Atonement in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

What Christ's death accomplished: sacrifice, ransom, reconciliation, victory over death and the devil. Part of Salvation.

1 Clement 7.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Christ's precious blood won the grace of repentance for the world.
1 Clement 12.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Rahab's scarlet cord foreshadowed redemption through Christ's blood.
1 Clement 16.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The Servant bears our sins.
1 Clement 16.9Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · He died for his people's sins.
1 Clement 16.11Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · An offering for sin.
1 Clement 16.14Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · He bore the sins of many.
1 Clement 49.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Out of love Christ gave his blood, flesh, and soul for us.
Epistle of Barnabas 5.1Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Christ gave his flesh so that we might be cleansed by his blood.
To Diognetus 9.2Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · In love God gave his own Son as a ransom for us.
To Diognetus 9.5Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · The sweet exchange: our sin hidden in him, his righteousness justifying us.
Dialogue with Trypho 111.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Passover blood prefigured Christ's saving blood.
Melito, Fr. 2Melito of Sardis · ca. 160-180 · Isaac, bound and silent on the wood, was a type of the suffering Christ; the ram slain in his place ransomed him, as the Lord slain ransomed us.
Adumbrations on 1 John, paragraph 4Clement of Alexandria · original ca. 200; Latin translation 6th century · On 1 John 2:1–3: Christ and the Spirit are Paracletes; the first-created powers work through lower angels, as with Moses and Samuel; Christ is the propitiation for the whole world, saving all, some through punishments.
Against Heresies 3.16.9Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul in Romans knows one Christ Jesus who was born, died for us, and rose, not a Christ separate from Jesus.
Against Heresies 3.18.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Only a true man united to God could justly conquer the enemy and give man incorruption; as many were made sinners through Adam’s disobedience, so many are justified through the obedience of the one born of a virgin.
Against Heresies 5.1.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Only the Word made man could teach and redeem us; he redeemed his own from the apostasy by just persuasion, not force, giving his blood, soul, and flesh for ours and uniting God and man.
Against Heresies 5.2.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ did not come to what belonged to another, but justly and kindly redeemed his own handiwork by his blood.
Against Heresies 5.16.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · On the tree of the cross Christ’s obedience undid the disobedience at the tree in Eden, reconciling us to the same God we offended in Adam.
Against Heresies 5.21.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The God of the law is the one Christ served; through the Man who kept the law the devil was bound as he had bound man, and his captives were set free by God’s mercy.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 37Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Prophetic Extracts 20.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Lord bought us with his blood from the old masters, our sins, through which evil powers ruled us.
Excerpts from Theodotus 61.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Death was tricked: when it seized the body, the Savior destroyed death and raised the body, freed from passions.
Commentary on Daniel 4.31-34Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The sixty-two weeks (434 years) run from the return to Christ's birth; Christ is the Holy of holies who wipes out sins for believers and seals them for unbelievers, and the Lamb who opens the sealed book of the prophets.
Antidote for the Scorpion's Sting 7Tertullian · ca. 211–213 · When heretics call God a murderer, Tertullian answers from Scripture: Wisdom “slaughters her children” for their life and glory, as God gave up his own Son; the pagans do not question their gods' demands for human sacrifice.
On Flight in Persecution 12Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Buying off persecutors with money is only flight by another means and a form of denial; Christ bought Christians with his blood, the apostles never ransomed themselves, and what Christians owe God in persecution is their blood, not coins.
Fragments on Job, column 95Origen · ca. 220-254 · The sinner must turn to Christ the high priest, who alone heals what is incurable; this age is night, and sin makes a person like the beasts.
PG 12:1579 (Ps 117 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on Psalm 118:22–27 (LXX 117): the rejected stone as Christ, the day the Lord made as the day of reconciliation, and the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
PG 12:1641 (Ps 128–129 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on the end of Psalm 129 (LXX 128) and on Psalm 130 (LXX 129): crying out of the depths, no one clean from sin, Christ the propitiation, and the chain from fear of God to hope.
Commentary on John 1.139Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is the propitiation for our sins, according to John and Paul.
Commentary on John 1.233Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ as the Lamb of God died like a silent lamb, and his death is a medicine that weakens hostile powers and frees believers from sin.
Commentary on John 1.240Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is called Advocate, propitiation, and mercy seat because he intercedes for us with the Father.
Commentary on John 1.255Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is the great high priest who offered himself once for all rational beings, not for humans alone.
Commentary on John 1.256Origen · ca. 230–248 · On either reading of Hebrews 2:9, Christ died for all.
Commentary on John 2.163Origen · ca. 230–248 · Because Christ was made sin for us, “no darkness at all” belongs strictly to the Father alone.
Commentary on John 2.164Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ bore our weaknesses and sins, like the filthy garments of Joshua the high priest in Zechariah.
Commentary on John 2.165Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ, bearing believers' sins, speaks of them as his own in the Psalms.
Commentary on John 2.166Origen · ca. 230–248 · As only the Father has immortality, since Christ died for us, so only the Father has no darkness, since Christ took ours on himself.
Commentary on John 6.274Origen · ca. 230–248 · The slain Lamb became a purification for the whole world, buying us back with his blood from the one to whom our sins had sold us.
Commentary on John 6.284Origen · ca. 230–248 · If martyrs and self-sacrificing pagans help others, how much more the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the whole world.
Commentary on John 6.285Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is the propitiation for the whole world, who blotted out our debt with his blood and triumphed over the powers on the cross.
Commentary on John 6.305Origen · ca. 230–248 · 1 John and 1 Timothy show that Christ's atonement extends beyond the church to the whole world.
Commentary on John 10.89Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Jewish Passover is many lambs slain; ours is Christ, sacrificed once.
Commentary on John 19.120Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only thus is Christ both high priest and Lamb, offered by a holy priest, himself, not by the impious.
Commentary on John 20.228Origen · ca. 230–248 · Through Christ's death, the devil no longer rules even the dead.
Commentary on John 28.154Origen · ca. 230–248 · Or it was true in a deeper sense: Christ tasted death for everyone.
Commentary on John 28.155Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ is Savior of all and takes away the sin of the whole world.
Commentary on John 28.160Origen · ca. 230–248 · The sinless man bore and destroyed the sin of the whole world.
Commentary on John 28.161Origen · ca. 230–248 · The sinless Christ was “made sin” and became the offscouring of the world, far more than his apostles.
Commentary on John 28.163Origen · ca. 230–248 · Only Jesus could die for the whole world and carry the sin of all on the cross.
Commentary on John 28.165Origen · ca. 230–248 · He bore our sins and the punishment owed to us.
Commentary on John 28.166Origen · ca. 230–248 · Healed by his wounds, we boast only in his cross; the Father handed him over for our sins.
