From the early Church Fathers to now.
2 Patristic witnesses · 2 Orthodox witnesses
“For as if desiring to explain the name of Jesus, i. e. the Saviour, he frequently makes mention of salvation, but lest men should think it was a temporal salvation which was promised, he adds, for the forgiveness of sins.”
“But the Jews prefer not to receive Christ, but to wait for Antichrist; for they desire to be delivered not from the dominion of sin within, but from the yoke of man’s bondage without.”
“For the manner in which the forerunner prepared the way of the Lord he explains, adding, To give knowledge of salvation. The Lord Jesus is salvation, but the knowledge of salvation, i. e. of Christ, was given in John, who bore witness of Christ.”
“For in no other way was He known to be God, but as having forgiven the sins of His people. For it is of God alone to forgive sins.”
The reader meets the sources first; chronology and attribution do the work. Provenance is shown on every quotation — solid for hosted public domain, dashed for link-out.