Jerome: Christ Underwent What We Deserve for Sin

"He was wounded for our iniquities," saying in the Psalm, "They pierced my hands and my feet," that by his wounds he might cure ours. And he was buried and made weak for our sins; that being made a curse for us, he might free us from the curse. "For cursed is the man that hangeth upon a tree;" wherefore "the chastisement of our peace" was also "upon him." For that which we ought to have borne for our sins, he underwent for us, reconciling by the blood of his cross the things that are in earth, and that are in heaven; "for he is our peace who hath made both one."

(As translated by William Beveridge, in An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, London: 1830, at p. 119)

Christ was wounded for our iniquities, that by his wound he might heal our wounds. He also was accursed for our sake, that he might deliver us from the curse. For "cursed is every one that hangeth on tree;" so that the discipline of our peace is upon him. For that which we ought to have suffered for our sins hath he suffered for us, pacifying through the blood of his cross both the things that are in earth and the things that are in heaven.

(As translated by Thomas Becon, in Prayers and other pieces of Thomas Becon, Cambridge:1844, p. 419)

[Christ] endured in our stead the penalty we ought to have suffered for our crimes.

(As translated by J.N.D. Kelly, in Early Christian Doctrines, p. 390)

Ille autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras, dicens in psalmo: Foderunt manus meas et pedes [Ps. XXI, 18], ut suo vulnere vulnera nostra curaret, et attritus est, sive infirmatus propter scelera nostra, ut factus pro nobis maledictum, nos liberaret de maledicto. Maledictus enim omnis homo qui pendet in ligno [Deut. XXI, Galat. III]. Unde disciplina pacis nostrae super eum est. Quod enim nos pro nostris debebamus sceleribus sustinere, ille pro nobis passus est, pacificans per sanguinem crucis suae, sive quae in terra, sive quae in coelis sunt. Ipse est enim pax nostra, qui fecit utraque unum, et medium parietem maceriae, solvens inimicitiam in carne sua, et livore ejus sanati sumus [Ephes. II].

- Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah, Book XIV, at Isaiah 53:5-7, PL 24:507.