Acts 8:32

περιοχὴ τῆς γραφῆς “the contents of the passage of Scripture” i.e., the one particular passage, Isaiah 53:7-8 (so Meyer-Wendt, Holtzmann, Hackett), cf. Acts 1:16, and 1 Peter 2:6 : περιέχει ἐν τῇ γραφῇ and ταύτης in Acts 8:35 below; περιοχή has been taken to mean a section, as in Cicero, Epist. ad Att., xiii., 25 (so in Codex [220], before the Gospel of St. Mark, its περιοχαί, i.e., sectiones, are prefixed), but in Cicero also Meyer-Wendt take the word to mean the contents of a passage, cf. notes, edit. 1888 and 1899; see also Felten and Plumptre, in loco. St. Chrysostom apparently takes γραφή here as = αἱ γραφαί, “totum corpus scripturae sacræ,” see Blass, in loco, but if so, the plural would be used as always; see above references and Light-foot on Gal., Galatians 3:22. The fact that the eunuch was reading Isaiah is mentioned by St. Chrysostom as another indication of character, since he had in hand the prophet who is more sublime than all others, Hom., xix.

[220] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).