In favour of the Messianic explanation there is the remarkable agreement existing between prophecy and fulfilment, comp. Matt. xxvi. 67, 68: Τότε ἐνέπτυσαν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον άὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκολάφισαν αὐτόν, Οἱ δὲ ἐῤῥάπισαν λέγοντες• προφήτευσον ἡμῖν, χριστέ, τίς ἐστιν ὁ παίσας σε; xxvii. 30: καὶ ἐμπτύσαντες εἰς αὐτὸν ἔλαβον τὸν κάλαμον καὶ ἔτυπτον εἰς τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ,--an agreement, the significance and importance of which are only enhanced by the circumstance that one of the most individualizing features of the prophecy, viz., the plucking off of the beard, is not met with in the history of Christ; for it is just thereby that this agreement is proved to be a free and spontaneous one. _Farther_--The exactness with which, in ver. 10 and 11, the destinies of Israel, after the rejection of Christ, are drawn; and the destruction which the mass of the people, who did not believe in the Servant of God, prepared for themselves, by their attempts to help themselves by their own strength, by enkindling the flame of war, whilst those who fear the Lord and listen to the voice of Hs Servant, obtain salvation. _Farther_--Ver. 11, where the Servant of God ascribes to himself the judgment upon the unbelieving mass of the people: "From _my_ hand is this to you," in harmony with Matt. xxvi. 64 and other passages, where the Son of Man appears as executing judgment upon Jerusalem. _Finally_--The parallel passages. Most of the modern interpreters assume that the Prophet himself, Isaiah, or Pseudo-Isaiah, is the subject of the prophecy. _Jerome_ mentions that this explanation was the prevailing one among the Jews of his time. The explanation which refers it to the better portion of the people, found only one defender, viz., _Paulus_. The explanation which refers it to the _whole_ of the Jewish people, or to the collective body of the prophets, has been entirely abandoned, although it is maintained in reference to the parallel passages.