He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth.
⛓ Read Isaiah 53 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Allusion10
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
'Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter... he opened not his mouth' supplies the suffering-Servant lamb whose blood ransoms; Peter fuses Passover lamb with Isaian Servant (cf. the dense Isaiah 53 citation in 2:22-25). High thematic coherence and recurrence in the letter.
High confidence"when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten" (2:23) interprets Isaiah 53:7, 'he was afflicted yet opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to slaughter... he opens not his mouth.' The Servant's silent non-retaliation is the model for unjustly suffering servants.
High confidenceThe Servant 'led like a lamb to the slaughter' who bears the sin of many is the strongest source for a sin-bearing Lamb (v.29), since the Passover lamb is not explicitly sin-removing. The combination of lamb imagery with sin-bearing points decisively to the Servant Song. High coherence.
High confidenceBefore Herod Jesus 'gave no answers' though questioned with many words — the clearest Lukan instance of the Servant who, 'as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.' Volume (verbal silence under interrogation) and coherence with the Passion-Servant reading are both strong.
High confidenceJesus' silence — 'he stayed quiet, and answered nothing' before his accusers — directly enacts the Servant who 'was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter... so he opened not his mouth.' The volume is high and the coherence total: Mark portrays Jesus' refusal to answer as the deliberate fulfillment of the silent Servant.
High confidenceJesus' refusal to answer Pilate's repeated questions ('Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate marveled') enacts the Servant who 'was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.' The volume is high because Mark twice underscores the silence (vv. 4-5) precisely where defense is expected, and the Servant coherence runs through the whole passion. This is the load-bearing intertext of the trial.
High confidence'But Jesus held his peace' (v63) enacts the Servant who 'was oppressed... yet he opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter... so he opened not his mouth.'
High confidence'He answered nothing... he gave him no answer, not even one word, so that the governor marveled' is a direct dramatization of 'he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a sheep before its shearers is silent.' Classic Servant-of-Isaiah silence-before-accusers.
High confidenceHays: high — 'a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain' draws on the Servant who is silently 'led to the slaughter' like a lamb. The redemptive-by-death logic that grounds the Lamb's worthiness is Isaiah 53's vicarious suffering. Note lexical divergence: Revelation favors 'arnion' for the slain Lamb, while LXX Isaiah 53:7 uses 'probaton/amnos'; the figural link is conceptual (sacrificial slaughter) more than verbatim, which is why the Passover lamb is a co-source.
High confidenceJesus brought before Pilate and accused, answering only the laconic 'So you say.' Luke is sounding the Servant who 'opened not his mouth' before his accusers; the reticence theme recurs through the whole trial sequence (vv. 9, 14). Volume is modest here but coherence with the Servant pattern is high.
Medium confidenceEcho3
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
The repeated 'Behold, the Lamb of God' (v.36) re-applies the same Servant-lamb identification, the recurrence of which (vv.29,36) strengthens the Isaiah 53 reading under Hays' recurrence criterion. Medium as it is a restatement of the v.29 source.
Medium confidence'The Lamb who has been killed' (esphagmenou) draws on the suffering servant 'like a lamb that is led to the slaughter' (Isa 53:7, hos probaton epi sphagen); arnion/sphazo cluster underlies Revelation's Lamb christology (cf. Rev 5:6,12).
Medium confidenceThe report that the chief priests 'delivered him up to be condemned to death' resonates with the Servant who was 'led like a lamb to the slaughter' and handed over. As part of the Servant subtext Jesus is about to expound, it colors the travelers' summary, though without quotation. Low and somewhat contested.
Low confidence