Fathers

Isaiah 53

Tap a verse to read the Fathers. Press and hold, then drag, to make a card.

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 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. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I 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 many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

About · Privacy · Credits · Support VRSZ

What the Fathers say

Isaiah 53:3

Eastern Fathers

Athanasius of Alexandria

Nor is even his death passed over in silence: on the contrary, it is referred to in the divine Scriptures, even exceedingly clearly.… He suffers it not for his own sake but for the immortality and salvation of all, and the counsels of the Jews against him and the indignities offered him at their hands.… O marvel at the loving-kindness of the Word, that for our sakes he is dishonored, that we may be brought to honor.

On the Incarnation of the Word 34:1-2 ↗

Cyril of Alexandria

One of the holy Evangelists said that when our Lord's time of suffering drew near, he began to weep and grew sad. Yet by nature he was the only-begotten Word of the Father, being immune from sufferings and grief and the like. Nevertheless, he accommodated himself to our nature and showed himself empty of all [his divine qualities] in the face of the anxiety of the threatening onslaught of his trials. …

Commentary On Isaiah 5:1.53:3 ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Christ's deformity is what gives form to you. If he had been unwilling to be deformed, you would never have got back the form you lost. So he hung on the cross, deformed; but his deformity was our beauty.

Sermon 27:6 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Second, his humility is shown as to the exposing of his infirmity: that we should be desirous of him, expecting with desire that he should come as a great redeemer: behold the desired of all nations shall come (Hag 2:8). Both great in dignity, against which, we saw him despised, inglorious, and the most abject of men, because he suffered the most shameful kind of death: let us condemn him to a most shameful death (Wis 2:20); I am the most foolish of men (Prov 30:20). …

Commentary on Isaiah ↗

Bonaventure

A man sees the slaughter of bodies, he grieves greatly. He therefore who sees the slaughter of souls, how can he restrain himself from tears? I know the infirmities of others: I ought to suffer with them. Isaiah: "We have seen him, a man of sorrows and knowing infirmity." There is no spirit of the knowledge of God in that member when it sees a member of its head wounded and does not grieve with it. David grieved over the death of Absalom, who nevertheless had persecuted him. …

Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4 ↗