Jesus as Isaiah’s God

Another Arian Bites the Dust

According to John’s Gospel, the prophet Isaiah saw Jesus Christ in his prehuman existence as YHWH of Hosts seated on his heavenly throne:

“Jesus replied, ‘The light is with you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become sons of light.’ When Jesus had said these things, he went away and hid himself from them.

“Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him, so that the word of the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled. He said, ‘Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ For this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said,

‘He has blinded their eyesand hardened their heart,so that they would not see with their eyesand understand with their heart,and turn to me, and I would heal them.’

“Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s glory, and spoke about him. Nevertheless, even among the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess Jesus to be the Christ, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. For they loved praise from men more than praise from God. But Jesus shouted out, ‘The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me, and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me. I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness.’” John 12:35-46

John 12:41 tn Grk “his”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent supplied here is “Christ” rather than “Jesus” because it involves what Isaiah saw. It is clear that the author presents Isaiah as having seen the preincarnate glory of Christ, which was the very revelation of the Father (see John 1:18; John 14:9).

sn Because he saw Christ’s glory. The glory which Isaiah saw in Isa 6:3 was the glory of Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). Here John speaks of the prophet seeing the glory of Christ since in the next clause and spoke about him, “him” can hardly refer to Yahweh, but must refer to Christ. On the basis of statements like 1:14 in the prologue, the author probably put no great distinction between the two. Since the author presents Jesus as fully God (cf. John 1:1), it presents no problem to him to take words originally spoken by Isaiah of Yahweh himself and apply them to Jesus. New English Translation (NET: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2012%3A35-42&version=NET; emphasis mine)

Here is the vision of Isaiah, which the Apostle referenced:

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,

‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts;The whole earth is full of His glory.’

“And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called out, while the house of God was filling with smoke. Then I said,

‘Woe is me, for I am ruined!For I am a man of unclean lips,And I live among a people of unclean lips;For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts.’

“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.’

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He said, ‘Go, and tell this people:

“Keep on hearing, but do not understand;Keep on seeing, but do not know.’Render the hearts of this people insensitive,Their ears dull,And their eyes dim,Lest they see with their eyes,And hear with their ears,And understand with their hearts,And return and be healed.”’” Isaiah 6:1-10

Not surprisingly, anti-Trinitarians object to this interpretation, and the reason is obvious.

An example of such an anti-Trinitarian is Arian apologist and former Jehovah’s Witness Greg Stafford, who writes:    

Again, it seems reasonably clear that the things Isaiah said about Jesus are found in Isaiah 53, as cited in John 12:38. Verses 39-40 are an explanation of why the crowds were not able to believe. If verse 41 has any reference at all to Isaiah 6 it certainly would not be to identify Jesus as Jehovah![sic] Rather, the context of Isaiah 6 does seem to have some Messianic significance [sic]. In verses 6-7 there could be some prophetic significance in the atonement of Isaiah's sins, perhaps foreshadowing the redemptive act the future Messiah would perform to remove the sins of many (compare Isa 53:11). Also, there is the reference to the one Jehovah would send as a messenger to his people, which could also be a foreshadowing of the role that Jesus would eventually have, in the outworking of Jehovah's purpose. Some later theologians held that Jesus was actually one of the seraphs in the vision.¹¹ In Isaiah 6:8 Jehovah says, "Who will go for us [לָ֑נוּ, lanu, 'for us']." This indicates someone other than Jehovah was present in this vision, and that someone may very well have been the Lord Jesus Christ, in his pre-human glory as the "Word." Joh 1:1; compare Joh 17:5.

Our quote from The Watchtower earlier suggested that Isaiah may have seen the glory of the preexistent Logos. This view would be in line with the Targum of Isaiah. Knowing as he did that no man (including Isaiah) has ever seen God (Joh 1:18), John may have been following the tradition of the Targum which translates Isaiah 6:1 "the glory of the Lord," and verse 5 "the glory of the shekinah of the Lord.”¹² Still, it seems clear that John is directly referring to those things Isaiah "spoke" in chapter 53 of the book bearing his name. Here Isaiah saw his [the Messiah's] day,' even as Abraham is reported to have done (Joh 8:56), and "spoke about him." Isaiah was not confused at all about the identity of the Messiah, and what position he occupied in relation to the Most High.—Isa 11:1-3.

¹¹ Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (i-xii) (AB 29; Garden City, New York; Doubleday, 1966), 487.

¹² Brown, John (i-xii), 486-487. Wilbert F. Howard, The Gospel According to St. John (AB 8; New York: Abingdon, 1952), 673, states: "The evangelist declared 'No one has ever seen God’ (1:18). He was probably well aware of the rendering in the Targ. of Isa. 6:1, 'I saw the glory of the Lord.’" Franklin Young, "A Study of the Relation of Isaiah to the Fourth Gospel," ZNW 46 (1955), 215, points out that "the words [of John 12:41] have been interpreted as referring to a vision of the Logos identified with Jesus, the pre-existent Messiah." (Greg Stafford, Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended: An Answer to Scholars and Critics [Elihu Books, Huntington Beach, CA, 1998], pp. 54-55; emphasis mine)

It is ironic for Stafford to appeal to John 1:1, 18 and 17:5 to argue that the Son would have been present in Isaiah’s vision when he saw Jehovah, since this ends up being the very refutation of his objection.

For instance, Christ claims to have possessed glory alongside the Father as they existed alongside each other from before the world’s creation:

“So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.” John 17:5 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVUE)

According to Hebrews, the glory which the Son possessed (and continues to possess) is identical to the Father’s:

“spoke to us at the last of these days by a Son, Whom He appointed inheritor of all things, through Whom also He made the worlds...Who— being (on) the radiance of His glory and exact-representation of His essence, and upholding all things by the word of His power— having made purification of sins, sat-down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:2-4 Disciples’ Literal New Testament (DLNT)

This brings us to John’s prologue.

According to the Apostle, Christ as the Word was already existing before all creation since he is the One God employed to bring all things into being. Christ as the Word is also the One who spiritually energizes mankind by the life that abides in him:  

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people... The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth... No one has EVER seen God. It is the only Son, himself God (monogenes theos), who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” John 1:1-4, 9-10, 14, 18 NRSVUE

As Stafford himself acknowledged, John is clear that no one has ever seen God apart from the revelation of the monogenes theos, i.e., the Son.   

The plain implication of the Apostle’s statement is that Isaiah could not see God unless and until the divine Son revealed himself to the prophet.

This basically means that Jesus is that very YHWH God whom Isaiah saw, and it was his glory that the prophet beheld and spoke of!  

As noted Christian philosopher and apologist Dr. William Lane Craig puts it:

Equally startling as the expression monogenes theos is John's claim, in connection with 1.18a “No one has ever seen God,” that the vision of the LORD of hosts described in Is 6.1 was in actuality a vision of the pre‐incarnate Christ: “Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (Jn 12.41)! The idea here seems to be that no one has ever seen God the Father, but God the Son has revealed him. Therefore, Isaiah's vision of the LORD upon his throne must be a vision of God the Son! We have here not merely the application of an OT proof text about Yahweh to Jesus, but rather the actual retrojection of Christ into a prior historical circumstance. He is here clearly equated with God.⁶⁷ On the basis of Jn 1.18 Anthony Hanson generalizes this retrojection of Christ to encompass in the mind of the Fourth Evangelist all theophanies in the OT: John's belief was certainly that “whenever in the OT God is described as appearing or being heard it is in fact Jesus, the pre‐existent Word, who was seen or heard.”⁶⁸ But, he cautions, “this is by no means the same thing as saying that John identified Jesus with the Adōnai of the Old Testament. On the contrary, John as much as Paul could envision God as speaking to Jesus in the OT.”⁶⁹ The clearest example of this phenomenon actually occurs in the Synoptics, where Jesus quotes the oft‐cited Ps 110, “The Lord said to my Lord” (Mt 22.41–46; Mk 12.35–37; Lk 20.40–41). John clearly differentiates the Son from the Father, but it is the only‐begotten God that Isaiah saw. (Craig, Systematic Philosophical Theology: On God: Excursus On Natural Theology: On the Trinity [Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2026], p. 347; emphasis mine)

