St. Hippolytus of Rome, The Antichrist 4 (c. 200 AD)
“Although He was without flesh, the Son of God took on flesh from the
Holy Virgin, like a bridegroom putting on a robe, which He wove for
Himself in the sufferings of the cross, so that by uniting our mortal body to
His own power, and mixing the corruptible with the incorruptible and the
weak with the strong, He might save man who was perishing. The beam of
the loom, therefore, is the suffering of the Lord which He endured on the
cross.”
St. Hilary of Poitiers, Commentaries on the Psalms [On Ps. 54 (53)]
(c. 365 AD)
“We have declared repeatedly and without cease that it was the only-
begotten Son of God who was crucified, and that He was condemned to
death: He that is eternal by reason of the nature which is His by His birth
from the eternal Father; and it must be understood that He underwent the
passion not from any natural necessity, but for the sake of the mystery of
man’s salvation; and that His submitting to the passion was not from His
being compelled thereto, but of His own will ... God suffered, therefore,
because He voluntarily submitted Himself to the passion.”
St. Gregory of Elvira, Homilies on the Books of Sacred Scripture 2
(c. 365-385 AD)
“The tree of the cross, clearly represents an image which to some seems as
hard and rough as wood, because on it the Lord was hung so that our sins,
which came to us from the tree of transgression, might be punished by
being affixed––again, it is through the same Man––to the tree of the cross
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