Lactantius — Divine Institutes 4.16
I come now to the passion itself, which is usually cast at us as a reproach—that we worship a man afflicted and tortured by men with a notable punishment—so that I may teach that this very passion was undertaken with so great and divine a reason, and that in it alone virtue and truth and wisdom are contained. For if he had been most blessed on earth and had reigned through all his life in the highest happiness, no wise person would have believed him God or judged him worthy of divine honor. That is what those do who have no experience of true divinity: they not only admire frail wealth and fragile power and goods that are another’s favor, but even consecrate them, and knowingly serve the memory of the dead, worshiping a fortune already extinguished—which the wise never thought they should worship even when it was alive and present. Nothing in earthly things can be venerable and worthy of heaven; virtue alone, justice alone, can be judged a true, heavenly, and lasting good, because it is neither given to anyone nor taken away. Since Christ came to earth furnished with that virtue and justice—or rather since he himself is virtue and himself is justice—he descended to teach it and to form the human being. Having completed that teaching and that embassy of God, for that very virtue which he both taught and did he deserved and was able to be believed God by all the nations.
So when a great people kept flocking to him either for the justice he taught or for the miracles he worked, hearing his precepts and believing him sent by God and Son of God, then the leaders of the Jews and the priests—spurred by anger because he rebuked them as sinners, and warped by envy because, with the crowd streaming to him, they saw themselves despised and deserted, and (what was the head of their crime) blinded by folly and error and forgetful of the heavenly precepts and the prophets—gathered against him and took an impious counsel to remove him and torture him: which the prophets had described long beforehand. For David, foreseeing in the spirit at the beginning of his psalms how great a crime they would commit, says that he is blessed who has not gone in the counsel of the impious. And Solomon in the book of Wisdom used these words: “Let us surround the just man, since he is unpleasant to us and reproaches us with the sins of the law… Let us condemn him to a most shameful death.” They thought these things, and they erred: for their own folly blinded them, and they did not know the mysteries of God. Did he not so describe that nefarious counsel begun by the impious against God that he seems plainly to have been present? Yet from Solomon who sang these things to the time when the deed was done there were a thousand and ten years. We invent nothing; we add nothing: those who did it had these words; they were read against those of whom they were spoken. And even now the heirs of that name and crime both have and daily trumpet with their readings the damnation of themselves predicted by the prophets’ voice, and never admit it into their heart—which is itself part of the damnation.
So the Jews, often rebuked by Christ as he reproached their sins and injustice, and almost deserted by the people, were stirred to kill him; and his humility gave them the boldness for that act. For when they read with what virtue and clarity the Son of God was to come from heaven, and yet saw Jesus humble, shabby, and without form, they did not believe he was the Son of God, not knowing that two of his advents had been predicted by the prophets—the first obscure in the humility of flesh, the second open in the strength of majesty. Of the first David says in Psalm 71: “He will descend like rain on a fleece,” and justice and abundance of peace will rise in his days. For as rain falling on a fleece cannot be noticed because it makes no noise, so he said Christ would come to earth without anyone’s suspicion, to teach justice and peace. Isaiah also handed it down: “Lord, who has believed our hearing… He has no form nor glory… a man set in a blow and knowing how to bear weakness… He bears our sins and suffers for us… He was wounded for our crimes… By his bruise we have been healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, and God handed him over for our sins.” And the Sibyl in the same way: “Pitiable, unhonored, formless, he will give hope among the pitiable.” Because of this humility, not recognizing their God, they entered a detestable counsel to deprive of life him who had come that he might make them live.
Latin
Venio nunc ad ipsam passionem, quae uelut obprobrium nobis obiectari solet, quod et hominem et ab hominibus insigni supplicio adfectum et cruciatum colamus, ut doceam eam ipsam passionem adeo cum magna et diuina ratione susceptam et in ea sola et uirtutem et ueritatem et sapientiam contineri. neque enim si beatissimus in terra fuisset et per omnem uitam in summa felicitate regnasset, quisquam illum sapiens aut deum credidisset aut honore diuino dignum iudicasset: quod faciunt uerae diuinitatis expertes, qui caducas opes et fragilem potentiam et alieni beneficii bona non tantum suspiciunt, uerum etiam consecrant et scientes memoriae mortuorum deseruiunt fortunam iam extinctam colentes, quam ne uiuam quidem praesentemque sapientes colendam sibi umquam putauerunt. nec enim potest aliquid in rebus terrenis esse uenerabile caeloque dignum, sed sola est uirtus, sola iustitia quae potest uerum bonum et caeleste et perpetuum iudicari, quia nec datur cuiquam nec aufertur. qua uirtute ac iustitia quoniam Christus instructus uenit in terram, immo uero quoniam ipse uirtus et ipse iustitia est, descendit, ut eam doceret hominemque formaret. quo magisterio ac dei legatione perfunctus ob eam ipsam uirtutem, quam simul et docuit et fecit, ab omnibus gentibus et meruit et potuit deus credi. ergo cum magnus populus ad eum uel ob iustitiam quam docebat uel ob miracula quae faciebat subinde conflueret et praecepta eius audiret et a deo missum deique filium crederet, tum primores Iudaeorum ac sacerdotes et ira stimulati, quod ab eo tamquam peccatores increpabantur, et inuidia deprauati, quod confluente ad eum multitudine contemni se ac deseri uidebant, et, quod caput sceleris illorum fuit, stultitia et errore caecati et inmemores praeceptorum caelestium ac prophetarum coierunt aduersus eum inpiumque consilium de eo tollendo cruciandoque ceperunt: quod prophetae multo ante descripserant.
