Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Concerning our Lord's genealogy and concerning the holy Mother of God.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XIV.—Concerning our Lord’s genealogy and
concerning the holy Mother of God2436
| 2436 In
Reg. 2428 is added καὶ ᾽Ιωσὴφ
τοῦ
μνήστορος. | .
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 throne2437
. 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
heaven2438
| 2438 Ibid.
lxxxix. 35, 36, 37. | . And
Isaiah says: And there shall come out a rod out of the stem of
Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots2439
.
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 another2440
. 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 tribe2441
. It was
sufficient, therefore, to demonstrate the descent of Joseph.
One ought also to observe2442
| 2442 Cf.
Julius Afric., Ep. ad Aristidem, cited in Eusebius, Hist.
Eccles. i. 7. | this, that the law was that when a man
died without seed, this man’s brother should take to wife the
wife of the dead man and raise up seed to his brother2443
. 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 Melchi2444
| 2444 See the note in
Migne. | and
Panther: Panther begat Barpanther, so called. This
Barpanther begat Joachim: Joachim begat the holy Mother of
God2445
| 2445 Text, τὴν ἅγιαν
Θεοτόκον.
Variant, τὴν
ἅγιαν
῎Ανναν. | 2446
. And of the line of
Solomon, the son of David, Mathan had a wife2447
| 2447 R. 2926 adds
“Ethan,” the name being taken from Julius Africanus. | 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 Heli became
brothers on the 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 Heli of the line of
Nathan.
Joachim then2448
took to
wife that revered and praiseworthy woman, Anna. But just as the
earlier Anna2449
, 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 fame2450
| 2450 Greg. Nyss.,
Orat. in nativ. Dom.: Eustath. in
Hexaëm. | . 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, Joachim2451
was born in
the house of the Probatica2452
, 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 body virginal,
as was meet for her who was to receive God into her bosom: for as
He is holy, He finds rest among the holy2453
. 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
us2454
,’ in order
that he who taketh the wise in their own craftiness2455
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 letters2456
: 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 man2457
, 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-child2458
. The Son
of God incarnate, therefore, was born of her, not a
divinely-inspired2459
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 closed2460
. 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 anyway.
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 Son2461
, 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 world2462
, 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 Lord2463
, 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 soul
also2464
2465
| 2465 In R. 2926 is
added, ὅπερ αὐτῇ
προείρηκεν ὁ
Θεοδόχος
Συμεὼν, τὸν
Κύριον
ἐναγκαλισάμενος. | . But the joy of the
resurrection transforms the pain, proclaiming Him, Who died in the
flesh, to be God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
