Isaiah 53 Translation/Interpretation question

by iceuhk

In regards to Isaiah 53 according to: http://www.whatjewsbelieve.org/prooftext10is53.html

"In verse 5, the text is translated as 'But he was wounded FOR our transgressions, he was bruised FOR our iniquities.' The mistake is that the prefix to the words meaning 'our transgressions' and 'our iniquities' is the Hebrew letter mem. This is a prepositional prefix meaning 'from' and not 'for.' A more accurate translation would be, 'But he was wounded FROM our transgressions, he was bruised FROM our iniquities.' This means that Isaiah 53 is not talking about a man who died 'for our sins,' but rather it is about a man who died 'BECAUSE of our sins,' or 'AS A RESULT of our sins.' In other words, they died because we sinned against them by murdering them. This, indeed, is the Jewish understanding of Isaiah 53: the nations of the earth will finally understand that the Jews have been right all along, and the sins committed against the Jews by the nations of the earth resulted in the death of countless innocent Jews." Would you agree with that translation/interpretation. Even though the website says " what jews believe", i know the old adage, " If Get 2 jews in a room , there are 3 opinions."

Bonus question: If you have the time, would you read it and tell me if you believe that it fits with the jewish history and jewish writings/interpretation.. Thank you!

husky54

My first response to this post is what on earth does "But he was wounded FROM our transgressions..." even mean? The preposition "from" in English (and in Hebrew, מן) does not mean anything in this context. The preposition מן in Hebrew does not mean "because." There are other very pertinent prepositions that could be used (e.g., על, "on account of") that would work to indicate causation.

Secondly, this blog assumes a normative and essentialist Judaism. There is no such thing as "what Jews believe." WHICH Jews is the author talking about? As you point out at the end of your post--"2 jews in a room, there are 3 opinions." So--even the very basis of the blog is misinformed (and even arrogant).

The fact of the matter is that the Hebrew preposition מן can be used to mark the SOURCE of something--and, in this case, may easily be translated as "as a result of." (See Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon.)

CommodoreCoCo

While certain welcome here, you may have better luck asking over at /r/AcademicBiblical