Acts 8:33

8:26-40 Philip was directed to go to a desert. Sometimes God opens a door of opportunity to his ministers in very unlikely places. We should study to do good to those we come into company with by travelling. We should not be so shy of all strangers as some affect to be. As to those of whom we know nothing else, we know this, that they have souls. It is wisdom for men of business to redeem time for holy duties; to fill up every minute with something which will turn to a good account. In reading the word of God, we should often pause, to inquire of whom and of what the sacred writers spake; but especially our thoughts should be employed about the Redeemer. The Ethiopian was convinced by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, of the exact fulfilment of the Scripture, was made to understand the nature of the Messiah's kingdom and salvation, and desired to be numbered among the disciples of Christ. Those who seek the truth, and employ their time in searching the Scriptures, will be sure to reap advantages. The avowal of the Ethiopian must be understood as expressing simple reliance on Christ for salvation, and unreserved devotion to Him. Let us not be satisfied till we get faith, as the Ethiopian did, by diligent study of the Holy Scriptures, and the teaching of the Spirit of God; let us not be satisfied till we get it fixed as a principle in our hearts. As soon as he was baptized, the Spirit of God took Philip from him, so that he saw him no more; but this tended to confirm his faith.

In his humiliation; when our blessed Saviour was in his lowest condition, and the utmost degree of his exinanition; his soul being made a sacrifice for us, and suffering that desertion for a time we had merited for ever, and his body laid in the grave as in a prison; then his judgment, the punishment which was inflicted upon him in our stead, was taken away; for he brake the bonds of death, and opened the prison door: this was foretold, although in somewhat differing expressions, by the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53:7,8 . Who shall declare his generation? Those that shall be brought forth by this travail of his soul are innumerable, or his own eternal generation (who could do such great things as overcame death itself for us) is inexpressible: but by generation others (more to the scope of this place) understand Christ’s duration, or abiding, notwithstanding that he died; genea, does often signify duration; and thus it is an ordinary expression with the prophet, Isaiah 34:10,17 , from generation to generation: now none can comprehend that eternal duration of Christ, who dies no more, Romans 6:9 , and of whose kingdom there is no end, Luke 1:33 . For his life is taken from the earth; Christ aquired his glory by his suffering; his very exceeding great weight of glory was indeed wrought for him by his afflictions, (as for us, 2 Corinthians 4:17 ), his becoming obedient unto the death was the cause why he was so highly exalted, Philippians 2:8,9 .

Acts 8:33 . Ἐν , in ) when He was humbled, immediately His judgment was taken away [was set aside by God]. “He was justified in the Spirit:” 1 Timothy 3:16 .— γενεὰν ) age , and thence progeny . Both are joined in Isaiah 53:10 , He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days ; and Acts 8:11 , He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied . The sense is, “The age of other men is, say, Seventy years,” but the age of Messiah is inexpressible.— ὅτι ) כי , because. The connecting link between His humiliation and exaltation.— αἴρεται ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς , is taken away from the earth) The life of Jesus Christ, as compared with the fathers, Luke 3, was very short on the earth: He was cut off, Daniel 9:26 , which serves as a most lucid argument that His generation is fixed elsewhere.

In his {l} humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his {m} generation? for his life is taken from the earth. (l) The Hebrew text reads it in this way, out of a narrow strait, and out of judgment was he taken: and by the narrow strait he means the grave and the very bonds of death, and by judgment he means the punishment which was laid upon him, and the miserable state which Christ took upon himself for our sakes, in bearing his Father's wrath. (m) How long he will endure: for Christ, having once risen from the dead, dies no more; Ro 6:9.

32, 33. The place … was this, He was led as a sheep, &c.—One cannot but wonder that this, of all predictions of Messiah's sufferings in the Old Testament the most striking, should have been that which the eunuch was reading before Philip joined him. He could hardly miss to have heard at Jerusalem of the sufferings and death of Jesus, and of the existence of a continually increasing party who acknowledged Him to be the Messiah. But his question to Philip, whether the prophet in this passage meant himself or some other man, clearly shows that he had not the least idea of any connection between this prediction and those facts.

