Suffering David, Suffering Servant, Stricken Shepherd

Suffering Servant, Suffering David, and Stricken Shepherd

Michael R Stead

In Acts 8:30–35, Philip encountered an Ethiopian eunuch reading these words from Isaiah 53:7–8.

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.

These words are pivotal verses in the fourth servant song in the Book of Isaiah, and, like many across the ages, the eunuch wanted to know the identity of this ‘suffering servant’. Philip’s response reflects the Christian understanding before and since – that Jesus is the suffering servant.

In the New Testament, there are more quotations and allusions to Isaiah’s fourth servant song than any other passage. There are some 41 echoes of Isaiah 52:13–53:12 (hereafter abbreviated to Isaiah 53), distributed across the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation.1 This near universal distribution demonstrates the importance of Isaiah’s suffering servant to the early Christians’ understanding of the ministry of Jesus.

•| 60 christ died for our sins: Essays on the Atonement

However, a key question is whether all – or only some – of the facets of Isaiah’s suffering servant apply to Jesus. Isaiah 53 can be divided into 4 stanzas, where each stanza highlights a particular aspect of the servant’s person and work.

Isa 53:1–3 Suffering 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not

Isa 53:4–6 Vicarious sin-bearing(i.e., bearing the sin of others)

4 he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows … 5 he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed

Isa 53:7–10 The undeserved death of his Servant was God’s will

8 … he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer

Isa 53:11–12 Outcome – for the servant and for us: vindication and salvation

11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities

1 Peter is perhaps the most developed articulation of the significance of the Jesus’ fulfilment of Isaiah 53. A key passage is 1 Peter 2:22–25, which is replete with quotations and allusions to Isaiah 53. The following table (which summarises the conclusions of Achtemeier)2 shows the pervasive impact of Isa 53 on 1 Peter 2.

1Pet 2:22 He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips.

Quotation of Isa 53:9b

1Pet 2:23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly.

Allusion to the silence of the servant in Isa 53:7 – He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth

1Pet 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

‘he bore our sins’ echoes Isa 53:4, 6 and 12.‘By his wounds you have been healed’ is a near quotation of Isa 53:5b

61 |•Suffering Servant, Suffering David, and Stricken Shepherd

1Pet 2:25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

‘straying like sheep’ echoes Isa 53:6 ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray’

1 Peter applies each of the four aspects of the imagery of Isaiah’s suffering servant identified above to Jesus in order to explain that the suffering of Jesus was central to the way that God had saved his people, to encourage Christians who were themselves facing suffering.3

Jesus’ death [is] a vicarious suffering by which a new life freed from sin is made possible, a theology already nascent in the description of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 … Because Christ’s innocent suffering bears away sin that separates Jesus’ followers from God, they are free to endure similarly innocent suffering, because they know that such suffering, far from being evidence of their rejection by God, is in fact proof that they have been called by him.4

In light of the conclusions of the previous chapter on mixed metaphors, it should be noted that, in addition to the use of the motif of the ‘suffering servant’ (and the ‘righteous sufferer’ more broadly – see 1 Peter 3:17–18) to explain the death of Jesus, Peter also uses a combination of ‘redemption’ and ‘sacrifice’ motifs. Peter tells his readers ‘you were redeemed [redemption] … with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect [sacrifice]’ (1 Peter 1:18–19). The significance of the atoning work of Jesus is so rich and so complex that no single metaphor can capture it fully.

However, while it is clear that 1 Peter understands the death of Jesus in terms of the vicarious sin-bearing servant of Isaiah 53, there is much debate as to whether this is generally true of the rest of the New Testament. In her seminal 1959 work, Jesus and the Servant, M. D. Hooker, a New Testament scholar, argued that Jesus ‘appl[ied] to himself various characteristics of the Servant, but yet omits those which speak of his suffering and death’ (p.63), and the New Testament generally does likewise, and that the only place where Isaiah 53 is used to explain Jesus’ death as a vicarious atonement for sin is the (very late) 1 Peter 2:22–25.5

Since Hooker’s work, there has been a growing trend in New Testament scholarship to downplay the significance of the suffering servant in the New Testament’s understanding of the atonement. These scholars recognise that there is an evident interest in the ‘sufferings of the Christ ’ in the Gospels , but argue that the Old Testament background to the sufferings of Christ is


not the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, but rather the ‘suffering David’ we meet in the Psalms.

For example, in a recent article, Jipp argues that Luke’s portrait of a suffering Messiah is not drawn from the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Instead, based on his analysis of Luke’s quotations and echoes from the Davidic psalms, he concludes that ‘Luke’s scriptural suffering Messiah is primarily indebted to the psalms and their depiction of King David’s sufferings.’6

Similarly, in a 2007 monograph entitled The Psalms of Lament in Mark’s Passion: Jesus’ Davidic Suffering, Ahearne-Kroll detects echoes of Psalms 22, 41, 42–43 and 69 in Mark’s passion narrative, and on this basis argues that the ‘suffering David’ in the lament psalms is the model for Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, rather than the ‘suffering servant’ of Isaiah 53.7

While Jipp and Ahearne-Kroll are undoubtedly correct to say that the ‘suffering David’ in the Psalms is a critical Old Testament background to the ‘suffering Messiah’ in the Gospels, this cannot be the only or even chief source of this motif. This is because Jesus repeatedly affirms that it is written in the prophets (and not merely the Psalms) that the Christ must suffer (see, e.g., Luke 18:31–32; Luke 24:25–27; Luke 24:44–46 cf. Matt 18:31–32). But exactly where – we might ask – do the prophets say that the Christ must suffer?

