The Nerdiest Easter (Pascha) Article You’ll Ever Read

As we celebrate the Pascha of our Lord, consider Isaiah’s words in the fifty-third chapter. Because in this chapter, Isaiah points to the resurrection of the Lord. Here is a translation of Isaiah 53:10–12 from an early Greek translation of the Hebrew text (i.e., the Septuagint or the LXX):

The Lord desires to cleanse him from a blow. If you give a sin-offering, your soul will see long-lived offspring. And the Lord desires to take (him) away from the pain from his soul, to show him light and to shape his understanding, to justify a well serving just one for many; he himself even bears their sins. Because of this, he will inherit many (people), and he will divide the spoils among the strong, in place of whom [or because] his soul is given over to death; and he is reckoned among the lawless. He will bear the sins of many although he was handed over because of their sins. 

Here is the Greek text:

καὶ κύριος βούλεται καθαρίσαι αὐτὸν τῆς πληγῆς· ἐὰν δῶτε περὶ ἁμαρτίας, ἡ ψυχὴ ὑμῶν ὄψεται σπέρμα μακρόβιον· καὶ βούλεται κύριος ἀφελεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ πόνου τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, δεῖξαι αὐτῷ φῶς καὶ πλάσαι τῇ συνέσει, δικαιῶσαι δίκαιον εὖ δουλεύοντα πολλοῖς, καὶ τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν αὐτὸς ἀνοίσει. διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὸς κληρονομήσει πολλούς καὶ τῶν ἰσχυρῶν μεριεῖ σκῦλα, ἀνθʼ ὧν παρεδόθη εἰς θάνατον ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνόμοις ἐλογίσθη· καὶ αὐτὸς ἁμαρτίας πολλῶν ἀνήνεγκε καὶ διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν παρεδόθη.