Isaiah 53:3 - Rejected by his own Countrymen

 The claim is based on two verses from John. Here are the KJV versions:

 John 7:5 - "For neither did his brethren believe in him."

 John 7:48 - "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?"

Now, the claim is that this was a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:3. Here is the KJV version:

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

There are two problems with this association.

The first is the assumption that the Pharisees are the ones voicing their views, when we read later (verse 12) that the protagonist was one and the same with the pesha'im (Jews who ignored or rebelled against the prophets).

The second is that it's based on a very bad translation.

Here's mine:

"He was despised and abandoned by men, a man of pains who was no stranger to sickness; and like one who hides one's face from us, he was despised and worthless."

Here's the Dead Sea Scrolls version:

"He was despised and abandoned by men, and a man of pains who was no stranger to sickness; and like one who is caused to hide one's face from us, they were despised and worthless."

This one is interesting in that it makes the protagonist as representing the exiled Jews as a whole. But still, they are hiding their face, not the faces being hidden from them.

Finally, the Greek version, from "The Lexham English Septuagint":

"Instead his appearance was dishonored and was coming to an end among the sons of humans, a human who is in misfortune and knows how to bear sickness, for his face had been turned back; he was dishonored and not esteemed."

 So, the belief that Jesus being rejected by some in the Gospel stories was predicted in Isaiah 53:3 was a forced view dependent upon bad (or ideologically driven) translations.

We have seen this before. And we'll see it again.

Here's the meme used: