Man imputed Jesus with sin on the cross, not God.
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No. The verb in v.6 is the causative Hiphil form of פגע, so it means "to cause a secondary agent to lay/strike". Hence, " וַיהוָה הִפְגִּיעַ בּוֹ אֵת עֲוֺן כֻּלָּנוּ׃ " And-YHWH caused-someone-to-strike upon-him the-iniquity of-us-all. YHWH did not lay all our iniquities on Him, but had all our iniquities laid/struck upon Him (whose "our" is being determined by the context.)
v.12 uses נָשָׂא ; v.11 uses סָבַל
Jer 44:22
“So the LORD could no longer bear (נָשָׂא] it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day.
Isa 1:14
Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing (נָשָׂא] them.
NaaSaa' here means put up with/tolerate, and is arguably the same sense as Isaiah is using it in v.12
And this sense, applied to verse 12, in no way undermines the earlier verses that say that Jesus was not imputed by God, but by men, with our sins.
v.11 uses סָבַל, which is also used here
Lam 5:7
Our fathers sinned and are no more,
But we bear ( סָבַל ) their iniquities.
Here, the sense is that they are bearing the consequences of their fathers' sins, not that they are being imputed with their fathers' sins.
And this sense, applied in verse 11, in no way undermines the earlier verses that say that Jesus was not imputed by God, but by men, with our sins.
You're assuming that because הִפְגִּיעַ (hiphgiaʿ) is Hiphil, a secondary human agent must be the focus.
But the text never identifies men as the object of the action.
Isaiah says: "YHWH caused the iniquity of us all to meet upon Him."
The object is "the iniquity of us all", not "false accusations," "the Sanhedrin," or "the Romans."
More importantly, your reading still has to account for the flow of the chapter:
v.4: We esteemed Him (חשב, ḥāshab).
v.6: YHWH caused our iniquity to meet upon Him (פגע, pāgaʿ).
vv.11-12: He bore iniquities and sin (נשא, nāśāʾ).
Those are three different actions.
The chapter moves from human estimation to divine action to the Servant's bearing of sin.
So even if you stress the causative force of Hiphil, the verse still attributes the action to YHWH and the object remains our iniquity, not merely what wicked men did to Him.
That is why Isaiah 53:6 fits naturally with 53:11-12, not with the claim that the entire chapter is only about human accusation.
You're right that I misspoke about verse 11 using נשא. Verse 11 uses סבל (sābal) and verse 12 uses נשא (nāśāʾ). Because I conflated verses 11 and 12 from memory instead of checking the Hebrew text carefully enough.
But that correction does not actually help your argument.
The issue is not whether nāśāʾ and sābal can sometimes mean "endure" or "put up with."
Of course they can.
The issue is how Isaiah uses them here.
Isaiah 53:11 says: "He shall bear (סבל) their iniquities."
Isaiah 53:12 says: "He bare (נשא) the sin of many."
In both verses, the object is not persecution, insults, or false accusations.
The object is iniquities and sin.
Your examples from Isaiah 1:14 and Jeremiah 44:22 involve enduring something objectionable.
But neither passage says: "bear the sin of many."
Nor do they occur in a context where the Servant is simultaneously described as an asham (guilt offering, Isa. 53:10), bearing iniquities (53:11), and bearing sin (53:12).
Likewise, Lamentations 5:7 actually hurts your argument.
The verse says: "We bear their iniquities."
That is precisely the type of construction Isaiah uses.
Whether you define it as bearing guilt, consequences, liability, or burden, the point is that the iniquities of others are being borne.
It is not merely enduring false accusations.
So even granting your lexical observations, the flow of Isaiah 53 remains unchanged:
We esteemed Him stricken (human perception).
The LORD caused our iniquity to meet upon Him (v. 6).
He bears their iniquities (v. 11).
He bears the sin of many (v. 12).
The repeated focus is still on sin and iniquity, not merely on men falsely accusing Him.
That is the point that your word studies never actually remove from the chapter.
Only by the false teachers who are causing people to stumble by getting other to believe they can live in sin and still be saved.
And as a result we see so many Christians today living in sin.
