Ye perceive, therefore, beloved children, that our good Lord hath manifested unto us all things beforehand, to the end that we should know whom we ought to praise, returning thanks for all things.
If, therefore, the Son of God, being he who is the Lord and who is about to judge the quick and the dead, suffered, to the end that his stripes might make us live, let us believe that the Son of God could not suffer except on our account.
But being crucified, he drank vinegar and gall. How, then, did the priests of the temple signify concerning this? Now, the commandment is written in this wise: Whosoever shall not fast on the fast, he shall die the death, the Lord hath commanded it. Since he also was about to offer the vessel that contained his spirit as a sacrifice, in order that the type might be fulfilled which was given by the offering of Isaac at the altar.
What, therefore, saith he in the book of the prophet? And let them eat of the goat which is offered on the fast for the sins of all. Attend ye diligently thereto. And let the priests alone eat of the unwashed entrails with vinegar.
With what signification? Because ye will one day give me to drink of vinegar and gall, when I am about to offer up my flesh for my new people. Eat ye it alone, while the people fast and lament in sackcloth and ashes. He commanded this in order that he might show that he must needs suffer at their hands.
How, then, did he give his commands? Attend ye. Take ye two goats, fair and like each other, and offer them up. And let the priest take one of them as a whole burnt offering for sin.
But what shall they do with the other? Let the other, he saith, be accursed. Now attend ye, how the type of Jesus is made manifest.
And do ye all spit upon it and pierce it, and put scarlet wool around its head, and so let it be cast out into the wilderness. And when this hath been done, he who beareth the goat leadeth it out into the wilderness, and taketh away the wool and placeth it upon a bush, which is called rachel, the shoots of which we are accustomed to eat when we find them in the fields. Thus the fruit of the rachel only is sweet.
What, therefore, meaneth this? Attend ye. One is brought to the altar, the other is accursed, and the accursed one is crowned, because they shall see him in that day, who had the scarlet robe about his flesh, and they shall say, Is not this he whom once we set at naught and crucified, and spat upon and pierced? Truly this was he who at that time said that he was the Son of God.
How then was he like unto tha goat? In this respect were the goats like him: they were fair and equal, so that when they saw him coming they were astonished at the likeness to the goat. Therefore, behold here the type of Jesus, who was about to suffer.
And what meaneth the wool placed in the midst of thorns? It is a type of Jesus, which hath been placed in the church. For he who wisheth to take the scarlet wool must suffer many things, because the thorn is terrible, and must after tribulation gain possession of it. So he saith, They who wish to see me and to take hold of my kingdom must through trouble and suffering receive me.