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Concerning the holy and much-lauded ever-virgin one, Mary, the
Mother of God, we have said something in the preceding chapters,
bringing forward what was most opportune, viz., that strictly and
truly she is and is called the Mother of God. Now let us fill up the
blanks. For she being pre-ordained by the eternal prescient counsel
of God and imaged forth and proclaimed in diverse images and discourses
of the prophets through the Holy Spirit, sprang at the
pre-determined time from the root of David, according to the promises
that were made to him. For the lord hath sworn, He saith in truth to
David, He will not turn from it: of the fruit of Thy body will I
set upon Thy throne. And again, Once have I sworn by My
holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for
ever, and His throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established
for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. And
Isaiah says: And there shall come out a rod out of the stem of Jesse
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
But that Joseph is descended from the tribe of David is expressly
demonstrated by Matthew and Luke, the most holy evangelists. But
Matthew derives Joseph from David through Solomon, while Luke does
so through Nathan; while over the holy Virgin's origin both pass in
silence.
One ought to remember that it was not the custom of the Hebrews nor of
the divine Scripture to give genealogies of women; and the law was to
prevent one tribe seeking wives from another. And so since Joseph was
descended from the tribe of David and was a just man (for this the
divine Gospel testifies), he would not have espoused the holy Virgin
contrary to the law; he would not have taken her unless she had been of
the same tribe. It was sufficient, therefore, to demonstrate the
descent of Joseph.
One ought also to observe this, that the law was that when a man died
without seed, this maws brother should take to wife the wife of the
dead man and raise up seed to his brother. The offspring, therefore,
belonged by nature to the second, that is, to him that begat it, but
by law to the dead.
Born then of the line of Nathan, the son of David, Levi begat
Melchi and Panther: Panther begat Barpanther, so called. This
Barpanther begat Joachim: Joachim begat the holy Mother of God.
And of the line of Solomon, the son of David, Mathan had a wife of
whom he begat Jacob. Now on the death of Mathan, Melchi, of the
tribe of Nathan, the son of Levi and brother of Panther, married
the wife of Mathan, Jacob's mother, of whom he begat Heli.
Therefore Jacob and Hell became brothers on tile mother's side,
Jacob being of the tribe of Solomon and Heli of the tribe of
Nathan. Then Heli of the tribe of Nathan died childless, and
Jacob his brother, of the tribe of Solomon, took his wife and raised
up seed to his brother and begat Joseph. Joseph, therefore, is by
nature the son of Jacob, of the line of Solomon, but by law he is
the son of Hell of the line of Nathan.
Joachim then took to wife that revered and praiseworthy woman, Anna.
But just as the earlier Anna, who was barren, bore Samuel by prayer
and by promise, so also this Anna by supplication and promise from
God bare the Mother of God in order that she might not even in this
be behind the matrons of fame. Accordingly it was grace (for this is
the interpretation of Anna) that bore the lady: (for she became
truly the Lady of all created things in becoming the Mother of the
Creator). Further, Joachim was born in the house of the
Probatica, and was brought up to the temple. Then planted in the
House of God and increased by the Spirit, like a fruitful olive
tree, she became the home of every virtue, turning her mind away from
every secular and carnal desire, and thus keeping her soul as well as
her hotly virginal, as was meet for her who was to receive God into
her bosom: for as He is holy, He finds rest among the holy. Thus,
therefore, she strove after holiness, and was declared a holy and
wonderful temple fit for the most high God.
Moreover, since the enemy of our salvation was keeping a watchful eye
on virgins, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, who said, Behold a
virgin shall conceive and bare a Son and shall call His name
Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, 'God with us,' in order
that he who taketh the wise in their own craftiness may deceive him who
always glorieth in his wisdom, the maiden is given in marriage to
Joseph by the priests, a new book to him who is versed in letters:
but the marriage was both the protection of the virgin and the delusion
of him who was keeping a watchful eye on virgins. But when the fulness
of time was come, the messenger of the Lord was sent to her, with the
good news of our Lord's conception. And thus she conceived the Son
of God, the hypostatic power of the Father, not of the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, that is to say, by connection and seed,
but by the good pleasure of the Father and co-operation of the Holy
Spirit. She ministered to the Creator in that He was created, to
the Fashioner in that He was fashioned, and to the Son of God and
God in that He was made flesh and became man from her pure and
immaculate flesh and blood, satisfying the debt of the first mother.
For just as the latter was formed from Adam without connection, so
also did the former bring forth the new Adam, who was brought forth in
accordance with the laws of parturition and above the nature of
generation.
For He who was of the Father, yet without mother, was born of woman
without a father's co-operation. And so far as He was born of
woman, His birth was in accordance with the laws of parturition,
while so far as He had no father, His birth was above the nature of
generation: and in that it was at the usual time (for He was born on
the completion of the ninth month when the tenth was just beginning),
His birth was in accordance with the laws of parturition, while in
that it was painless it was above the laws of generation. For, as
pleasure did not precede it, pain did not follow it, according to the
prophet who says, Before she travailed, she brought forth, and
again, before her pain came she was delivered of a man-child. The
Son of God incarnate, therefore, was born of her, not a
divinely-inspired man but God incarnate not a prophet anointed with
energy but by the presence of the anointing One in His completeness,
so that the Anointer became man and the Anointed God, not by a
change of nature but by union in subsistence. For the Anointer and
the Anointed were one and the same, anointing in the capacity of God
Himself as man. Must there not therefore be a Mother of God who
bore God incarnate? Assuredly she who played the part of the
Creator's servant and mother is in all strictness and truth in reality
God's Mother and Lady and Queen over all created things. But just
as He who was conceived kept her who conceived still virgin, in like
manner also He who was born preserved her virginity intact, only
passing through her and keeping her closed. The conception, indeed,
was through the sense of hearing, but the birth through the usual path
by which children come, although some tell tales of His birth through
the side of the Mother of God. For it was not impossible for Him to
have come by this gate, without injuring her seal in any way.
The ever-virgin One thus remains even after the birth still virgin,
having never at any time up till death consorted with a man. For
although it is written, And knew her not till she had brought forth
her first-born Son, yet note that he who is first-begotten is
first-born even if he is only-begotten. For the word "first-born"
means that he was born first but does not at all suggest the birth of
others. And the word "till" signifies the limit of the appointed
time but does not exclude the time thereafter. For the Lord says,
And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, not
meaning thereby that He will be separated from us after the completion
of the age. The divine apostle, indeed, says, And so shall we ever
be with the Lord, meaning after the general resurrection.
For could it be possible that she, who had borne God and from
experience of the subsequent events had come to know the miracle,
should receive the embrace of a man. God forbid! It is not the part
of a chaste mind to think such thoughts, far less to commit such acts
But this blessed woman, who was deemed worthy of gifts that are
supernatural, suffered those pains, which she escaped at the birth,
in the hour of the passion, enduring from motherly sympathy the rending
of the bowels, and when she beheld Him, Whom she knew to be God by
the manner of His generation, killed as a malefactor, her thoughts
pierced her as a sword, and this is the meaning of this verse: Yea,
a sword shall pierce through thy own saul also. But the joy of the
resurrection transforms the pain, proclaiming Him, Who died in the
flesh, to be God.
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