This chapter will explain why Jesus can describe his sufferings as ‘written in the prophets’ and yet at the same time for his sufferings to be patterned after the sufferings of David. We will see that this is because the ‘suffering servant’ of Isaiah is a development of the ‘suffering David’ in the psalms, and that these two streams of tradition have become fused into a single tradition in the post-exilic literature of the Old Testament (and, incidentally, also in some intertestamental literature). When the New Testament presents Jesus as a suffering messiah, it draws upon this richly developed Old Testament ‘suffering’ motif in order to help us understand the full significance of the suffering of Jesus.

The argument will proceed in 3 steps: Firstly, we will see that the servant songs in Isaiah 40–55 describe the suffering servant using the language of the ‘suffering David’ of the Psalms. Secondly, our examination of Zechariah 9–14 will reveal that it fuses elements of the suffering Davidic king and Isaiah’s suf-fering servant. Finally, we shall explore how the New Testament explains the atonement using a fusion of all three elements of the Old Testament suffering tradition (‘suffering David’ Psalms, Isaiah 40–55 and Zechariah 9–14). We will conclude by exploring the implications that this has for our understand-ing of the death of Jesus.


1. Isaiah’s Suffering Servant and the Suffering David in the Psalms

Psalms 22, 31, 34, 38, 39, 41, 69, 118 are part of a set of psalms that reflect on King David’s experiences of rejection and suffering. These psalms all share the superscription ‘of David’, and the historical references in some of the super-scriptions situate the psalms either when David was persecuted by Saul, or when David was fleeing from his son Absalom. We shall refer to these psalms as the ‘suffering David’ psalms.

A fact that has not been sufficiently appreciated to date is that the suffer-ings of the servant in Isaiah 40–55 resound with echoes of these psalms of the ‘suffering David’. These intertextual connections strongly suggest that Isaiah’s suffering servant is a development of the suffering David of the Psalms. We may conceptualise and summarise the allusions to the suffering David in the servant songs using the metaphors of a mosaic, a fanfare and a tapestry. (In the analysis that follows, bold highlighting indicates that the same underly-ing Hebrew word is used in each passage, and my English translation reflects these parallels in the Hebrew.)

a. Mosaic – Composite Allusions in Isaiah 53:3–7In the same way that a mosaic is constructed from many tile fragments (tesserae), Isa 53:3–7 is made up of fragments of Davidic Psalms. The suffering motifs in Isa 53:3–7 reflect the ‘suffering David’ in the Psalms.

Isaiah 53:3–5,7 Psalms

53:3 He was despised and rejected by men Ps 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

a man of sorrows Ps 38:17 my sorrow is ever with me.

and familiar with suffering. Ps 41:3 …his bed of suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Ps 69:17 Do not hide your face from your servant

53:4 Surely he took up our sufferings and carried our sorrows

again echoing Ps 38:17 and Ps 41:3 – see above

we considered him stricken (lit. scourged) by God

Ps 39:10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

stricken by him Ps 69: 26 They persecute those you strike.


Isaiah 53:3–5,7 Psalms

and afflicted. Ps 132: 1 O LORD, remember David and all his affliction

53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions

Ps 109:22 For I am afflicted and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.

he was crushed for our iniquities Ps 143:3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes mePs 34:18 The Lord saves those crushed in spirit

the punishment (lit. discipline) that brought us peace was upon him

Ps 118:18 The LORD has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death.

and by his wounds we are healed. Ps 38:5 My wounds fester and are loathsome

53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth …

Ps 39:9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.

b. Fanfare – Sustained Allusions to Psalm 22 in Isa 49:1–7Trumpet blasts in rapid succession in a fanfare call an audience to attention. Similarly, the repeated and sustained allusion to a single other passage serves to highlight the connection between the two passages. We see this, for example, in the way that Isa 49:1–7 alludes to Psalm 22 at its beginning (v.1), middle (v.4) and end (v.7).

The Servant declares in Isaiah 49

49:1 Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.49:5 … he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

Likewise, the suffering David of Psalm 22 declares

Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. (vv.9–10).

The Servant cries out in Isa 49:4 ‘I have spent my strength in vain’. This echoes the experience of David in Psalm 22:15 ‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd’. The servant is described in Isa 49:7 as ‘despised and abhorred by the nation’. David in Psalm 22:6 says ‘I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.’ Another example of a sustained allusion occurs in Isa


50:7–9 (alluding to Ps 109:26–31: The Lord as ‘helper’, ‘disgrace’, ‘ashamed’, an accuser standing to bring charges, ‘garment’ imagery etc.)

c. Tapestry – Allusive threads woven into all four Servant SongsIsaiah 40–55 weaves its portrait of the suffering servant into a tapestry by the repeated use of the same threads, deftly combined across all four servant songs. For example, threads from Psalm 69 are woven into all four servant songs, each highlighting a different facet of the servant’s experience (‘identification’, ‘salvation’, ‘reproach’ and ‘suffering’ respectively).

1st Servant Song (Identification)

In Psalm 69:17, David describes himself to God as ‘your servant’. In Isa 42:1, the Lord says ‘Here is my servant’.

2nd Servant Song(Salvation)

In Ps 69:13, David says ‘But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favour; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.’ In Isa 49:8, the Lord addresses the Servant introduced in 49:1–7, and says ‘In the time of my favour I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you …’

3rd Servant Song (Reproach)

There is a double point of connection between Ps 69 and Isa 50:5–6. Firstly, David says in Ps 69:7, ‘reproach covers my face’, just like the Servant in Isa 50:6 who says ‘I did not hide my face from reproach’. Secondly, there is another parallel in the adjacent verses. David says in Ps 69:6 ‘May those who hope in you not be disgraced because of me, O Lord, the LORD Almighty; may those who seek you not be put to shame because of me, O God of Israel’. This is the fate of the Servant in Isa 50:7. ‘Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced … I will not be put to shame’.

4th Servant Song(Suffering)

As already highlighted in the table above, both David and the Servant suffer being ‘stricken by God’ (Ps 69:26 // Isa 53:4) and ‘hiding the face’ (Ps 69:17 // Isa 53:3).

