“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:”
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me' — the citation of Psalm 40:6-8 (in the LXX version) becomes Christ's own statement in his incarnational entry. Desired (ēthēlēsas) indicates preference: God chose not animal sacrifice but embodied obedience. Prepared a body (sōma katērtisō) emphasizes the incarnation as the precondition for the sacrifice that alone avails.
Church Fathers on Hebrews 10:5
You see again the superabundance [of his proofs]? This sacrifice (he says) is one; whereas the others were many: therefore they had no strength, because they were many. For, tell me, what need of many, if one had been sufficient? So that their being many, and offered “continually,” proves that they [the worshipers] were never made clean. For as a medicine, when it is powerful and productive of health, and able to remove the disease entirely, effects all after one application;…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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