Renewal in Christ: Athanasius on the Christian Life

Chapter 6: Refutation of the Jews

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§34 – The Old Testament Foretells Christ’s Death for Us Moreover, the Scriptures are not silent even about his death. On the contrary, they refer to it with the utmost clearness. They have not feared to speak also of the cause of it. He endures it, they say, not for his own sake, but for the sake of bringing immortality and salvation to all, and they record also the plotting of the Jews against him and all the indignities which he suffered at their hands. Certainly nobody who reads the Scriptures can plead ignorance of the facts as an excuse for error! There is this passage, for instance: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:3–5). Marvel at the love of the Word for humanity, for it is on our account that he is dishonored, so that we may be brought to honor. “All we,” it goes on, “like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away” (Isa 53:6–8). And then Scripture anticipates the surmises of any who might think from his suffering thus that he was just an ordinary man, and shows what power worked in his behalf. “As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the