Sufering Servant, Sufering David, and Stricken Shepherd Michael R Stead In Acts 8:30–35, Philip encountered an Ethiopian eunuch reading these words from Isaiah 53:7–8. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. Tese words are pivotal verses in the fourth servant song in the Book of Isaiah, and, like many across the ages, the eunuch wanted to know the identity of this ‘sufering servant’. Philip’s response refects the Christian understanding before and since – that Jesus is the sufering servant. In the New Testament, there are more quotations and allusions to Isaiah’s fourth servant song than any other passage. Tere are some 41 echoes of Isaiah 52:13–53:12 (hereafer abbreviated to Isaiah 53), distributed across the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation. 1 Tis near universal distribution demonstrates the importance of Isaiah’s sufering servant to the early Christians’ understanding of the ministry of Jesus.