“He bears our iniquities, and is in sorrow for our sakes; yet we supposed that on His own account He was exposed to labour, and stripes, and affliction. But He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; every man has wandered in his own way; and the Lord has delivered Him up for our sins, while He in the midst of His sufferings opened not His mouth. He was brought as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before her shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away; who shall declare His generation? for His life is taken from the earth. For the transgressions of my people was He brought down to death. And I will give the wicked for His sepulcher, and the rich for His death, because He did no iniquity, neither was guile found in His mouth. And the Lord is pleased to purify Him by stripes. If you make an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord is pleased to relieve Him of the affliction of His soul, to show Him light, and to form Him with understanding, to justify the Just One who ministers well to many; and He Himself shall carry their sins. On this account He shall inherit many, and shall divide the spoil of the strong; because His soul was delivered to death, and He was reckoned among the transgressors, and He bore the sins of many, and for their sins was He delivered”

(1 Clement (c. 150 - c. 215 AD) 16:4-14).

“He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities, He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! that the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!”

(Epistle to Diognetus, Chapter 9).

“If, then, the Father of all wished His Christ for the whole human family to take upon Him the curses of all, knowing that, after He had been crucified and was dead, He would raise Him up, why do you argue about Him, who submitted to suffer these things according to the Father’s will, as if He were accursed, and do not rather bewail yourselves? For although His Father caused Him to suffer these things in behalf of the human family, yet you did not commit the deed as in obedience to the will of God”

(Justin Martyr (c. AD 100 - c. AD 165), Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter 95).

“For He did not make void, but fulfilled the law, by performing the offices of the high priest, propitiating God for men”

(Irenaeus (c.130 - c. 202 AD), Against Heresies, Book 4, Chapter 8, Section 2).

“And therefore in the last times the Lord has restored us into friendship through His incarnation, having become ‘the Mediator between God and men;’ propitiating indeed for us the Father against whom we had sinned, and canceling our disobedience by His own obedience; conferring also upon us the gift of communion with, and subjection to, our Maker”

(Irenaeus (c.130 - c. 202 AD), Against Heresies, Book 5, Chapter 17, Section 1).

“For thee I contended with Death, and paid thy death, which thou owedst for thy former sins and thy unbelief towards God”

(Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 AD - c. 215 AD), Who Is the Rich Man that Shall be Saved?, Chapter 23).

“And the Lamb of God not only did this, but was chastised on our behalf, and suffered a penalty He did not owe, but which we owed because of the multitude of our sins; and so He became the cause of the forgiveness of our sins, because He received death for us, and transferred to Himself the scourging, the insults, and the dishonor, which were due to us, and drew down upon Himself the appointed curse, being made a curse for us. . . . But since being in the likeness of sinful flesh He condemned sin in the flesh, the words quoted are rightly used. And in that He made our sins His own from His love and benevolence towards us”

(Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260 - 339), Demonstratio Evangelica, Book 10, Chapter 1).

“Thus He offered Himself to the death of the accursed that He might break the curse of the Law, offering Himself voluntarily a victim to God the Father, in order that by means of a voluntary victim the curse which attended the discontinuance of the regular victim might be removed”

(Hilary of Poitiers (c. 310 - c. 367), Homily on Psalm 53, Section 13).

“Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death in place of all, and offered it to the Father”

(Athanasius (c. 296 - 373), On the Incarnation, Section 8).

“The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death; yet He Himself, as the Word, being immortal and the Father’s Son, was such as could not die. For this reason, therefore, He assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through belonging to the Word Who is above all, might become in dying a sufficient exchange for all, and, itself remaining incorruptible through his indwelling, might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection. It was by surrendering to death the body which He had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from every stain, that He forthwith abolished death for His human brethren by the offering of the equivalent. For naturally, since the Word of God was above all, when He offered His own temple and bodily instrument as a substitute for the life of all, He fulfilled in death all that was required”

(Athanasius (c. 296 - 373), On the Incarnation, Section 9).

“He suffered these things, not for His own sake but for ours. ‘Thou hast made Thy wrath to rest upon me,’ says the one [i.e., Psalm 88]; and the other [Psalm 69] adds, ‘I paid them things I never took.’ For He did not die as being Himself liable to death: He suffered for us, and bore in Himself the wrath that was the penalty for our transgression, even as Isaiah says, ‘Himself bore our sickness’”

(Athanasius (c. 296 - 373), Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms).

“If Phineas, when he waxed zealous and slew the evil-doer, staved the wrath of God, shall not Jesus, who slew not another, but gave up Himself for a ransom, put away the wrath which is against mankind?”

(Cyril of Jerusalem (313 AD - 386), Catechetical Lectures, Book 13, Section 2).

“As for my sake He was called a curse, Who destroyed my curse; and sin, who taketh away the sin of the world; and became a new Adam to take the place of the old, just so He makes my disobedience His own as Head of the whole body. As long then as I am disobedient and rebellious, both by denial of God and by my passions, so long Christ is called disobedient on my account”

(Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329 - 390), The Fourth Theological Oration, Sermon 2, Section 5).

“And so then, Jesus took flesh that He might destroy the curse of sinful flesh, and He became for us a curse that a blessing might overwhelm a curse, uprightness might overwhelm sin, forgiveness might overwhelm the sentence, and life might overwhelm death. He also took up death that the sentence might be fulfilled and satisfaction might be given for the judgment, the curse placed on sinful flesh even to death. Therefore, nothing was done contrary to God’s sentence when the terms of that sentence were fulfilled, for the curse was unto death but grace is after death”

(Ambrose (c. 339 - 397), Flight from the World, Chapter 7, Section 44).

