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TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 07 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 27.01.13 Lecture XII Part 2
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20. But now hear the place of the promise, as Micah says, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, art than little to be among the thousands of Judah? For out of thee shall come forth unto Me a ruler, to be governor in Israel: and His goings forth are front the beginning, from the days of eternityhyperlink . But assuredly as to the places, thou being an inhabitant of Jerusalem, knowest also beforehand what is written in the hundred and thirty-first psalm. Lo! we heard of it at Ephrathah, we found it in the plains of the woodhyperlink . For a few years ago the place was woodyhyperlink . Again thou hast heard Habakkuk say to the Lord, When the years draw nigh, than shalt be made known, when the time is come, thou shalt be shewnhyperlink . And what is the sign, O Prophet, of the Lord's coming? And presently he saith, In the midst of two lives shalt thou be knownhyperlink , plainly saying this to the Lord, "Having come in the flesh thou livest and diest, and after rising from the dead thou livest again." Further, from what part of the region round Jerusalem cometh He? From east, or west, or north, or south? Tell us exactly. And he makes answer most plainly and says, God shall come from Temanhyperlink (now Teman is by interpretation `south') and the Holy One front Mount Paranhyperlink , shady, woody: what the Psalmist spake in like words, We found it in the plains of the wood.
21. We ask further, of whom cometh He and how? And this Esaias tells us: Behold! the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuelhyperlink . This the Jews contradict, for of old it is their wont wickedly to oppose the truth: and they say that it is not written "the virgin," but "the damsel." But though I assent to what they say, even so I find the truth. For we must ask them, If a virgin be forced, when does she cry out and call for helpers, after or before the outrage? If, therefore, the Scripture elsewhere says, The betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save herhyperlink , doth it not speak of a virgin?
But that you may learn more plainly that even a virgin is called in Holy Scripture a "damsel," hear the Book of the Kings, speaking of Abishag the Shunamite, And the damsel was very fairhyperlink : for that as a virgin she was chosen and brought to David is admitted.
22. But the Jews say again, This was said to Ahaz in reference to Hezekiah. Well, then, let us read the Scripture: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, in the depth or in the heighthyperlink . And the sign certainly must be something astonishing. For the water from the rock was a sign, the sea divided, the sun turning back, and the like. But in what I am going to mention there is still more manifest refutation of the Jews.(I know that I am speaking at much length, and that my hearers are wearied: but bear with the fulness of my statements, because it is for Christ's sake these questions are moved, and they concern no ordinary matters.) Now as Isaiah spoke this in the reign of Ahaz, and Ahaz reigned only sixteen years, and the prophecy was spoken to him within these years, the objection of the Jews is refuted by the fact that the succeeding king, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, was twenty-five years old when he began to reign: for as the prophecy is confined within sixteen years, he must have been begotten of Ahaz full nine years before the prophecy. What need then was there to utter the prophecy concerning one who had been already begotten even before the reign of father Ahazhyperlink ? For he said not, hath conceived, but "the virgin shall conceive," speaking as with foreknowledgehyperlink .
23. We know then for certain that the Lord was to be born of a Virgin, but we have to shew of what family the Virgin was. The Lord sware in truth unto David, and will not set it aside. Of the fruit of body will I set upon thy thronehyperlink : and again, seed will I establish for ever, and his throne as the days of heavenhyperlink . And afterwards, 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, and as the moon established for everhyperlink . Thou seest that the discourse is of Christ, not of Solomon. For Solomon's throne endured not as the sun. But if any deny this, because Christ sat not on David's throne of wood, we will bring forward that saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seathyperlink : for it signifies not his wooden seat, but the authority of his teaching. In like manner then I would have you seek for David's throne not the throne of wood, but the kingdom itself. Take, too, as my witnesses the children who cried aloud, Hosanna to the Son of Davidhyperlink , blessed is the King of Israelhyperlink . And the blind men also say, Son of David, have mercy on ushyperlink . Gabriel too testifies plainly to Mary, saying, And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father Davidhyperlink . Paul also saith, Remember Jesus Christ raised firm the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospelhyperlink : and in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans he saith, Which was made of the seed of David according to the fleshhyperlink . Receive thou therefore Him that was born of David, believing the prophecy which saith, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to rule over the Gentiles: in Him shall the Gentiles trusthyperlink .
