Was the Lord pleased to crush Jesus? Greek translation of Isaiah 53:10

Isaiah 53 is a famous Messianic prophecy of Christ in the Bible, hundreds of years before Christ was born His death and the  meaning of what His death accomplished is taught in this chapter.

Yet someone said the following:

God didn’t crush His own Son. At least that’s not whats found in the Septuagint of Isaiah 53:10, which is what the Apostles used.

Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

This individual also said this:

The Apostles couldn’t have used the masoretic text because it didn’t exist yet.

The Masoretic text refers to the Hebrew medieval manuscripts of the Old Testament.

Before answering here’s what the New American Standard Bible says for Isaiah 53:10=

But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

I think the phrase “the Lord was pleased To crush Him” is part of what Isaiah 53:10 contrary to what the person said in his comment.  Here’s my response:

 

1. Remember the Old Testament including the book of Isaiah was originally written in Hebrew.  Long before the existence of the Masoretic texts the Hebrew Old Testament was already existing and being used.
2. The Greek translation of the Old Testament came about during the period between the Old and New Testament; but it is not the original language of the Old Testament and is itself a translation of the Hebrew.  Don’t forget that.
3. For the Greek translation of the phrase “But the Lord was pleased To crush Him” it is καὶ κύριος βούλεται καθαρίσαι αὐτὸν.  I translate that as “And the Lord wish to cleanse Him.”  (You can see a transliteration of Isaiah 53 here). Instead of the verb “crushed” the Greek translation uses the verb καθαρίσαι which is grammatically an infinitive Aorist active of καθαρίζω that has the meaning of ceremonial cleansing.
4. While in what follows below I will be dealing with the Hebrew, Greek and textual criticism I want to say a plain reading of the English text of the context of the chapter of Isaiah 53 reveals the guy’s objection already has a problem.  In Isaiah 53:5 the passage states “He was crushed for our iniquities.”  The Hebrew verb for “crushed” is דּכא.  This is the same verb for “crush” in Isaiah 53:10.  Even the Greek Septuagint translated Isaiah 53:5 as “crushed” so there’s no denying that it isn’t there.  Of course all the actions of the Messiah’s suffering mentioned in Isaiah 53 is the work of the Messiah that God wanted; we know this because of the end of Isaiah 53:10 which states “the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand” and verse 12 talks about God rewarding the Messiah.  That is because the Messiah is following the plan of God the Father laid out in this chapter of how God will save man from their sins. Don’t miss the fact that the verb “crushed” is in the Pual stem, indicating it is a passive and likely a divine passive (God is doing it).   So looking at it contextually we see the guy is wrong to assert “God didn’t crush His own Son.”
5. Going back to Isaiah 53:10 I would be cautious with thinking that the verb καθαρίζω must necessarily be fully contradictory with the Lord crushing the Messiah Jesus.  Again καθαρίζω is tied with the context of sacrifice, see here.  Christ’s death of course by being crushed was done as a sacrifice for our sins, to save us from our sins.  So both have sacrifical dimension with His act.
6. One must realize that the reason why the New Testament at times quote from the Septuagint is because readers of the New Testament would be more familiar with the Greek translation of the Old Testament hence we shouldn’t be surprised with its usage in the New Testament.
7. While the Greek Septuagint is used by the New Testament it does not mean it is “better” than the Hebrew text of Scripture.  In fact examination of the Septuagint shows very clearly that many times it patterns itself after the Hebrew text (and something similar to what we see in the Masoretic texts).  We know this because verses in the Septuagint mimics the Hebrew syntax contrary to traditional Greek syntax.  For instance in Isaiah 53:5 in the Septuagint it says in the Greek τῷ μώλωπι αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς ἰάθημεν which is translated as “by His wound we are healed.”  Note the indirect object “By His wound” (τῷ μώλωπι) appears first even though typically indirect object follows the subject and verb.  This syntax is mimicking what is seen in the Hebrew text of Isaiah 53:5= ‎וּבַחֲבֻרָת֖וֹ נִרְפָּא־לָֽנוּ׃ which is translated as “by His wound He heal for us” with the phrase “by His wound” (‎וּבַחֲבֻרָת֖וֹ) appearing before the verb.  This should make us strive to find out what the Hebrew passage says and not just rest with the Greek translation as final.
8. Also while the Greek Septuagint is used by the New Testament this does not mean the New Testament writers and the Apostles only used the Greek Septuagint, or used the Septuagint rigidly and uncritically (though they do have a high view of the Old Testament as Scripture and God’s Word).  The Septuagint is a translation but there are many instances in the New Testament the writers have their own Greek translation that isn’t from the Septuagint either.  For instance 1 Peter 2:24 quotes Isaiah 53:5 and says “οὗ τῷ μώλωπι ἰάθητε” which translated is “whom his wound you are healed.”  The meaning is the same as the Septuagint and the Hebrew Masoertic texts.  But the wording is not the same as the Septuagint (use of the relative pronoun οὗ, etc).  So the guy’s thesis about the Septuagint being the Bible of the Apostles should be taken with a grain of salt; and even if the Apostles did use the Septuagint it does not mean it supersede the Hebrew text of the Old Testament.
9. The guy dismisses the Masoretic text of Isaiah 53:10 saying “the Lord was pleased To crush Him” by saying this appear in the Mideval age while the older Greek Septuagint does not mentioned that phrase.  But the guy seems to be unaware that we have older Hebrew manuscripts of Isaiah 53:10 than the Masoertic texts.  We have the Dead Sea Scrolls of the book of Isaiah.   The scroll 1QIsa does have “the Lord was pleased To crush Him” in Isaiah 53:10.  You can verify that here and here.  The Dead Sea Scroll is a powerful evidence for the reading “the Lord was pleased To crush Him.“
10. One of the rule of  textual criticism is the harder “reading” is the preferred reading.  Certainly for the scribes translating Isaiah 53:10 it is easy for the Jews to have a hard time of the Messiah being crushed by the Lord and the Lord be pleased with it.  The tendency might be to soften it by inserting the Greek translation of the verb “cleanse.”  Even on the basis of the canon of textual criticism there is not a strong textual critical basis for the guy here to say Isaiah 53:10 shouldn’t read “the Lord was pleased To crush Him.“

The fact that God the Father crushed the Messiah to save us from our sins should make us love Christ and God more.  Oh how precious is the Gospel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/qumran/isaiah-53-qumran.pdf