Barnabas, Epistle of Barnabas 7

So understand this, children of joy: the good Lord has revealed everything to us so we may know the One to whom we owe thanks and praise in all things. Since the Son of God — who is Lord and will judge the living and the dead — suffered in order that His wound might give us life, we must believe that He could not have suffered at all except for our sake. He was even crucified and given vinegar mixed with gall to drink.

Listen to how the priests of the temple have disclosed this. There is a written command: "Whoever does not keep the fast shall be utterly destroyed by death," the Lord commanded. He gave this order because He Himself was about to offer the vessel of the Spirit as a sacrifice for our sins, so that the type enacted with Isaac — who was offered on the altar — might be fulfilled (Leviticus 16:20-22). What then does the prophet say? "Let them eat from the goat offered for the fast on behalf of all sins." Pay close attention: "Let the priests alone eat all the intestines unwashed, with vinegar." Why? Because I, who am about to offer My flesh for the sins of My new people, am going to be given gall with vinegar to drink; you priests eat it alone, while the people fast and mourn in sackcloth and ashes. This was done to show that He must suffer at their hands.

Now observe what He commanded: "Take two fine, similar goats and offer them, and let the priest take one as a whole burnt offering for sins." And what shall they do with the other? "Cursed," He says, "is the one." Watch how the type of Jesus is revealed: "Let all spit on it and strike it and put the scarlet wool around its head, and thus let it be thrown into the wilderness." When this happens, the one carrying the goat leads it into the wilderness, removes the wool, and places it on a plant called Rachel — on whose shoots we used to feed in the field; for the fruit of the stem alone is sweet.

What does this mean? Pay attention: One goat goes on the altar, the other is cursed. And why is the cursed one crowned? Because they will see Him on that day wearing the scarlet robe around His flesh, and they will say, "Is this not the one whom we once crucified, despising and striking and spitting on Him? Truly this was the one who claimed to be the Son of God." How is He like that goat? The goats are alike — fine, equal — so that when they see Him coming then, they may be astonished at the likeness. See, then, the type of the future suffering of Jesus.

And what of the wool placed among the thorns? It is a type of Jesus placed in the Church: whoever wants to take the scarlet wool must suffer much, because the thorn is fearful, and to overcome it is to be oppressed. Thus He says: those who want to see Me and touch My kingdom must, through oppression and suffering, take hold of Me.