Preterite. Compare in ver. 8, in ver. 12. This affords a sure proof that we are here altogether on an ideal territory. The ancient translators too have not understood the Preterites as a designation of the real Past, and frequently render them by Futures. Thus the LXX. ver. 14: ÉKOTŃOOVTAI— ádoğnoe; Aqui. and Theod., ver. 2, ávaßnoeтau.-It is farther asserted, that the idea of a suffering and expiating Messiah is foreign to the Old Testament, and stands in contradiction even to its prevailing views of the Messiah. But this objection cannot be of any weight; nor can it prove any thing, as long as, in the Church of Christ, the authority of Christ is still acknowledged, who Himself declares that His whole suffering had been foretold in the books of the Old Testament, and explained to His disciples the prophecies concerning it. Even the fact, that at the time when Christ appeared the knowledge of a suffering Messiah was undeniably possessed by the more enlightened, proves that the matter stands differently. This knowledge is shown not only by the Baptist, but also by Simeon, Luke ii. 34, 35. An assertion to the contrary can proceed only from the erroneous opinion, that every single Messianic prophecy exhibits the whole view of the Messiah, whereas, indeed, the Messianic announcements bear throughout a fragmentary, incidental character,-a mode of representation which is generally prevalent in Scripture, and by which Scripture is distinguished from a system of doctrines. But even if there had existed an appearance of such a contradiction, it would long ago have been removed by the fulfilment. But even the appearance of a contradiction is here inadmissible, inasmuch as the Servant of God is here not only represented as suffering and expiating, but, at the same time, as an object of reverence to the whole Gentile world; and the ground of this reverence is His suffering and expiation. As regards the other passages of the Old Testament where a suffering Messiah is mentioned, we must distinguish between the Messiah simply suffering, and the Messiah suffering as

1 The same thing occurs also in the parallel passages, chap. xlix. 9, on which Gesenius was constrained to remark: “As the deliverance was still impending, the Preterites cannot well be understood in any other way than as Futures."

a substitute. The latter, indeed, we meet with in this passage only. But to make up for this isolated mention, the representation here is so full and exhaustive, so entirely excludes all misunderstanding, except that which is bent upon misunderstanding, or which is the result of evil disposition, is so affecting and so indelibly impressive, is indeed so exactly in the tone of doctrinal theology, and therefore different from the ordinary treatment which is always incidental, and requires to be supplemented from other passages, that this single isolated representation, which sounds through the whole of the New Testament, is quite sufficient for the Church. The suffering and dying Messiah, on the other hand, we meet with frequently in other passages of the Old Testament also, although, indeed, not so frequently as the Messiah in glory. In this light He is brought before us, e. g., in chap. xlix. 50; in Dan. ix. ; in Zech. ix. 9, 10, xi. 12, 13. The fact that the humiliation of Christ would precede His exaltation is distinctly pointed out in the first part of Isaiah also, in chap. xi. 1,-a passage which contains, in a germ, all that, in the second part, is more fully stated regarding the suffering Messiah, and which has many striking points of contact specially with chap. liii. And just so it is with Isaiah's contemporary, Micah, who, in chap. v. 1 (2), makes the Messiah proceed, not from Jerusalem, the seat of the Davidic family after it was raised to the royal dignity, but from Bethlehem, where Jesse, the ancestor, lived as a peasant, as a proof that the Messiah would proceed from the family of David sunk back into the obscurity of private life. This knowledge that the Messiah should proceed from the altogether abased house of David-a knowledge which appears as early as in Amos, and which pervades the whole of prophecytouches very closely upon the knowledge of His sufferings. Lowliness of origin, and exaltation of destination, can hardly be reconciled without severe conflicts. But it is a priori impossible, that the idea of the suffering Messiah should be wanting in the Old Testament. Since, in the Old Testament, throughout, righteousness and suffering in this world of sin are represented as being indissolubly connected, the Messiah, being Kaт' ¿çoxýv the Righteous One, must necessarily appear also as He who suffers in the highest degree. If that were not the case, the Messiah would be totally disconnected from all His types, espe

cially from David, who, through the severest sufferings, attained to glory, and who, in his Psalms, everywhere considers this course as the normal one, both in the Psalms which refer to the suffering righteous in general, and in those which especially refer to his family reaching their highest elevation in the Messiah; compare my Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. iv. p. lxxx. ff.

III. THE ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THE MESSIANIC INTERPRETATION.

Even the fact that this is among the Jews the original interpretation, which was given up from their evil disposition only, makes us favourably inclined towards it. The authority of tradition is here of so much the greater consequence, the more that the Messianic interpretation was opposed to the disposition of the people. How deeply rooted was this interpretation, appears even from the declaration of John the Baptist, John i. 29: ïde ó ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου. There cannot be any doubt that, in this declaration, he points to the prophecy under consideration, inasmuch as this passage is the first in Holy Scripture in which the sin-bearing lamb is spoken of in a spiritual sense. Bengel, following the example of Erasmus, remarks, in reference to the article before ȧuvós: "The article looks back to the prophecy which was given concerning Him under this figure, in Is. liii. 7. As regards coû, compare ver. 10. "It pleased the Lord painfully to crush Him," and ver. 2: "Before Him;" as regards i alpwv, &c. comp. ver. 4, rendered by the LXX.: οὗτος τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν φέρει; comp. ver. 11.