John isn’t the only inspired witness to claim that Jesus is the God who appeared all throughout the Old Testament period. Note what the Apostle Paul wrote in regards to Christ being the spiritual Rock who accompanied Moses and the Israelites:

“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ... And let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, 9 New English Translation (NET)

Here is what the NET textual notes say:

1 Corinthians 10:9 tc Χριστόν (Christon, “Christ”) is attested in the majority of mss, including many significant witnesses of the Alexandrian (P⁴⁶ 1739 1881) and Western (D F G) text-forms, and other mss and versions (Ψ latt sy co). On the other hand, some of the significant Alexandrian witnesses have κύριον (kurion, “Lord”; א B C P 33 104 1175 al). A few mss (A 81) have θεόν (theon, “God”). The nomina sacra for these readings are quite similar (cMn, kMn, and qMn respectively), so one might be able to account for the different readings by way of confusion. On closer examination, the variants appear to be intentional changes. Alexandrian scribes replaced the highly specific term “Christ” with the less specific terms “Lord” and “God” because in the context it seems to be anachronistic to speak of the exodus generation putting Christ to the test. If the original had been “Lord,” it seems unlikely that a scribe would have willingly created a difficulty by substituting the more specific “Christ.” Moreover, even if not motivated by a tendency to overcorrect, a scribe might be likely to assimilate the word “Christ” to “Lord” in conformity with Deut 6:16 or other passages. The evidence from the early church regarding the reading of this verse is rather compelling in favor of “Christ.” Marcion, a second-century, anti-Jewish heretic, would naturally have opposed any reference to Christ in historical involvement with Israel, because he thought of the Creator God of the OT as inherently evil. In spite of this strong prejudice, though, Marcion read a text with “Christ.” Other early church writers attest to the presence of the word “Christ,” including Clement of Alexandria and Origen. What is more, the synod of Antioch in a.d. 268 used the reading “Christ” as evidence of the preexistence of Christ when it condemned Paul of Samosata. (See G. Zuntz, The Text of the Epistles, 126-27; TCGNT 494; C. D. Osburn, “The Text of 1 Corinthians 10:9, ” New Testament Textual Criticism: Its Significance for Exegesis, 201-11; contra A. Robertson and A. Plummer, First Corinthians [ICC], 205-6.) Since “Christ” is the more difficult reading on all accounts, it is almost certainly the reading that gave rise to the others. In addition, “Christ” is consistent with Paul’s style in this passage (cf. 10:4, a text in which Marcion also reads “Christ”). This text is also christologically significant, since the reading “Christ” makes an explicit claim to the preexistence of Christ. (The textual critic faces a similar dilemma in Jude 5. In a similar exodus context, some of the more significant Alexandrian mss [A B 33 81] and the Vulgate read “Jesus” in place of “Lord.” Two of those mss [A 81] are the same mss that have “God” instead of “Christ” in 1 Cor 10:9. See the tc notes on Jude 5 for more information.) In sum, “Christ” has all the earmarks of authenticity here and should be considered the autographic reading.

Jude agrees with Paul who is just as explicit in affirming that it was the prehuman Jesus who personally led Israel out of Egypt, and subsequently punished them for their rebellion:

“For certain men have secretly slipped in among you—men who long ago were marked out[d] for the condemnation I am about to describe—ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts once for all) that Jesus having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.” Jude 1:4-5 NET

Here are the NET’s notes, which illustrate how remarkable Jude’s claims are:

Jude 1:4 tn The terms “Master and Lord” both refer to the same person. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. For more discussion see ExSyn 270-78. See also Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1