Commentary on John 28.167Origen · ca. 230–248 · In his humiliation unto the cross his judgment was taken away, and he died for the people's sins.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 12Origen · 235 · At baptism we agreed to the gospel's terms: to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and lose our life for Christ; only Christ's blood could ransom a lost soul.
Homilies on Exodus 6.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · “Let them become like a stone” refutes those who teach evil natures or a cruel Creator, and foretells a temporary hardening of Israel until the Gentiles come in; Christ redeemed with his blood those whom the devil had bought with the coin of sin.
Homilies on Joshua 3.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Rahab’s scarlet cord is the blood of Christ, and her house is the church, outside of which no one is saved.
Homilies on Joshua 7.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ conquered the world on the cross by stripping the hostile powers, and the heavenly army raised the shout of victory at his triumph.
Homilies on Leviticus 1.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The blood poured at the altar by the door signifies Christ's death in Jerusalem and also his sacrifice for heavenly beings: a twofold victim through two veils.
Homilies on Leviticus 3.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ as high priest offered 'for sin' because he was made sin for us; he 'made the people sin' because his passion, life to believers, became an occasion of guilt to those who rejected him.
Homilies on Leviticus 3.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The ram bought with the holy shekel is Christ, acquired by one's own riches of wisdom and above all by a sincere and approved faith, free of heresy, which alone obtains remission of sins.
Homilies on Leviticus 5.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The sin offering slain where the burnt offering is shows God's mercy; Christ is both the holy victim and the priest who 'eats', that is consumes like fire, the people's sins, and the church's priests must imitate him; some mysteries are reserved for God alone.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Day of Atonement and the death of Nadab and Abihu teach every believer, as a member of a priestly people, how to approach God's altar with clean garments and the true fire.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The two goats of the Day of Atonement represent those in the church who are the Lord's lot and those who are cast out into the wilderness.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ is the 'ready man' who leads the hostile powers into the wilderness and, as true high priest, enters the heavenly Holy of Holies to intercede for those who wait for him.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.10Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The sprinkling of blood toward the east points to Christ's blood, known to the initiated, and to Christ, 'the East', from whom light and atonement come.
Homilies on Numbers 3.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The striking of Egypt's firstborn before Israel's were sanctified signifies Christ's triumph over the demonic powers, which makes believers God's firstborn.
Homilies on Numbers 9.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Aaron standing with his censer between the living and the dead prefigures Christ, who stood between them in his incarnation and death and will again at the judgment.
Homilies on Numbers 10.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ takes away sin, and his “sons,” the apostles and martyrs, share in bearing the sins of the holy by offering themselves; Origen fears that in a time without martyrs the church lacks this help.
Homilies on Numbers 17.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Balak takes Balaam to Phogor (“delight”); Origen explains why the law allowed sacrifices to God (a concession like divorce, and perhaps a remedy against sacrifices to demons) until Christ, the one perfect victim.
Homilies on Numbers 24.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The various festival victims figure the saints, apostles, and angels whose intercession contributes to the purification of the human race, as Christ the Lamb takes away the sin of the whole world; the decreasing number of bulls at Tabernacles shows sins diminishing through purification, until the one perfect victim ends the others.
Homilies on Jeremiah 14.11Origen · ca. 240 · Christ interceded with the Father for sinners in the very time of their sins, dying for them while they were still sinners and rescuing them from the devil.
Against Celsus 1.55Origen · ca. 248 · In debate with Jewish scholars who applied Isaiah's Servant to the people of Israel, Origen argued that the Servant who dies for "my people" must be someone else—Jesus Christ.
Against Celsus 4.19Origen · ca. 248 · Christians hold that Christ's incarnation was real, not an illusion; yet even on Celsus's terms, a healing deception would not be absurd, since Christ came for sinners and enemies to make them God's friends.
Against Celsus 4.28Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do not claim God cares for them alone: Scripture teaches that God loves all he made, shows mercy to all flesh, sends sun and rain on all, and that Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
Against Celsus 4.73Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus mocks the idea of an angry God sending his Son to suffer; Origen answers that the Jews' ruin came from the wrath they stored up for themselves, and that the Son suffered willingly for our salvation.
Against Celsus 8.43Origen · ca. 248 · Since Jesus' death a whole new nation of Christians has arisen; like a grain of wheat his death bore much fruit, and the Father gave his Son willingly for the world, while the demons avenge themselves on Christians who expel them.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 85Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The bread and cup that God the Word calls his body and blood are the word that nourishes souls and the word that gladdens the heart; only the cup is called “of the new covenant” because salvation comes through faith in Christ's birth and passion.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 95Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The cup of the passion was bound to pass from Christ, but only by his drinking it would it also pass from the human race; so he chose to drink it, as Jeremiah's cup of wrath is drunk for cleansing; his threefold prayer teaches perseverance.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 125Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The soldiers' mockery was the work of the invisible rulers of this age; the scarlet cloak recalls Rahab's cord and Tamar's son and signifies the world's blood taken on by Christ; the crown of thorns, consumed on his head, bore away our sins; the reed is the fragile sceptre of the evil one, exchanged for the rod of God's kingdom.
Commentary on Matthew 12.18Origen · ca. 246–248 · Alternatively, Jesus kept the title Christ for the fuller, saving proclamation of the crucified and risen Christ, whose cross triumphed over the principalities and the ruler of this world.
Commentary on Matthew 12.28Origen · ca. 246–248 · No one can give an exchange for his soul, but God gave the precious blood of Christ; Origen relates this to Isaiah’s “I gave Egypt, Ethiopia, and Syene as your exchange.”
Commentary on Matthew 13.8Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen distinguishes this prediction from the earlier one and argues, by the example of Job, that the Father delivered the Son to hostile powers out of love, while they delivered him to men to bring him under death.
Commentary on Matthew 16.8Origen · ca. 246–248 · Jesus forbids church leaders to lord it over others as Gentile rulers do, a fault Origen sees among bishops of his day; Christ came to serve and gave his soul as a ransom to the evil one, who could not hold it, his divinity not being the ransom.
Commentary on Romans 3.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The 'righteousness of God manifested without the law' is Christ, revealed apart from natural law but witnessed by the spiritual sense of Moses and the prophets (Paul marks the law of Moses with the article); faith and the Scriptures together reveal it, and all, Jew and Gentile, are justified freely through the redemption of Christ's blood.
Commentary on Romans 3.8Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Christ as 'propitiatory' fulfills the golden mercy seat of Exodus: Origen reads its measures and cherubim as the sinless human soul of Jesus, mediator between the Trinity and humanity, indwelt by the Word and the Spirit; he is also high priest and sacrifice, whose blood brings remission to believers first and then to the whole world, while God now forbears and will judge hereafter.
Commentary on Romans 4.8Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Peace with God through Christ means abandoning the enmity of sin and fighting the devil, which itself brings peace; Christ is the door to grace through which only the truthful, righteous, and humble can pass; and the 'hope of the glory of God' looks beyond the glory seen in Moses and in Christ's earthly coming to the Father's glory at his return, for which we prepare by contemplation now.