Verse 33. - His generation who shall declare? for and who shall declare his generation? A.V. and T.R. The preceding quotation is taken verbatim from the LXX., which, however, varies somewhat from the Hebrew. In this verse, for the Hebrew as rendered in the A.V., "He was taken from prison and from judgment," the LXX. has, "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away," having evidently read in their copy מֵעֹצְרו מִשְׁפָטו , or perhaps בְעצְרו , "Through [or, 'in'] his oppression [humiliation] his judgment was taken away." Mr. Cheyne translates the Hebrew, "Through oppression and through a judgment [sentence] he was taken "away [to death]." For the Hebrew of the A.V., "He was cut off out of the land of the living," the LXX. has, "His life is taken from the earth," where they must have read חַיו , "his life," as the subject of the verb, instead of חַיִּים , the living, taken in construction with אֶרֶץ , the earth. The differences, however, are not material in regard to the general meaning of the passage. His generation who shall declare ? The explanation of this difficult expression belongs tea commentary on Isaiah.

Here it must suffice to say that the explanation most in accordance with the meaning of the Hebrew words ( יְשׂחֵחַ and דורו ), with the context, and with the turn of thought in Isaiah 38:10-12 and Jeremiah 11:19 , is that given in the 'Speaker's Commentary:' "Who will consider, give serious thought to, his life or age, seeing it is so prematurely cut off?" which is merely another way of saying that Messiah should "be cut off" ( Daniel 9:26 )" from the land of the living, that his Name be no more remembered" (Jeremiah, as above). It was the frustration of this hope of Jesus being forgotten in consequence of his death that so troubled the Sanhedrim ( Acts 5:28 ). Acts 8:33

33 . in his humiliation , &c.] The Hebrew text signifies “Through oppression and through judgement (i.e. punishment) he was taken away.” who shall declare his generation ?] i.e. who shall describe his contemporaries, men who under a form of judicial punishment oppressed the sufferer, and put him to death? for his life is taken from the earth ] The Hebrew has “for he was cut off out of the land of the living.” It will be seen from a comparison of the Hebrew and the LXX. that the latter is in some parts rather a paraphrase than a translation. Some of the Jews interpreted this passage of the Messiah and some of the congregation of Israel. In the Targum of Jonathan these two interpretations run side by side.

(33) In his humiliation his judgment was taken away. —The Hebrew runs, as in the English version of Isaiah 53:8 , which fairly represents its natural construction, “He was taken from prison (or oppression ) and from judgment,” i.e., was delivered from His sufferings just when they seemed to culminate. A different meaning has, however, been given to the Hebrew preposition by many scholars, who render the words, “ Through oppression and [unjust] judgment He was taken away”— i.e., He was the victim of a judicial murder. The LXX., which is here followed, seems to have adopted a different construction, “By His humiliation, by His low estate, His judgment ( i.e., the righteous judgment which was His due) was taken away.” Here also, however, the word “judgment” has been taken in a different sense, and the words have been interpreted as meaning, “His condemnation was taken away, or cancelled”— i.e., because He humbled Himself He was afterwards exalted. Assuming Philip to have explained the words as they stand in the LXX., the first of these two latter interpretations has most to commend itself. The story of the Passion, the unrighteous sentence passed on the Lord Jesus because He stood before the Council and the Governor as poor and friendless, would be dwelt on as filling in the outlines of the prophetic picture. Who shall declare his generation?—The Hebrew noun may mean, as in Psalm 14:5, the men of a given period, or those sharing a common character.

The words have, however, been very variously taken: (1) “Who shall declare the number of those who share His life, and are, as it were, sprung from Him”—i.e., Who can count His faithful disciples? (2) “Who shall declare the wickedness of the crooked and perverse generation in which He lived?” (3) “Who, as far as His generation went, were wise enough to consider?” Assuming, as before, that it was the LXX. that Philip explained, the second of these seems preferable, as corresponding with the frequent use of the word “generation” with condemnatory epithets attached to it both by our Lord Himself (Matthew 12:39-42; Matthew 16:4; Matthew 17:17) and His Apostles (Acts 2:40; Philippians 2:15). The sense which some commentators have affixed to it, “Who shall declare His duration?” “Who shall set limits to the life of Him who is One with the Eternal?” or, as others, “Who shall declare the mystery of His mode of birth?”—i.e., of the Incarnation—are, it is believed, untenable as regards the Hebrew, and yet more so as regards the Greek. For his life is taken from the earth.—The Hebrew admits of no other meaning than that the Sufferer was hurried to a violent death. The fact that in being thus taken from the earth the Sufferer was exalted to heaven, though true in itself, cannot be found in the words.