Jude 1:5 tc The reading ᾿Ιησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel (the NA²⁷ has “the Lord” instead of “Jesus”). However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses (e.g., A B 33 81 88 322 424^c 665 915 1241 (1735: “the Lord Jesus”) 1739 1881 2298 2344 vg co eth Or^1739mg Cyr Hier Bede), but the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) or θεός (theos, “God”) for ᾿Ιησοῦς (though P⁷² has the intriguing reading θεὸς Χριστός [theos Christos, “God Christ”] for ᾿Ιησοῦς). As difficult as the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is, in light of v. 4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate. The NA²⁸ text now also reads Ιησοῦς. For defense of this reading, see Philipp Bartholomä, “Did Jesus Save the People out of Egypt: A Re-examination of a Textual Problem in Jude 5,” NovT 50 (2008): 143-58.

sn The construction our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ in v. 4 follows Granville Sharp’s rule (see note on Lord). The construction strongly implies the deity of Christ. This is followed by a statement that Jesus was involved in the salvation (and later judgment) of the Hebrews. He is thus to be identified with the Lord God, Yahweh. Verse 5, then, simply fleshes out what is implicit in v. 4.

Dr. Craig mentions that the reading Jesus is now adopted by virtually all of the major critical Greek New Testament textual apparatuses:

67 Perhaps this is as good a place as any to mention the even more mind‐boggling assertion in Jude 5 that it was Jesus who led the Israelites out of Egypt during the Exodus and later judged the apostates! “Now I desire to remind you … that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (NRSVUE). So incredible is this assertion that earlier textual critics and translators defied the much weightier attestation of the Greek and versional witnesses to Iēsous and chose to read kyrios instead. But now the UBS⁵ and NA²⁸ as well as the SBLGT and THGNT are united in preferring the reading Iesous, a reading reflected in more recent translations. Similarly Paul says in reference to the Israelites that “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents (I Cor 10.9 NRSVUE). Again, although some later copyists substituted kyrion, the oldest Greek manuscripts (P⁴⁶) read Christon. It is just stunning that Paul, John, and Jude all claim that God of the Hebrew Scriptures is, in fact, Jesus. (Craig, Systematic Theology, Volume 2b, p. 369; emphasis mine)

What did the Jews Say?

Since Stafford mentioned the Aramaic paraphrase of Isaiah 6, I thought it only appropriate to quote what it actually says:

Chapter 6

בְּשַׁתָּא דְאִתְנַגַע בָּהּ מַלְכָּא עֻזִיָה אֲמַר נְבִיָא חֲזֵיתִי יַת יְקָרָא דַייָ שָׁרֵי עַל כּוּרְסֵיהּ רָם וּמִתְנַטֵל בִּשְׁמֵי מְרוֹמָא וּמִזִיו יְקָרֵיהּ אִתְמְלֵי הֵיכְלָא: 

In the year in which King Uzziah was smitten with the leprosy the prophet said, I saw the glory of the Lord sitting upon His throne, high, and lifted up unto the highest heavens, and the temple was filled with the brightness of His glory.

שַׁמָשִׁין קַדִישִׁין בְּרוּמָא קֳדָמוֹהִי שִׁתָּא גַפִּין לְחַד שִׁתָּא גַפִּין לְחַד בִּתְרִין מְכַסֵי אַפּוֹהִי דְלָא חָזֵי וּבִתְרֵין מְכַסֵי גְוִיָתֵיהּ דְלָא מִתְחֲזֵי וּבִתְרֵין מְשַׁמֵשׁ: 

Holy ministers on high stood before him: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, that it should not see; and with twain he covered his body, that it should not be seen; and with twain he was ministering.

וּמְקַבְּלִין דֵין מִן דֵין וְאָמְרִין קַדִישׁ בִּשְׁמֵי מְרוֹמָא עִלָאָה בֵית שְׁכִנְתֵּיהּ קַדִישׁ עַל אַרְעָא עוֹבַד גְבוּרְתֵּיהּ קַדִישׁ לְעָלַם וּלְעָלְמֵי עָלְמַיָא יְיָ צְבָאוֹת מַלְיָא כָל אַרְעָא זִיו יְקָרֵיהּ:

And one cried unto another, and they were saying, Holy in the highest and exalted heavens is the house of His Shekinah, holy upon the earth is the work of His might, holy for ever, world without end, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of the brightness of His glory.