Commentary on Romans 4.10Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · God's love for sinners shows how much more he will save those reconciled; 'weak,' 'ungodly,' and 'sinners' cover every kind of sin; Christ alone, unlike legendary self-sacrificing heroes, took away the sin of the world by handing his blood to the ruler of this world; and his blood justifies even more than our faith, saving us from the wrath that consumes only earthly souls.
Commentary on Romans 4.12Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · That enemies can be reconciled refutes Marcion and Valentinus, who make some natures hostile to God by nature; enmity and friendship with God have degrees according to deeds, so one who persists in sin cannot claim to be reconciled; and from Ephesians Origen distinguishes Christ's 'dissolving' the enmity in those still struggling and 'killing' it in those dead to sin.
Commentary on Romans 6.12Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen reads Romans 8:3–9 of the law understood according to the letter (weak and now “dead”) versus according to the spirit, explains the Son’s “likeness of sinful flesh” and his sacrifice for sin, and gives a second reading based on the law of the mind.
Commentary on Romans 7.9Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen sums up the gifts of Romans 8, shows that with God for us the adversary is powerless, and explains the Father’s handing over of his own Son for all, so that none in the Church may be despised and all things are given with him.
To Quirinus 2.13Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Isaiah's suffering servant, the Psalms, Zechariah's high priest, and Paul's hymn in Philippians show that Christ came first in humility.
To Demetrian 26Cyprian of Carthage · 252–253 · Christ grants this grace by his cross and blood, reconciling us to God; all should follow him and share his joy and immortality.
Symposium 3.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The Shepherd left the angelic hosts, the ninety-nine sheep, to recover man, and defeated the devil through the very man the devil had overcome.
Against the Manichaeans 24Alexander of Lycopolis · ca. 280–320 · Alexander attacks the Manichaean doctrine of Christ as Mind and contrasts their view of the cross as a demonstration with the church's teaching that Christ gave himself for the forgiveness of sins.
Cib. 15Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The true purification is the blood of Christ, which cleanses souls as well as bodies.
Church History 10.4.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Christ alone bore our sufferings and penalties, raised us from spiritual death, and shares with us the Father's good gifts.
Prophetic Extracts 4.22Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies Isaiah's “God is in you, and there is no God besides you” to Christ, raised as king, against Jews and those who hold him a mere man (the Ebionites, Artemon, Paul of Samosata).
Prophetic Extracts 4.27Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius applies the fourth Servant Song (Isa 52:13–53:12) point by point to Christ's humiliation, passion, and atoning death for the people's sins, against those who reject him because he suffered, and reads “Rejoice, barren one” as the Gentile church.
Divine Institutes 4.16.16Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The servant bore our sins; by his wounds we are healed.
Divine Institutes 4.26.28Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He died so that humanity might triumph over death.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The patriarchs, inspired by God, saw that they owed a ransom for their sins.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · They offered animals as substitutes for their own souls, knowing that an animal’s soul is its blood, not a rational soul.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses teaches that the life is in the blood, given for atonement.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The blood of sacrificed animals atones in place of the human soul.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The offerer lays hands on the victim’s head, as if offering it for his own head.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Animal sacrifices were ransoms until the true victim came; they prefigured him and ceased when he arrived.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since Christ, the Lamb of God, is the true ransom, Christians celebrate daily the memorial of his body and blood and do not return to the old symbolic sacrifices.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jewish believers are freed from the law’s curse, for the Lamb of God became sin and curse for all.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The pre-existent Word, high priest of all creation, offered the humanity like ours as the lamb, bearing our sins and the law’s curse.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ offered himself to the Father for our salvation and gave us a memorial to offer continually instead of sacrifice.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.57Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The sinless Christ took on the sins of men and suffered for them.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.2.58Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ suffered for our sins; the prophet also blames his death on the people’s iniquities.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.12.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ died first to be Lord of the dead and the living, second to take away our sins as a sacrifice and a curse for us.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.12.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Third, Christ died as a sacrifice for the world; fourth, to overthrow the demons.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.16.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ as high priest offered himself as a burnt offering, so the psalm prays that God remember his sacrifice.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.17.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Joshua’s filthy garments signify Christ taking our sins and shame upon himself.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.17.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah 53 and John the Baptist show Christ bearing our sins.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.17.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Paul’s teaching that Christ became sin and a curse for us is what Joshua’s filthy garments foretold.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.1.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since death entered through a man, victory over death had to come through a man.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since animal blood could not take away sin, humanity needed a living propitiation, the Lamb of God.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s coming completes the sin of those who rejected him and brings cleansing and propitiation to believers.
Demonstration of the Gospel, Book 10, preface 5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lamb, taken up by the great high priest for the whole human flock, had to be offered to God.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.1.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ became a curse and sin for us, and in the likeness of sinful flesh condemned sin; so he speaks these words.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.1.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ, innocent himself, takes our sins as his own because we are his body.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.1.23Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lamb bore the punishment we owed, became a curse and ransom for us, and so, united with us, speaks our confession as his own.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father left him so that he might die on the cross as ransom and cleansing for the world.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ was crucified bearing our sins as our substitute, as Isaiah 53 says.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.37Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Father forsook him to redeem humanity by his blood from slavery to the demons.
On the Incarnation 7.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Only the Word, above all things, could re-create all, suffer for all, and intercede for all with the Father.
On the Incarnation 8.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The Word gave his body to death for all, so that the law of death was spent and humans might be brought back to incorruption.
On the Incarnation 9.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The immortal Word took a mortal body so that, offered as a spotless sacrifice, it might die for all and abolish death.
On the Incarnation 9.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The Word paid humanity's debt by offering his body, and so clothed all with incorruption.
On the Incarnation 10.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Like a king defending his city, the Word blotted out death by offering his body and corrected human neglect by his teaching.
On the Incarnation 10.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Paul and Hebrews confirm that Christ died for all.
On the Incarnation 10.4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Hebrews 2:14–15 shows that the Word took flesh to destroy the devil through death.
On the Incarnation 10.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ's sacrifice ended the law of death and began new life; as in Adam all die, in Christ all will be made alive.
On the Incarnation 16.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · By becoming man the Savior both abolished death and revealed himself as the Word, the king of all.
On the Incarnation 20.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Having shown his divinity, Christ paid the debt of death for all and showed his incorruptible body as the firstfruits of the resurrection.
On the Incarnation 20.5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · In Christ's body the death of all was fulfilled and death itself destroyed.
On the Incarnation 20.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The immortal Word took a mortal body to offer it for all and to destroy the devil.
On the Incarnation 22.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ had no death of his own; he received humanity's death in order to destroy it.
On the Incarnation 25.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ bore our curse by dying the accursed death of the cross.
