That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
That Christ ('the Christ,' or 'Messiah') should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. The sense is, that in testifying that the predicted Messiah was to be a suffering one, and that rising from the dead. He should show light both to the Jews and to the Gentiles, he had only said what their own Scriptures had foreshown. The statement that the Christ "should be the first that should rise from the dead," was thus reached: Since it was to be in the character of a suffering and risen Messiah that He was to erect His kingdom and shed all its blessings on the world (Psalms 22:1-31 ; Psalms 69:1-36 ; Isaiah 52:14-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12, particularly Isaiah 53:10-12); and the subjects of this kingdom of illuminated believers were to be taken from among mortal men, Messiah Himself would of necessity be "the first that should rise from the dead."