nam et Dauid in principio psalmorum suorum prouidens in spiritu quantum facinus admissuri essent, beatum esse ait qui non abierit in consilio inpiorum. et Solomon in libro sapientiae his uerbis usus est: circumueniamus iustum, quoniam insuauis est nobis et exprobrat nobis peccata legis. promittit scientiam dei se habere et filium dei se nominat. factus est nobis in traductionem cogitationum nostrarum, grauis est nobis etiam ad uidendum, quoniam dissimilis est aliis uita illius et mutatae sunt uiae illius. tamquam nugaces aestimati sumus ab eo, continet se a uiis nostris quasi ab inmunditiis et praefert nouissima iustorum et gloriatur patrem dominum. uideamus ergo si sermones illius ueri sunt, et temptemus quae euentura sunt illi. contumelia et tormenta interrogemus eum, et sciamus reuerentiam illius et probemus patientiam illius. morte turpissima condemnemus eum. haec cogitauerunt., et errauerant: excaecauit enim illos stultitia ipsorum et nescierunt sacramenta dei. nonne ita descripsit nefarium illud consilium ab inpiis initum contra deum, ut plane interfuisse uideatur ? atquin a Solomone qui haec cecinit usque ad id tempus quo gesta res est mille ac decem anni fuerunt. nihil nos adfingimus, nihil addimus: habebant haec qui fecerunt, legebant in quos haec dicta sunt. sed et nunc heredes nominis ac sceleris illorum et habent et damnationem suam prophetarum uoce praedictam cottidianis lectionibus personant nec aliquando in cor suum, quae pars est et ipsa damnationis, admittunt. increpiti ergo a Christo saepe Iudaei exprobrante illis peccata et iniustitiam et a populo paene deserti concitati sunt ad eum necandum: cuius rei audaciam dedit illis humilitas eius. nam cum legerent cum quanta uirtute et claritate filius dei uenturus esset e caelo, Iesum autem cernerent humilem sordidum informem, non credebant filium dei esse ignorantes duos eius aduentus a prophetis esse praedictos, primum in humilitate carnis obscurum, secundum in fortitudine maiestatis manifestum. de primo Dauid in psalmo LXXI sic ait: descendet sicut pluuia in uellus, et orietur in diebus eius iustitia et abundantia pacis, donec extollatur luna. sicut enim pluuia si descendat in uellus, animaduerti non potest, quia strepitum non facit, ita Christum in terram sine cuiusquam suspicione uenturum esse dixit, ut iustitiam doceat et pacem.
Esaias quoque ita tradidit: domine, quis credidit auditui nostro et bracchium dei cui reuelatum est? adnuntiauimus coram ipso sicut pueri et sicut radix in terra sitienti. non est figura eius neque claritas: et uidimus illum, et non habuit figuram neque decorem, sed figura eius sine honore et deficiens praeter ceteros homines. homo in plaga positus et sciens ferre inbecillitatem, quia auersus est et non est conputatus. hic peccata nostra portat et pro nobis dolet, et nos putauimus ipsum esse in dolore et in plaga et in uexatione: ipse autem uulneratus est propter facinora nostra et infirmatus est propter peccata nostra. doctrina pacis nostrae super illum, liuore eius nos sanati sumus. omnes sicut oues errauimus, et deus tradidit illum pro peccatis nostris. et Sibylla eodem modo: οἰκτρὸς ἄτιμος ἄμορφος, ἐν οἰκτροῖς ἐλπίδα δώσει . propter hanc humilitatem deum suum non adgnoscentes inierunt consilium detestandum, ut priuarent eum uita qui ut eos uiuificaret aduenerat.