On the Incarnation 37.7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ, crucified before the sun and creation, is the Life of all who gave his body as a ransom.
On the Incarnation 44.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Objectors ask why God did not save humanity by a mere command, as he created.
On the Incarnation 44.6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The Savior put on a body so as to find death there, blot it out, and clothe the body with immortality.
Letter 3.2Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony recalls the gifts of God, the sun, moon, and stars, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and above all the Son given for us, and urges the brothers to hasten to their Creator.
Letter 3.3Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony explains that Christ, like us in all but sin, became a slave, poor, foolish, and weak so as to free, enrich, and strengthen us, and that his coming is a judgment on the world.
Letter 4.1Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony's fourth letter recounts God's visits to his creatures through the natural law, Moses, the prophets, and John, and finally through the Son, whose coming is judgment to those who do not amend.
Letter 5.2Antony the Great · before 356 · Antony recounts how Moses and the prophets could not heal humanity's wound, so that the saints prayed and the Father gave his Only-begotten to heal it.
On the Paschal Feast 2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius explains that Christians, fed by Christ's teaching and marked by faith in his blood, keep a spiritual Passover, and that the feast fittingly falls in spring, the head of the year, when nature renews itself.
Theophany 3.59Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 15.11Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The third reason: Christ's body was a sacrifice offered to God for all humanity as a ransom, which broke the power of the demons.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 15.12Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Christ's body was the sacrificial lamb foretold in Scripture, who bore our sins, as John the Baptist and Isaiah declared.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 15.13Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · The Word, the High Priest distinct from the victim, raised his body and presented it to the Father as the firstfruits of salvation.
Demonstration 2.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · The promised covenant, sealed by Christ's death, ended the sacrifices and observances of the law, which God had already rejected through the psalms and prophets.
Demonstration 14.11Aphrahat · 337-345 · God has made peace through wise people, including women such as the woman of Tekoa, the wise woman of Abel, Deborah, Jael, and Rebecca, and above all through Christ, who reconciled the world to the Father.
Demonstration 14.31Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ, who owed nothing to death, died to reconcile rebels, conquered Sheol, and was exalted as Lord; peacemakers share his reward, while strife makes prayer and alms worthless.
Oration I Against the Arians 43Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius says the cross, thought foolish, has brought resurrection and the worship of the true God to all nations, and that the “therefore” of Phil 2:9 names the cause of our exaltation, not a reward to Christ.
Oration I Against the Arians 45Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius explains that the Word is said to be exalted and to receive grace because the body that was raised and exalted was his own; as Word he gives what, as man, he receives.
Oration I Against the Arians 60Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Athanasius explains that Christ “became guarantor” of a better covenant as man, bearing the judgment in his body and freeing the flesh from sin.
Oration II Against the Arians 7Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Heb 3:1–2 speaks not of the Word's divine generation but of his becoming high priest in the flesh, as Aaron became high priest by putting on the priestly robes.
Oration II Against the Arians 9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · He became apostle and high priest when he shared our flesh; he is “faithful” because his once-for-all sacrifice abides and his high priesthood has no successor.
Oration II Against the Arians 47Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · As the Word “became flesh,” “a curse,” and “sin” without being changed into them, so he was “created” by taking a created body for our salvation and deification.
Oration II Against the Arians 66Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · As “beginning” of the resurrection the Word was created in the flesh, taking an incomplete body to pay our debt and complete what man lacked: immortality and the way to paradise.
Oration II Against the Arians 69Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · No creature could save creation; the Son took flesh, died for all, and in his flesh destroyed sin and death, so that we, joined to him, shall be free of the serpent and of death.
Oration III Against the Arians 31Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Unlike his visits to the saints, the Word truly became man from Mary; so the flesh's weaknesses are called his, while his divine works were done through his own body.
Catechetical Lecture 12.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ became man to sanctify baptism, to bring life through a virgin as death came through Eve, to overthrow idolatry, and to defeat the devil with his own weapon: the flesh became the bait that made death give up its prey.
Catechetical Lecture 13.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Because the one who died was the Son of God, his death redeemed the whole world; the sign of the cross puts demons to flight, and prophets and Pilate bear witness to his sinlessness.
Catechetical Lecture 13.31Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ swiftly pardoned the repentant robber and opened paradise to him; on the cross he fulfilled the mystery as high priest, tore the veil, and reconciled sinners to God, keeping both God's sentence and his love.
Commentary on Matthew 32Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats Judas’s kiss (love of enemies), the sword and the servant’s ear, the trial before the high priest, Peter’s denials, Judas’s remorse and the potter’s field as the world bought by Christ’s blood for strangers, and Jesus’ answers to the priest and to Pilate.
On the Trinity 1.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Colossians 2 warns against philosophy and teaches that in Christ, fully God, believers are buried and raised in baptism and freed from the curse.
On the Trinity 8.51Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Creation and reconciliation in and through the Son, by God who was in Christ (2 Cor 5:18–19), show the Father's nature in him.
On the Trinity 10.47Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Christ suffered our weaknesses by the power of his own nature, bearing our sins without sin (Isa 53:4–5; 2 Cor 5:20–21).
On the Trinity 10.48Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Paul presents Christ's death as a triumph (Col 2:13–15), and every event of the passion pairs suffering with divine power.
Homilies on the Psalms 48.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 49:3–7 Basil joins heart and mouth (belief and confession), reads the psaltery as a life in harmony with words, and the evil day as the judgment when each sin will stand as its own accuser; to the strong and the rich he declares that no brother can ransom a soul from the devil, for every man is himself a captive of sin, and only the redemption in Christ sets free.
Homilies on the Psalms 48.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · No brother, not even Moses, could ransom Israel, for Moses too sinned at the rock; only Christ, God made man, could pay the price of our souls with his precious blood, needing no propitiation for himself. The Lord who never wearies toiled in this age, and so do the righteous like Paul, Lazarus and Job, who will live to the end, while the luxurious rich man and the worldly wise will die.
Homilies on the Psalms 59.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Basil, weak from long illness, likens his sermon to a mother's dry breast given to a crying child. He finds the history behind the title of Ps 60 in 2 Samuel 8 and 10, and asks why David laments after his greatest victories: the title points to the end, to “those who will be changed,” the Gentiles who turn from idols to the Gospel; he then reads the verses as God's rejection of sin, his pity in sending his Son, the sign of Christ's blood, and the sharing of Israel's covenant with all nations.
On the Holy Spirit 46Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · No envoy or angel, not even Moses, could save Israel, but God himself, who spared his creatures and gave his Son to redeem them from the devil.
Tractates on the Psalms 53.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The law's sacrifices were compulsory under a curse; Christ freed us from the curse by voluntarily offering his own body as the perfect sacrifice.
Tractates on the Psalms 68.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ bore the “foolishness” of the cross and the penalty of sins not his own, defeating the prince of the world, and prayed that the saints’ hope in him not be shamed.