24. But the Jews are much troubled at these things. This also Isaiah foreknew, saying, And they shall wish that they had been burnt with fire: for unto us a child is born(not unto them), unto us a Son is givenhyperlink . Mark thou that at first He was the Son of God, then was given to us. And a little after he says, And of His peace there is no boundhyperlink . The Romans have bounds: of the kingdom of the Son of God there is no bound. The Persians and the Medes have bounds, but the Son has no bound. Then next, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it. The Holy Virgin, therefore, is from David.
25. For it became Him who is most pure, and a teacher of purity, to have come forth from a pure bride-chamber. For if he who well fulfils the office of a priest of Jesus abstains froth a wife, how should Jesus Himself be born of man and woman? For thou, saith He in the Psalms, art He that took Me out of the wombhyperlink . Mark that carefully, He that took Me out of the womb, signifying that He was begotten without man, being taken from a virgin's womb and flesh. For the manner is different with those who are begotten according to the course of marriage.
26. And from such members He is not ashamed to assume flesh, who is the framer of those very members. But then who telleth us this? The Lord saith unto Jeremiah: Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified theehyperlink . If, then, in fashioning man He was not ashamed of the contact, was He ashamed in fashioning for His own sake the holy Flesh, the veil of His Godhead? It is God who even now creates the children in the womb, as it is written in Job, Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast knit me together with bones and sinewshyperlink . There is nothing polluted in the human frame except a man defile this with fornication and adultery. He who formed Adam formed Eve also, and male and female were formed by God's hands. None of the members of the body as formed from the beginning is polluted. Let the mouths of all heretics be stopped who slander their bodies, or rather Him who formed them. But let us remember Paul's saying, Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in youhyperlink ? And again the Prophet hath spoken before in the person of Jesus, My flesh is from themhyperlink : and in another place it is written, Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she bringeth forthhyperlink . And what is the sign? He tells us in what follows, She shall bring forth, and the remnant of their brethren shall return. And what are the nuptial pledges of the Virgin, the holy bride? And I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulnesshyperlink . And Elizabeth, talking with Mary, speaks in like manner: And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lordhyperlink .
27. But both Greeks and Jews harass us and say that it was impossible for the Christ to be born of a virgin. As for the Greeks we will stop their mouths from their own fables. For ye who say that stones being thrown were changed into menhyperlink , how say ye that it is imposssible for a virgin to bring forth? Ye who fable that a daughter was born from the brainhyperlink , how say ye that it is impossible for a son to have been born frown a virgin's womb? Ye who falsely say that Dionysus was born from the thigh of your Zeushyperlink , how set ye at nought our truth? I know that I am speaking of things unworthy of the present audience: but in order that thou in due season mayest rebuke the Greeks, we have brought these things forward answering them from their own fables.
