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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920

Chapter 68

And that He shall be despised and tormented and in the end put to death, Isaiah says thus: Behold, my son shall understand,¹ and shall be² exalted and glorified greatly. Even as many shall be astonished at thee, so without glory shall thy form be from men. And many races shall be astonished, and kings shall shut their mouths: for they to whom it was not declared concerning him shall see, and they who have not heard shall consider. Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? We declared before him as a child, as a root in a dry ground: and there is to him no form nor glory: and we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty: and his form was without honour, meaner than that of other men: a man in chastisement, and acquainted with the bearing of pain; for his face was turned away, he was dishonoured and made of no account. He beareth our sins, and for our sakes endureth pain: and we accounted him to be in pain and chastisement and affliction. But he was wounded for our iniquities, and was tormented for our sins. The discipline of our peace (was) upon him; by his stripes we were healed. By these words it is declared that He was tormented; as also David says: And I was tormented.³ Now David was never tormented, but Christ (was), when the command was given that He should be crucified. And again by Isaiah His Word says: I gave⁴ my back to scourging, and my cheeks to smiting: and my face I turned not away from the shame of spitting.⁵ And Jeremiah the prophet says the same, thus: He shall give his cheek to the smiter: he⁶ shall be filled with reproaches. All these things Christ suffered.

Notes

The Arm. text gives the passive (“be understood”); but doubtless the LXX συνήσει was read: the difference is only in the final letter.
Isa. ii. 13 ff.
The repetition in the Arm. of the word here rendered “tormented” suggests that the same Greek verb would underlie the words of the prophet (“was tormented for our sins”) and of the psalmist (“And I was tormented”). But in the former case we and μεμαλάκισται, and this verb does not occur in the LXX of the Psalms. Probably the reference is to Ps. xxxviii. 8 (9), ἐκακώθην, taking up ἐν κακώσει and κεκακῶσθαι of Isa. liii. 4, 7. For the argument cf. Just. M. Ap. I, 35: ὁ μὲν Δαυεὶδ . . . οὐδὲν τούτων ἔπαθεν; κ.τ.λ.
Isa. l. 6.
Cf. cc. 36, 56, 95.
Lam. iii. 30.