Fathers

Isaiah 53

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Who has believed our message? To whom has Yahweh’s arm been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth. He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people? They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

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What the Fathers say

Isaiah 53:7

Eastern Fathers

Cyril of Alexandria

For the spiritually dead and unholy Caiaphas asked him, "I put you under oath to the living God to tell us if you are the Chist, the Son of God." And he answered him right away, saying, "From now on you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven." And then Pilate asked him whether he was king of Israel, and Christ replied, "You say so." Pilate was complacent with the madness of the Jews and had Jesus beaten, and he ordered his soldiers to put him between two thieves in his suffering …

Commentary On Isaiah 5:1.53:7-8 ↗

Melito of Sardis

When this one came from heaven to earth for the sake of the one who suffers, and had clothed himself with that very one through the womb of a virgin, and having come forth as man, he accepted the sufferings of the sufferer through his body which was capable of suffering. And he destroyed those human sufferings by his spirit which was incapable of dying. He killed death which had put man to death. …

On the Passover 66-71 ↗

Cosmas Indicopleustes

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer, so was he dumb. The Ethiopian eunuch on reading this passage asked Philip to interpret it to him, and he at once explained that it was spoken by the Prophet with reference to the Lord Christ.

The Christian Topography, Book 5 ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

[Christ] kept silent while he was concealed, because "in humility his judgment was taken away." He kept silent while he was concealed, because he was thought to be only human. But as God he will come openly; and as our God, he will not keep silent. So what about you? You were saying, "I want him to come."

Sermon 299:4 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

For this is the price of our liberty, as Peter says, ye were redeemed with the precious Blood, not indeed of a lamb, but of Him Who came as a lamb, in meekness and humility, and redeemed the whole world with the one offering of His Body, as He himself says, I was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. Wherefore John also says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Letter 75, 6 ↗

Jerome

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. For He endured the cross not out of necessity, but out of His own will, saying in the Gospel: 'The cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?' (John XVIII, 11). And to Peter, who was scandalized by the name of the cross because he did not know the mystery and was trembling with human fear, He said: 'Get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me; for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men' (Matthew XVI, 23). …

Commentary on Isaiah ↗