By Bob Barney
Today, most synagogues and Jewish rabbis do not read much from Isaiah 53. The reasoning for this will become obvious. It is not just the mainstream Christian Churches that have lied about what is in scripture; The Rabbinic Jewish traditions have done the same thing as the Catholic and Protestant churches. Most Jews are totally unaware that they are not following biblical Judaism. They think they are, because they have been kept in the dark, just as much as most Christians have been. There leaders have been lying to them. After the crucifixion of Jesus, and the beginning of early Christianity (which in my perspective is nothing more than the original Judaism and the church founded by Moses!) the Jewish leaders began to change their religion in an attempt to circumnavigate the spread of Christianity among the Jewish population. Biblical Judaism was replaced by Rabbinic Judaism. That's a nice way of saying that Moses' religion was replaced by that of the Pharisees! You know, the nice guys that killed Christ and every other person they disagreed with!
Rabbinic leaders of the second, third and fourth centuries (AD) began a program to cleanse the scripture of its Christian roots. Remember this rule----- JEWS CANNOT CHANGE SCRIPTURE! They cannot alter the Hebrew words of the Tanakh (our Old Testament), so they had to come up with alternate scripture! They call this scripture, the Talmud. From Wikipedia:
The Talmud (Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד talmūd "instruction, learning", from a root lmd "teach, study") is a central text of mainstream Judaism, in the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history.
The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law; and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh.
The terms Talmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably. The Gemara is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much quoted in other rabbinic literature. The whole Talmud is also traditionally referred to as Shas (ש"ס), a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the "six orders" of the Mishnah.
So modern day Judaism has done to the Jewish religion what the Catholics and Protestants have done to the Christian religion. In short, they have successfully altered the true meaning of scripture with man's traditions! (Matthew 15:3) The following is MY translation of Isaiah 53. Feel free to compare my translation to that of the KJV or the Tanakh. I think you will like mine better (easier to understand) yet not altered in anyway from the true meaning from God. Read this chapter with my notes and see why modern day Judaism has changed!
Isaiah 53 (My Version)
THE SUFFERING CHRIST:
1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD (Yahweh; who is Jesus)'s power been revealed?
The answer to this is Christians. JOHN 12:38 Romans 10:16
Yahweh translated LORD is the personal name of the God who was speaking to Moses. In fact, Yahweh (Jesus) is the only member of the Godhead who has EVER spoken to a human! God, the Father has NEVER spoken to any man! No man has ever seen Him! Yahweh simply means means, “I AM who I AM” Compare Exodus 3:13-14) with John 8:57-59!
2 He grew up in his presence like a tender green shoot, sprouting from a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.
Jesus was ordinary looking! In fact, people could not pick him out in a crowd. Even though he taught everyday in the Temple, the High Priest needed Judas to point Jesus out to the soldiers! He was that ordinary looking!
3 He was despised and rejected. A man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. He was despised like one from whom people turn their faces, and we didn't consider Him to be worth anything.
Jews today, claim their Messiah would come as a king. However this scripture proves them wrong! Their messiah was to come in the same way Jesus did! Matthew 27:30 Hebrews 4:15 John 1:10
4 He certainly has taken upon himself our suffering and carried our sorrows, but we thought that the Godhead (Elohim/Theos) had wounded Him, beat Him, and punished Him.
The Jews believed him to be a sinner, beat him and killed him. Matthew 8:17 1 Peter 2:24
Elohim is the Uni-plural Hebrew word for God. The form implies more than one! If God were singular, the word would be the Hebrew Eloi (singular). This is why, in Genesis, God (Elohim) says “Let us make man in OUR own image, after OUR own likeness! God, in the Hebrew is plural. God didn’t say “Let ME make man,” instead God used OUR, or the plural form!
literally, "But yet He hath taken (or borne) our sicknesses," that is, they who despised Him because of His human infirmities ought rather to have esteemed Him on account of them; for thereby "Himself took OUR infirmities" (bodily diseases). So Matthew 8:17 quotes it. In the Hebrew for "borne," or took, there is probably the double notion, He took on Himself vicariously (so Isaiah 53:5 Isaiah 53:6 Isaiah 53:8 Isaiah 53:12 ), and so He took away; His perfect humanity whereby He was bodily afflicted for us, and in all our afflictions ( Isaiah 63:9 , Hebrews 4:15 ) was the ground on which He cured the sick; so that Matthew's quotation is not a mere accommodation. See Note 42 of ARCHBISHOP MAGEE, Atonement. The Hebrew there may mean to overwhelm with darkness; Messiah's time of darkness was temporary ( Matthew 27:45 ), answering to the bruising of His heel; Satan's is to be eternal, answering to the bruising of his head (compare Isaiah 50:10 ).