28. But those of the circumcision meet thou with this question: Whether is harder, for an aged woman, barren and past age, to bear, or for a virgin in the prime of youth to conceive? Sarah was barren, and though it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women, yet, contrary to nature, she bore a child. If, then, it is against nature for a barren woman to conceive, and also for a virgin, either, therefore, reject both, or accept both. For it is the same Godhyperlink who both wrought the one and appointed the other. For thou wilt not dare to say that it was possible for God in that former ease, and impossible in this latter. And again: how is it natural for a man's hand to be changed in a single hour into a different appearance and restored again? How then was the hand of Moses made white as snow, and at once restored again? But thou sayest that God's will made the change. In that case God's will has the power, and has it then no power in this ease? That moreover was a sign concerning the Egyptians only, but this was a sign given to the whole world. But whether is the more difficult, O ye Jews? For a virgin to bear, or for a rod to be quickened into a living creature? Ye confess that in the case of Moses a perfectly straight rod became like a serpent, and was terrible to him who cast it down, and he who before held the rod fast, fled from it as from a serpent; for a serpent in truth it was: but he fled not because he feared that which he held, but because he dreaded Him that bad changed it. A rod had teeth and eyes like a serpent: do then seeing eyes grow out of a rod, and cannot a child be born of a virgin's womb, if God wills? For I say nothing of the fact that Aaron's rod also produced in a single night what other trees produce in several year. For who knows not that a rod, after losing its bark, will never sprout, not even if it be planted in the midst of rivers? But since God is not dependent on the nature of trees, but is the Creator of their natures, the unfruitful, and dry, and barkless rod budded, and blossomed, and bare almonds. He, then, who for the sake of the typical high-priest gave fruit supernaturally to the rod, would He not for the sake of the true High-Priest grant to the Virgin to bear a child?
29. These are excellent suggestions of the narratives: but the Jews still contradict, and do not yield to the statements concerning the rod, unless they may be persuaded by similar strange and supernatural births. Question them, therefore, in this way: of whom in the beginning was Eve begotten? What mother conceived her the motherless? But the Scripture saith that she was born out of Adam's side. Is Eve then born out of a man's side without a mother, and is a child not to be born without a father, of a virgin's womb? This debt of gratitude was due to men from womankind: for Eve was begotten of Adam, and not conceived of a mother, but as it were brought forth of man alone. Mary, therefore, paid the debt, of gratitude, when not by man but of herself alone in an immaculate way she conceived of the Holy Ghost by the power of God.
30. But let us take what is yet a greater wonder than this. For that of bodies bodies should be conceived, even if wonderful, is nevertheless possible: but that the dust of the earth should become a man, this is more wonderful. That clay moulded together should assume the coats and splendours of the eyes, this is more wonderful. That out of dust of uniform appearance should be produced both the firmness of bones, and the softness of lungs, and other different kinds of members, this is wonderful. That clay should be animated and travel round the world self moved, and should build houses, this is wonderful. That clay should teach, and talk, and act as carpenter, and as king, this is wonderful. Whence, then, O ye most ignorant Jews, was Adam made? Did not God take dust from the earth, and fashion this wonderful frame? Is then clay changed into an eye, and cannot a virgin bear a son. Does that which for men is more impossible take place, and is that which is possible never to occur?
31. Let us remember these things, brethren: let us use these weapons in our defence. Let us not endure those heretics who teach Christ's coming as a phantom. Let us abhor those also who say that the Saviour's birth was of husband and wife; who have dared to say that He was the child of Joseph and Mary, because it is written, And he took unto him his wifehyperlink . For let us remember Jacob who before he received Rachel, said to Laban, Give me my wifehyperlink . For as she before the wedded state, merely because there was a promise, was called the wife of Jacob, so also Mary, because she had been betrothed, was called the wife of Joseph. Mark also the accuracy of the Gospel, saying, And in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Josephhyperlink , and so forth. And again when the census took place, and Joseph went up to enrol himself, what saith the Scripture? And Joseph also went up from Galilee, to enrol himself with Mary who was espoused to him, being great with childhyperlink . For though she was with child, yet it said not "with his wife," but with her who was espoused to him. For God sent forth His Son, says Paul, not made of a man and a woman, but made of a womanhyperlink only, that is of a virgin. For that the virgin also is called a woman, we shewed beforehyperlink . For He who makes souls virgin, was born of a Virgin.
