sotto voce

That seems rather arbitrary.

So the crucifixion has magnitude.

Why tell people what they already know? It was an Ethiopian who needed explanation.

Duvduv

I see a single reference to the root of Jesse in the very last chapter of Romans. It is an unusual epistle because Christ is mentioned sparsely in many chapters and is not even introduced until the fifth chapter except for the introduction and a few words in chapter three.
Acts is a much later work.

sotto voce

Those must be the interpolated chapters, then.

Duvduv

How would you evaluate this issue then? And how would you interpret the entire absence of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah as scriptural "proof" for a major portion of the Jesus story either in the gospels or the epistles?!

Duvduv

While we're at it, here is a revised version of Galatians without the Christ elements.

3:2This only would I learn from you. Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3:3Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now perfected in the flesh? 3:4Did ye suffer so many things in vain? if it be indeed in vain. 3:5He therefore that supplieth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3:6Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. 3:7Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. 3:8And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed.

3:9So then they that are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. 3:10For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them. 3:11Now that no man is justified by the law before God, is evident: for, The righteous shall live by faith; 3:12and the law is not of faith; but, He that doeth them shall live in them. 3:15Brethren, I speak after the manner of men: Though it be but a man's covenant, yet when it hath been confirmed, no one maketh it void, or addeth thereto. 3:16Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one,

3:17Now this I say: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God, the law, which came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not disannul, so as to make the promise of none effect. 3:18For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise: but God hath granted it to Abraham by promise. 3:19What then is the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise hath been made; and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator.

3:20Now a mediator is not a mediator of one; but God is one. 3:21Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could make alive, verily righteousness would have been of the law. 3:23But before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. . 3:25But now faith that is come, we are no longer under a tutor.

4:1But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; 4:2but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. 4:3So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world: 4:7So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. 4:8Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods: 4:9but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again?

4:10Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. 4:11I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain. 4:12I beseech you, brethren, become as I am, for I also am become as ye are. Ye did me no wrong: 4:13but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time: 4:14and that which was a temptation to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but ye received me as an angel of God. 4:15Where then is that gratulation of yourselves? for I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 4:16So then am I become your enemy, by telling you the truth? 4:17They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them. 4:18But it is good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only when I am present with you. 4:21Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 4:22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. 4:23Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. 4:24Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. 4:25Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. 4:26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. 4:27For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not;
Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not:
For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband.
4:28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 4:29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now. 4:30Howbeit what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. 4:31Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman.

5:13For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love be servants one to another. 5:14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 5:15But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 5:16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 5:17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. 5:18But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 5:19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 5:20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, 5:21envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 5:23meekness, self-control; against such there is no law. 5:25If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. 5:26Let us not become vainglorious, provoking one another, envying one another.
6:1Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 6:3For if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 6:4But let each man prove his own work, and then shall he have his glorying in regard of himself alone, and not of his neighbor. 6:5For each man shall bear his own burden. 6:6But let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. 6:7Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 6:8For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. 6:9And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 6:10So then, as we have opportunity, let us work that which is good toward all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the faith. 6:11See with how large letters I write unto you with mine own hand. 6:13For not even they who receive circumcision do themselves keep the law; but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. 66:15For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. 6:16And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. Amen.

sotto voce

Christ is mentioned 65 times in Romans, in every chapter except ch 4, which has 'Jesus our Lord'. That chapter is predicated on atonement, and makes no sense otherwise. If one makes arbitrary criteria that take no account of meaning, one will have ample opportunity to claim interpolation. Of all the biblical authors, Paul is the one most susceptible to misrepresentation by chopping out small chunks, and several heresies have been devised by this means. He develops long arguments, and it is absolutely necessary to read all of his letters each in one sitting, at least once. The same goes for the gospels, also.

The meaning of Is. 53 is found throughout the apostolic letters. That chapter does not need to be actually quoted. It is taken as read, because the readers of the letters would not be reading them had they not already used that chapter, and others, in order to identify Jesus.

'The Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, because they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.' Ac 17:11

Duvduv

I consider chapter a doctrinal statement and appended to it. Yes, Christ is mentioned one time in chapter two and twice in chapter three. Considering how central he should be, it certainly doesn't look like much. Chapter four zero, chapter five has all those times Christ is mentioned. But he's not "important" enough to be mentioned repeatedly until the last chapter. God alone is mentioned far more often, which raises my antennae as to the nature of the origin of the epistle.

sotto voce

Chapters are arbitrary. You can make your own.

Do as your teacher tells you.

Duvduv

On the matter of the messianic prophecies that go unmentioned in the epistles, including Isaiah 53, as "evidence" for the messianic status of the Christ, the question is why should this have been the case?
Did the authors of the epistles not know of the references they skipped over in Isaiah or Malachi?
Did they intentionally leave them off?
Or was the original epistle citing other verses in the Tanakh unrelated to a specifically salvation/messianic theme, and did it merge later on with such a theme, even if the theme concerned a celestial Christ and left as is instead of being totally rewritten from scratch?

Diogenes the Cynic

Isaiah does not have anything to say about Jesus, and none of the NT authors had any special access into Isaiah's "meaning." Those chapters "identify Jesus" only because the authors decided they did. There is actually not a word pertaining to Jesus in the entire Old Testament. Sorry to break it to you.