וְזָעוּ אֵילְוַת סִפֵּי הֵיכְלָא מִקָל מִלוּלָא וּבֵית מַקְדְשָׁא אִתְמְלֵי אֲמִטְתָא: 

And the posts of the threshold of the temple moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house of the sanctuary was filled with cloudy darkness.

וַאֲמָרֵית וַי לִי אֲרֵי חָבֵית אֲרֵי גְבַר חַיָב לְאוֹכָחָא אֲנָא וּבְגוֹ עַמָא דְמִגְעַל בְּחוֹבִין אֲנָא יָתִיב אֲרֵי יַת יְקַר שְׁכִינַת מְלַךְ עַלְמַיָא יְיָ צְבָאוֹת חֲזָאָה עֵינָי: 

Then said I, Woe is me, for I have sinned, for I am a guilty man to reprove, and I dwell in the midst of a people polluted with sin: for mine eyes have seen the glory of the Shekinah of the King of the worlds, the Lord of hosts.

וְאִשְׁתְּדִי לְוָתִי חַד מִן שַׁמָשַׁיָא וּבְפוּמֵיהּ מַמְלֵל דְקַבֵּיל מִן קֳדָם דִשְׁכִנְתֵּיהּ עַל כּוּרְסֵי יְקָרָא בִּשְׁמֵי מְרוֹמָא עֵיל מִן מַדְבְּחָא:

Then flew one of the ministers unto me, and in his mouth was a word, which he received from the Shekinah of Him who sat upon the throne of glory in the highest heavens, above the altar.

וְסַדַר בְּפוּמִי וַאֲמַר הָא שַׁוִיתִי פִּתְגַמֵי נְבוּאָתִי בְּפוּמָךְ וְיַעְדוּן חוֹבָךְ וְחֶטְאָךְ יִתְכַּפְּרוּן:

And he placed it in my mouth, and said, Behold, I have put the words of my prophecies in thy mouth, and thy iniquities are put away, and thy sins are expiated.

וּשְׁמָעִית יַת קַל מֵימְרָא דַייָ דַאֲמַר יַת מַן אֲשַׁלַח לְאִתְנַבָּאָה וּמַן יֵזֵיל לְאַלָפָא וַאֲמָרִית הָא אֲנָא שְׁלַח יָתִי:

And I heard the voice of the Word of the Lord, which said, Whom shall I send to prophesy? and who will go to teach? Then said I, Here am I, send me. (Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 6; emphasis mine)

Far from helping Stafford’s case, the Targum actually reinforces the Trinitarian interpretation. This Aramaic paraphrase illustrates the fact that even non-Christian Jews were aware that there is an actual divine plurality existing within the Deity that they worshipped.

Note that God’s Glory, Word and Presence (Shekinah) are hypostatized, being described as distinct Persons of sorts, and yet all of them still connected and related to the one true God of Israel.

Interestingly, Christ is not only said to be the Word (cf. John 1:1, 14; 1 John 1:1-3; Rev. 19:13), he is further described as the Glory and the very physical embodiment of God’s entire, complete essence:

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” Colossians 2:9 (NIV)

“My brothers, stop holding the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Glory (tou kyriou hemon 'Iesou Christou tes doxes), with partiality.” James 2:1 Wilbur Pickering’s New Testament (WPNT)

Here’s another translation of James:

“My brothers, as you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Glory, pay no servile regard to people.” James Moffatt New Testament

In other words, Jesus is the very Presence and Glory of God Incarnate!

It’s All Greek to Me!

As if appealing to the Targum wasn’t bad enough for Stafford, the Greek of Isaiah (known as the Septuagint [LXX]) makes it even worse for him:

“And it came to pass in the year in which king Ozias died, [that] I saw (eidon) the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of his glory (tes doxes autou)... And one cried to the other, and they said, Holy, holy, holy [is the] Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory of his glory (tes doxes autou).” Isaiah 6:1, 3

Contrast that with the Greek of John:

“Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory (eiden ten doxan autou), and spoke of him.” John 12:41

The Greek of Isaiah and John is identical, and only the form of the words differ due to their position within the sentence, i.e., first person versus third person, genitive versus accusative, etc. For instance, eidon is the first-person singular form of horao whereas eiden is third person singular, and doxes is the genitive feminine case of doxa whereas doxan is in the accusative feminine case.

