Disability and Isaiah's suffering servant

The 'Suffering Servant' figure in Isaiah 53 has captured the imagination of readers since very early in the history of biblical interpretation. Most interpreters understand the servant as an otherwise able-bodied person who suffers. By contrast, this study shows that Isaiah 53 describes the servant with language and imagery typically associated with disability in the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern literature. It traces both the disappearance of the servant's disability from the interpretative history of Isaiah 53 and the scholarly creation of the able-bodied suffering servant.