The Suffering Servant
Jesus is depicted as the incarnation of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah in the four gospels of the New Testament, particularly through Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus and Isaiah were similar figures who acted as messengers. The messages that these figures sent were primarily warnings about the sinful behaviors of God’s people and the courses of action, thoughts and deeds necessary to become closer to God, and enter the kingdom of heaven. One of Isaiah’s notable prophetic visions was that of a savior, the son of god, who would come down and save God’s chosen people. This savior was known as the Suffering Servant and Isaiah prophesized him to be a man who would be punished unjustly for his messages, and would suffer for the sins of the world so that they may be forgiven. Despite the consistencies between Isaiah’s vision of the Suffering Servant and Jesus, those who followed the Stoic ethics in Greco-Roman society would consider Jesus to be a foolish figure because of the contradictory beliefs and values they expressed. Isaiah’s vision of the Suffering Servant is consistent with Jesus’ life and works to some extent; however, this image is largely incompatible with the Stoic view held by those of the Greco-Roman world.
The four gospels describe Jesus’ beliefs, teachings, propositions, and general life works in order to accurately depict the message of God. Jesus was sent by God through the immaculate conception of Mary from the line of David. Although Jesus descended from Kings, he lived his life in poverty. Because he did not fit the conception that the Hebrew people had of the son of God, he was highly criticized throughout his life as a prophet. His messages often times contradicted the beliefs of the Old Testament and thus the beliefs of those who lived out those values. His message was that of love and forgiveness rather the notion of power and justice that the Pharisees and the Sadducees held to be true. Jesus did not follow the...