Matthew 13:41,42 - The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Psalms 5:5 - The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity
You are approaching this incorrectly. You are determining the meaning of a word translated from First Century Greek into English in the 17th Century from the way it is used in the 21st Century after it has been infused with 20 centuries of theological massaging. To understand the biblical meaning intended by first Century authors of the word translated in the 17th century as "impute", one needs to look at the way the Greek word was used in the First Century. That is its true "biblical" meaning.
"What did λογίζομαι logízomai mean in first century Greek extra-biblical writings?"
ervativereformer.com
Meaning of λογίζομαι (logízomai)
In first-century extra-biblical Greek, the term λογίζομαι (logízomai) had several key meanings:Primary Definitions
- To Reckon or Calculate: This was often used in financial or mathematical contexts, indicating the act of counting or enumerating.
- To Consider or Infer: It also conveyed the idea of thoughtful consideration or reasoning based on available information.
Contextual Usage
The word was versatile and could be applied in various scenarios, including:- Financial Calculations: Used to describe the act of running numbers or accounting.
- Thoughtful Reflection: Employed to indicate a process of thinking or inferring conclusions after careful consideration.
Summary of Key Aspects
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
| Reckoning | Counting or calculating values |
| Consideration | Reflecting on or inferring based on facts |
| Context | Commonly used in both financial and philosophical discussions |
So, it had nothing to do with falsely accusing someone, as it is used today, due to theologians forcing that meaning into the Bible to shore up their theological biases.
No one achieves moral perfection in this life except you (g., cf. Phil. 3:12, 1John 1:8-9), but no one who lacks divine love will reap eternal life with God (Gal. 6:7-8). Thus, a person who claims to be godly but who is behaving in an ungodly (unloving, untruthful) manner may be in one of the following categories:
a. a normally loving person observed during a rare moment when he/she acted uncharacteristically (Phil. 3:12-16),
b. an immature Believer, who is making progress–you should have known him/her a year ago! (1Cor. 3:1-3, Eph. 4:11-15)
c. a truthseeker who has not yet learned the correct interpretation of God’s Word (1Cor. 6:9-11, Eph. 5:8-9), or
d. a pseudo-Christian (Matt. 7:21, 1John 2:19), who affirms Jesus as Messiah but rejects His Lordship.
e. an apostate or heretic (1John 2:19, Heb. 6:4-6), who once believed but became blasphemous or foolish and ship-wrecked their faith (1Tim. 1:19-20).
f. An atheist, who may imitate divine love without glorifying the One whose power makes it a golden rule rather than merely a pyrite suggestion.
g. ScooterJackson, sinless.
Of course the persecution, insults, and false accusations were sins committed against Christ.
That's not the issue.
The issue is that Isaiah does not say: "He bore the insults of many."
or "He bore the false accusations of many."
He says: "He shall bear their iniquities" (53:11). "He bare the sin of many" (53:12).
You're changing the object.
The question is not whether the sins of His enemies were involved in His suffering. They certainly were.
The question is why Isaiah repeatedly focuses on the Servant bearing iniquity and sin, rather than merely enduring the criminal acts committed against Him.
Your examples from Lamentations 5:7 actually prove the point.
The text does not say the children merely endured their fathers' insults.
It says they bore the consequences of their fathers' iniquities. The object remains iniquity.
Likewise in Isaiah 53, the repeated object is:
our transgressions (v.5)
our iniquities (v.5)
the iniquity of us all (v.6)
their iniquities (v.11)
the sin of many (v.12)
That is a deliberate theme running through the entire passage.
So yes, the persecution and accusations against Christ were sins.
But Isaiah's emphasis is not simply that men sinned against Him.
His emphasis is that the Servant bears sins and iniquities in some sense.
Redefining every occurrence as merely "people treated Him badly" does not account for the repeated language Isaiah chose to use throughout the chapter.
Now be king. U had a parakeet that talked. For a day or two before it fully learned a new phrase it would spout gibberish, then suddenly come out with a perfect phrase. Some humans just never get past the gibberish phrase. They learn one thing and then force everything else to fit around it, including scripture and facts, no matter how they have to twist them, and they think they are profound, so they keep repeating it.