You have heard the prophecy of His death, and now, perhaps, you want to know what indications there are about the cross. Even this is not passed over in silence: on the contrary, the sacred writers proclaim it with the utmost plainness.
Moses foretells it first, and with a loud voice, saying, "You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes, and you shall not believe."
After him the prophets also bear witness to this, saying, "But I, like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed, did not know it. They plotted evil against Me, saying, 'Come, let us cast wood into His bread and wipe Him out from the land of the living.'"
And, again, "They pierced My hands and My feet, they counted all My bones, they divided My garments for themselves and cast lots for My clothing."
A death that is lifted up and takes place on wood can be none other than the Cross; and in no other kind of death are the hands and feet pierced except on the Cross.
Since, through the Savior's coming, all nations everywhere began to know God, the prophets did not leave this without mention either. The holy writings also speak of it: "There shall be the root of Jesse, and the one who rises to rule the nations; in Him the nations shall hope." These are a few testimonies as evidence of what has taken place.
Indeed, all Scripture is filled with refutations of Jewish unbelief. Which of the righteous people, holy prophets, or patriarchs recorded in the divine Scriptures ever received his bodily birth from a virgin alone? What woman, without a man, was sufficient for the generation of a human being? Was not Abel born from Adam, Enoch from Jared, Noah from Lamech, Abraham from Terah, Isaac from Abraham, and Jacob from Isaac? Was not Judah born from Jacob, and were not Moses and Aaron from Amram? Was not Samuel born from Elkanah, David from Jesse, Solomon from David, Hezekiah from Ahaz, Josiah from Amon, Isaiah from Amoz, Jeremiah from Hilkiah, and Ezekiel from Buzi? Did not each have a father as the source of his birth? Who, then, is the one born from a virgin alone? The prophet took great care to mark this sign.
Again, whose birth was announced to the world by a star in the heavens? When Moses was born, his parents hid him. David was not known even by those nearby; even the great Samuel did not know him, but asked whether Jesse had another son. Abraham became known to those around him as a great man only after he had become great. But the witness to Christ's birth was not a human being, but a star appearing in the heaven from which He was descending.