He said that about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he [Constantine] saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, “Conquer, by this.” At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle.
Life of Constantine (28)
And the Presbyter [Papias (120–130)] used to say this, “Mark became Peter’s interpreter and wrote accurately all that he remembered, not, indeed, in order, of the things said or done by the Lord. For he had not heard the Lord, nor had he followed him, but later on, as I said, followed Peter, who used to give teaching as necessity demanded but not making, as it were, an arrangement of the Lord’s oracles, so that Mark did nothing wrong in thus writing down single points as he remembered them. For to one thing he gave attention, to leave out nothing of what he had heard and to make no false statements in them.”
Ecclesiastical History (3:39:14-16) and similarly quoted in Papias 70-163, The Apostolic Fathers (volume 2), p. 103 – the earliest mention of what may be a named biblical gospel
– similarly quoted in Papias 70-163, The Apostolic Fathers (volume 2), p. 103, the earliest mention of what may be a named biblical gospel
Not only did the Lamb of God endure sufferings and punishments for us … but he suffered torments and tortures he did not deserve. It is we who deserved them because of our sins. He became the cause of our sins’ being forgiven, for he accepted in our place the death, the blows and the disgrace we deserved. He transferred them to himself and took upon himself the curse that was rightly ours, thus becoming a curse for us. What was he, except the substitute for our life.
as quoted in Gerard Soylan’s The Crucifixion of Christ (4), p. 115