5th-century Anonymous Church History on the Nature of the Atonement

The following is from an anonymous 5^th-century work. I decided to track it down as it was referenced as a patristic witness to a form of penal substitution. The Greek text comes from:

 

“Anonymous Church History: A reply by another philosopher, named Phaedo, who also makes arguments in support of the God-fighting Arius and the blasphemy invented by him” II 24,23-2 in Günther Christian Hansen, Anonyme Kirchengeschichte (Gelasius Cyzicenus, CPG 6034) (Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte 9; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2002), 81-82

 

ἦλθε καὶ εἰς τοῦτο σαρκὶ ὁ τῇ θεότητι αὐτοῦ διδοὺς τροφὴν πάσῃ σαρκί. γινόμεθα εἰς προκοπὴν καὶ αὔξησιν ἡλικίας, οὐκ ἀπηξίωσε γενέσθαι καὶ αὐτὸς τοῦτο σωματικῶς, καθώς γέγραπται ὅτι “Ἰησοῦς προέκοπτε σοφίᾳ καὶ ἡλικίᾳ καὶ χάριτι παρὰ θεῷ καὶ ἀνθρώποις”, καὶ ἕως τριακοστοετοῦς χρόνου διανύσας, ἵνα πᾶσαν ἡλικίαν εὐλογήσῃ, τότε ἐπὶ τὸ βάπτισμα ἔρχεται κηρύσσοντος Ἰωάννου υἱοῦ Ζαχαρίου τῷ λαῷ “βάπτισμα μετανοίας”, οὐκ ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτιῶν οὔτε υιοθεσίας δῶρον διδόντος· οὐ γὰρ ἦν Ἰωάννου ταῦτα δοῦναι, ἀλλ᾽ οὔτε ἀγγέλου, ἀλλ᾽ αὐτοῦ τοῦ σαρκωθέντος καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντος θεοῦ λόγου. καὶ ἀνέχεται τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν βάπτισμα καὶ θεὸς ὢν ἀναμάρτητος ἐβαπτίσθη σωματικῶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος, οὐκ αὐτὸς δεόμενος βαπτίσματος, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα τὸ ἡμέτερον βάπτισμα δοξάσῃ, ἵνα πιστεύσωμεν, ὅτι, ὥσπερ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν κατῆλθε τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, οὕτως καὶ ἐφ᾽ ἡμᾶς τοὺς εἰς αὐτὸν βαπτιζομένους. εἶτα συναναστραφεὶς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τάς τε τῶν θείων αὐτοῦ ἐντολῶν παραδοὺς ἐκδόσεις τάς τε τῶν σημείων ἐργαζόμενος θαυματουργίας ἐπὶ τριετῆ χρόνον καὶ τετάρτου ἀρξάμενος οὕτως ἐπὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἑκούσιον αὐτοῦ σωματικὸν ἔρχεται πάθος· ἡμῖν γὰρ κεχρέωσται τὸ τιμωρία σταυροῦ, ἀλλ᾽ εἰ πάντες ἐσταυρώθημεν, οὔτε ἑαυτοὺς ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου ἁρπάσαι ἰσχύσαμεν. ἐβασίλευσεν γὰρ ὁ θάνατος ἀπὸ Ἀδὰμ μέχρι Μωσέως καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς μὴ ἁμαρτήσαντας· πολλοὶ ἅγιοι, πολλοὶ προφῆται, πολλοὶ δίκαιοι, καὶ οὐδείς αὐτῶν τῆς τοῦ θανάτου ἐξουσίας ἑαυτὸν ἠδυνήθη λυτρώσασθαι, ἀλλὰ ἦλθεν αὐτὸς ὁ τῶν πάντων σωτὴρ καὶ τὰς ἡμῖν χρεωστομένας τιμωρίας εἰς τὴν ἐξ ἡμῶν ἀνθ᾽ ἡμῶν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀναμάρτητον αὐτοῦ ὑπεδέξατο σάρκα. καταφερόμεθα μετὰ τὸν θάνατον εἰς τὸν ᾅδην, ἀνεδέξατο καὶ τοῦτο καὶ κατῆλθεν ἑκουσίως εἰς αὐτόν. οὐ κατηνέχθη καθάπερ ἡμεῖς, ἀλλὰ κατῆλθεν· οὐ γὰρ ἦν ὑποκείμενος τῷ θανάτῳ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐξουσιαστὴς τοῦ θανάτου, καὶ μόνος κατελθὼν μετὰ πλήθους ἀνελήλυθεν.

He came in the flesh also for this purpose: he who, by his divinity, gives nourishment to all flesh. Since we are subject to growth and the increase of age, he did not disdain to become this also bodily, as it is written: “Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace before God and human beings.” And after he had passed through even the thirtieth year, in order to bless every age, then he comes to baptism, with John son of Zechariah proclaiming to the people “a baptism of repentance,” not giving a gift of the remission of sins or of adoption; for these things belonged not to John to give, nor even to an angel, but to the very Word of God who was made flesh and became human. And he accepts the baptism for our sake; and though he is God and without sin, he was baptized bodily as a human being, not because he himself needed baptism, but in order to glorify our baptism, so that we might believe that, just as the Holy Spirit descended upon him, so also it descends upon us who are baptized into him. Then, living among human beings and handing down the prescriptions of his divine commandments and performing miraculous signs and wonders, after a period of three years and beginning the fourth, he thus comes to the voluntary bodily passion on our behalf. For the penalty of the cross was owed by us; and even if we had all been crucified, we would not have been able to snatch ourselves from death. For death ruled from Adam to Moses, and even over those who had not sinned: many saints, many prophets, many righteous men, and none of them was able to free himself from the power of death. But the Savior of all came and took upon himself, in exchange for us and on our behalf, the flesh that was without sin, receiving the punishments that were owed to us, from us, for us. We are carried after death into Hades; he accepted this too and descended into it willingly. He was not carried down like we are, but descended; for he was not subject to death, but master of death, and having descended alone, he ascended again with a multitude.

 

 From my reading of the above, it appears that only a naïve understanding of theology and the word-concept fallacy (here, the use of “penalty”) would result in one concluding that this teaches Penal Substitution.