v. 1 · A claim scholars argue over
Yacov Rambsel (1996) and Grant Jeffrey (1996) claimed a cluster of "Yeshua" letter sequences in Isaiah 53, and Chuck Missler carries their work forward in Cosmic Codes (1999) as one strand of his integrated-design case for a supernaturally authored text. The exhibit sets that beside Thomas (1997) and Ingermanson (1999): a four-letter Hebrew string turns up densely at some skip in any long text, so on its own it carries no evidential weight. MannaFest documents the claim and honours the teachers who press it, and holds that the weight rests on what the chapter says in plain Hebrew, not on the letters counted out of it.
featured/bible-codes→Chuck Missler, Cosmic Codes: Hidden Messages from the Edge of Eternity (1999); David E. Thomas, Skeptical Inquirer 21(6) (1997); Randall Ingermanson, Who Wrote the Bible Code? (1999)
v. 1 · Quoted here
'Lord, who hath believed our report?' John, unbelief-fulfillment ('that the saying of Esaias might be fulfilled')
John 12:38→This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus
v. 3 · A picture of Christ
Despised and rejected by men
John 1:11→He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
MannaFest topical index
v. 3 · Written to them
Messiah acquainted with grief
topics/grief→MannaFest topical index
v. 4 · Prophecy and fulfillment · A picture of Christ · Quoted here
Matthew reads the Servant of Isaiah 53 as Jesus, quoting “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” over the healings at Capernaum (Matt 8:17, quoting Isa 53:4). One strand of ancient Jewish reading ran the same way: the Talmud (Sanhedrin 98b) gives the Messiah the name “the leprous one” from this very chapter.
Matthew 8:17→This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took on our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
quoted explicitly in the New Testament; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix IX (public domain)
v. 5 · A picture of Christ
The pierced Servant; Peter applies 'by his stripes ye were healed'; Calvin reads Isa 53 christologically
1 Peter 2:24→He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
Calvin, Comm. Isaiah (Pringle, CTS, PD)
v. 5 · Named here · Same theme · A picture of Christ
Isaiah 53:5: Suffering Servant anchor verse
person/isaiah→MannaFest topical index
v. 5 · A picture of Christ
Wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities
Romans 5:6→For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
MannaFest topical index
v. 6 · An echo of this verse
'All we like sheep have gone astray... returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls': near-verbatim, inside the 1 Pet 2:22-25 cluster
1 Peter 2:25→For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
1 Pet 2:25 reworking Isa 53:6; Laniak 2006
v. 6 · A picture of Christ
On the Day of Atonement the live goat carries “all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited” (Lev 16:21–22); Isaiah says “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6). The same sin-bearing verb carries both: nasaʾ, “to bear”: the goat “shall bear upon him all their iniquities” (Lev 16:22), and the Servant “hath borne our griefs” (Isa 53:4) and “bare the sin of many” (53:12). Isaiah adds a second verb of his own, sabal, “to carry as a load” (53:4, 11). The Epistle of Barnabas already reads the two goats of Leviticus 16 of Christ.
Leviticus 16:21→Then he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to put them on the…
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Then he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for the task.
thematic/lexical; Epistle of Barnabas 7 (PD)
v. 7 · Prophecy and fulfillment · The Greek Old Testament reads it this way
The Ethiopian official is reading Isaiah 53:7 aloud (“he was led as a sheep to the slaughter”) and asks Philip, “of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?” Philip answers by preaching Jesus from that verse (Acts 8:32–35). The question of the Servant's identity is put in the text itself, and answered there.
The Greek Old Testament reads it this way: Luke quotes the LXX verbatim including 'in his humiliation his judgment was taken away' (en te tapeinosei he krisis autou erthe): a distinctly LXX rendering of the Servant (LXX Isa 53:7-8 (Swete, PD); Act 8:32-33)
Acts 8:32→The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
quoted explicitly in the New Testament
v. 7 · A picture of Christ
As a lamb led to slaughter, He opened not His mouth
Matthew 27:12→And when He was accused by the chief priests and elders, He gave no answer.
MannaFest topical index
v. 9 · Quoted here · An echo of this verse
'Neither was guile found in his mouth' applies the Servant Song to the suffering Christ; scores on all seven Hays criteria
1 Peter 2:22→“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.”
public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus
v. 9 · A picture of Christ
His grave with the rich in His death
Matthew 27:57→When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself was a disciple of Jesus.
MannaFest topical index
v. 10 · The same word, traced through Scripture
H2233 zera' ('seed'): messianic seed-promise carried by one lemma from the protoevangelium through 'he shall see his seed' to Gal 3:16
Genesis 3:15→And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Gen 3:15; Isa 53:10
v. 10 · A picture carried by one word · An institution that pictures Christ
'Thou shalt make his soul an offering for guilt (asham)' uses the technical Levitical guilt-offering term: the Servant IS the reparation offering
Leviticus 5:15→“If someone acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against any of the LORD’s holy things, he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD: an unblemished ram from the flock, of proper value in silver shekels according to the sanctuary shekel;…
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“If someone acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against any of the LORD’s holy things, he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD: an unblemished ram from the flock, of proper value in silver shekels according to the sanctuary shekel; it is a guilt offering.
Hebrew asham (word:h817); Lev 5 asham statute
v. 12 · Quoted here
'He was reckoned among the transgressors': Jesus himself at the Last Supper ('this that is written must be accomplished in me')
Luke 22:37→For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.”
public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus
v. 12 · A picture of Christ
Numbered with the transgressors
Mark 15:28→And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
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