Tractates on the Psalms 68.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Though all creation pleases God, the passion is the special “time of good pleasure,” when Christ reconciled all things, defeated the powers, and freed creation.
Tractates on the Psalms 119.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Christ, the eternal high priest, has entered the true holy of holies through his blood, and Isaiah's call to repentance and justice names the steps by which we ascend to him.
Tractates on the Psalms 129.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'propitiation' with God is the only-begotten Son, who took away sins on the cross; since Father and Son are one, the verse fits either.
Tractates on the Psalms 135.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God remembered our lowliness in the incarnation, redeemed us by Christ's blood from the devil and death, and feeds the redeemed with the living bread, all from his mercy.
Tractates on the Psalms 149.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God, who 'repented' of making sinful man, now takes pleasure in his people reconciled through Christ's body and blood, the eternal priest after Melchizedek's order sworn without repentance.
Sermon on Baptism 4Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian describes the passion as Christ’s victory: the devil, by condemning the sinless one, overstepped his power over sinners and was overcome, and Christ rose on the third day.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Redemption through Christ’s blood frees souls from the captivity of the world into which they fell and restores them, by grace and not by their own power, to their original spiritual nature.
Commentary on Ephesians 2.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · God’s rich mercy and great love are shown in his not sparing his Son, through whose passion he redeemed us when we had become strangers to him.
Commentary on Ephesians 2.14Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Christ is our peace, reconciling to God by his passion those who were at war with him through idolatry.
Commentary on Ephesians 2.15Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Christ, the mediator, broke down the wall of fleshly desire between souls and God, made void the law’s observances understood in a fleshly way, and joined souls with the spiritual realm into one new, spiritual man.
Commentary on Ephesians 2.16Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Christ reconciled souls and spirit in one body to God, killing in his own flesh, on the cross, the enmities of flesh and world, so that almost nothing remains for us but to believe in him.
Oration 45.14Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The sacrifices of the law pointed to Christ, the true victim for the whole world; each feature of the Passover lamb (innocent, perfect, male, a year old, without blemish) is read of him.
Oration 45.22Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks to whom the ransom of Christ's blood was paid: not to the devil, nor as a price demanded by the Father, but accepted by the Father for the economy of salvation. He urges hearers to keep the Pascha spiritually by sacrificing themselves and sharing in every stage of Christ's passion and resurrection.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Bought with Christ's blood, believers belong to him and must glorify God by living according to his law.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:57Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ, sinless God made man, defeated the devil by being unjustly killed, so the devil justly lost those he held through sin.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ, one with the Father in nature yet distinct in person, became man to be the one mediator who reconciled God and humanity in himself.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:19–21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God the Father was in Christ, one with him in substance, reconciling the world, and gave the apostles the ministry of reconciliation in Christ's place.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 5:21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God made the sinless Christ “sin” by incarnation and as a sin offering, so that sinners might be justified; his death, plotted by Satan, emptied the underworld.
Commentary on Colossians 1:20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God reconciled all things in heaven and on earth through the incarnate Christ's teaching and death, so that his creatures might live in him their author.
Commentary on Colossians 1:21–22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The gentiles, once enemies of God's counsels and devoted to idols, have been freely reconciled through Christ's death and must remain holy for the judgment.
Commentary on Colossians 2:13–15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ forgave all sins, including the inherited sin of Adam that kept the dead in the underworld, by nailing it to the cross; the sinless one, unjustly killed, made the powers guilty and stripped them of their captives.
Commentary on Ephesians 1:7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ both redeemed believers by his blood and forgave their sins.
Commentary on Ephesians 2:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · By the cross Christ reconciled Jew and gentile to each other and to God in one body.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ's death pleased God not because he was killed but because he kept righteousness to death; God 'handed him over' by permitting his willing killers, who remain guilty.
Commentary on Galatians 1:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Father and Son are equally Lord and God; to serve the law alongside Christ insults him, who gave himself to free us from the devil, the law's condemnation and the present age.
Commentary on Galatians 3:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ, offered for the cursed, became 'a curse' as a sin offering is called 'sin'; innocent, he was not cursed but became the curse of those who killed him, and by his death and descent he freed humanity.
Commentary on Romans 3:24Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers are justified freely by faith alone, through Christ’s redemption, by which the devil, seizing Christ, lost all whom he held.
Commentary on Romans 4:23–25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Abraham’s faith is a pattern for those who believe in the God who raised Jesus; through Christ’s death and resurrection believers are forgiven, justified and adopted as sons of God.
Commentary on Romans 8:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The law’s justification is fulfilled in the forgiven who live by the spirit; Christ condemned sin in three ways: by not sinning, on the cross, and by forgiving sins.
Question 78, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Isaiah says Christ did no sin; Paul says the Father made him sin, meaning that he took sinful flesh and was offered as a sin offering, called “sin” in the law.
Question 78, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Father offered Christ by letting his enemies kill him, which let him descend to strip the underworld and made the devil guilty; so he was made a curse for us, and his sign frees us from the second death.
Question 116, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · In a homily on Easter, Ambrosiaster explains that Pascha is named from Christ’s passion and that God justly destroyed death through death’s own act in killing the Savior.
Question 116, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God rescued humanity justly, not by force: the devil, man’s accuser, was provoked into killing the sinless Son of God and so became guilty himself.
Question 116, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · By killing the sinless Christ the devil, identified with death, forfeited all humanity, as through Adam he had gained them, and Christ’s blood restored human nature to a better state.
Letter to Adelphius 5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius shows that refusing to worship the incarnate Word is ingratitude for the redemption he won in the flesh, which remains inseparable from him in heaven.
Letter to Adelphius 6Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius sets out the right faith from the prophets and apostles: the Word came in the flesh and gave himself for us, so that his coming is the ransom from death.
Letter to Adelphius 8Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius concludes that only a creator Word could save creatures, and that the Church both confesses his Godhead and worships his coming in the flesh.
Letter to Maximus 3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 371 · Athanasius explains that the Word became man by the Father's good pleasure, not by the course of nature, and showed both what belongs to the body and what belongs to the Godhead.
Letter 69.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome opens his answer to Oceanus by insisting that Christ's grace takes away all sins, against those who hold some sins are beyond cleansing.
On the Holy Spirit 8.18Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Christ's names as bridegroom, physician, and way show his power and love; our ascent to the Father is through him.
Ancoratus 65.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ canceled our debt and triumphed over the powers.
Ancoratus 65.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ died so we might live for him; God reconciled the world in him.
Ancoratus 65.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · All fullness dwells in Christ, who reconciles all.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.7.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The cross heals the bites of sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.8.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcion argues from Gal 3:13 that Christ bought us because we belonged to another.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.8.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius explains that Christ did not become a curse but undid the curse.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.8.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul says 'redeemed', not 'bought', so Christ did not purchase what was foreign to him.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.8.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's 'redemption' means his willing incarnation and cross, not a purchase from another god.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.31.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's sacrifice is not repeated.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ offered himself on the cross, ending the old sacrifices.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ is priest, victim, altar, God and man, and founds an unchangeable priesthood.
