Eusebius of Caesarea

A whole band of soldiers, Ammon and Zeno and Ptolemy and Ingenuus, and with them an old man Theophilus, had taken their stand before the tribunal. When a certain man was being tried as a Christian and was inclined toward denying the faith, they, standing by, gnashed their teeth, and made signs with their faces, and stretched out their hands and gestured with their bodies. When the attention of all was directed toward them, before any could otherwise seize them, they rushed up first to the bench, saying that they were Christians, so that the governor and his assessors became fearful. Those who were being tried appeared most courageous in the face of what they were about to suffer, while their judges were afraid. And these paraded from the court and rejoiced in their testimony, as God “led them in triumph gloriously.”

And he, since he understood at once his Father’s divine counsel, and because he discerned better than any other why he was forsaken by the Father, humbled himself even more. He embraced death for us with all willingness and “became a curse for us,” holy and all-blessed though he was.… “He that knew no sin, became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” Yet more—to wash away our sins he was crucified, suffering what we who were sinful should have suffered, as our sacrifice and ransom, so that we may well say with the prophet, he bears our sins and is pained for us, and he was wounded for our sins and bruised for our iniquities, so that by his stripes we might be healed, for the Lord has given him for our sins. So, as delivered up by the Father, as bruised, as bearing our sins, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter.