A Practical Exposition of the Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah by Thomas Manton

Author:Thomas Manton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Monergism Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE EIGHTH VERSE.

He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

WE now come to the third defence to take off the scandal of Christ's meanness and sufferings; and that is taken from the glorious issue and end of these sufferings. It was an ignominious death, but there followed a glorious resurrection: he was not detained and holden of death, he got clear of it, and then lived for ever. The text saith, 'He was taken from prison, and from judgment,' &c.

There is scarce a verse in the scripture that hath been so variously expounded as this hath been, not only by others, but by the same men. Scarce a man hath agreed with himself positively to determine of the sense of it, the phrases looking so many several ways. However, difficulty provoketh endeavours. According as I apprehend them, you may divide them into two parts:—

1. The scandal itself, laid down in the most aggravating terms—prison,' 'judgment,' 'cutting off from the land of the living,' and a 'stroke upon him for transgression;' as if the prophet had said, Grant all that you will charge upon him, prison, judgment, strokes, cutting off,—express it the worst way you can, all this will not impeach the glory of his excellency.

2. We have the defence in other terms: 'He was taken' from those things, and 'who shall declare his generation? 'If you think it is not enough to say that he died for others, and that he was stricken for the transgression of my people, yet he did not as every man that dieth for others; he perished not in this expression of his love, as others do he was taken from prison, and from judgment, and now liveth gloriously. There are two things in the defence:—

[1.] His resurrections 'He was taken from prison and from judgment;' he got out from under it.

[2] His life and duration in that state: 'Who shall declare his generation?' These are the parts, which will be the better made out to you by going over the phrases, as they lie in the order of the words, clearing this scripture from a wrong sense.

1. He was taken from prison and from judgment. These words have been variously translated and variously expounded. Some read 'by prison and judgment he was taken away;' but that doth not suit with the scope: others, 'after distress and judgment he was taken into glory,' that differeth not from the proper sense: others, 'without prison and judgment he was taken away in a violent, wrongful, extra-judicial manner;' but the Hebrew words do not so easily signify that. Now the main thing is to reconcile scripture and scripture, though it is impossible to reconcile interpreters. Therefore to dance after their pipe would perplex a man with much uncertainty, seeing they knew not which sense to take themselves. The Seventy translate it otherwise than it is read here, and the words are quoted in Acts 8:32, en th tateinwsei, &c.

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