Yeshua as the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53

Although early historians and Church Fathers acknowledged Yeshua’s lack of comeliness, in keeping with the words of Isaiah 53, the institution of the Church slowly but surely refashioned Him into a majestic symbol of Divinity worthy of veneration. He was portrayed as well-proportioned and handsome, on a par with the classical gods of the ancient world.

Isaiah did not paint such a picture… His prophecy rendered the suffering servant as having “no form or beauty that we should look at him: no charm that we should find him pleasing. He was despised, shunned by men, a man of suffering, familiar with disease.”

Christians generally accept Isaiah 53 as a portrayal of Yeshua, but only in terms of the crucifixion… The words of this prophet, accurately translated, do not allow for this, however. The sufferings of the servant described in Isaiah were borne from cradle to grave… The implications of this -- for all who accept mainline Christian doctrine with its Romanized aesthetics -- are shocking at first, but upon deliberation take on great poignancy and pathos…

He was despised, shunned by men,

A man of suffering, familiar with disease.

As one who hid his face from us,

He was despised, we held him of no account.

Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing,

Our suffering that He endured.

We accounted him plagued,

Smitten and afflicted by God;

But He was wounded because of our sins,

Crushed because of our iniquities.

He bore the chastisement that made us whole,

And by his bruises we are healed.

We all went astray like sheep,

Each going his own way;

And the Lord visited upon him

The guilt of all of us.  (Isaiah 53)

Several extra-biblical historians of that period affirm that Yeshua was short and hunched. Thus if the Isaiah text does, indeed, describe Yeshua, we have to entertain the notion that He was unattractive, weak and sickly; indeed, perhaps so disturbing to behold, that people turned their faces from Him, considering Him ‘afflicted and stricken’ by God.

v  Tertullian records that Yeshua’s outward form was despised, that he had an ignoble appearance and the slander he suffered proved the 'abject condition' of his body.

v  Irenaeus described him as inglorious and weak.

v  The Acts of Peter record that, to the ignorant, Yeshua was small and ugly.

v  In The Acts of John, Yeshua is portrayed as bald and small; entirely lacking in good looks.

v  According to Andrew of Crete, his body was bent, even crooked.

v  Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote that Yeshua had a long face, connected eyebrows, goodly eyes; and that he was crooked and ‘well-grown’.

v  In a letter to The Emperor Theodosius I ~ who in 392 AD declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire ~ certain bishops noted Yeshua’s height as a mere three cubits; approximately four feet six inches.

v  This perception was also expressed by Ephrem Syrus (320-379 AD) in the words: “God took human form and appearance in the form of three human ells (cubits); he came down to us small of stature.”

v  Theodore of Mopsuhestia stated that the Messiah was smaller than the children of Jacob (Israel).

v  The early Church Fathers ~ Tertullian, Justin Martyr and Ambrose ~ all considered Yeshua’s lack of physical appeal as a fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning ‘The Suffering Servant’ of Isaiah 53.

The traditional aesthetic familiar to the Jews was, and still is, totally antithetical to the classical aesthetic of Ancient Greece and Rome. Outward attractiveness has always been irrelevant in the Hebraic world; it is a person’s unseen connection to HaShem that is the measure of real worth. Hence the ‘Tzaddikim’ (the Righteous Ones) of Israel have typically been frail in body but mighty in Spirit. To Jews, the concept of a tzaddik as a handsome Greek Adonis, in the style of Michelangelo’s Christ of The Last Judgement, is ludicrous. Isaiah’s suffering servant narrative is thus absolutely in keeping with Jewish aesthetics regarding holy personages.