In addition to Psalm 69, there are a number of other psalms which are woven through the servant songs in Isaiah 40–55, especially Psalms 22, 31, 38 and 118.

While any individual example of a parallel between the suffering servant and the ‘suffering David’ Psalms might be dismissed as co-incidental or accidental, the sheer magnitude of the connections makes a compelling cumulative case that the four servant songs in Isaiah 40–55 intentionally evoke the ‘suffering David’ of the Psalms.8

On the basis of this evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that the Servant figure in the four servant songs in Isa 40–55 is modelled in part on the suf-ferings of David.9

Of course, this alleged ‘intertextual’ connection between the Servant and King David may well be objected to on the grounds that the striking feature of the Servant of Isa 40–55 is the absence of explicitly kingly / messianic / royal


themes. Surely – a hypothetical interlocutor might say – we should expect to see a suffering ‘king’ or a ‘stricken shepherd’ if the suffering servant of Isaiah 40–55 was a development of the tradition of the suffering David – and this is exactly what we do see in the final stage in the development of the ‘suffering’ motif in the Old Testament!

2. Zechariah 9–14 and the fusion of the Suffering David and the Suffering Servant

Though there is no consensus as to precise dating, it is commonly accepted that Zechariah 9–14 is among the latest prophetic texts of the Old Testament. These chapters are addressed to the generation living sometime after the return from exile and the temple reconstruction (see 9:8; 11:13). Haggai and Zechariah 1–8 had promised a time of restoration and blessings after the temple had been rebuilt, but the ‘glory days’ had failed to arrive. Zechariah 9–14 is written to affirm that God’s promises still stand, but their fulfilment is to be on a day yet to come, and that suffering will continue to be the experience of God’s people until that day.

At the heart of these chapters is a figure who is ‘pierced’, and whose death opens ‘a fountain … to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity’ (Zech 12:10–13:1). A number of scholars have rightly seen this figure as a development of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.10 However, what has not been sufficiently appreciated is that this figure alludes not merely to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, but to a ‘fused tradi-tion’ that incorporates the suffering David also – Zechariah 9–14 describes a ‘suffering servant King’. In Zechariah 9–14, the central human figure is a fusion of the experiences of the suffering David in the historical narratives and in the Psalms with the suffering servant of Isaiah.

Zechariah 9:9 – A not-so-triumphant entryWe first meet this figure in Zech 9:9, which describes a King returning to Jerusalem on a donkey. This verse is alluded to in the Gospels (e.g., Matt 21:1–9) in an event typically labelled the ‘triumphant entry’. However, the assumption that Zechariah 9:9 must be ‘triumphal’ has perhaps influenced its translation unhelpfully. A typical English translation of Zechariah 9:9 is:

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.


This verse, however, is much more ambiguous than the English translation suggests. When it says that this king comes ‘having salvation’, the more natural translation of the underlying Hebrew is ‘having been saved’. That is how the same word is used in Psalm 18:3, where King David declares ‘I call to the LORD … and I am saved from my enemies’. However, a king who has ‘been saved’ from his enemies doesn’t sound very ‘triumphant’ and perhaps for this reason translators have opted for the more positive idea of ‘having salvation’. The second word is the one that is typically translated ‘gentle’. This is a possible translation of the underlying Hebrew word. However, almost 90% of the time, this word is translated ‘afflicted, oppressed, needy, or poor’. That is, the word can mean both ‘humble’ and ‘humbled’. Psalm 22 uses this same word to speak about God’s response to the sufferings of King David.

For he [the LORD] has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help (Ps 22:24).

Isaiah 53:4 similarly uses the cognate verb of the servant, who was ‘stricken by God and afflicted’.

The reason why these two words in Zechariah 9:9 should be given the more negative translations is because of the imagery in the rest of the verse: the king is riding on a donkey. If this scene was intended to be a ‘triumphant entry’ after the pattern of the ancient world, the king would be on his warhorse, or riding in a battle-chariot. Kings do not ride donkeys to and from battle. 11 The scene described in Zechariah 9 is not meant to be understood as a triumphal procession. Indeed, according to Zechariah 9:10, chariot and warhorse are no more – this king returns not riding an instrument of war, but on a donkey – and not even a full grown beast, but on a foal, the colt of a donkey.

Although kings generally don’t ride donkeys in the Old Testament, there is one significant occasion when God’s king does ride on a donkey: King David in 2 Samuel 15–16.12 This was hardly a time of great triumph for David – in fact, the reverse. It was a time of humiliation and near defeat. David’s son, Absalom, had conspired against David to usurp his kingship. David was forced to flee from Jerusalem, weeping as he went up the Mount of Olives. As he fled, David was met by a steward, who provided donkeys for the King and his household to ride. This picture of David on a donkey is not a scene of triumph – it is David in exhaustion, in bitterness of tears, betrayed by his own son and wondering if God’s curse is upon him (cf. 16:12).

By means of the imagery of the humbled king on a donkey, Zechariah 9 depicts a David-like figure returning to Jerusalem. That is, Zechariah 9:9 is not so much the ‘triumphant entry of king’ as it is the return of the (now vindicated)


suffering David. This king has been afflicted and humiliated, but the Lord has saved him, and now brings him back to Jerusalem on the same humble donkey. The donkey that had previously been the sign of humiliation has now become something to glory in, because it demonstrates that the Lord himself has won the battle, and not by means of a triumphant military campaign or by human cleverness and skill. The ‘backstory’ to Zechariah 9:9 is sketched out for us in texts like Psalm 118, which describes the unlikely salvation of God’s king, who returns to Jerusalem to great rejoicing:

13 I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me. 14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation [cf. Zech 9:9] ….19 Open for me the gates of right-eousness; I will enter [lit. ‘I will come’ cf. Zech 9:9] and give thanks to the LORD… 24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice [cf. Zech 9:9] and be glad in it.13

Zechariah 9 announces that the way in which God will bring salvation to his people is, paradoxically, through a king who will be another suffering David. God will bring back to Jerusalem the King whom he has saved from suffering and affliction, and it is through this act of deliverance that God is going to remove the warhorse and battle bow from his people, and then peace will be proclaimed to the nations (see Zech 9:10).

