Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
How Moses signified the coming of Christ, both the time and the place of his Passion. John rightly records the Lord saying to the Jews: 'Search the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life; it is they that testify of me. Yet you are not willing to come to me, that you may have life.' How, then, did the writings bear witness to him, if not because a single Father originated them, forewarning mankind of his Son's advent and proclaiming ahead of time the deliverance that would come through him? 'For if you believed Moses, you would believe me also; for he wrote of me' -- meaning that the Son of God was scattered throughout all his writings: now conversing with Abraham and sharing a meal at his table; now supplying Noah with the dimensions of the ark; now searching after Adam; now visiting judgment on the men of Sodom; and once more appearing to Jacob and guiding his steps; and conversing with Moses out of the burning bush. It would take far too long to enumerate every way in which Moses points toward the Son of God. He was not even ignorant of the day of his Passion, but foretold it in a figure, calling it the Passover; and it was in fulfilling that very Passover, foretold by Moses so long before, that the Lord suffered, in his own person and at that very appointed time. Nor did he describe only the day, but also the place, and the very close of the ages, and the sign of the sun's setting, saying: 'You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of the other cities which the Lord your God gives you, but only in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, to make his name dwell there; there you shall sacrifice the Passover, in the evening, at the setting of the sun.'
He had already, besides, disclosed his coming clearly, declaring: 'A prince shall not depart from Judah, nor a commander from among his descendants, until the one arrives to whom it belongs, and the nations set their hope on him; he ties his young donkey to the vine, and to the choicest vine the colt of his ass. He shall rinse his cloak in wine, and his mantle in grape-juice reddened like blood; his glance more radiant than wine, and his teeth more pale than milk.' Let anyone who probes every detail ask who this figure from Judah is, on whom the nations set their hope, what the vine signifies, what the young donkey, the mantle, the glance, the teeth, and the wine mean -- let them weigh each of these words, and they will discover that no one else is being announced but our Lord Jesus Christ. For this reason Moses, rebuking the people for their ingratitude, says: 'Thus, foolish and unwise people, have you repaid the Lord?' And again, showing that it is the Word who from the beginning founded and formed them, and who in the last times, redeeming and giving us life, is shown hanging upon the tree, and that they would not believe him, he says: 'Your life shall hang before your eyes, and you will not believe in your life.' And again: 'Is not this your Father who possessed you, and made you, and created you?'