---
title: Isaiah 53:1
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-53-1/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-53-1.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 53:1
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 53:1

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "Who has put faith in the thing heard by us? And as for the arm of Jehovah, to whom has it been revealed?"
- NWT (2013 revision): "Who has put faith in the thing heard from us? And as for the arm of Jehovah, to whom has it been revealed?"

## JW Usage

"Who has put faith in the thing heard from us? And as for the arm of Jehovah, to whom has it been revealed?" (NWT). The Watchtower reads Isaiah 53:1 as a lament over Israel's general unbelief in the Messianic message — fulfilled in Israel's failure to embrace Christ in the first century. The "arm of Jehovah" is taken as a metaphor for Jehovah's saving power exercised through Jesus.

## Protestant Usage

John 12:38 quotes Isaiah 53:1 as fulfilled specifically in Israel's rejection of Jesus — and verse 41 supplies the inspired commentary: "Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him." The "him" is Jesus. So Isaiah's two questions in 53:1 turn out to be one question: who has believed the message about Jesus, and to whom has the saving power of Jehovah (which is Jesus) been revealed? The "arm of Jehovah" is not just a metaphor — it is the figure Isaiah 53 then describes in the chapter, the suffering Servant who is pierced for our transgressions. The Servant *is* the arm of Jehovah — Jehovah's saving power embodied. Pair with John 12:37-41 (the apostolic application of Isaiah 53:1 alongside Isaiah 6:9-10, both attributed to Jesus).

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders the verb "believed" (Hebrew he'emin / Greek episteusen at John 12:38 LXX) as "put faith in" — consistent with the broader NWT pattern of converting the stative "believe" into the dynamic "exercise faith" / "put faith in." The verse- level effect is small but the systemic effect is significant: every passage where Paul or John uses the verb "believe" to describe initial trusting reception is shifted toward an ongoing effortful activity. Standard English translations preserve "believed" because believing is a stative trust-act, not a performance one renews. The NWT's "put faith" subtly aligns the receiving-act with the work-of-faith that Watchtower soteriology demands.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Isaiah Saw Jesus' Glory](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john12-isaiah6.md) — John 12:41 / Isaiah 6 [Deity of Christ]