He also refused to take sin for which He suffered, wherefore it is said of Him, I then paid the things that I never took. [Ps 68:5]
There follows: “And when they had crucified Him, they parted His garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take.”
In this place salvation is figured by the wood; the first wood was that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; the second wood is one of unmixed good for us, and is the wood of life. The first hand stretched out to the wood caught hold of death; the second found again the life which had been lost. By this wood we are carried through a stormy sea to the land of the living, for by His cross Christ has taken away our torment, and by His death has killed our death.
With the form of a serpent [ed. note: This clause is not in Pseudo-Jerome; its obscurity may be cleared up by comparing it with a passage in St. Augustine’s sixth sermon, where it is said that the serpent signifies death, and that Moses’ rod was changed into a serpent because our Lord took upon Himself death for us. In St. Gregory Nyasen, the serpent is said to signify sin, de vita Mosis, p.193, v. also St. Ambrose, de Spiritu Sancto 3, 50.] He kills the serpent, for the serpent made out of the rod swallowed up the other serpents. But what means the shape itself of the cross, save the four quarters of the world; the East shines from the top, the North is on the right, the South on the left, the West is firmly fixed under the feet.
Wherefore the Apostle says: “That we may know what is the height, and breadth, and length, and depth.” [Eph 3:18]
Birds, when they fly in the air, take the shape of a cross; a man swimming in the waters is borne up by the form of a cross. A ship is blown along by its yards, which are in the shape of the cross. The letter Tan is written as the sign of salvation and of the cross.
Reproduced in full. Translation: Oxford 1841 (Newman), public domain (Public domain).