I've heard from Jews and Atheists that Christians just "shoehorned" in Isaiah 53 to make the messiah a "suffering servant" and thus "prevent" Jesus from failing, and that there was no Jewish tradition of a suffering and dying messiah. What do you think of this?
(Now of course I don't believe we shoehorned Isaiah 53 in there at all, this was just an interesting objection I've heard)
That would place the "shoehorn" in the hand of the apostle Peter:
1 Peter 2:
21 For this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:
22 “Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;
23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committe to Him who judges righteously;
24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—
by whose stripes you were healed.
25 For you were
like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Isaiah 53:
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were,
our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He
was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace
was upon Him,
And
by His stripes we are healed.
6 All
we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as
a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.