I said: I will do as you please. From the interpretations then which Esdras interpreted of the Law about the passover, they have removed this: ‘And Esdras said to the people: This passover is our Saviour and our refuge. And if ye understand, and it come up into your heart, that we are about to humble Him on a cross, and afterwards put our hope in Him, (then) this place will never be laid desolate, saith the Lord of hosts. But if ye do not believe Him, nor listen to His proclamation, ye shall be a laughing stock to the Gentiles’.
And from the words spoken by Jeremiah they have cut away this: ‘I am as an innocent lamb, carried out to be sacrificed. Against me did they think their thoughts, saying: Come, let us cast wood into his bread, and destroy him out of the land of the living, and his name shall be no more remembered’.
And since this chapter, which is from the words of Jeremiah, is still written in some copies of those that are in the synagogues of the Jews (for they cut these things out only a short while ago) — since it is demonstrated also from these words that the Jews took counsel about Christ Himself, taking counsel to crucify and slay Him, He Himself is also shown (as was prophesied too by Isaiah) as led like a lamb to slaughter, and in accordance with this passage He is marked as ‘an innocent lamb’. But they are at a loss through such words, and proceed to blasphemy.
And from the words of the same Jeremiah have they likewise excised the following: ‘Now the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, remembered His dead, those that have fallen asleep in the earth of the tomb, and He went down unto them to preach to them the good news of His salvation.’