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Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If, then, those who do this in regard to the flesh have suffered death, how much more will this be so with anyone who corrupts the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified, with wicked doctrine! Such a person will become defiled and will go into everlasting fire, and so shall every one that consents unto him. (Letter to the Ephesians 16)

Stop your ears, therefore, when any one speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also [born] of Mary. He was truly born and ate and drank. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate. He was truly crucified and died in the sight of beings in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead, his Father giving him life, and in the same way his Father will raise up us who believe in him by Christ Jesus, apart from whom we do not possess the true life. (Letter to the Trallians 9)

What, then, does God say in the prophet? "And let them eat of the goat which is offered, with fasting, for all their sins."

   [note: This quote and what follows are not from Scripture; Pseudo-Barnabas, Justin, and Tertullian all use ideas like this, which apparently Christians of the 2nd century considered to be accurate tradition, but is nowhere written down today.]

   Listen carefully: "And let all the priests alone eat the innards, unwashed with vinegar." Why? Because to me, who am to offer my flesh for the sins of my new people, you are to give gall with vinegar to drink. So you eat alone, while the people fast and mourn in sackcloth and ashes. This was so that he might show that it was necessary for him to suffer for them.

   How, then, did the commandment run? Pay attention! "Take two goats of goodly aspect and similar to each other and offer them. Then let the priest take one as a burnt offering for sins." And what should they do with the other? "Accursed," says he, "is the one."

   Mark how the type of Jesus now comes out. "And all of you spit upon it, pierce it, and encircle its head with scarlet wool, and in this way let it be driven into the wilderness." And when all this has been done, he who bears the goat brings it into the desert, takes the wool off of it, and places the wool upon a shrub which is called Rachia, Whose fruits we are accustomed to eating when we find them in the field. Of this kind of shrub alone the fruits are sweet.

   Why then, again, is this? Give good heed! " ... one upon the altar, and the other accursed." Why is the one that is accursed crowned? Because they shall see him in that day with a scarlet robe around his body down to his feet, and they shall say, "Isn't this the one we once despised, pierced, mocked, and crucified?" Truly this is He who then declared Himself to be the Son of God. For how similar he is to him! With this in mind, the goats had to be of goodly aspect and similar, so that when they see him coming, they may be amazed by the likeness of the goat. Behold, then, the type of Jesus who was to suffer.

   But why is it that they place the wool in the midst of thorns? It is a type of Jesus set before the view of the Church. Any one who wishes to bear it away will find it necessary to suffer much because the thorn is formidable, and thus it is obtained only as the result of suffering. (Letter of Barnabas 7)

In the same way [God] points to the cross of Christ in another prophet, who says, "And when shall these things be accomplished? And the Lord says, 'When a tree shall be bent down, and again arise, and when blood shall flow out of wood'" [from an unknown apocryphal book]. Here again you have an intimation concerning the cross and the one who would be crucified.

   Yet again he speaks of this in Moses, when Israel was attacked by strangers [the Amalekites, Ex. 17]. So that he might remind them, when assailed, that it was because of their sins they were delivered to death, the Spirit speaks to the heart of Moses that he should make a figure of the cross and of the One about to suffer on it. For unless they put their trust in Him, they would be overcome forever.

   Moses therefore placed one weapon above another at the top of the hill. He stood upon it so that he was higher than all the people. He stretched out his hands, and in this way Israel again acquired the advantage. But when he let down his hands again, they were again destroyed. For what reason? So that they would know that they could not be saved unless they put their trust in him. (Letter of Barnabas 12)

Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the times of Tiberius Caesar. We will prove that it is reasonable to worship Him, for we have learned that he is the Son of the true God Himself. We hold him in the second place and the prophetic Spirit in the third. For [the Romans] declare that our madness consists in this: that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all. For they do not discern the mystery that is in this. (First Apology 13)

But you [Jews] were never shown to be possessed of friendship or love either towards God, or towards the prophets, or towards yourselves, but, as is evident, you are ever found to be idolaters and murderers of righteous men, so that you laid hands even on Christ Himself; and to this very day you abide in your wickedness, execrating those who prove that this man who was crucified by you is the Christ. Nay, more than this, you suppose that he was crucified as hostile to and cursed by God, which supposition is the product of your most irrational mind. (Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew 93)

The apostles ... preached faith in him to those who did not believe on the Son of God and exhorted them out of the prophets that the Christ whom God promised to send, he sent in Jesus, whom they crucified and God raised up. (Against Heresies III:12:2)

The apostles ... preached to the people that Christ was Jesus the Crucified One, whom the same God that had sent the prophets, being God Himself, raised up and gave salvation to men in him. (Against Heresies III:12:4)

Those, therefore, who delivered up their souls to death for Christ's Gospel—how could they have spoken to men in agreement with already established opinions? If this had been the course they adopted, they would not have suffered. But since they did preach things contrary to those people who did not assent to the truth, for that reason they suffered. It is evident, therefore, that they did not relinquish the truth, but with all boldness preached to the Jews and Greeks—to the Jews, indeed, [they preached] that the Jesus who was crucified by them was the Son of God, the Judge of living and dead, and that he has received from his Father an eternal kingdom in Israel, as I have pointed out. But to the Greeks they preached one God, who made all things, and Jesus Christ his Son. (Against Heresies III:12:4)

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