Zechariah 13:7 – The Stricken ShepherdThis ‘suffering king’ motif, which is at the centre of God’s plans in Zech 9, appears again in Zechariah 13:7.

‘Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered …’

Like Zechariah 9:9, these verses combine kingship and affliction.The kingly status of this figure is highlighted in two ways. Firstly, the Lord

describes him as ‘my shepherd’, picking up a common biblical metaphor for kingship. David was called to be the shepherd of God’s people (2 Sam 5:2; Ps 78:71–72), and Ezekiel 34:23 looked forward to the day when God would again raise up for his people ‘one shepherd, my servant David’. The phrase ‘my shepherd’ in this context has unmistakeable royal and Davidic connotations. Secondly, this figure is also described as the ‘man who is close to me [the Lord]’. This picks up the promises of Jeremiah 30:21 ‘Their leader will be one of their own; their ruler will arise from among them. I will bring him near and he will


come close to me …’ The ‘man who is close to me’ in Zechariah 13:7 is God’s chosen Davidic king.

This king, however, is a suffering king. His affliction is also highlighted in two ways. Firstly, the Lord says ‘Awake O sword’ against my shepherd. In context, the sword can only mean one thing. Swords kill by ‘piercing’, which is typically described using one of two Hebrew words for pierce – daqar (Isa 13:15–17; 1 Sam 31:4) or chalal (Ezek 32:26; Lam 4:9), or both used syn-onymously ( Jer 51:4). Secondly, this king is going to die from his wounds. This is confirmed by the remainder of the verse, which says ‘strike (nacah) the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered’. As prophesied in 1 Kings 22:17, the ‘scattering of the sheep’ is what follows from the death of a king. The word used for ‘strike (nacah)’ echoes both the experience of the suffering servant (who was ‘stricken by God’ – Isa 53:4) and the suffering David, who was likewise ‘stricken’ (nacah) and ‘pierced’ (chalal) by the Lord (Ps 69:27).14

In Zech 13:7, we have another instance of the ‘suffering king’ we met in Zechariah 9. As we saw in Zechariah 9, this king is described by means of a fusion of Davidic imagery from the Psalms and the historical narratives, and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. As we also see in Isaiah 53, the suffering and death of this figure occurs in the context of a remnant of God’s people being refined through judgment (see esp. Zech 13:9).

Zechariah 12:9–13:1 : A ‘Piercing’ that opens a fountain for cleansing from sinSet between these images of a ‘suffering king’ (Zechariah 9) and a ‘stricken shepherd’ (Zechariah 13) comes an enigmatic passage about a figure who is ‘pierced’, and whose death opens a fountain for cleansing from sin (Zech 12:10–13:1).

This passage is enigmatic because it is not clear who has been pierced. In Zechariah 12:10, the Lord says ‘they will look upon me, whom they have pierced’, which seems to imply that the Lord himself is the one pierced. But the verse then goes on to refer to the victim in the third person – ‘they will mourn for him’. This is complex, but the best solution (as suggested by FF Bruce) is to recognise that the Lord has been ‘pierced’ in the person of his representative.15

We get a hint about the identity of this pierced figure from Zech 12:11, which tells us ‘on that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping … in the plain of Megiddo’. This alludes to the death of the Davidic King Josiah who died as the result of a battle at ‘the plain of Megiddo’ (2 Chron 35:22), which led to national mourning and ongoing laments (2 Chron 35:24–25). The parallel drawn with King Josiah suggests that the death recorded in Zechariah


12:10–14 is that of another Davidic King. The evidence for this conclusion is strengthened by other parallels between this figure and the ‘stricken shepherd’ in Zechariah 13:7 (who has clear royal overtones).16 The most reasonable conclusion is that this slain king in Zechariah 12 is one and the same as the ‘stricken shepherd’ we meet in Zechariah 13:7.

There are three points of connection between this figure and the suffering servant in Isaiah 53:

• The imagery of a death by piercing – the suffering servant is ‘pierced for our transgressions’.17

• the atoning consequences of that death: Zechariah 13:1 tells us that this death opens a fountain for the cleansing of sin (chata), cf. Isa 53:12 – he bore the sins (chata) of many.

• the response of God’s people to the death: The repentance of the people evidenced by their supplication (12:9) and weeping (12:10–14)18 dem-onstrates their change of heart over the one whom they had pierced. This response is similar to the reaction of the ‘we’ who speak about the servant in Isaiah 53:1–6 – formerly, they rejected and despised the servant, but now they have undergone a complete about-face, as they now realise ‘surely, he was pierced for our transgressions’.

In Zech 12:10–13:1 we see a figure who is ‘pierced’ and whose death leads to a cleansing from sin for God’s people. This figure is like a police artist’s composite sketch, made from a dense combination of Davidic and ‘suffering servant’ imagery.

In summary, Zechariah 9–14 uses the past sufferings of the Davidic Kings (especially David and Josiah) as a paradigm to describe a future suffering figure. God will again allow ‘the man who is close to him’ to be handed over to the point of death. Zechariah 9:9, 12:10–13:1, and 13:7–9 fuse the ‘suf-fering David’ and the ‘suffering servant’ to produce a ‘suffering-servant-king’.

Towards the end of the Old Testament era, we see a clear fusion of the suffering David of the Psalms and the historical narratives with the suffering servant of Isaiah 40–55. Though it is incidental to my argument, it is interesting to note that there is some evidence of the same fusion in the intertestamental period.19

3. Fusion of Suffering David, Suffering Servant and Stricken Shepherd

When we turn to the New Testament, we see the next step in the trajectory of a ‘fused’ suffering tradition, with the concurrent depiction of Jesus as the


suffering David of the psalms, the suffering servant of Isaiah 40–55 and the stricken shepherd of Zechariah 9–14.

