Chapter 7.
Fasting, and the goat sent away, were types of Christ
Understand, then, you children of gladness, that the good Lord has foreshown all things to us,
that we might know to whom we ought for everything to render thanksgiving and praise. If
therefore the Son of God, who is Lord [of all things], and who will judge the living and the dead,
suffered, that His stroke might give us life, let us believe that the Son of God could not have
suffered except for our sakes. Moreover, when fixed to the cross, He had given Him to drink
vinegar and gall. Hearken how the priests of the people gave previous indications of this. His
commandment having been written, the Lord enjoined, that whosoever did not keep the fast
should be put to death, because He also Himself was to offer in sacrifice for our sins the vessel
of the Spirit, in order that the type established in Isaac when he was offered upon the altar might
be fully accomplished. What, then, says He in the prophet? And let them eat of the goat which is
offered, with fasting, for all their sins. Attend carefully: And let all the priests alone eat the
inwards, unwashed with vinegar. Wherefore? Because to me, who am to offer my flesh for the
sins of my new people, you are to give gall with vinegar to drink: eat alone, while the people fast
and mourn in sackcloth and ashes. [These things were done] that He might show that it was
necessary for Him to suffer for them. How, then, ran the commandment? Give your attention.
Take two goats of goodly aspect, and similar to each other, and offer them. And let the priest
take one as a burntoffering for sins. And what should they do with the other? Accursed, says
He, is the one. Mark how the type of Jesus now comes out. And all of you spit upon it, and
pierce it, and encircle its head with scarlet wool, and thus let it be driven into the wilderness.
And when all this has been done, he who bears the goat brings it into the desert, and takes the
wool off from it, and places that upon a shrub which is called Rachia, of which also we are
accustomed to eat the fruits when we find them in the field. Of this kind of shrub alone the fruits
are sweet. Why then, again, is this? Give good heed. [You see] one upon the altar, and the
other accursed; and why [do you behold] the one that is accursed crowned? Because they shall
see Him then in that day having a scarlet robe about his body down to his feet; and they shall
say, Is not this He whom we once despised, and pierced, and mocked, and crucified? Truly this
is He who then declared Himself to be the Son of God. For how like is He to Him! With a view to
this, [He required] the goats to be of goodly aspect, and similar, that, when they see Him then
coming, they may be amazed by the likeness of the goat. Behold, then, the type of Jesus who
was to suffer. But why is it that they place the wool in the midst of thorns? It is a type of Jesus
set before the view of the Church. [They place the wool among thorns], that any one who
wishes to bear it away may find it necessary to suffer much, because the thorn is formidable,
and thus obtain it only as the result of suffering. Thus also, says He, Those who wish to behold
Me, and lay hold of My kingdom, must through tribulation and suffering obtain Me. Acts 14:22