32. But thou wonderest at the event: even she herself who bare him wondered at this. For she saith to Gabriel, How shall this be to me, since I know not a man? But he says, The Holy Ghost shall came upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is to be born shall be called the Son of Godhyperlink . Immaculate and undefiled was His generation: for where the Holy Spirit breathes, there all pollution is taken away: undefiled from the Virgin was the incarnate generation of the Only-begotten. And if the heretics gainsay the truth, the Holy Ghost shall convict them: that overshadowing power of the Highest shall wax wroth: Gabriel shall stand face to face against them in the, day of judgment: the place of the manger, which received the Lord, shall put them to shame. The shepherds, who then received the good tidings, shall bear witness; and the host of the Angels who sang praises and hymns, and said, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of His good pleasurehyperlink : the Temple into which He was then carried up on the fortieth day: the pairs of turtle-doves, which were offered on His behalfhyperlink : and Symeon who then took Him up in his arms, and Anna the prophetess who was present.
33. Since God then beareth witness, and the Holy Ghost joins in the witness, and Christ says, Why do ye seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truthhyperlink ? let the heretics be silenced who speak against His humanity, for they speak against Him, who saith, Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me havehyperlink . Adored be the Lord the Virgin-born, and let Virgins acknowledge the crown of their own state: let the order also of Solitaries acknowledge the glory of chastity for we men are not deprived of the dignity of chastity. In the Virgin's womb the Saviour's period of nine months was passed: but the Lord was for thirty and three years a man: so that if a virgin glorieshyperlink because of the nine months, much more we because of the many years.
Footnotes
92 Ps. cxxxii. 6. The Psalmist refers to the recovery of the Ark, but Cyril interprets the passage mystically of Christ, and the place of His Nativity.
93 The Benedictine Editor thinks that in calling the place "woody" Cyril refers to a grove planted by Hadrian in honour of Adonis, which had been destroyed about sixteen years before, when Helena built the Church at Bethlehem: see Eusebius, Life of Constantine, III. 43. But Cyril evidently means that the wood of which the Psalmist speaks had remained till a few years before. Ephrâthah is the ancient name of Bethlehem (Gen. xxxv. 19; xlviii. 7), and by "the fields of the wood" is probably meant Kirjath-Jearim, "the city of woods," where the Ark was found by David (2 Sam vi. 2; 1 Chron. xiii. 6).
94 Hab. iii. 2: (R. V.), O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known. The Septuagint gives a different sense: In the midst of two lives (or, living beings) shalt Thou be known: when the years draw nigh Thou shalt be recognised: when the time is come, Thou shalt be shewn. The two latter clauses seem to be different renderings of the same Hebrew words.
95 e 9ch=j. This clause comes before the preceding quotation: Cyril misplace them. In the Vatican and other Mss. of the Sept. and in some Fathers zw/wn ("living creatures") is found in place of zww=n "lives;" but the latter reading is evidently required by the interpretation which follows in Cyril. Origen (de Principiis, I. 4), who recognises both readings ("In medio vel duorum animalium, vel duarum vitarum, cognosceris,") interprets the "two living beings" of the Son and the Spirit. Eusebius (Demonstr. Evang. VI. 15) observes that zwwn is to be read as perispomenon from the Singular zwh/, and interprets it of Christ's life with God, and life on earth. Theodoret says, in commenting on the passage, "To me it seems that the Prophet means not "living beings" (zw=a) but "lives" (zwa/j), the present life, and that which is to come, between which is the appearance of the Righteous Judge."
96 Hab. iii. 3. Cyril interprets the word Qaima/n (Heb. wm/yt@'
as a common Noun meaning "South," and the Vulgate has here "ab Austro veniet." The prophecy is thus referred to Bethlehem, as lying to the South of Jerusalem. Eusebius (Dem. Evang. VI. 15)ns this as the rendering of Theodotion in his Greek Version, about 180 A.D. As a proper name Teman denotes a district and town in the southern part of Idumea, so called from a grandson of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 11, 14, 42; Jer. xlix. 7, 20; Ezek. xxv. 13; Amos i. 12; Obad. 9).
