Isaiah 53 — Dead Sea Scrolls
12 verses • 12 variants • Column XLIV of 1QIsaiah-a
Scroll Overview
Summary
Isaiah 53 is the heart of the Fourth Servant Song and arguably the most theologically significant chapter in the entire Hebrew Bible for Jewish-Christian dialogue. Every verse of this 12-verse chapter has been examined with extraordinary care in the scroll. Column XLIV of 1QIsaiah-a contains what may be the most analyzed column of any ancient manuscript in existence.
Notable Variants
Verse 2: minor variant in 'before him.' Verse 3: the scroll reads 'pains' (makhov) with a possible variant. Verse 4: a moderate variant in the verb form. Verse 5: identical in both traditions. Verse 7: a moderate variant in the passive verb. Verse 9: a possible variant in 'his death' (plural in MT). Verse 10: the scroll may read differently on 'when his soul makes an offering.' Verse 11: THE MOST FAMOUS VARIANT — 1QIsaiah-a reads 'he shall see light' (yireh or) where MT reads only 'he shall see' (yireh). Verse 12: the scroll has a variant in the verb 'he bore.'
Scroll Condition
Column XLIV is remarkably well preserved — almost miraculously so, given the theological weight of this passage. The text is fully legible throughout with no significant lacunae.
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Masoretic (WLC)
לִשְׁמֻעָתֵנוּ
our report
Dead Sea Scroll
לשמועתנו
our report
Identical consonantal text. 'Who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?' (quoted in John 12:38 and Romans 10:16). The scroll opens the Suffering Servant passage with the same rhetorical questions as the MT.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 1
For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
Masoretic (WLC)
לְפָנָיו
before him
Dead Sea Scroll
לפניו
before him
Identical consonantal text. 'He grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground.' The description of the servant's humble origins is the same in both traditions. The scroll's plene spelling offers no meaningful difference.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 2
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. As one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Masoretic (WLC)
אִישׁ מַכְאֹבוֹת
a man of sorrows
Dead Sea Scroll
איש מכאובות
a man of sorrows
The scroll reads 'a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief' (ish makh'ovot vidua choli) with only orthographic differences from the MT. The iconic phrase is substantively identical.
1QIsaiah-a's spelling of makh'ovot uses a fuller form (with vav), consistent with Qumran orthographic conventions. The theological content — the servant is intimately familiar with suffering — is unchanged.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 3
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Masoretic (WLC)
נְשׂוּאָם
he bore them
Dead Sea Scroll
נשואם
he bore them
Identical consonantal text. 'Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows' — the declaration that the servant's suffering is vicarious (on behalf of others) reads the same in both traditions. The first-person plural 'our' is emphatic in both.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 4
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed.
Masoretic (WLC)
מְחֹלָל מִפְּשָׁעֵנוּ מְדֻכָּא מֵעֲוֺנֹתֵינוּ
pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities
Dead Sea Scroll
מחולל מפשענו מדוכא מעונותינו
pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities
1QIsaiah-a reads this verse identically to the MT with only plene spelling differences. 'He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed.'
This is perhaps the single most quoted verse of Isaiah 53 in Christian theology, and the scroll confirms that the pre-Christian Hebrew text read exactly as the medieval Masoretic tradition preserves it. The language of vicarious atonement — wounded for our sins, not his own — is original to the text.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 5
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one, to his own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Masoretic (WLC)
הִפְגִּיעַ
laid on him
Dead Sea Scroll
הפגיע
laid on him
Identical consonantal text. 'The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.' The scroll confirms this reading — the servant bears the sin of the community by divine appointment.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 6
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Masoretic (WLC)
נִגַּשׂ וְהוּא נַעֲנֶה
he was oppressed and he was afflicted
Dead Sea Scroll
נגש והוא נענה
he was oppressed and he was afflicted
The consonantal text is identical. 'Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.' The simile of the silent lamb is the same in both traditions (cf. Acts 8:32-33, where the Ethiopian eunuch reads this very passage).
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 7
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
Masoretic (WLC)
מֵעֹצֶר וּמִמִּשְׁפָּט לֻקָּח
by oppression and judgment he was taken away
Dead Sea Scroll
מעוצר וממשפט לוקח
by oppression and judgment he was taken away
1QIsaiah-a uses plene spelling (with vav in me'otser and luqqach) but the reading is the same. 'By oppression and judgment he was taken away' — describing an unjust legal proceeding. The difficult phrase 'who considered his generation?' (et doro mi yesocheach) is also identical.
This verse is notoriously difficult to translate in both traditions. The scroll offers no resolution to the interpretive challenges but confirms the antiquity of the difficult reading.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 8
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Masoretic (WLC)
בְּמֹתָיו
in his deaths
Dead Sea Scroll
במותיו
in his death
The MT reads bemotav, which appears to be a plural form 'in his deaths' — an unusual construction. 1QIsaiah-a reads the same form (bmwtyv). Some scholars have suggested emending to bamotav ('in his high places') but the scroll does not support this emendation.
'They made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death(s).' The plural 'deaths' may be an intensive plural (indicating a violent or extraordinary death) or may reflect textual corruption in both traditions. The scroll preserves the same difficult reading as the MT.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 9
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; and the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Masoretic (WLC)
אִם־תָּשִׂים אָשָׁם נַפְשׁוֹ
when his soul makes an offering for guilt
Dead Sea Scroll
אם תשים אשם נפשו
when his soul makes an offering for guilt
The consonantal text is essentially identical. 'Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt (asham), he shall see offspring, he shall prolong his days.'
The concept of the servant's soul as an asham (guilt offering) — the same word used for the sacrificial system in Leviticus 5 — is confirmed in the pre-Christian text. This is the most explicitly sacrificial language applied to the servant.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 10
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Masoretic (WLC)
יִרְאֶה
he shall see
Dead Sea Scroll
יראה אור
he shall see light
THIS IS THE MOST FAMOUS VARIANT IN ALL OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS ISAIAH. The MT reads simply yireh ('he shall see') — leaving the object unstated: 'Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see [and] be satisfied.' 1QIsaiah-a reads yireh or ('he shall see light') — adding the word 'light' (אור) as the object of the verb.
The addition of 'light' transforms the verse. In the MT, the servant sees something unspecified after his suffering. In the scroll, the servant explicitly 'sees light' — a metaphor for life, vindication, or resurrection after death. Coming after the description of the servant's death and burial (vv. 8-9), 'seeing light' strongly implies restoration to life.
The LXX (Septuagint) also reads 'see light' here, confirming that this was a widely attested pre-Christian reading. Most modern critical translations (NRSV, ESV footnote, NJB) now accept the scroll's reading as likely original, with the MT having lost 'light' through haplography or scribal error.
This variant has enormous theological implications: it means the pre-Christian Hebrew text of Isaiah 53 may have explicitly described the servant's return to life after suffering and death — a reading with obvious significance for the early Christian understanding of Jesus's resurrection.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 11
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Masoretic (WLC)
הֶעֱרָה לַמָּוֶת נַפְשׁוֹ
he poured out his soul to death
Dead Sea Scroll
הערה למות נפשו
he poured out his soul to death
The consonantal text is identical. 'Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.'
The scroll confirms the full text of the servant's vindication: despite being 'poured out to death' and 'numbered with transgressors,' he receives a portion 'with the many' and intercedes for sinners. The intercessory role of the suffering servant is original to the pre-Christian text.
1QIsaᵃ col. XLIV, line 12