Was Isaiah 53 Forbidden?
Spend enough time searching biblical topics on the internet, and a certain conspiracy theory is bound to show up. According to many online sources, Isaiah 53—the famous chapter about the despised and rejected “servant of the Lord”—was forbidden from being read in synagogues because its content is too close to Jesus’s experience as a suffering Messiah. Supposedly, the rabbis after Jesus suppressed the public reading of this chapter to avoid the promotion of (or conversion to) Christianity. However, the notion that Isaiah 53 was purposefully censored within Jewish tradition is demonstrably false.
Isaiah 53 has been a focal point in Jewish-Christian debate for centuries, and that many people have been compelled to adopt faith in Jesus after reading the chapter. This is understandable! The text speaks of an enigmatic “servant of the Lord” who, according to Isa 53:5, was “pierced for our transgressions” (וְהוּא מְחֹלָל מִפְּשָׁעֵנוּ; ve’hu meholal mipshaenu) “and by his wounds we are healed” (וּבַחֲבֻרָתוֹ נִרְפָּא־לָנוּ; u’vahavurato nirpa-lanu). The following verse says that though “all of us, like sheep, have gone astray… the Lord visited upon him the iniquity of all of us” (Isa 53:6). The earliest followers of Jesus made explicit use of these words with application to Yeshua. The letter of 1 Peter says that Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the tree [and]… by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your lives” (1 Pet 2:24-25).
Since Isaiah 53 does not feature in the weekly readings of the Prophets throughout the Jewish liturgical year—called the Haftarah (הפטרה) readings—many websites claim that Judaism purposefully repressed the chapter to avoid confronting the Christian message. Yet, even a cursory exploration of rabbinic literature shows that the rabbis were not shy about discussing Isaiah 53—and they even did so with reference to a suffering Messiah. The Babylonian Talmud states, “The Rabbis say, ‘The Leper of the House of Rabbi’ will be [the Messiah’s] name, as it is stated, ‘Indeed, our illnesses he did bear and our pains he endured; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted’ [Isaiah 53:4].” (b. Sanhedrin 98b). Rabbinic commentary on Ruth 2:14 reads, “The fifth interpretation [of this verse] refers to the Messiah… and ‘dip your morsel into the wine’ refers to suffering: ‘He was pierced for our transgressions’ (וְהוּא מְחֹלָל מִפְּשָׁעֵנוּ) [Isaiah 53:5]” (Ruth Rabbah 11:5). Clearly, Jewish tradition has no qualms about publicizing Isaiah 53 or interpreting it in much the same way that the early Jesus movement did. Internet conspiracy theories drive an unnecessary and unfortunate wedge between Jews and Christians, but the variety of ancient Jewish groups—whether the classical rabbis or the earliest followers of Jesus—reflect shared approaches to Scripture and even similar interpretations of Isaiah 53.
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