Text: The chapter break inserted at this point in 1879 separates this quotation of Isaiah 53:1–12 from Abinadi’s speech; but the 1879 versification and chapter designations are clearly designed to replicate biblical chapters and verses. Like Nephi and Jacob, Abinadi uses Isaiah as a springboard for his current purpose rather than as an explanatory commentary. At this point, this commentary concentrates on the Isaiah passages themselves and their position in Abinadi’s discourse.
Abinadi introduces the quotation with a short statement: “Yea, even doth not Isaiah say… ” which ties Abinadi’s previous statements to the following Isaiah quotation. Because that context is important, I repeat those verses here: “Have they not said that God himself should come down among the children of men, and take upon him the form of man, and go forth in mighty power upon the face of the earth? Yea, and have they not said also that he should bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, and that he, himself, should be oppressed and afflicted?” (Mosiah 13:34–35).
Abinadi quotes Isaiah as an example of a prophet who has foretold the Messiah’s mortal mission. Once again, our modern perspective can easily obscure the potential theological differences that Abinadi would face. While Noah’s priests might agree that a Triumphant Messiah would come at the end of time, they deny his mortal (atoning) mission. In other words, from Abinadi’s perspective, there are two future “comings” of the Messiah: the first (mortal) and the second (triumphant). While from our perspective, we know that the first has already occurred and await the second, it is not surprising that Abinadi’s listeners could have easily confused these two future “comings” involving the same figure or had trouble reconciling the Triumphant Messiah of the second coming with the scorned and rejected Messiah of the first.
Abinadi begins his argument with Isaiah 53:1. As Welch notes:
Although some scholars have wondered whether the song of the suffering servant should begin at Isaiah 53:1 or 52:13, the fact that Abinadi began quoting at Isaiah 53:1 implies that he and the ancient Nephites understood that a poetical unit began at Isaiah 53:1, as it does today in the traditional chapter divisions in the Bible, not at Isaiah 52:13, as has been suggested by such scholars as Dion and Clines. Indeed, other biblicists, including Orlinsky and Whybray, have argued in favor of commencing the unit at 53:1, the traditional starting point.
In addition to these technical arguments for seeing Isaiah 53:1 as the beginning point, there is another reason why Abinadi might begin his quotation here. Welch implies that Abinadi would prefer to start at the “beginning” of a poetical unit. Certainly Nephi and Jacob follow this pattern in their Isaiah quotations (see “Excursus: Isaiah on the Small Plates,” following 1 Nephi 19), but Abinadi seems less constrained. Here, I suggest that a more important fact is that Isaiah 53:1 asks Abinadi’s very question: “Who hath believed our report… ?” If 52:13 were seen as the beginning point, then this question refers to the beginning of the “report” which discusses the “servant.” But if 53:1 is the beginning point, then the question must refer to the answer which follows, not to a previous text.
In either case, it is the question that is most important. Abinadi is using it as a text that comments on his previous statement about the numerous prophets who have predicted this suffering Messiah. Now he asks, in Isaiah’s words, “Who hath believed our report?” While Isaiah’s reference was general, Abinadi’s is a loaded gun pointed at Noah’s priests. Abinadi has declared that there will be a suffering Messiah, a first-coming Messiah, and claims the support of other prophets who have made the same prediction. Abinadi is stressing that it is the unbelieving priests, not he, who are in conflict with the scriptures.
Victor Ludlow, professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University, sees Isaiah 53:1 in precisely the way Abinadi uses it—as a declaration that other prophets have testified of the Savior:
Isaiah asks a second question at the beginning of verse 1: “In whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” He implies that the servant will be revealed by the “arm” or power of the Lord. (See Isa. 52:10, John 12:37–38, 1 Ne. 22:10–11, D&C 45:47.) Isaiah spends the rest of the chapter answering this second question.
The servant to be revealed by the Lord’s power is not named, but both the prophet Abinadi and the evangelist Philip identify him as Jesus Christ (Mosiah 15, Acts 8:26–35). In addition, Matthew, Peter, and Paul apply various verses of Isaiah 53 to Christ (Matt. 8:17, 1 Pet. 2:24–25, Rom. 4:25).