Intertextuality Pair

Luke 22:37 → Isaiah 53:12

Quotation

Later text

Luke 22:37BSB

For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.”

Earlier text

Isaiah 53:12BSB

Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Significance

This is one of the most theologically loaded self-citations in Luke's Gospel. Jesus explicitly quotes Isaiah 53:12 — wĕ-ʾet-pōšĕʿîm nimnāh ("and he was numbered with the transgressors"; LXX kai en tois anomois elogisthē) — and applies it to himself: "For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment" (Luke 22:37). The verb teleisthēnai ("is reaching fulfillment") indicates that Jesus is consciously living out the Isaianic Servant's destiny. Isaiah 53:12 is the climax of the fourth Servant Song (52:13–53:12), depicting the Servant's voluntary self-giving as a guilt offering and his identification with sinners in their condemnation. Jesus' citation in the context of the Upper Room — immediately before his arrest, trial, and execution alongside criminals — makes the connection visceral and literal: he will be crucified between two criminals (Luke 23:33), numerically "counted among the transgressors." This is the explicit Christological hermeneutic that Luke offers for understanding the cross.

Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s)
Promise-Fulfillment — Christ is the Servant Isaiah foresaw, not a type of the person

▸ The Suffering Servant

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