On Cain and Abel 2.11Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Our redemption price is Christ's blood; he is the true Levite who redeems all, offering healing so that those who perish do so by their own fault, while the righteous, like the ten for Sodom, save others.
On the Christian Faith 3.11Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose shows from the Psalms, Hebrews, and Philippians that Christ is said to be “made” in respect of his humanity, priesthood, and sacrifice, explains Melchizedek as a man who prefigured Christ, and concludes that the work of Father and Son is one.
Life of Macrina, part 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · On her last day Macrina, freed from fear of death, turns toward the east and prays to Christ, who has destroyed death, crushed the dragon and given the sign of the cross.
On Tobit 33Ambrose · ca. 380-390 · The devil is the moneylender of sin, whose bond against humanity Christ cancelled by paying debts he did not owe.
On the Trinity 2Faustinus · ca. 380–384 · Against the claim that God made the Son from nothing, Faustinus cites the Father's voice at the baptism and transfiguration, Peter's confession, John's 'only-begotten' texts, God's gift of his Son compared with Abraham's offering of Isaac, and Psalm 110:3, 'from the womb I begot you.'
Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 5Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Christ’s “subjection” and his cry of forsakenness express his taking our rebellion and abandonment upon himself, not any inferiority of his Godhead.
Theological Oration 4 (Or. 30), On the Son 20Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Gregory explains the Son’s divine titles, Son, Only-begotten, Word, Wisdom, Power, Truth, Image, Light, Life, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption, Resurrection.
Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas lists the scriptural titles of Christ (Word, Wisdom, Light, Lamb, Priest, Vine, Bread, Stone, Door and others) and explains what each means.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 66Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Christ frees us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.33Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Isaiah shows that God rejected the old sacrifices, awaiting the true sacrifice of Christ’s passion, and was then reconciled.
Apology of the Prophet David 63Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Christ blotted out the bond against us by nailing it to the cross, erasing with his blood the debt Eve wrote.
Catechetical Oration 17Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · To the question why God saved man by birth and death rather than by a mere command, Gregory replies that patients do not dictate treatment to physicians, but promises a reasoned answer.
Catechetical Oration 22Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Deceived by a bait of apparent good, man sold himself to the enemy; justice required that God not seize him by force but buy him back, as one may lawfully ransom a slave.
Catechetical Oration 23Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · The captor, proud and seeing Christ's miracles, accepted him as ransom for those held in death; the Godhead was veiled in flesh so that he would approach, showing God's goodness, justice, and wisdom together.
Catechetical Oration 24Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · God's power is shown most in his descent to our lowliness: hidden in flesh like a hook in bait, the Godhead entered death so that life and light might destroy death and darkness.
Catechetical Oration 26Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · The deceiver was justly deceived in turn, but for his good as well as ours: like gold refined by fire, all creation, even the adversary, will be purified and will join in thanksgiving at the final restoration.
On the Life of Moses 415Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The bronze serpent figures Christ, who came “in the likeness of sinful flesh”: looking to the cross does not abolish desire but prevents its deadly bite; when desire is mastered, arrogance follows, as when Korah’s party seized the priesthood and went down into the earth.
On Jacob and the Happy Life 1.12Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · All are Christ's freedmen, redeemed from the slavery of Adam's sin, and owe him the deference a freedman owes his patron.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.36.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, the Lamb of God, has freed us from the bonds of sin.
Exposition of Psalm 118 12.36.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · We must remember our slavery to the devil so as to thank Christ, who made him captive.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.40.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ’s obedient passion is loved above all creation, for redemption gives more than creation.
Letter 102.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God's word foretold that the sacrifices would change with the coming of Christ's one sacrifice, without any change in God or religion.
Letter 140.73Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The grace of the New Testament is the righteousness given to believers: Christ was made 'sin', a sacrifice for sin, so that in his body the church we might be God's righteousness, made righteous by him.
Homilies on Matthew 2.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Homily 2 opens with Matt 1:1: hearers must prepare to enter the Gospel more purely than Israel prepared at Sinai, for it shows Christ's victory; the divine generation is beyond telling.
On Joseph 19Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Joseph sold into Egypt prefigures Christ, sold for our sins, who paid the debt of all and set us free.
On Joseph 42Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · All nations came to Joseph to buy grain; we buy Christ not with silver but with faith and with the life we owe him, as he redeemed us with his blood.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.6.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ condemned sin by taking our flesh and being made sin for us.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.43.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God “sold” the people that was sold by its own sin and bought the Christian people with blood.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.43.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christians were bought with the precious blood of the spotless Lamb.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.43.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Bought with a price, Christians must not be slaves of men, of sin or of the serpent, but serve the Lord alone.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.85.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ is the true Jonah, who gave his life as a ransom and emptied the whale’s belly, that is, death.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.87.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ made peace by his blood, called men to God by his works, and offered the saving sacrifice.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.13.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · No brother can redeem, but a man will; Christ, the redeemer of all, needs no redemption himself.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.13.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ, the one mediator, alone redeems man, shedding his blood even for strangers.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.13.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ alone redeems, for he alone is free of Adam’s sin and gave his life for his servants.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.14.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ redeems not as our brother but as God in Christ reconciling the world; he needed no reconciliation himself.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.14.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Son, free from sin, owed nothing for himself, and his blood could redeem the whole world.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.15.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · No one now needs to pay his own redemption, for Christ is the propitiation and redemption of all.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.15.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · No blood compares with Christ’s, the one sacrifice that reconciled the world.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 48.15.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ’s blood is the price for all; he took up our labour, as the psalm and Jacob’s blessing of Issachar foretell.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 61.10.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God once moved the earth in judgment, but in Christ he comes in mercy, to redeem us by his own blood.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · Sins arise from one's own thought or from another's persuasion; man, persuaded by the devil, was justly subjected to him, until the Word became flesh and, killed though sinless and born without lust, justly freed those who believe in him.
Homily 8Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390–394 · On Song 4:8–9 Gregory teaches that the soul's ascent to God never ends, since each good attained is the beginning of a higher one, and reads the angels' praise of the bride as their wonder at God's manifold wisdom shown through the church.
Sermon 6.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rod turned into a serpent signifies Christ, God's kingship, taking our mortality; like the bronze serpent, he heals sinners who look to him, and at the end he restores his body to life.
Sermon 21.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Masters who claim to have given their "blood" (money) for their slaves should remember that Christ bought them with his real blood and death, and owe him the faithfulness they demand.
Sermon 22.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's mercy, shown in redeeming us with his Son's blood, is abundant, but not for the obstinate who defend their sins; the saints who hold God as Father and the Church as mother receive the inheritance.
