8, we have already spoken. John, in chap. xii.
37, 38, and Paul in Rom. x. 16, [Pg 332] 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; 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
[Pg 333] Ser