Isaiah 53:7–8

In His Humiliation

Quoted by the apostles in Acts 8:32–33, in the older Greek wording

Side by Side

The Older Text

Septuagint, translated before Messiah

He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken away from the earth: because of the iniquities of my people he was led to death.

The Later Text

Masoretic, finished about 1,000 years after the cross

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.

Quoted in Acts 8:33

The passage the Ethiopian was reading

In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

Your KJV reads: the later Hebrew in Isaiah, and the Greek wording in Acts 8.

See what changed and why ↓

What Your Bible Says

In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.
Acts 8:33 KJV

A royal officer of Ethiopia was riding home from Jerusalem, reading Isaiah aloud. Philip ran to the chariot and asked if he understood. The officer asked whom the prophet meant. Then Philip “began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Yahushua” (Acts 8:35). Before the day was out, the man was baptized.

What the Jewish Bible Says

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.
Isaiah 53:8 KJV

The lamb led to the slaughter is still there. But the humiliation is gone, the judgment taken from Him is gone, and the last line no longer says He was led to death.

What Changed

The older text reads as one Man’s story: humbled, robbed of a fair trial, His life taken from the earth, led to death for the sins of the people. Every line fits the night of His arrest and the day of the tree.

The later text is harder to follow, and its last word can be read as “to them,” plural. Jewish teachers after the cross used readings like that to say the suffering servant is the nation of Israel, not a single Man.

Which One Is Right?

The Greek Bible, translated before Messiah, gives the humiliation, the stolen judgment, and the death.

Acts 8 quotes the Greek almost word for word. That is the Bible the Ethiopian held, and the one Philip preached from.

The Masoretic text has prison and judgment, a man cut off, and a stroke “to them.”

Purpose of the Change

The effect is that the plainest picture of a single Man, unjustly judged and led to death, is blurred. A servant who can be read as “them” is easier to turn into a people than a Person.

The Bottom Line

Philip preached Yahushua from the Greek words of Isaiah 53, and a man believed the same day.

The lamb that opened not His mouth stands at the center of heaven’s throne room: “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6).

Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it

Sheep and Lamb

Acts 8:32 follows the Greek word for word: “as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer.” Your KJV Isaiah, translating the Hebrew, says lamb first and sheep second. A small thing, but Luke’s wording is the Greek wording.

To Them or to Death?

The last Hebrew word of verse 8 is usually a plural form, “to them,” though poetry sometimes uses it of one person. The Greek translators wrote “to death.” They likely read one more letter at the end of the word: in Hebrew, “to them” and “to death” differ by a single letter. The Greek reading keeps the servant one Man and names what happened to Him.

Who Sent the Lamb?

Two verses later Isaiah says, “it pleased Yahuah to bruise him” (Isaiah 53:10). The Lamb was provided by Yahuah, as Abraham said on Moriah: “God will provide himself a lamb” (Genesis 22:8). Yahuah is the Redeemer who paid the price, and the price was His Son.

An Honest Note

Much of this passage is a matter of hard Hebrew read two ways, not of letters rewritten. The word the KJV renders “prison” means restraint or oppression, and the Greek “humiliation” is a fair reading of it. The single-letter difference at the end of verse 8 is the clearest point. The weight of the case is that Acts 8 quotes the Greek as Scripture, and a man came to belief from it.