An external argument of still greater weight is the testimony of the New Testament. Above all, it is the declarations of our Lord himself which here come into consideration. In Luke xxii. 37, He says that the prophecies concerning Him were drawing near their perfect fulfilment (τὰ περὶ ἐμοῦ τέλος ἔχει) comp. Matth. xxvi. 51, and that therefore the declaration : "And He was reckoned among the transgressors" must be fulfilled in

Him. In Mark ix. 12, the Lord asks: πŵs yéуpаπтαι Èπì тòν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἵνα πολλὰ πάθῃ καὶ ἐξουδενωθῇ, with a reference to "from man," and "from the sons of man" in lii. 14, -to "He had no form nor comeliness" in ver. 2,-to "despised,"

, which, by Symmachus and Theodotion is rendered by oudevwμévos, in ver. 3. In the Gospel of John, the Lord emphatically and repeatedly points out, that the words: "When His soul hath given restitution," are written concerning Him; compare remarks on ver. 10. After these distinct quotations and references, we shall be obliged to think chiefly of our passage, in Luke xxiv. 25-27, 44-46 also. The opponents themselves grant that, if in any passage of the Old Testament the doctrine of a suffering and atoning Messiah is contained, it is in the passage under review. The circumstance also, that the disciples of the Lord refer, on every occasion, and with such confidence, the passage to the Lord, likewise proves that Christ especially interpreted it of His sufferings and exaltation. Of Matt. viii. 17, and Mark xv. 28, we have already spoken. John, in chap. xii. 37, 38, and Paul in Rom. x. 16, find a fulfilment of chap. liii. 1 in the unbelief of the Jews. In Acts viii. 28-35, Philip, on the question of the eunuch from Ethiopia, as to whom the prophecy referred, explained it of Christ. After the example of De Wette, Gesenius lays special stress on the circumstance, that the passage was never quoted in reference to the atoning death of Christ. But Peter, when speaking of the vicarious satisfaction of Christ, makes a literal use of the principal passages of the prophecy under consideration, 1 Pet. ii. 21-25; and it is, in general, quite the usual way of the New Testament to support its statements by our passage, whensoever the discourse falls upon this subject; comp. e.g., besides the texts quoted at ver. 10, Mark ix. 12; Rom. iv. 25; 1 Cor. xv. 3; 2 Cor. v. 21; 1 John iii. 5; 1 Pet. i. 19; Rev. v. 6, xiii. 8. Even Gesenius himself acknowledges elsewhere, that we have here the text for the whole Apostolic preaching on the atoning death of Jesus. "Most Hebrew readers"-so he says, Th. iii. S. 191"who were so familiar with the ideas of sacrifice and substitution, could not by any means understand the passage in any other way; and there is no doubt that the whole apostolic notion of the atoning death of Christ is chiefly based upon this passage."

The circumstance, that the reference to this passage appears commonly only in the form of an allusion, and not of express quotation, proves only so much the more clearly, that its reference to the atoning death of Christ was a point absolutely settled in the ancient Church.

In favour of the Messianic interpretation are not only the passages from the second part, chap. xlii., &c., but also, from the first part, the passage chap. xi. 1, which so remarkably agrees with chap. liii. 2, that both must be referred to the same subject. To these external reasons, the internal must be added. The Christian Church-the best judge-has at all times recognised in this prophecy the faithful, and wonderfully accurate image of her Lord and Saviour in His atoning sufferings and the glory following upon them, in His innocence and righteousness, in His meekness and silent patience (the New Testament, in speaking of them, frequently points back to our passage), and in the burial with a rich man, ver. 9. The most characteristic feature is the atoning character of the suffering of the Servant of God, and of the shedding of His blood. Several interpreters have endeavoured to explain away this feature which they dislike. Kimchi says: "One must not imagine that the case really stands thus, that Israel in the captivity actually bears the sins and diseases of the heathens (for that would be opposed to the justice of God), but that the Gentiles at that time, when seeing the glorious deliverance of Israel, would thus judge concerning it." A futile evasion! It is not the Gentiles who speak in chap. liii. 1-10, but the believing Church. Every sincere reader will at once feel, that it is not the foolish fancies of others which the Prophet communicates in these verses, but the divine truth made known to him. The doctrine of the substitution, the Prophet, moreover, states in his own name, by saying, "He shall sprinkle many nations ;" and so likewise in the name of God, in chap. liii. 11, 12. According to Martini, De Wette, and others, the expressions are to be understood figuratively, and the contents and substance to be this only, that those severe calamities which that divine minister would have to sustain would be useful and salutary to His compatriots. But the fact that the same doctrine constantly returns under the most varied expressions, is decidedly in favour of the literal interpretation. Thus, it is said in chap.