“If one that was himself a king, beholding a robber and malefactor under punishment, gave his well-beloved son, his only-begotten and true, to be slain; and transferred the death and the guilt as well, from him to his son (who was himself of no such character), that he might both save the condemned man and clear him from his evil reputation; and then if, having subsequently promoted him to great dignity, he had yet, after thus saving him and advancing him to that glory unspeakable, been outraged by the person that had received such treatment: would not that man, if he had any sense, have chosen ten thousand deaths rather than appear guilty of so great ingratitude? This then let us also now consider with ourselves, and groan bitterly for the provocations we have offered our Benefactor; nor let us therefore presume, because though outraged He bears it with long-suffering; but rather for this very reason be full of remorse”

(John Chrysostom (c. 347 - 407 AD), Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily 11, Section 6).

“We all were under sin and punishment. He himself, through suffering punishment, did away with both the sin and punishment, and He was punished on the Cross”

(John Chrysostom (c. 347 - 407 AD), Homilies on Colossians, Homily 6).

“Christ, though guiltless, took our punishment, that He might cancel our guilt, and do away with our punishment”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Against Faustus, Book 14, Section 4).

“But as Christ endured death as man, and for man; so also, Son of God as He was, ever living in His own righteousness, but dying for our offences, He submitted as man, and for man, to bear the curse which accompanies death. And as He died in the flesh which He took in bearing our punishment, so also, while ever blessed in His own righteousness, He was cursed for our offences, in the death which He suffered in bearing our punishment.”

(Augustine (354 - 430), Against Faustus, Book 14, Section 6).

“The Only-begotten was made man, bore a body by nature at enmity with death, and became flesh, so that, enduring the death which was hanging over us as the result of our sin, he might abolish sin; and further, that he might put an end to the accusations of Satan, inasmuch as we have paid in Christ himself the penalties for the charges of sin against us”

(Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 - 444), On Adoration and Worship in Spirit and Truth, Book 3, Sections 100-102, [PG 68:293]).

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself. Howbeit, after that Christ had given Himself unto the Father for our salvation as a Spotless Victim, and was now on the point of paying the penalties that He suffered on our behalf, we were ransomed from the accusations of sin”

(Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 - 444), Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 8).

“For we are justified, now that Christ has paid the penalty for us; for by His stripes we are healed, according to the Scripture. And just as by the Cross the sin of our revolt was perfected, so also by the Cross was achieved our return to our original state”

(Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 - 444), Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 12).

“But he, the Saviour of all, came and received the punishments which were due to us into his sinless flesh, which was of us, in place of us, and on our behalf

(Gelasius of Cyzicus, as cited in Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, vol. 28 (Leipzig: Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1897–), p. 100).

“When then the first man was moved by Satan from the Lord, then the Lord was moved against the second Man. And so Satan then moved the Lord to the affliction of this latter, when the sin of disobedience brought down the first man from the height of uprightness. For if he had not drawn the first Adam by wilful sin into the death of the soul, the second Adam, being without sin, would never have come into the voluntary death of the flesh, and therefore it is with justice said to him of our Redeemer too, Thou movest Me against him to afflict him without cause. As though it were said in plainer words; ‘Whereas this man dies not on his own account, but on account of that other, thou didst then move Me to the afflicting of this one, when thou didst withdraw that other from Me by thy cunning persuasions.’ And of him is it rightly added, without cause. For ‘he was destroyed without cause,’ who was at once weighed to the earth by the avenging of sin, and not defiled by the pollution of sin. He ‘was destroyed without cause,’ Who, being made incarnate, had no sins of His own, and yet being without offence took upon Himself the punishment of the carnal”

(Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540 - 604), Morals on the Book of Job, Book 3, Section 14).

“Christ bore our punishment, yet apart from guilt, in order to free us from our guilt and to bring to an end our punishment. . . . If, on the other hand, you acknowledge the death, you also acknowledge that He underwent the penalty of our sin without our sin”

(Claudius of Turin (780 AD - 827 AD), Commentary on Galatians, as cited in Early Medieval Theology, ed. George E. McCracken, p. 230, 232).

“O wonderful compact of judgment; O arrangement of unspeakable mystery! The unjust sins, and the Just is punished; the guilty errs, and the Innocent is beaten; the impious offends, and the Pious is condemned; what the evil deserves, the Good suffers; what the slave perpetrates, the Master pays the penalty for; what man commits, God endures. . . . For I have done wickedly, You suffer the penalty: I have committed sin, You are visited with vengeance; I have been guilty of crimes, and You are subjected to torment; I have been puffed up, You are emaciated; I have shown myself disobedient, You, by being obedient to the Father, pay the penalty of my disobedience”

(Anselm (1033 - 1109), Meditations and Prayers to the Holy Trinity and Our Lord Jesus Christ, translated by E.B. Pusey, p. 183-184 [Oratio 2; PL 158.861]).

Alternate translation by Nick Needham in “The Evolution of Justification” in The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands or Falls:

“O wondrous covenant of judgment! O pact of indescribable mystery! He who is unjust sins, and the Just One is punished! He who is guilty goes astray, and the Innocent One is chastised! The ungodly one transgresses, and the Godly One is condemned! The Good One endures what the evil one deserves! The Lord pays the penalty for the crime committed by the slave. . . . For I have behaved wickedly, and you undergo the penalty; I have sinned, and the vengeance falls on you; I have perpetrated crimes, and you are made subject to suffering; I have been guilty of pride, and you have been humiliated; I have been arrogantly inflated, and you are emaciated; I have plainly disobeyed, and you pay the penalty of my disobedience through your own obedience to the Father”

(Anselm (1033 - 1109), The Second Prayer).