The Old Testament writers did not stop there. They went on to show exact ways in which the Messiah would be hurt. Here are a few, linked with passages in the New Testament:
- A close friend would turn against Him, betraying Him to His enemies (Psalm 41:9; Luke 22:47-48).
- The price to be paid for this betrayal was thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13; Matthew 26:14-15).
- His own followers would scatter, leaving Him alone (Zechariah 13:7; Mark 14:49-50).
- People would strike Him and spit on Him (Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67).
- While treated in the most shameful way, He would endure it in silence (Isaiah 53:7; Mark 14:61; 15:5).
- He would be falsely judged and punished with criminals (Psalm 35:19; Isaiah 53:8, 12; John 19:18, 37; 20:27).
- He would be pierced, even in His hands and feet. (Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; John 19:18,37; 20:27).
- Those who pierced Him would also gamble for His clothes (Psalm 22:18; John 19:23-24).
- He would be killed – “cut off out of the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8; John 19:25-37).
- His death would be the “offering for guilt” for removing the sins of us all (Isaiah 53:10-12; 1 Peter 2:24).
Old Testament laws allowed only animals to be used as an “offering for guilt.” Isaiah wrote in about 700 B.C., and he followed that law. How then could Isaiah speak of this Human as the “offering for guilt”? Isaiah 53 said other surprising things. It showed that after His suffering He would have great joy as a result of that suffering. It showed that after His death He would again “see and be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10-11).
Some might ask, “Did Christians later write into Isaiah 53 their own ideas about the Christ?” No, this did not come from Christians. This is a fact: All the Old Testament was translated into the Greek language in about 250 B.C. People in many lands were reading Isaiah 53 long before Jesus’ birth.
The oldest known Hebrew copy of Isaiah is one of the “Dead Sea Scrolls.” It was found in 1947 at Qumran near the Dead Sea, and has been kept in Jerusalem. Scientists have studied this Isaiah scroll. They know this scroll was written over 100 years before the coming of Jesus. But this very ancient Isaiah scroll says the same thing in Isaiah 53 as your Bible says today. There is no doubt at all: Isaiah’s description of One dying for the sins of others, and then living again, was written long before Christianity began.