Isaiah 53:12 - Crucified with Thieves

Introduction

This blog post has a focus on a portion of Isaiah 53:12, and as a result, a lot of detail concerning this song is going to be omitted for the sake of brevity. When writing about Isaiah 53 in general, it took me 43 pages in MS-Word to describe the history and language to my satisfaction, and that won’t work in a short blog post. So, to be brief, let’s begin looking at Isaiah 53:12.

Quick Overview of Isaiah 53

The book of Isaiah is generally broken down into three sections, which we will call “Proto Isaiah”, “Deutero-Isaiah”, and “Trito-Isaiah”.

Isaiah 53 is near the end of “Deutero-Isaiah”, which consists of chapters 40-55. The entirety of Deutero-Isaiah covers the period when the Jewish people were in exile in Babylon, and will sometimes backward reference for the reason for that exile. Chapter 53 is in the style of a Biblical song, a narrative with rhyme, metaphor, and cadence, and, being near the end of Deutero-Isaiah is recapping what came before and celebrating the end of the exile.

There is a general theme that runs through many of the books of the prophets and writings (referred to as “Nach”) which is that the Jews got what they deserved, and that their exile to Babylon will have a fixed duration, that God (or His servant leading an army) will wipe out Babylon, killing all of the evil people and the wealthy, turn Babylon into a wasteland, and the Jews will gather up the booty from the dead rich Babylonians and rush to Jerusalem where they will return to God (literally and metaphorically), and a return to glory.

And chapter 53, being close to the end of that timeline celebrates the end, and so I call it Isaiah’s “Song of Salvation”, where “salvation” means the redemption from forced exile.

There are, generally, two ways that this song is read. The first, as I stated, was it being messianic in the way that there will be freedom and a reestablishment of Jewish dominance in the land. The other way, which is how Christians hold it, is that it’s messiah-centric, and that it’s not about how the Jews suffered, but how the messiah, many centuries after the fall of Babylon, would suffer.

And that brings us to the last verse in what is near the end of the Babylonian period narrative texts, which Christians see as referring to Jesus’ last day on earth, as they do with most of Isaiah 53, which requires some interesting mental gymnastics in order to make that work.

The Claim

There is one claim that says that Matthew 27:38, a verse that describes Jesus being crucified between two thieves, fulfills a prophecy in Isaiah 53:12.

Here is Matthew 27:38 (KJV):

“Then there were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and the other on the left.”

It should be noted that Isaiah 53:12 does not contain the words “two”, “thieves”, “crucified”, “right hand”, or “left hand”. There is a mention of a number of “transgressors” and that the protagonist was counted as one of them, and everyone who suffered deserved what they got, but now, at the end of this song, they would receive financial restitution.

As we have already seen in the many posts that I have already written about the subject, in order to get a prophecy to “work”, the verse being assigned as a “fulfillment” is typically chopped up with some of it ignored entirely, especially when it is contrary to the claim. In this case, selecting 3 Hebrew words out of a verse composed of 22 words to make a case for a “fulfillment”.

The prior verse ended with acknowledging that the protagonist suffered at the hands of his tormentors, which leads us into verse 12. I will use the KJV translation for now and will emphasize wit bold what was translated from the three Hebrew words. I will also italicize to portion often ignored:

               Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great,
               and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;

               because…

                              he hath poured out his soul unto death;
                              and he was numbered with the transgressors;
                              and he bare the sin of the many,
                              and made intercession for the transgressors.

The verse is broken in half, where the first half is “here is your reward” followed by the second half which is “this is why you are being rewarded”.

It should be noted that there is no “intercession” in the actual Hebrew, which I will address in another post dealing with that claim.

If you look in the italicized portion, you will see the KJV used “spoil”. The Hebrew is שלל, which means the “booty” or “plunder” taken, usually in a military operation. Remember, this is YHVH talking and in a present tense speaking of what he is going to do, which is to take the plunder from the killing of the wealthy and defeating of the people that we read in verse 53:9 “And he cast the evil-doers and the wealthy into his grave with all of its dead ones…”. And while Christian translations have the protagonist being killed instead, it’s clear that YHVH is talking to a live protagonist and promising him and his people their share in the booty that was looted several verses earlier. It certainly isn’t speaking about a dead messiah who will one day come back and then get his share in the booty from the Babylonians.