The most important implication regarding this matter is that if Isaiah 53 does, indeed, represent Yeshua, He not only suffered on the cross of Golgotha, but throughout His life… In accordance with the prophet’s description, He carried our transgressions and infirmities in His body each and every day; that is, He was crushed by the weight of our iniquities and infirmities for over thirty years... His small naked body spread-eagled on a wooden cross, for all to see, under the stingingly mocking sign “Yeshua the Notzri, King of the Yehudim/Judeans”, represents the final humiliation and agony of a life-time of hardship…

Yeshua’s appearance is not described in the Gospels, but there are some allusions to this. In Luke are words of Yeshua discerning the thoughts of His countrymen, “Healer, heal yourself!” (4:23) This obviously implies that He could heal others, but He Himself had to live within a sickly body. In another (most ambiguous) Luke text (19:3) it is not clear whether the person who is “of small stature” was Zacchaeus or Yeshua… “He tried to see who Yeshua was, but he could not on account of the people because he was of lowly [small] stature.” It is also recorded that on several occasions Yeshua "disappeared into the crowd"; this would surely have been possible only for a man who was shorter than those around him. 

It must also be noted that on Palm Sunday Yeshua rode on a small animal, a donkey’s colt; and this would only have been possible for one who was, Himself, small of stature. We are also told that He taught from a fishing boat pushed out into the water; possibly so that all on the shore could see and hear Him. And when He sat down to teach, He often did so on hillsides -- possibly in order to be seen and heard by all.

Another instance is suggested in Yeshua’s visit to Sychar (Shechem in Samaria). He rested at the well while His talmidim went into the town to buy food. On their return, He refused to eat. Apparently as concerned disciples urging their frail teacher to eat in order to regain His strength, His talmidim responded “Please eat, my Master!” (John 4:31) We might also remember their protectiveness towards Him as the crowds pressed in… and Yeshua’s frequent need to escape the crowds He attracted… not only to isolate Himself in order to pray, but to regain His strength?

The Jewish aesthetic differs from that of the classical world in another respect; the former emerges from an oral, not visual, tradition. Jewish emphasis has always been on the audio, the aural, the spoken word; audio memorisation skills are taught from an early age. Additionally, in accordance with the second commandment’s prohibitions concerning idolatry, when images are created by Jews, they are heavily stylized or symbolic.

In the ancient Greco-Roman world, on the other hand, man was the measure of all things and the naturalistic portrayal of the visible was all important. Consequently, the outward appearance of key personages was proudly captured in ‘photographic’ detail in portrait busts and in frescoes. To this day we are well aware of what the ancient Roman emperors looked like, and a telling visual record of the Jewish Revolt of 66 – 73 CE exists on the Arch of Titus in Rome (dated 81 CE). Nobility and power were ‘carved in stone’. Yeshua had a far greater impact on history than any Roman emperor but, because He was a Jew, it was His words and deeds that were recorded, not His outward physical appearance… Our only solid resources in this regard are the extra-biblical texts.

Yeshua’s teachings and deeds are undisputedly of primary importance, yet if the concept of Him as the Messiah who suffered throughout His life is not grasped, His incarnation loses much of its poignancy. Indeed, the more one embraces the image of Yeshua as described in extra-biblical sources, the more it seems that God’s Son had, of necessity, to manifest in this way...

We cannot presume to comprehend the ways of the Divine, but it is possible that it was through the Son’s suffering in this harsh unpredictable earthly realm that HaShem was, Himself, transformed. Did Yeshua’s Incarnation not redefine the relationship between the Almighty and His people, by engendering empathy with the plight and pathos of humanity? Did the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not speak in more dulcet tones to His Beloved after the incarnation of His Son?

Let us not forget that Yeshua’s closest friends failed to recognise Him after His resurrection; implying that in the tomb His frail earthly body was transformed and that the suffering servant physique of Isaiah 53 was no more... What did the risen Messiah look like? Possibly only those who have seen Him in visions or dreams have some idea… and by all of these accounts, Yeshua is majestic in form.

Finally, the voice of the rabbis must also be heard with regard to the identity of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. For them, the image represents those who were specially chosen as God’s ‘Or L’Goyim’ or ‘Light to the Nations’... Based on the frequent persecution of the Jews throughout history, the rabbis understand the Jews to be the suffering servant; a people of vicarious suffering in this earthly realm…