Passion & Last Supper✦ Passion CenterpieceClear Fulfillment
The Suffering Servant, Stricken by God
Written: ~700 BC→Fulfilled: ~AD 30
Isaiah's central verse on substitutionary atonement, the Lord laid on the Servant the iniquity of all, is the theological heart of Paul's doctrine of justification.
Prophecy & Fulfillment
Old Testament Prophecy
Isaiah 53:6
"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
New Testament Fulfillment
2 Corinthians 5:21
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Commentary
Isaiah 53:6 is the theological center of the Servant Song and of the entire Bible's teaching on atonement. The "laying on" of iniquity uses the same Hebrew root as the scapegoat ritual (Leviticus 16:21), where the high priest laid hands on the goat and confessed the people's sins. Paul's "God made him to be sin" is the New Testament commentary on this verse.