Isaiah 53:4

Hebrew Bible

3 He was despised and rejected by people, one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness; people hid their faces from him; he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. 4 But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. 5 He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed. 6 All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him.

Matthew 8:17

New Testament

15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve them. 16 When it was evening, many demon-possessed people were brought to him. He drove out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick. 17 In this way what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled: “He took our weaknesses and carried our diseases. 18 Now when Jesus saw a large crowd around him, he gave orders to go to the other side of the lake. 19 Then an expert in the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

 Notes and References

"... The references to what is usually called the Servant Song are absent from the earliest strata of the New Testament. It can thus be argued that the initial notion of Jesus’ beneficiary death—to the extent that it was linked to Jesus’ own views—seems not to have derived from Isaiah 53. For this investigation, which focuses not on the “earliest strata” but rather on the attitude characteristic of Luke/Acts, it is important that there are only scanty references to Isaiah 53 elsewhere in the Gospels—and not necessarily with an eye to the vicarious aspect of suffering! A brief review of relevant passages in the Gospels outside Luke will help to achieve a better appreciation of the latter’s contribution. First, a passage from Matthew 8:17 represents an instructive case of restricting the exegetical potential of the Servant Song to providing a justification for Jesus’ healing activities—in contradiction or at best only in anticipation of its function as a biblical proof text for the salvific meaning of the cross ..."

Ruzer, Serge Mapping the New Testament: Early Christian Writings as a Witness for Jewish Biblical Exegesis (p. 207) Brill, 2007

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