{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/001/0010341.htm","path":"chr/ecf/001/0010341.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/001/0010341.htm","text":"For to this end the Lord endured to deliver up His flesh to corruption, that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is effected by His blood of sprinkling. For it is written concerning Him, partly with reference to Israel, and partly to us; and [the Scripture] saith thus: \u201cHe was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities: with His stripes we are healed. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb which is dumb before its shearer.\u201d 1481 Therefore we ought to be deeply grateful to the Lord, because He has both made known to us things that are past, and hath given us wisdom concerning things present, and hath not left us without understanding in regard to things which are to come. Now, the Scripture saith, \u201cNot unjustly are nets spread out for birds.\u201d 1482 This means that the man perishes justly, who, having a knowledge of the way of righteousness, rushes off into the way of darkness. And further, my brethren: if the Lord endured to suffer for our soul, He being Lord of all the world, to whom God said at the foundation of the world, \u201cLet us make man after our image, and after our likeness,\u201d 1483 understand how it was that He endured to suffer at the hand of men. The prophets, having obtained grace from Him, prophesied concerning Him. And He (since it behoved Him to appear in flesh), that He might abolish death, and reveal the resurrection from the dead, endured [what and as He did], in order that He might fulfil the promise made unto the fathers, and by preparing a new people for Himself, might show, while He dwelt on earth, that He, when He has raised mankind, will also judge them. Moreover, teaching Israel, and doing so great miracles and signs, He preached [the truth] to him, and greatly loved him. But when He chose His own apostles who were to preach His Gospel, [He did so from among those] who were sinners above all sin, that He might show He came \u201cnot to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.\u201d 1484 Then He manifested Himself to be the Son of God. For if He had not come in the flesh, how could men have been saved by beholding Him? 1485 Since looking upon p. 140 the sun which is to cease to exist, and is the work of His hands, their eyes are not able to bear his rays. The Son of God therefore came in the flesh with this view, that He might bring to a head the sum of their sins who had persecuted His prophets 1486 to the death. For this purpose, then, He endured. For God saith, \u201cThe stroke of his flesh is from them;\u201d 1487 and 1488 \u201cwhen I shall smite the Shepherd, then the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.\u201d 1489 He himself willed thus to suffer, for it was necessary that He should suffer on the tree. For says he who prophesies regarding Him, \u201cSpare my soul from the sword, 1490 fasten my flesh with nails; for the assemblies of the wicked have risen up against me.\u201d 1491 And again he says, \u201cBehold, I have given my back to scourges, and my cheeks to strokes, and I have set my countenance as a firm rock.\u201d 1492\nProv. i. 17, from the LXX, which has mistaken the meaning.\n139:1483 139:1484\nMatt. ix. 13; Mark ii. 17; Luke v. 32.\n139:1485\nThe Cod. Sin. reads, \u201cneither would men have been saved by seeing Him.\u201d\n140:1486\nCod. Sin. has, \u201ctheir prophets,\u201d but the corrector has changed it as above.\n140:1487\nA very loose reference to Isa. liii. 8.\n140:1488\nCod. Sin. omits \u201cand,\u201d and reads, \u201cwhen they smite their own shepherd, then the sheep of the pasture shall be scattered and fail.\u201d\n140:1489 140:1490 140:1491\nThese are inaccurate and confused quotations from Ps. 22:21, 17, and Ps. cxix. 120.\n140:1492","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I: BARNABAS: Chapter V.\u2014The new covenant, founded...","type":"page"}