In light of the above, could John have made it any more obvious that the God whose glory Isaiah saw is none other than Jesus Christ himself in his preincarnate state?

JESUS: YHWH’S UNCREATED, ALMIGHTY ARM

Another blow to Stafford’s objections comes from the fact that Jesus is said to be the very Arm of YHWH in Isaiah 53, where the prophet describes the Servant as suffering and dying vicariously for the sins of the world:

“Who has believed our message? To whom has Yahweh’s arm been revealed? For HE grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. HE has no good looks or majesty. When we see HIM, there is no beauty that we should desire HIM. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth. He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people? They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

“Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah 53:1-12   

What Stafford fails to realize is that this phrase is used to describe YHWH acting by himself, all alone, in bringing about redemption and judgment.

In other words, “arm of YHWH” refers to God acting in his own power without any mediation, since he could not find any one good enough to assist him or to work through:

“Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh! Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? Isn’t it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?” Isaiah 51:9-10

“Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate: wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. He will repay the islands their due. So they will fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which Yahweh’s breath drives.” Isaiah 59:15-19  

This next one is quite remarkable:

“Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? Who is this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? ‘It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’ Why is your clothing red, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat? ‘I have trodden the wine press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed has come. I looked, and there was no one to help; and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought salvation to me. My own wrath upheld me. I trod down the peoples in my anger and made them drunk in my wrath. I poured their lifeblood out on the earth.’” Isaiah 63:1-6

John takes the above description of YHWH and applies it to the Lord Jesus Christ!

“I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself. He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called ‘The Word of God.’ The armies which are in heaven, clothed in white, pure, fine linen, followed him on white horses. Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.’” Revelation 19:11-16

Jesus does what only YHWH God is able to do, and Jesus appears in the exact same way that YHWH appeared to Isaiah!

The reason is obvious why this would be the case, i.e., Jesus Christ is the very Arm of YHWH, who is YHWH God Almighty coming to save and judge!

THE MESSIAH’S HEAVENLY EXALTATION

We now come to Stafford’s coup de grâce. As the Arm of YHWH who comes to save the nations, Jesus is then described as being exalted to the very status of YHWH himself:

“Yahweh has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Depart! Depart! Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels. For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight; for Yahweh will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up (yarum wa'nissa), and will be very high. Just as many were astonished at you—his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men—so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for they will see that which had not been told them, and they will understand that which they had not heard.” Isaiah 52:10-15  

The prophet employs the exact same terms to describe the Servant’s exaltation, which he uses elsewhere in reference to YHWH’s enthronement:

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up (ram wa'nissa); and his train filled the temple.” Isaiah 6:1

“Yahweh is exalted (nisgab), for he dwells on high (marom). He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.” Isaiah 33:5

“‘Now I will arise,’ says Yahweh. ‘Now I will lift myself up (eromam). Now I will be exalted (ennase).’” Isaiah 33:10

“For the high and lofty One (ram wa'nissa) who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: ‘I dwell in the high (marom) and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” Isaiah 57:15

This language simply reinforces the point of the Messiah being both personally distinct from, and yet essentially equal to YHWH Almighty. Isaiah’s inspired utterances provide more confirmation for the Trinity, since the prophet’s witness proves that Jesus is God Almighty in the flesh, while also being distinct from both the Father and the Holy Spirit.

So much Stafford’s contention.

Unless stated otherwise, scriptural references taken from the World English Bible (WEB).

Further Reading

JWS AGREE: ISAIAH SAW CHRIST!

Jesus Christ: The God Whose Glory Isaiah Beheld

Jewish Christology [Part 1], [Part 2], [Part 3]

Scholars on the Christology of James and Jude