carried . . . sorrows--The notion of substitution strictly. "Carried," namely, as a burden. "Sorrows," that is, pains of the mind; as "griefs" refer to pains of the body ( Psalms 32:10 , 38:17 ). Matthew 8:17 might seem to oppose this: "And bare our sicknesses." But he uses "sicknesses" figuratively for sins, the cause of them. Christ took on Himself all man's "infirmities;" so as to remove them; the bodily by direct miracle, grounded on His participation in human infirmities; those of the soul by His vicarious suffering, which did away with the source of both. Sin and sickness are ethically connected as cause and effect ( Isaiah 33:24 , Psalms 103:3 , Matthew 9:2 , John 5:14 , 5:15 ). (Jamieson)
5 He was pierced for our lawlessness. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so that we could have peace. He was whipped, and {by His wounds} we were healed!
He was killed because of sin. Sin is the breaking of the Law! Christ did not come to take away the Law, but to take away the punishment for breaking the Law. The Law is still in force and always be – we are freed from the PENALTY of sin. Romans 4:25 1 Peter 2:24
-a bodily wound; not mere mental sorrow; literally, "pierced" as I used here; minutely appropriate to Messiah, whose hands, feet, and side were pierced ( Psalms 22:16 ). The Margin, wrongly, from a Hebrew root, translates, "tormented."
The “pierced” is an obvious reference to this: Jhn 19:34
6 We have all strayed like sheep. Each one of us has turned to go his own way, and the LORD(Jesus) has laid all our sins on Himself.
We are all sinners (1 John). In fact, if we say we have no sin, we are liars and the truth is not in us! Why is there suffering today? This is the answer. We have all gone our own way, a way opposite of God's Way (HIS LAW). And death and sorrow is our reward! Christ came to pay off this debt-with His blood.
7 He was abused and punished, yet He never said a word! He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He was like a sheep that is silent when its wool is cut off.
He is our Passover lamb! John 19:9
8 He was arrested, taken away, and judged. Who would have thought that He would be removed from the world? He was killed because of my people's sins.
Matthew 27:11-25 removed from the world-- He is in Heaven
9 He was laid in a tomb like a criminal. He was put there with the rich when He died, although He had done nothing violent and had never spoken a lie.
Christ fulfilled this by dying (by crucifying Him with two thieves, Matthew 27:38 ) and being buried in a rich man's unused tomb; his uncle two rich men honored Him at His death, Joseph of Arimathæa. Christ never lied, only truth was in Him. The Devil is a liar and no truth is in him.
10Yet it pleased the LORD(Jesus) to punish Himself with suffering. “When YOU {God the father} make His life a sacrifice for our wrongdoings, He will have a multitude of children, many heirs. The will of the LORD(Jesus) will succeed through Himself.”
They were voluntarily borne by Messiah, in order that thereby He might "do Jehovah's will" ( John 6:38 , Hebrews 10:7 Hebrews 10:9 ), as to man's redemption; so at the end of the verse, "the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand."
The Margin rightly makes the prophet in the name of Yahweh Himself to speak in this verse.
11When I see all that is accomplished by His anguish, I will be satisfied. And because of what I have experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for I will bear all your sins.
Yahweh is still speaking according to Jamieson. my . . . servant--Messiah ( Isaiah 42:1 , 52:13 ).
12So I will give Him a share among the mighty, and He will divide the prize with the strong, because I poured out My life(soul-nephesh) in death and was counted with the sinners. I carried the sins of many. I intercede for those who are lawless {sinners}.
IN DEATH-- Jesus died, just as we do. His soul DIED! The word here in Hebrew is nephesh, translated “soul” by the KJV. The same word used in Genesis chapter 1 “and man became a living soul-nephesh. The best translation for nephesh is a living being- and when speaking of death, the best translation is dead being, or as I translated this here “his life in death.” If not for the power of the FATHER and the resurrection, Christ would still be in the grave awaiting the resuurection of the dead. We see later that ONLY Christ, thus far, has been “born again,” or resurrected from the dead. All of the rest of mankind are still in their graves sleeping! See 1 Corinthians 15.
Isaiah 53 plainly speaks of the suffering Messiah – and only Jesus Christ fulfilled this prophecy- HE IS OUR LORD and SAVIOR. He is our God! Nothing less, but a lot more than we can imagine
End
So, as anyone with an eye and a mind can simply see and understand, it isn't only the Christians that have perverted the scriptures, the Jewish leaders have done the same thing! The have hidden The Real Jesus from us. Isn't about time you look for yourself?
We recommend “Shocked By the Bible” to help even the most noviced person out there to simply understand a simple message--- Just read the words!