This fusion of suffering themes is particularly clear in the passion narra-tives, as the Gospel writers explain the significance of the death of Jesus. For the purposes of this chapter, we shall focus on Matthew 26–27 in particular, where our three sources of the ‘suffering’ tradition are often entwined together within the same episode, like a three-stranded cord.20

The death of Jesus is so rich in significance that no single suffering tradition is sufficient to explain it. The way to make sense of Jesus’ suffering is to view him as – all at the same time – the suffering David and the suffering servant and the stricken shepherd.

The ‘handing over of Jesus’ – Isaiah 53:6; Zechariah 11; Psalm 31Matthew 26 begins with Jesus’ passion prediction that ‘The Son of man will be handed over (paradidômi) to be crucified’ (26:2). The language of ‘handing over’ echoes the LXX of Isaiah 53:6 – ‘The Lord handed him over (paradidômi) for our sin’.21

This brief echo of a key suffering servant passage is immediately followed by an allusion to a psalm of the suffering David. Jesus will be handed over to the Jewish leaders, who in Matthew 26:3–5 ‘plot to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him’, alluding to Psalm 31:13 ‘… they plot to take my life.’

The story of the ‘handing over’ of Jesus is taken up again in 26:14–16, when we are told that ‘Judas was seeking a good time to hand him over (paradidômi)’ (26:16). The extra detail added by these verses is that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver is in fulfilment of Zechariah 11.22

In this one narrative, the three dimensions of the ‘handing over’ of Jesus (handed over by God, handed over through Judas, handed over to the Jewish leaders) has been explained by three allusions which fuse the imagery of the suffering David (Psalm 31), suffering servant (Isaiah 53) and rejected King (Zechariah 11).

The Last Supper – Psalm 41; Zechariah 9:11; Isaiah 53:11–12The narrative of the betrayal flows into (and partially overlaps) the narrative of the Last Supper. While reclining at the table, Jesus predicts his betrayal, saying in Matthew 26:23 ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me’, which is to fulfil ‘what is written about him’. The Old Testament background to Matthew 26:23 is Psalm 41:9 – ‘my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me’.23

Jesus then explains to his disciples the significance of his impending death


by reinterpreting the Passover meal that they share. His words in Matthew 26:28 – ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’ are a composite allusion to Zechariah 9:11 and Isaiah 53:11–12. Zechariah 9:11 is the background for the phrase ‘blood of the covenant’,24 and the thematic background for the remainder is Isaiah 53:11–12, which describes the Servant of the Lord who ‘poured out his life unto death … and bore the sins of many’.25 In the space of five verses, we again find allusions to each of the three ‘suffering’ traditions, woven together into a seamless whole.

Strike the Shepherd – Zechariah 13:7; Isaiah 50:6; Psalm 22 (and 69)In Matthew 26:31, Jesus quotes Zechariah 13:7 ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ The fulfilment of the ‘scattering’ occurs that very night (as explicitly noted in Matthew 26:56), and the ‘striking’ of the shepherd begins soon thereafter:

Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. Others beat him and said, ‘Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit you?’ (Matt 26:67–68)

The words used in this verse for ‘spat’, ‘face’ and ‘beat’ echo the sufferings of the Servant in Isaiah 50:6.

I offered my back to those who beat me … I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.26

The mistreatment of Jesus continues throughout Matthew 27, which is high-lighted using a string of allusions drawn from the experiences of the suffering David of the Psalms, particularly from Psalm 22.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Ps 22:1)

Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’– which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mt 27:46)

All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’ (Ps 22:7–8)

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads … He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ (Mt 27:39,43)

A band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced27 my hands and my feet (Ps 22:16)

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed … They all answered, ‘Crucify him!’ Mt 27:20


They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing (Ps 22:18)

They divided up his clothes by casting lots (Mt 27:35)

They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst (Ps 69:21)

They offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall … One of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with vinegar, put it on a stick and offered it to Jesus (Mt 27:34, 48)

In the three examples above, we have seen that Matthew 26–27 describes the passion of Jesus using imagery drawn from the ‘suffering David’ of the psalms interwoven with the ‘suffering servant’ of Isaiah 40–55 and also interwoven with the ‘stricken shepherd king’ of Zechariah 9–14. These themes and allu-sions are so closely entwined in the narrative that it strongly suggests that the Gospel uses this Old Testament material as a single ‘fused’ suffering tradition. This is consistent with the fusion of ‘suffering David’ and ‘suffering servant’ already apparent in Zechariah 9–14.

ConclusionThe ‘suffering’ motif develops and expands progressively in the Scriptures. In this chapter, we have identified several key points on the trajectory of the development of the suffering motif. Taking the suffering David as our point of departure, we have seen how this is developed in Isaiah 40–55, in that the vocabulary and imagery associated with the suffering David of the Psalms is woven into the four servant songs in Isaiah 40–55 to describe the sufferings of the Servant of the Lord.

The next stage in the development of the suffering tradition is seen in the fusion of the suffering David and the suffering servant in Zechariah 9–14, with its depiction of the ‘stricken shepherd king’. We see a continuation of this fused suffering tradition in the intertestamental literature.

The final stage of development is seen in the passion narratives (especially Matthew 26–27), where Jesus is presented as a suffering servant / stricken king, using a fusion of Davidic psalms, Isaiah 40–55 and Zechariah 9–14.

The implication of a ‘fused’ tradition is that an allusion to one part of the tradition evokes the connotations of the whole. Matthew’s Gospel can thus, for example, explain the fulfilment of Zechariah 13:7 (‘strike the shepherd’) with allusions to Isaiah 50:6 and Davidic Psalms, without any need for further explanation or correlation. The New Testament has picked up the motif of God’s righteous sufferer as an undifferentiated whole that encapsulates its component parts. For example, the suffering servant of Isaiah is seen as incorporating the suffering David. This is the reason why Jesus can say that


it is written in the prophets that the Christ must suffer, and have the Gospels describe his sufferings with echoes of the Psalms of the suffering David. Each part of the ‘suffering’ tradition is seen as contributing to the whole.

