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 [Pg 331] of the people. How deeply rooted was this interpretation, appears even from the declaration of John the Baptist, John i. 29: ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τῆν 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 ἀμνὸς: "The article looks back to the prophecy which was given concerning Him under this figure, in Is. liii. 7." As regards θεοῦ, compare ver. 10: "It pleased the Lord painfully to crush Him," and ver. 2: "Before Him;" as regards ὁ αἴρων, &c. comp. ver. 4, rendered by the LXX.: οὗ̂τος τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμω̂ν 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. Matt. 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: πῶς γέγραπται ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἵνα πολλὰ πάθῃ καὶ ἐξουδενηθῇ, 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," נבזה, which, by _Symmachus_ and _Theodotian_ is rendered by ἐξουδενωμένος, 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, [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