Summary

Acts 8:32 (ESV)

32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.

For the words like a sheep he was led to the slaughter compare in Romans 8:36 sheep to be slaughtered and Revelation 5:6: a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain. Sheep are also mentioned in Isaiah 53:6: all we like sheep have gone astray (“probate”).

And like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. John the Baptist pointed to the Messiah as the Lamb of God (John 1:29, see also 1 Peter 1:19). “Aphonos” (ESV: silent) means without a voice, compare with mute, non-speaking idols (1 Corinthians 12:2). “Keireo” means to shear (specifically sheep, but also used for shaving the head bald) (see Acts 18:18). Perhaps one can also think here of the razor of God’s judgment (Isaiah 7:20)? This is how Isaiah already shows how Jesus accepts his suffering: willingly, without protest, completely obedient, no resistance even though the Lamb knows of the pain of shearing. Silent, in peace, he obediently goes the way under God’s eyes (1 Peter 2:23).