the future messiah. None of these passages mentions the messiah. The word never occurs in them.
Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 is taken to be proof that the messiah had to suffer and die for the sake of others and then be raised from the dead. The passage says the following:
He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity. … [H]e was despised and…he has borne our infirmities…[he has] carried our diseases… [He was] struck down by God and afflicted… [H]e was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, by his wounds we were healed.
In its own context, the passage does not appear to be a prediction of the messiah. The first thing to know is that nowhere in the passage is the person called the messiah. The person being referred to is called the servant of the Lord. The suffering of this servant of the Lord is described as having already happened before Isaiah delivers the prophecy. On the other hand, the vindication of this person is described as future. He will be vindicated, he will see his offspring, he will have yet more days to come.
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Who Is Isaiah 53 Referring to?
It’s important to note that chapters 40 to 55 of Isaiah were written during the time of the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and taken its leaders and other important figures into exile into Babylon. The people of Judea had suffered. These chapters were written to provide them hope in the midst of their suffering.
Starting with Chapter 40, the author explains that God will save them from their sufferings. Never did Jews think that these passages were referring to a future messiah. When read in their own historical context, they clearly appeared to be referring to something else. The suffering servant of the Lord appears to be the people of Israel who are in exile, who are suffering for the sins the people have committed.
It shouldn’t be objected that the people in exile were a group of people, whereas the suffering servant in Isaiah is discussed as an individual. Often in the bible, an entire country is described as an individual. Moreover, Isaiah tells us who the suffering servant is in his writings a few chapters before. In Isaiah 49:3, speaking to the same person, the same figure, the suffering servant, God says to him, “You are my servant, O Israel”. He’s referring to Israel as the one who is suffering.
From Meshiach to Christos
The passages Christians use to prove Jesus was the messiah never explicitly mentioned the messiah, and were never taken by Jews to refer to the messiah. In fact, Jews did have expectations of what the messiah would be.
The term messiah comes from the Hebrew word for the ‘anointed one’. Meshiach used to refer to the person especially favored by God through whom he mediated his will. It was especially used for the king of Israel. Sometimes the term could be referred to other important Jewish leaders. Sometimes a priest or a prophet would be called the meshiach, the anointed one.
The Greek translation of the Hebrew term meshiach is Christos, from which we get the title Christ. So, Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word meshiach.
So, Christ is not the last name of Jesus Christ. It means Jesus is the messiah; it’s a translation of meshiach. The roots of the usage of the term messiah to refer to the future savior of Israel, not just to a current ruler or a prophet or a priest, go all the way back in the history of Israelite religion.
Davidic Dynasty in Jerusalem
During the early days of the kingdom of Israel, God promised the great King David that David would always have a descendant sitting on the royal throne ruling the nation of Israel-an anointed one, the meshiach.
For over 400 years, this actually happened. There was a Davidic dynasty in Jerusalem for 400 years. That came to an end in the 6th century BCE, when the Babylonian armies destroyed Jerusalem. They took the king off the throne.
Eventually, some Jewish thinkers came to think that God would yet again fulfill his promise to David and that there would be a future meshiach on the throne. This is where the idea of a coming messiah originated; a coming ruler of the Jews.
Common Questions about the Messiah of the Jews
Isaiah 53 is taken to be proof that the messiah had to suffer and die for the sake of others and then be raised from the dead.
Chapters 40 to 55 of Isaiah were written during the time of the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and taken its leaders and other important figures into exile into Babylon. The people of Judea had suffered. These chapters were written to provide them hope in the midst of their suffering.
The term messiah comes from the Hebrew word for ‘anointed one’. Meshiach used to refer to the person especially favored by God through whom he mediated his will. The Greek translation of the Hebrew term meshiach is Christos, from which we get the title Christ. So, Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word meshiach.