Now what about the bold type 3-word segment?

Being Numbered

The Hebrew word נמנה means to belong to, to be part of, to be one of a collective. In other words, rather than “he was numbered with the transgressors”, a better reading would be “he was one of the transgressors.” Don’t read this as if he was an innocent and was literally “hanging” out with criminals, but that he acted and was treated as one because he was one.

Transgressors

We don’t know how many transgressors are being referred to here. With a Babylonian timeline, we are talking about all of the Israelites in exile, so many thousands, who, according to the prophets, deserved their fate for their crime of lacking faith and disobedience.

This seems to be supported by the view of the scribe of the DSS version of the text who speaks of “her transgressors”, rather than just “transgressors”, where “her” is often used to refer to Jerusalem and Israel as a whole.

But what were these transgressors?

The Hebrew word used is “פשע” (“pesha” - the singular form), or “פשעים” (“pesha’im” - the plural form).  The prophets use this term of a personal condemnation of the Jews who were being disobedient them, and therefore, by extension, to YHVH. In Isaiah, as we will see below, when it is speaking of people, it only refers to the exiled Israelites as a whole. When it is speaking of actions, it is referring to the rebellious actions of the Jewish people, of disobeying the prophet. And when one goes against a prophet, on goes against YHVH.

Turning away from pesha is to obey the prophet. Being cast out because of your pesha is to ignore the prophet. And YHVH wiping away one’s pesha with is a statement of being forgiven through the prophet. So, translating pesha as a sin as if it is the same as a cheit is inadequate to the task. Therw is always a disobedience and rebellion against a prophet being referred to, and YHVH always takes that personally.

We see this throughout Isaiah as in:

1:2 – “…they [Israel] have pesha (פשע) against Me!”
1:28 – “But the pesha’mi and the sinners shall be crushed…”
24:20 – “…her pesha shall weigh her down…”
43:25 – “But it is I, I, for My own sake, wipe away your pesha’im…
43:27 – “Your first patriarchs sinned against Me, and your advocates pesha against me.”
44:22 –“I wipe away you peshaim like a cloud…”
46:8 – “Keep this in mind and stand firm, take this to heart you pesha’im.”
48:8 – “…you were called a pesha while in the womb.”
50:1 – “…for your pesha I have sold you off…”
53:5 – “But he was harmed because of our pesha…”
53:12 “…and he was one of the pesha’im (disobedient)…
53:12 – “…and it was due to pesha’im he was harmed.”
53:8 – “…through the pesha of my people he was afflicted.”
59:20 – “[YHVH] will come as the redeemer to Zion, to those in Jacob who torn away from pesha.”
57:4 – “…you are children of a pesha, the seed of a lie.”
58:1 “…declare to My people their pesha”
59:12 – “For you many pesha’im are before you…we know well your pesha’im.”
59:13 – “pesha and faithlessness in YHVH and turning away from our God…”
66:24 – “They shall go out and gaze upon the corpses of those who rebelled (pesha) against Me…”

Summary

Isaiah 53:12 does not say that the messiah will be hung between two thieves, one to his left, and one to his right. In fact, it doesn’t mention thievery, but the Jews as a who were in rebellion against YHVH, through not obeying His prophets, which is why they were exiled to Babylon in the first place. It doesn’t speak of a pair of thieves, since a thievery is a cheit, not a pesha. And pesha in Isaiah never is talking about two, but a very large amount, whether it is singular or plural. (Note: the style of Isaiah is to often use singular where it means plural and plural where it means singular. It’s the style of the text.)

Also, this verse begins by the Prophet promising that YHVH is going to give the loot, the booty that the wealthy ones who were killed in the defeating of Babylon in verse 9. So obviously he didn’t die on a cross between two thieves. In fact, the protagonist is reminded that he too is one of the pesha’im who deserved what he got for not listening to the prophets, but since he endured his punishment without complaint, he will benefit.

Here is the meme used: