Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 8:33

ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει κ. τ. λ., cf. Isaiah 53:7-8, “in his humiliation his judgment was taken away” (LXX), so A. and R.V., generally taken to mean by his humbling himself his judgment was cancelled, cf. Philippians 2:6-7, so Wendt in seventh and eighth editions: cf. Grimm-Thayer, sub v., κρίσις, the punishment appointed for him was taken away, i.e., ended, and so sub v., αἴρω = to cause to cease, Colossians 2:14. But the words “in his humiliation” etc., may also fairly mean that in the violence and injustice done to him his judgment, i.e., the fair trial due to him, was withheld, and thus they conform more closely to the Hebrew “by oppression and by (unjust) judgment he was taken away,” so Hitzig, Ewald, Cheyne and R.V. So to the same effect Delitzsch takes the words to mean that hostile oppression and judicial persecution befel him, and out of them he was removed by death (cf. R.V. margin). (The words have been taken to mean that by oppression and judgment he was hurried off and punished, raptus est ad supplicium.) τὴν (δὲ) γενεὰν αὐτοῦ τίς διηγήσεται; (LXX), “his generation who shall declare?” R.V., the words may mean “who shall declare the wickedness of the generation in which he lived?” (see Grimm-Thayer, sub v., γενεά) their wickedness, i.e., in their treatment of him; so De Wette (and Meyer in early editions), and to the same effect, Lumby, Rendall, cf. our Lord's own words, Matthew 12:39-42, etc. In Meyer-Wendt (seventh and eighth edition) the words are taken to mean “who can fitly declare the number of those who share his life?” i.e., his posterity, his disciples, so Felten (but see on the other hand, Delitzsch, in loco). The Hebrew seems to mean, as in R.V. text, “and as for his generation who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living? for the transgression of my people” etc., see Cheyne, in loco; Briggs, Messianic Prophecy, p. 358, and Delitzsch, Jesaia, pp. 523, 524, fourth edition (see also Page's note, and Wendt, edition 1899). The references by the Fathers (cf. Bede and Wordsworth) to the eternal generation of the Son, and the mystery of His Incarnation, do not seem to find support in the Hebrew or in the Greek rendering. On the oldest Jewish interpretations of Isaiah 53, see Dalman's Der leidende und der sterbende Messias, pp. 21 23, 27 35, 89, 91; and see also in connection with the passage before us, Athanasius, Four Discourses against the Arians, i., 13, 54, and Dr. Robertson's note; see also above on St. Peter's Discourses in chap. 3, and below on Acts 26:23. αἴρεται ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς : “is taken,” i.e., with violence (here = Hebrew גָזַר), cf. use of αἴρω, LXX, Acts 22:22; Acts 21:36; Matthew 24:39; Luke 23:18; John 19:15.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 8:33

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