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Act_8:32-33. But the contents of the passage of Scripture which he read was this. τῆς γραφῆς ] is here restricted by ἣν ἀνεγίνωσκεν to the notion of a single passage, as also, Act_8:35, by ταύτης (comp. Act_1:16; Luk_4:21; and on Mar_12:10). Luther has given it correctly. But many others refer ἣν ἀνεγίνωσκ . to ἡ περιοχή “locus autem scripturae, quem legebat, hic erat,” Kuinoel, following the Vulgate. But it is not demonstrable that περιοχή signifies a section; even in the places cited to show this, Cic. ad Att. xiii. 25, and Stob. Ecl. Phys. p. 164 A, it is to be taken as here: what is contained in the passage (Hesych. Suid.: ὑπόθεσις ), and this is then verbally quoted. Comp. the use of περιέχει , 1Pe_2:6, and Huther in loc.
ὡς πρόβατον κ . τ . λ .] Isa_53:7-8, with unimportant variation from the LXX.[230] The subject of the whole oracle is the öÆáÆã éÀäÉåÈä , i.e. according to the correct Messianic understanding of the apostolic church, the Messiah (Mat_8:17; Mar_15:28; Joh_12:38 ff; Joh_1:29; 1Pe_2:22 ff.). Comp. the ΠΑῖς ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ , Act_3:13; Act_3:26, Act_4:27; Act_4:30. The prophetical words, as Luke gives them, are as follow: As a sheep He has been led to the slaughter; and as a lamb, which is dumb before its shearer, so He opens not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; i.e. when He had so humbled Himself to the bloody death (comp. Php_2:8), the judicial fate imposed on Him by God[231] was taken from Him, so that now therefore the culmination and crisis of His destiny set in (comp. Php_2:9). But His offspring who shall describe? i.e. how indescribably great is the multitude of those belonging to Him, of whom He will now be the family Head (comp. Php_2:10)! for (ground of the origin of this immeasurable progenies) His life is taken away from the earth, so that He enters upon His heavenly work relieved from the trammels of earth (comp. Joh_12:32; Rom_5:10; Rom_8:29; Rom_8:34; Rom_14:9). γενεά does not, any more than ãåÉø , signify duration of life (Luther, Beza, Calvin, and others). The explanation, also, of the indescribably wicked race of the contemporaries of Christ, who proved their depravity by putting Him to death ( ὍΤΙ ΑἼΡΕΤΑΙ Κ . Τ . Λ .), is inappropriate. Such is the view I have previously taken, with de Wette and older commentators. But in this way the prophecy would be diverted from the person of the Messiah, and that to something quite obvious of itself; whereas, according to the above explanation, the ΑἼΡΕΤΑΙ ἈΠῸ Τ . Γ . Ἡ ΖΩῊ ΑὐΤ . stands in thoughtful and significant correlation to Ἡ ΚΡΊΣΙς ΑὐΤΟῦ ἬΡΘΗ . In these correlates lies the ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗ of the Humbled one, Joh_16:10. The Fathers have explained γενεά in the interest of orthodoxy, but here irrelevantly, of the eternal generation of the Son. See Suicer, Thes. I. p. 744.
[230] Which, however, deviates considerably, and in part erroneously, from the original Hebrew.
[231] The designation of His destiny of suffering as ἡ κρίσις αὐτοῦ presupposes the idea of its vicarious and propitiatory character.