By the New Testament era, the suffering David, suffering servant and stricken shepherd have become fused into a single suffering tradition. Having become fused, it is not possible to isolate and extract the constituent elements from the whole. Thus we cannot say that the Gospels use the ‘suffering David’ alone rather than the suffering servant to explain the suffering of Jesus, because the echoes of the suffering David evoke the whole tradition of which the suffering servant is an integral part. The three strands of the suffering tradition in the Old Testament become one strand in the New Testament. The evidence of Matthew 26–27 shows no indication that the Gospel writers tried to disentwine the various stands of the suffering tradition, and so it is very unlikely that the New Testament writers selectively used the ‘suffering David’ without intending to evoke the overtones of the suffering-servant-king. In short, instead of arguing that Jesus is ‘the suffering David, not the suffering servant’, the fused tradition highlights the ways that Jesus is ‘both suffering servant and suffering David’.

This fused tradition has important implications for how we understand the significance of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.

At the outset of this chapter, we noted that there is a trend in scholarship which argues that we should not use Isaiah’s suffering servant as the key to interpreting the death of Jesus, because Jesus fulfils only a subset of the ‘various characteristics of the Servant’ (Hooker, p.63). That is, Jesus is something less than the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. However, the fused suffering tradition points us in the opposite direction – that Jesus is something more than the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 alone is not enough to understand the sufferings of Jesus, because (for example) Isaiah 53 doesn’t tell us that the suffering servant is the messiah. It is only the fusion of Psalms and Prophets that reveals that ‘the Christ must suffer’.

Jesus is certainly not less than the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. The Gospels and the remainder of the New Testament affirm each of the four key facets to the servant in Isaiah 53 identified above (‘despised and rejected’, ‘vicarious sin-bearer’, ‘undeserved suffering according to the Lord’s will’, and the double outcome of the Servant’s ‘vindication and salvation’) as fulfilled in Jesus. And, over and above all this, Jesus is also at the same time the now-vindicated suf-fering King of the Psalms and Zechariah 9–14.

If we see Jesus merely as a ‘suffering David’, we impoverish our vision of him. Any attempt to explain the death of Jesus which limits itself to the ‘suffering David’ motif alone is deficient and reductionistic. The prophetic voice in


Isaiah and Zechariah makes explicit what is not clearly defined in the Davidic Psalms – that the way in which the suffering king brings salvation to the people of God is by a substitutionary death that bears the sins of others. The people of God gaze upon the suffering servant king – whom they have pierced – and say to each other in awe ‘he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed’ (Isa 53:5, with echoes of Zech 12:10).

Conversely, if we see Jesus merely as a ‘suffering servant’, we also impoverish our vision of him. A key element of many of the ‘suffering David’ psalms is that they end with a confidence in God’s ultimate victory to bring salvation for his people and vindication for the righteous sufferer (see Psalms 16; 18; 22; 118). Jesus echoed this when he told the disciples on the road to Emmaus ‘the Christ must suffer these things and then enter his glory’ (Luke 24:26). While this note of vindication and salvation is present in Isaiah 53 (esp. vv.11–12), it is more richly developed and nuanced in the Psalms. Jesus is indeed ‘Christus Victor’ (as Gustav Aulén has argued), but this is not a metaphor of the atonement that competes with the sin-bearing work of the servant. Rather, it is the neces-sary outworking of it. We cannot understand the death of Jesus except in the context of his resurrection, because this is God’s vindication of his righteous suffering king. As Paul reminds us, the heart of the gospel is that ‘Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day’ (1 Cor 15:3–4).

Jesus is the ultimate ‘Righteous Sufferer’ – the suffering-but-ultimately-triumphant David, together with the sin-bearing-Servant, together with the stricken-shepherd-King. The Psalms of the suffering David, Isaiah 40–55 and Zechariah 9–14 each offer us key resources for understanding the atonement, and to neglect any aspect in this fused suffering tradition is to distort and diminish what Jesus’ death and resurrection have achieved for us.

Questions

1. Why is the ‘suffering David’ important for our understanding of the suffering of Jesus?

2. Why is Isaiah’s suffering servant important for our understanding of the suffering of Jesus?

3. Why is Zechariah -14 important for our understanding of the suffer-ing of Jesus?


Endnotes

1 Statistics based on Index of Quotations (p. 888) and the Index of Allusions and Verbal Parallels (p. 897) in UBS Greek New Testament (4th Rev ed.).

2 Peter Achtemeier, ‘Suffering Servant and Suffering Christ in 1 Peter’, in The Future of Christology: Essays in Honor of Leander E Keck, ed. by Abraham J Malherbe and Wayne A Meeks, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1993, pp. 176–188 at pp. 179–180.

3 One of the four aspects of Isaiah’s Servant’s work is implicit in 1 Peter, rather than explicit. The idea that ‘the undeserved death of his Servant was God’s will’ may be legitimately inferred from 1 Peter 1:19–20, wherein Christ was chosen by the Father before the creation of the world to be our sacrificial lamb, and from 1 Peter 2:19–21 and 3:17–18, where the emphasis is on the undeserved nature of Jesus’ suffering.