Sermon 26.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The greater grace is that through the Word made flesh, the man Christ Jesus, the one Mediator, we were reconciled to God.
Sermon 27.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The captivity is humanity’s bondage to the devil since Adam’s sin; Christ, God from God, came in the likeness of sinful flesh to pay our price with his blood.
Sermon 36.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The truly rich are those of Christ, who became poor, that is, mortal, while remaining rich as the Creator Word, so that by his blood we might become rich in righteousness and immortality.
Sermon 80.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ prayed for those who killed him, and his prayer was answered at Pentecost; he died in the flesh he took from us, so that we might live from what is his.
Sermon 109.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The adversary with whom we must settle on the way cannot be the devil, from whom we have been redeemed, since Matthew’s parallel says we must agree with him.
Sermon 130.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is the bread from heaven and the Merchant who took our birth, toil, and death and gave rebirth, resurrection, and eternal reign; his cross was the mousetrap and his blood the bait by which the devil lost his captives.
Sermon 134.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ was “made sin” in that he became a sacrifice for sin, for in the Old Testament the sin offering itself is called “sin”; his blood blotted out the debtor’s bond.
Sermon 152.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Some say Christ condemned sin by the sin of Judas and the Jews who killed him, a true but insufficient answer; 2 Cor 5:21 says that God made Christ himself “sin” for us.
Sermon 152.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ was made “sin” in that he became the sacrifice for sin, since the Law calls sin offerings “sins”; by this sacrifice he condemned sin, and the law of grace takes away the sin that the law of the letter only shows.
Sermon 155.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · What the Law could not do, God did by sending his Son in true flesh without sin, who, like the temple tax he paid without owing it, paid a death he did not owe to free us from ours.
Sermon 155.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ had no sin but was made “sin,” that is, a sacrifice for sin, so that we might become God's righteousness in him; why some do not share it lies in God's unsearchable judgments.
Sermon 171.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Impunity is the worst punishment, for God in great anger leaves the sinner unpunished, while he chastises his sons in mercy; Christ, the only Son, made many sons by his blood, so rejoice in the Lord.
Sermon 263.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s glorification was completed by resurrection and ascension; he came hidden to be judged and will come manifest to judge; the devil, the roaring lion, was caught by Christ’s death as in a mousetrap by the Lion of Judah who was slain as a lamb.
Sermon 293.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the groomsman to the bridegroom, John stands to Christ, who as man is mediator between God and men, wholly God and wholly man; Paul calls the mediator ‘the man Christ Jesus’ because the one God is Father, Son and Spirit.
Sermon 294.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The bronze serpent prefigures Christ sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, who took the punishment of sin without its guilt and so healed both; if infants are brought to him, they are confessed to be poisoned and in need of healing.
Sermon 317.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God the Father and the incarnate Son gave the example of loving enemies: Christ found only enemies, shed his blood for them to make them friends, and prayed on the cross for those blinded who crucified him.
On Christian Doctrine 1.17Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Christ made himself the way home and, by his cross, removed the barrier of sin for those who turn back.
Confessions 10.68Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Christ is the true Mediator, mortal with men and just with God; as man he mediates, as Word he is equal to God.
Confessions 10.69Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The Father's love is shown in the Son, victor and victim, priest and sacrifice, whose incarnation gives hope.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 14.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that death, the punishment of sin, is itself called sin, and that Christ took on not our sin but our death, which was cursed and condemned on the cross.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 14.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Christ, taking real flesh from Adam through Mary, took on the curse of death without guilt, to end both our guilt and our punishment.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 14.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine cites Paul, who calls Christ's mortal flesh the likeness of sinful flesh and says Christ was made sin, so Moses may rightly call him cursed.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 14.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says Moses wrote “everyone” to forestall heretics who would deny Christ's true death by exempting him from the curse.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 14.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Moses' word “cursed” affirms Christ's true death, which the bronze serpent also prefigured, and that the Manichaeans, refusing to look at it, are not healed.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 18.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains the animal sacrifices as concessions to the people that also prefigured Christ, the bull, ram and goat, whose blood cleanses.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that pagan sacrifices imitate, and Hebrew sacrifices foretold, the one true sacrifice of Christ, which Christians commemorate in offering and receiving his body and blood.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine denies that the Jews kept pagan worship minus idols: they offered sacrifice only to the one Creator, prefiguring Christ, unlike demons who feed on human error.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains animal sacrifices as figures of Christ's one sacrifice, whose pagan counterparts were demonic imitations, so that sacrifice is due to the true God alone.
On the Trinity 4.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that God had to show us both how much he loved us, lest we despair, and what kind of people he loved, sinners, lest we be proud; and he describes the Word, in whom all created things exist unchangeably as life and who is the light of rational minds.
On the Trinity 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that the Word became flesh to cleanse us for participation in him: the righteous God-man took our mortality to make us partakers of his divinity, and his single death fits our double death as one to two, like the octave in music.
On the Trinity 4.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine says that all the Old Testament signs foreshadowed the one Christ, priest and sacrifice, so that we who had fallen away into many things might be gathered by the one Mediator into unity with the one God.
On the Trinity 4.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that souls are not cleansed by magical rites, since the devil, the false mediator, blocks the way; as the Magi returned by another way, so we return by Christ's humility. The devil brought our double death by his single death of the spirit, while Christ met us in bodily death by righteousness, making his death a sacrifice for sin.
On the Trinity 4.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that Christ died not by necessity but by his own will, and that the devil, who brought death to man, was justly defeated when he killed the innocent Christ, so that by Christ's just blood unjustly shed the bond of death was cancelled and sinners redeemed; the proud who despise Christ's death will share the devil's eternal punishment.
On the Trinity 4.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine argues that a true sacrifice is owed to God alone and that Christ is the perfect priest and sacrifice: sinless, offering human and mortal flesh born of a virgin, at once the one who offers, the offering, one with God to whom it is offered, and making one those for whom it is offered.
On the Trinity 13.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · No way of freeing humanity was more fitting than the incarnation and death of the Son, which shows God's love; even our merits are God's gifts.
On the Trinity 13.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine raises the question how we are justified by Christ's blood if the Father already loved us before the world was made, and affirms that Father, Son, and Spirit act together.
On the Trinity 13.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God chose to overcome the devil by justice rather than power, setting the order that justice comes first and power follows at the judgment.
On the Trinity 13.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The devil was conquered by Christ's justice, since he killed one who owed nothing, and then by his power in the resurrection; for this Christ had to be both man and God.
On the Trinity 13.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The devil was conquered at the very moment he seemed to win, when Christ's sinless blood was shed as the price of our redemption.