97 The following note is slightly abridged from the Edition of Alexandrides of Jerusalem. "Previous Editions read e!c o!rouj fara\n kataski/ou dase/oj.. This reading is found in Cod. Vat. and other Mss. of the Septuagint, but fara/n is omitted in the Aldine and many other copies nor was it read in the Mss. of the Sept. in Jerome's time, as is clear form his comments on the passage. In the Mss. of Cyril, Ottob. R. C. V. Monac. I. and II. it is wanting. Paran is the name of the desert towards the S. of Palestine lying between it and Egypt (Gen. xxi. 21; Num. i. 12). There was also a Mount Paran (Deut. xxxiii.2). But since Cyril applies the prophecy to Bethlehem, and the "shady thickly-wooded mountain" of Habakkuk is identified with "the plains of the wood" of David, we may safely conclude that Cyril did not read fara/n in his copies of the Septuagint, nor write it in his Lecture: but the reading crept in from the later copyists, accustomed to the reading fara/n in the Septuagint.
0'
98 Isa. vii. 14. The objection of the Jews that the Hebrew word "almah" means "a young woman," whether married or not, is mentioned by Justin M. (Tryph. 43, 67, 71), and by Eusebius (Dem. Evang. VII. i. 315).
99 Eccles. xii. 5.
100 1 Kings i. 4. Cyril's argument is fully justified by the actual usage of "Almah," which certainly refers to unmarried women in Gen. xxiv. 43; Ex. ii. 8; Cant. i. 3. The same is probably the meaning in Ps. lxviii, 25: "in the midst were the damsels playing with the timbrels." There is no passage in which the word can be shewn to mean a married woman.
101 Isa. vii. 11.
102 Compare Justin M. (Trypheign>, § 77), Euseb (Demonstr. Evang. L. VII. c. i. 317).
103 In the Hebrew the word used is a Participle, and describes what Isaiah sees in a prophetic vision; "Behold, the damsel - with child."
104 Ps. cxxxii. 11.
105 Ib. lxxxix. 22.
106 vv. 35-37.
107 Matt. xxiii. 2.
108 Ib. xxi. 9.
109 Joh xii. 13.
110 Matt. xx. 30.
111 Luke i. 32.
112 2 Tim. ii. 8.
113 Rom. i. 3.
114 Is. xi. 10; Rom. xv. 12.
115 Isa. ix. 5.
116 v. 7.
117 Ps. xxii. 9.
118 Jer. i. 5.
119 Job. x. 10, 11.
120 1 Cor. vi. 19.
121 Hos. ix. 12. R. V. Woe also to them, when I depart from them. The Seventy mistook yri#&b@;
, "at my departure," for yr;#&ib@i
, "my flesh."
122 Mic. v. 3.
123 Hos. ii. 20.
124 Luke i. 45.
125 See the story of Pyrrha and Deucalion in Pindar, Ol. ix. 60:a#ter dj eu!na'" kthsavsqan livqinon govnon, and in Ovid. Metam i. 260 ff.
126 Athena was said to have sprung armed from the head of Zeus: Pindar, Ol. vii. 65: korufa\n kat0 a!kran a'norou/ saij0 a'la/la en u 9perma/kei boa=. Cf. Hes. Theog. 924.
127 Eurip. Bacchae. 295; Ovid. Metam. iv. 11..
128 Codd. Mon. i, A: o 9 ga\r au'to\j Qeo/j. Bened. o 9 ga\r Qeo\j au'to/j.
129 Matt. i. 24.
130 Gen. xxix. 21.
131 Luke i. 26, 27.
132 Ib. ii. 4, 5.
133 Gal. iv. 4.
134 See above § 21.
135 Luke i. 34, 35.
136 Luke ii. 14.
137 Ib. ii. 24. In Lev. xii. 8 one pair only of turtles is prescribed, to be offered for the mother, not for the child. But the reading ta\ zeu/gh in Cyril is confirmed by that in St. Luke, tou= kaqarismou= au'tw=n. See the authorities in Tischendorf.
138 John vii. 19; viii. 40.
139 Luke xxiv. 39.
140 semnu/netai. Rivet, misled by a double error in the old Latin version, "veneratur," accused Cyril of approving the worship of the Virgin Mary.
141 Ps. cxlviii. 12.