4 Paul J Achtemeier, 1 Peter: A Commentary on First Peter, Minneapolis, Minn., Fortress Press, 1996, p. 203.

5 See Morna D. Hooker, Jesus and the Servant: The Influence of the Servant Concept of Deutero-Isaiah in the New Testament, London, SPCK, 1959, p. 127. Hooker revisited this issue in her article ‘Did the Use of Isaiah 53 to Interpret His Mission Begin with Jesus?’, in Jesus and the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins, ed. by WH Bellinger and William Reuben Farmer, Harrisburg, Pa., Trinity Press, 1998, pp. 88–103. For the most part, Hooker reaffirms her earlier conclusions, though now allowing the possibility that the Apostle Paul might also have believed Jesus to be the suffering servant of Deutero-Isaiah (see p.103). Hooker’s conclusions in both works flow from her methodology, which sought ‘unequivocal quotations’. More recent studies in the field of intertextuality recognise a greater fluidity and diversity in textual allusion and echo. On this, see further Michael R Stead, The Intertextuality of Zechariah 1–8, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 506, London, T & T Clark, 2009, esp. pp. 19–37. Intertextual approaches have yielded different results to Hooker on the key question. For a summary of recent studies on this theme, see Robert John Dixon, An Examination of the Allusions to Isaiah 52:13–53:12 in the New Testament, PhD Diss, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2008.

6 Joshua W Jipp, ‘Luke’s Scriptural Suffering Messiah: A Search for Precedent, a Search for Identity’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 72 (2010), pp. 255–274 at p. 257.

7 Stephen P Ahearne-Kroll, The Psalms of Lament in Mark’s Passion: Jesus’ Davidic Suffering, Cambridge; New York, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 169–71. See similarly Howard Clark Kee, ‘The Function of Scriptural Quotations and Allusions in Mark 11–16’, in Jesus und Paulus : Festschrift für Werner Georg Kümmel zum 70 Geburstag, ed. by E Earle Ellis and Erich Grässer, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978, pp. 165–88, who says with reference to Mark’s passion narrative, ‘There are no sure references to Isa 53 and none of the distinctive language of the Suffering Servant is evident … There is no explicit doctrine of atonement … in the Markan passion narrative’ (p. 183).

8 In addition to these connections between the four servant songs and the ‘suffering David’ of the Psalms, there are also a number of parallels between the experience of the suffering servant and the life of David as recorded in 1–2 Samuel.

· Isa 42:1 ‘I will put my Spirit upon him’: cf. 1 Sam 16:13 ‘the Spirit of the Lord came upon him’

· Isa 42:6 ‘a covenant for the people’: cf. the covenant reflected in 2 Sam 7, Ps 89:3, Isa 55:3

· Isa 49:7 the Servant of the Lord is also ‘the servant of [foreign] rulers’ – cf. 1 Sam 27:5, 29:2 – David is (ostensibly) the ‘servant’ of Philistine rulers like King Achish of Gath


· Isa 53:12 ‘Numbered with the transgressors’: cf. 1 Sam 22:2 – David is sur-rounded by a band of lawless men: ‘all who were in distress or in debt or bitter of soul gathered around [David]’

9 This is similar to the conclusion reached by Lothar Ruppert, Jesus als der leidende Gerechte? Der Weg Jesu im Lichte eines alt- und zwischenrestamentlichen Motivs, Stuttgart, Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1972, pp. 19–20, who argues that Isaiah’s Suffering Servant is a prophetic adaptation of the Righteous Sufferer motif.

10 See, for example, Wilhelm Rudolph, Haggai, Sacharja 1–8, Sacharja 9–14, Maleachi, Gütersloh, Gütersloher Verlagshaus Mohn, 1976, pp. 223–24, Martin Hengel, ‘The Effective History of Isaiah 53 in the Pre-Christian Period’, in The Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 in Jewish and Christian Sources, ed. by Bernd Janowski and Peter Stuhlmacher, Grand Rapids, Mich., William B Eerdmans Pub., 2004, pp. 75–146 at pp. 85–89, Douglas Rawlinson Jones, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi: Introduction and Commentary, London, SCM Press, 1962, p. 163.

11 For the association between kings and horses/chariots see, e.g., Deut 17:16, 1 Sam 8:11, 2 Sam 8:4, 15:1, 1 Kgs 1:5, 4:26, 10:28–29, 20:1, 22:4, 2 Kgs 3:7, 7:6, 19:16–21. In the OT, the donkey is not seen as an instrument of warfare.

12 It should be noted that a donkey is a different animal to a mule (both anatomically and their significance in the Bible). The mule does seem to have royal significance – David’s sons rode mules (2 Sam 13:29) and Solomon’s right to ascend to the throne was signalled by the fact that he rode on David’s own mule (1 Kgs 1:33,44).

13 The crowds present at Jesus’ so-called ‘triumphant entry’ apparently made the connection between Jesus and the suffering David in Psalm 118, because they allude to Ps 118:25–27 in word and deed – see esp. Matthew 21:9 (‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ cf. Ps 118:26, Mark 11:9 (the cry ‘hosanna’ cf. Ps 118:25), Luke 19:38 (‘the king’ – the crowds articulate what is implicit in the psalm) and John 12:9 (palm branches, cf. Ps 118:27).

14 The suffering servant in Isa 53:5 is ‘pierced’ (chalal). The figure in Zech 12:10 is ‘pierced’ (daqar).

15 FF Bruce, The New Testament Development of Old Testament Themes, Grand Rapids, Mich., WB Eerdmans, 1982, p. 112.

16 There are 3 further parallels between these two figures: · The word for ‘pierce’ (daqar) in 12:10 usually means a stab wound inflicted by a

sword, which parallels the imagery in 13:7 of Yahweh’s shepherd being struck by the sword.

· In each passage, there is a perplexing intimacy between the figure and Yahweh. Scholars have long puzzled how to deal with the fact that in 12:10, the Masoretic Text has Yahweh as the one pierced and yet it is an individual who is mourned for. This is paralleled by a similar conundrum in 13:7, where the shepherd is described as Yahweh’s ‘associate’. The Hebrew word for ‘associate’ occurs 12 times, 11 of which are in Leviticus, where it means ‘neighbour/countryman’. Joyce G. Baldwin, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, London, Tyndale, 1972, pp. 197–98 rightly argues that its use here indicates the one who dwells side by side with Yahweh, as His equal.