On the Trinity 13.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Death and the evils of this life remain after forgiveness as a field of trial for the faithful; Christ's undeserved death frees the predestined, and God's wrath is just retribution, not passion.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 15Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The cross stripped the rebellious powers who ruled mankind of their bond over sinners and gave believers an example of obedience unto death.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 16Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The incarnation was like bait on a hook: the devil seized Christ's flesh in death and was caught by the hidden Godhead.
Against Felix the Manichaean 2.11Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Augustine explains that humanity was held by the devil through its own consent under God's just judgment, that Christ took up the curse and death to undo them, and that the law is good, revealing sin so that the proud might repent.
1 Corinthians 7:24Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Bought by Christ's blood, Christians should act for God, not to please men.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ is the Lamb in a unique sense, alone without any stain of sin, by whose blood alone men could be redeemed.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Death entered through the devil's envy and man's consent, and Christ, the Word made mortal, freed us from death by his death.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 41.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The slave of sin cannot flee or change his master, for his sin is within; only Christ, who redeemed us with his blood, can free him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 41.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Only Christ, sinless, frees from sin's slavery, which even infants inherit from Adam; as mediator he removed the sin that separated us from God by becoming a sacrifice for sin.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 41.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Law itself calls the sin offerings “sins,” so Christ was “made sin” by becoming the sacrifice for sin.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 47.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine enters to his hearers through Christ the door; the good shepherd's laying down of his life is shared by his members, as John urges and as Christ foretold of Peter.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 62.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · In saying "What you are doing, do quickly" the Lord did not command the crime but hastened toward our redemption, for Christ handed himself over.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 79.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The devil is ruler not of creation but of sinners, the lovers of the world; he had nothing in Christ, who died without debt at the Father's command to redeem us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 84.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Martyrs imitate Christ's love but are not his equals; his blood alone remits sins, and no one may claim to be without sin as he was.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Since God is light and sins are darkness, we can have fellowship with him only because Christ's blood cleanses from all sin, as in baptism; later sins must be confessed.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · God loved us first by sending his Son; the Father, the Son, and Judas all 'delivered up' Christ, but love distinguishes the deed of the Father and Son from Judas's betrayal.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · God's love was first, sending his Son to offer himself as the pure sacrifice for our sins; so we ought to love one another.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.44Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Texts from 1 and 2 Corinthians show that Christ died for all, who were therefore dead; if infants are brought to baptism, they are among those whose offenses need forgiving.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.46Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Texts from Ephesians: all were by nature children of wrath, saved by grace, reconciled through the cross, and sealed by the Spirit for redemption.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.50Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Though some doubt Hebrews, Augustine accepts it with the Eastern churches and cites its texts on Christ's purification of sins, his priesthood, and his once-for-all sacrifice.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.54Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Old Testament witnesses (Psalm 16, Psalm 119, Isaiah 53 and 61) show that all have gone astray and are healed only by Christ, who bore the sins of many.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.56Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The whole church holds that all are separated from God by sin and reconciled only through Christ, the son of the virgin who conceived without lust.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.61Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The bronze serpent signifies Christ's death, which bore punishment without guilt; those conformed to it in baptism are healed of sin and death, which implies that infants too have been poisoned by sin.
City of God 7.31Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine gives thanks for the special gift to the faithful: the incarnation and unique sacrifice of the Son, and the love poured out by the Spirit.
City of God 10.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine defines true sacrifice as every work that unites us to God, and teaches that the whole redeemed city is offered to God through Christ the priest, as the church shows in the sacrament of the altar.
City of God 10.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine teaches that Christ, the Mediator, is both priest and offering, and that the church's daily sacrifice is the sacrament of this one sacrifice, prefigured by all the ancient ones.
City of God 10.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine confesses one God in three persons against Sabellianism and teaches that Christ, the Word made flesh, is the one Principle who purifies human nature, which Porphyry's pride would not accept.
City of God 18.29Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine quotes Isaiah's song of the suffering servant as prophecy of Christ and Isaiah 54 as prophecy of the church.
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.17Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The nations are told that God, who scattered Israel, will gather and redeem it by his blood from the stronger hostile powers; the grain, wine, and oil, the watered garden, the rejoicing virgins, young and old, and the priests drunk with fatness are spiritual gifts in the church, given now in part and in full at the resurrection (Jer 31:10–14).
On Nature and Grace 2Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues that if nature alone could fulfill righteousness without faith in Christ, Christ would have died in vain.
On Nature and Grace 26Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that Christ, sinless, died by his own power as the price of our redemption, which the Pelagian defense of nature makes void.
Apologetic Book 25.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Christ set forth as propitiation.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.37Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Baptism in Christ is the true circumcision, freeing infants from the debt contracted by carnal birth through Christ, who was made 'sin', that is, a sacrifice for sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.56Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Since Julian admits that Christ died for infants, and Christ died for sins, infants must have original sin for Christ to forgive.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers that the Old Testament saints were freed from sin not by their own strength or by the law but by the blood of Christ.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers the charge that he attributes sin to Christ, explaining that Paul calls Christ 'sin' because he took the likeness of sinful flesh and became a sacrifice for sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Romans 5 that universal reconciliation through Christ presupposes universal sin inherited from Adam, including in infants.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · All were born children of wrath through original sin and needed a mediator whose unique sacrifice would reconcile them; God's “wrath” means his just vengeance, not a disturbed feeling.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ, sinless in conception and life, was “made sin,” that is, a sacrifice for sin, so that we might become God's righteousness in him and rise to new life.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Adam's sin, which condemned the whole race, is washed away only through Christ, the one mediator, who alone needed no rebirth.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · John's baptism did not regenerate; Christ, needing no rebirth, accepted baptism out of humility and death without sin, so that the devil might justly lose those he held.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Adam brought one sin into the world, but Christ took away that sin and all others added to it.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 61Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The earthly Church is redeemed by Christ's blood; though Christ did not die for the angels, human redemption reconciles men with them and fills the places of the fallen.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 62Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Through Christ's one sacrifice heaven is restored by filling the angels' places with men, and earth by renewing those predestined to eternal life.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 108Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Only a Mediator who is both God and man could reconcile sinners, rebuking pride by God's humility, giving an example of obedience, opening grace, prefiguring the resurrection, and defeating the devil.
The Conferences 23.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas explains “sold under sin” as Adam’s sale of his descendants into slavery to the devil for the forbidden fruit, from which God, respecting free will, redeemed them only in the fullness of time by Christ’s blood.
Cyril, Twelve Anathemas, Anathema XAnonymous · 430–433 · Tenth anathema: the Word incarnate himself is our high priest, and he offered himself for us alone, not for himself.
Letter to Valerian, paragraph 23Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 432 · Future things are seen more clearly than present ones, as distant objects are seen better than those pressed against the eye; our confidence rests on Christ, God and man, who reconciled man to God and was exalted in glory.
Tome to the Armenians 15Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 435-437 · The Word became perfect man unchanged; as man he paid sin's debt by dying, as God he destroyed the devil, and he fulfilled all righteousness.