Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 8:35

"And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached unto him Jesus." — Acts 8:35 (ASV)

At a time when only what Christians call the OT was Scripture, what better book was there to use in proclaiming the nature of divine redemption than Isaiah, and what better passage could be found than Isa 52:13–53:12? Thus Philip began with the very passage the Ethiopian was reading and proclaimed to him “the good news about Jesus,” explaining from Isa 53:7–8 and its context a suffering messianology. Matthew and John applied Isa 53 to Jesus’ ministry of healing (cf. Matthew 8:17 on Isa 53:4; Jn 12:38 on Isa 53:1), but Luke portrays Jesus quoting Isa 53 as being fulfilled in his passion (Lk 22:37 quotes Isa 53:12). Luke, therefore, sets up a parallel between Jesus’ use of Isa 53 and Philip’s preaching based on this chapter and implies in that parallel that the latter was dependent on the former (cf. also 1 Peter 2:22–25 on Isa 53:4-6, 9, 12). After beginning his preaching about Jesus with Isa 53, Philip probably went on to include other passages from that early Christian block of testimonium material that has been dubbed “Scriptures of the Servant of the Lord and the Righteous Sufferer” (i.e.,Isaiah 42:1–44:5; 49:1–13; 50:4–11; and Pss 22, 34, 69, 118).