Did Jesus of Nazareth live and die without the teaching about the righteous Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 having exerted any significant influence on his ministry? Did the use of Isaiah 53 to interpret his mission actually begin with Jesus? ... the reader of this volume will come away well informed about the dimensions and implications of the debate. -- The Bible Today ... vitally important text. -- Bruce Chilton, Bard College ...well worth the investment of time to read them carefully.... model of academic debate... very fine volume... warmly commended... -- Faith and Mission, Keith Bodner, University of Aberdeen This symposium, collecting such updated and dialogical scholarship, while maintaining clarity for a general audience, is a welcome model... -- H. C. Paul Kim, Claremont Graduate University, as printed by Review of Biblical Literature Vastly crucial for the raging debates about atonement, canon, and the core of faith. -- Durwood Foster, Pacific School of Religion Did Jesus of Nazareth live and die without the teaching about the righteous Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 having exerted any significant influence on his ministry? Is it probable that this text exerted no significant influence upon Jesus' understanding of the plan of God to save the nations that the prophet Isaiah sets forth? Did the use of Isaiah 53 to interpret his mission actually begin with Jesus? Would it have been possible for Jesus to have acted so unnaturally as to have died for the unjust without reference to Isaiah's teaching about the Suffering Servant who poured out his soul to death and bore the sins of many? These are the kinds of questions that were in the minds of those who organized a conference on "Isaiah 53 and Christian Origins" at Baylor University in the fall of 1995. The principal papers from that conference are now available in this book, with contributions by Morna D. Hooker, Paul D. Hanson, Henning Graf Reventlow, R. E. Clements, Otto Betz, N. T. Wright, and others. Of particular note in these papers is the discovery that it may have been Paul rather than Jesus who first exploited the idea of atoning suffering in Isaiah 53. William H. Bellinger, Jr. is Professor of Old Testament at Baylor University. William R. Farmer is Professor of New Testament at the University of Dallas and Editor of the "International Catholic Bible Commentary."