But how, says one, if the Evangelist refers to His manifestation to men, and to the glory which was to attend Him from them, does he speak of what was not yet accomplished, as having already taken place? for he does not say, “shall be,” but “was.” Because this is a custom among the prophets of old, to speak of the future as of the past. Thus Isaiah speaking of His slaughter does not say, “He shall be led (which would have denoted futurity) as a sheep to the slaughter”; but “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter” ( Isa. liii. 7 ); yet He was not yet Incarnate, but the Prophet speaks of what should be as if it had come to pass. So David, pointing to the Crucifixion, said not, “They shall pierce My hands and My feet,” but “They pierced My hands and My feet, and parted My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture” ( Ps. xxii. 16, 18 ); and discoursing of the traitor as yet unborn, he says, “He which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me” ( Ps. xli. 9 ); and of the circumstances of the Crucifixion, “They gave Me gall for meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.” ( Ps. lxix. 21.)