Does the Targum say Isaiah 53 is about the Messiah?
CLAIM: The oldest Jewish commentary on Isaiah, the Targum Jonathan teaches that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is the Messiah. In almost every missionary book or article that brings Rabbinic sources to try and prove their arguments, the Targum of Yonason Ben Uzziel is mentioned as a proof that the ancient Rabbis believed that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 was the Moshiach Ben Dovid, the King Messiah. Most sources just quote a single verse from it. Here is an example from an Internet article by Victor Buksbazen: From the earliest days, Isaiah 53 was interpreted by Jews as applying to the Messiah. Thus, Jonathan ben Uziel of the first century, in his Targum (an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible) paraphrases Isaiah 53: “My servant, the Messiah, will be great, who was bruised for our sins.”[1] It should be noted that the author has fabricated part of this passage. The words: who was bruised for our sins” do not appear in the original Targum in any place as we can see from th