· In both passages, the stabbing leads first to tragedy, but ultimately to blessing. In the first passage, the movement is from mourning (12:11–14) to purification (13:1). In the second passage, the striking of the shepherd first leads to scattering (13:7), but this ultimately brings about a refining purification (13:9).


17 Zech 12:10 uses a different verb (daqar) from Isa 53 (chalal), but Jer 51:4 shows us that both roots are synonymous: ‘And the pierced ones (chalaliym) will fall down in Babylon, and their pierced ones (duqariym) in their streets.’

18 Fulfilling Jer 31:9 ‘With weeping they shall come, and in supplications I will lead them back’.

19 Wisdom of Solomon 2:10–24 and 5:1–5 describe a Righteous one who suffers, akin to the suffering David of the Psalms. For example, Wisdom 2:18 says ‘For if the Righteous one be the son of God, he will help him, and deliver him from the hand of his enemies’, echoing Psalm 22:8 ‘Let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him’ (and cf. Matt 27:43).But the ‘righteous sufferer’ is also described in terms that strongly echo the servant of Isaiah 40–55:

He calls himself the servant of the Lord (Wis 2:13)He is grievous unto us even to behold (Wis 2:15)Let us condemn him with a shameful death (Wis 2:20)Then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labours (Wis 5:1)And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves. This was he, whom we had sometimes in derision, and a proverb of reproach: We fools reckoned his life madness, and his end to be without honour: How is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints! (Wis 5:3–5)

I agree with the conclusion of Joel Marcus, The Way of the Lord: Christological Exegesis of the Old Testament in the Gospel of Mark, Louisville, Ky., Westminster, 1992, p. 67, that ‘Wisdom of Solomon [2:12–20,5:1–7] … depicts the righteous man’s fate along the lines of Isa. 52:13–53:12’ and Susan R Garrett, The Temptations of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, Grand Rapids, Mich., WB Eerdmans, 1998, p. 191 that Wis 2:12–24 ‘draws on the psalms of individual lament (sometimes called the “psalms of the righteous sufferer”), as well as the Deutero-Isaian “songs of the suffering servant”.’The suffering of the righteous one is given an atoning significance in 4 Maccabees. In this work, the ‘suffering and death of the martyred righteous had redemptive efficacy for all Israel and secured God’s grace and pardon for his people’ (H Anderson, Introduction to ‘4 Maccabees’ in JH Charlesworth (ed.) Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Garden City, NY, Doubleday, 1985, vol II, p. 539). We see this, for example in the prayer of Eleazar: ‘Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them. Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs’ (6.28–29; cf. 17:21–22). David Arthur deSilva, 4 Maccabees: Introduction and Commentary on the Greek Text in Codex Sinaiticus, Leiden, Brill, 2006, p. 139 argues that Isaiah 53 may well have been used by the author of 4 Maccabees as ‘a key to the interpretation of Eleazar’s death’.According to Hengel, ‘The Effective History of Isaiah 53 in the Pre-Christian Period’, p. 118, the Aramaic Apocryphon of Levi (4Q540–541) contains ‘the first and oldest midrashic exploitation of the Servant Songs of Isaiah interpreted in terms of an indi-vidual, in a current of Palestinian Judaism which more or less dates from the second century BC at the latest’. Hengel also argues (p.130) that Isaiah’s suffering servant lies behind the figure described in Testament of Benjamin 3:8 – ‘the spotless one will be defiled by lawless men and the sinless one will die for the sake of impious men’.


20 John’s passion account also draws on the same triple tradition, but with a different ‘flavour’ at points – e.g., John 19:30 picks up the ‘vinegar’ of Ps 69:21 and John 19:37 alludes to Zech 12:9 – ‘they will look upon the one they have pierced’. John 12 explicitly quotes Isa 53:10 ( Jn 12:38), and alludes to Isa 52:13 in the description of the ‘lifting up’ and ‘glorifying’ of Jesus ( Jn 12:28, 32–34).

21 On this connection, see Douglas J Moo, The Old Testament in the Gospel Passion Narratives, Sheffield, Almond Pr., 1983, pp. 93–96.

22 On the complexities of the original passage, see Michael R Stead, ‘The Three Shepherds : Reading Zechariah 11 in the Light of Jeremiah’, in A God of Faithfulness, London/New York, T & T Clark, 2011, pp. 149–165. There is a further layer of allusion in the parallel between the actions of priests and the ‘merchants of the flock’ who value the life of the good shepherd at a mere thirty pieces of silver.

23 Psalm 41 is explicitly cited in John’s account of this meal in John 13:18 – see further Moo, Old Testament in the Passion Narratives, pp. 235–40.

24 Zech 9:11 is a development of the ideas of the blood of the covenant in Exod 24:8.25 See Clay Ham, ‘The Last Supper in Matthew’, Bulletin for Biblical Research, 10 (2000),

53–69 at p. 60 and Moo, Old Testament in the Passion Narratives, pp. 127–32. In Matt 26:28, ekcheô (‘poured out’) follows the Hebrew of Isa 53:12 `arah (‘ empty, pour out’ – see, e.g., Gen 24:20; 2 Chron 24:11; Isa 32:15), rather than the LXX of Isa 53:12, which has paradidômi (‘handed over’). The use of the word ekcheô in Matthew 26:28 may also be a deliberate allusion to the suffering David in Ps 22:14 (LXX) who says ‘I am poured out (ekcheô) like water’.

26 Matt 26:67–68 uses the words beat (‘rapizô) and spit (emptuô) which echo Isa 50:6: beating (‘rapisma) and spit (eptusma). See Moo, Old Testament in the Passion Narratives, p. 139.

27 The translation ‘pierced’ is from the LXX. The MT is evidently corrupted – its translation – ‘like a lion’ – is unintelligible in this context.

Suffering David, Suffering Servant, Stricken Shepherd

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