[BTT036] Luk 4:21 / Isaiah 61:1-4

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Luk 4:21 / Isaiah 61:1-4

Fulfillment

So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

Original

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

And they shall rebuild the old ruins,
They shall raise up the former desolations,
And they shall repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.

Comparison

With Mark's clear adherence to our expectations behind us, we enter to our only plēroō passage in Luke. This time, we also get a surprise celebrity appearance from Jesus Himself. This is the first time in Scripture where Jesus unambiguously states (according to our rules, anyway) that He is the fulfillment to a specific, quoted Scripture.

While Luke's quotation is closer to the Septuagint than the original Hebrew (accounting for discrepancies like "Lord" instead of "Lord God"), there are also discrepancies with the Septuagint. "To set at liberty those who are oppressed" is not found in the Septuagint, but it is found in the Hebrew and in Luke.

So this brings us right back to where we stood with Matthew: the exact wording does not matter or else we have a different version of Isaiah than Jesus had. Actually, let's update Point Four to reflect that.


Point One: Prophecies may have multiple fulfillments

Re-Revised Point Two: The context may be misleading in prophecy

Point Three: Past, Present, and Future do not matter in prophecy

Re-Revised Point Four: The exact wording does not matter in prophecy, or we have a different version of the Old Testament than Jesus

Point Five: A passage does not have to be explicitly prophetic to be prophecy


Next: [BTT037] John 12:35-41 / Isaiah 53:1-3 / Isaiah 6