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Joh_12:38. Ἱνα ] in order that, according to divine determination, the prophecy might be fulfilled. This “in order that” contains the definite assumption that the prophet Isaiah predicted what, according to divine destiny, was to come to pass; thus, then, the historical fulfilment stood in necessary relation of final cause to the prediction. Comp. on Mat_1:22.
ὃν εἶπε ] similar pleonasms, which, however, as here, may denote an emphatic circumstantiality, are found also in the Greek writers, as in Xen. Cyr. viii. 2. 14, Anab. i. 9. 11. The passage is Isa_53:1, closely following the LXX. The lament of the prophet over the unbelief of his time towards his preaching (and that of his fellows, ἡμῶν ), and towards the mighty working of God announced by him, has, according to the Messianic character of the whole grand oracle, its reference and fulfilment in the unbelief of the Jews towards Jesus; so that in the sense of this fulfilment, the speaking subject (addressing God, κύριε , comp. Mat_27:46), which Isaiah introduces, is Jesus, not the evangelist and those of like mind with him (Luthardt).
τῇ ἀκοῇ ἡμ .] to that heard from us, i.e. to the message which they receive from us (comp. on Rom_10:16), not: which we receive (comp. Sir_43:24), namely, actually in Christ (Luthardt), as Hengstenberg also understands it of that which we have received through revelation (comp. Euth. Zigabenus). Comp. on the genitive, Plat. Phaedr. p. 274 C; Pausan. viii. 41. 6; Pind. Pyth. i. 162. The plural, however, ἡμῶν , comprises God and Christ in the fulfilment.
ὁ βραχίων κυρ .] Plastic expression for the power of God (comp. Luk_1:51; Act_13:17; Wis_5:16; Wis_11:21; Bar_2:11; Isa_51:5; Isa_52:10), and that according to the Messianic signification; in the miraculous signs of Christ—in which the unbelieving do not recognise the brachium Dei. “In se exsertum est, sed caeci non viderunt illud,” Bengel. But to understand Christ Himself (Augustine, Photius, Euth. Zigabenus, Beda, Ruperti, Zeger, Jansen, Maldonatus, Calovius, and several others) is required neither by the original text nor here by the connection.