Chapter 21

§ 1.

God therefore became Man, and the Lord Himself saved us, giving the sign of the Virgin. Untrue therefore is the interpretation of certain who venture thus to interpret the Scripture:¹ “Behold the damsel shall be with child, and shall bear a son;” as Theodotion of Ephesus translated it, and Aquila of Pontus, both of them Jewish Proselytes: whom the Ebionites following, say that He was born of Joseph: whereby to the best of their power they undo this so great Economy of God; making void the witness of the Prophets, which is God’s work. For the Prophecy was given, in the first place, before the removal of the people to Babylon took place, i.e., before the Medes and Persians received the dominion: and next, it was translated in Greek by the Jews themselves, long before the times of our Lord’s Advent; that no suspicion may be left, whether haply it was in deference to us that the Jews so translated the words. Whereas, had they foreknown our existence, and our use of these testimonies out of the Scriptures, they would never have hesitated themselves to throw their own Scriptures into the fire; as proving both that all other nations partake of life, and demonstrating that those who boast to be the house of Jacob and the people of Israel, are even disinherited from the grace of God.

§ 2.

For before the Romans strengthened their dominion, the Macedonians being yet owners of Asia,—Ptolemy the Son of Lagus, ambitious of adorning the Library which he had founded in Alexandria with the writings of all, as many at least as were good for any thing, requested of the people of Jerusalem, that he might have their scriptures translated into the Greek language. But they (for they were then yet subject to the Macedonians) sent unto Ptolemy those among them who were best versed in the Scriptures, and in both the languages, being seventy elders: wherein God wrought the thing which He would. But he, desiring to make trial of them separately, and fearing lest haply they should upon some compact hide by their translation the truth as it is in the Scriptures, separated them one from another, and bade them all write the same passage translated; and this he did in all the books. And when they came together in Ptolemy’s palace, and offered for comparison each his own translation, both God was glorified, and the Scriptures proved truly divine, all of them having set forth the same things in the same sentences and the same terms from beginning to end: so that the very Gentiles which were present might know, that the Scriptures were translated by inspiration of God. And no wonder surely that God should have wrought this; even as, when the Scriptures were corrupted in the captivity of the people under Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews after 70 years had returned unto their own land, He did afterwards in the times of Artaxerxes King of the Persians inspire Esdras, the Priest of the tribe of Levi, to arrange all the sayings of the Prophets which went before, and restore to the people the Code which came by Moses.

§ 3.

The truth then and the grace of God, having been so great in the translation of those Scriptures out of which God prepared and new-formed our Faith which is in His Son; and preserved them to us unadulterated in Egypt; wherein both the House of Jacob throve, flying from the famine which was in Canaan, and also our Lord was there preserved, flying the persecution which arose from Herod:—Moreover, this version of those Scriptures having been made before our Lord came down, and finished before any Christians were to be seen; (for our Lord was born about the forty first year of Augustus’ reign, but Ptolemy, under whom the Scriptures were translated, was much more ancient;) truly shameless and bold are they proved, who would fain now translate otherwise, upon our refuting them out of the very Scriptures and shutting them up unto the faith of the coming of the Son of God.² But firm, and unfeigned, and alone true, is the Faith which we have, clearly evidenced by those Scriptures the translation of which was conducted in the aforesaid manner: and the Church’s message is without interpolation. Yea, and the Apostles too, who are more ancient than all these, agree with the aforesaid translation, and the translation harmonizes with the Apostolical tradition. Peter, I say, and John, and Matthew, and Paul, and the rest in order, and their followers, have put forth all Prophetic sayings according to the tenor of the translation of the Elders.

§ 4.

Because one and the same Spirit of God, Who in the Prophets first was as a Herald of the Coming of the Lord and the manner thereof, and then in the Elders did well translate what had been well prophesied: He did also in the Apostles proclaim that the fulness of the times of adoption had come, and that the Kingdom of Heaven had drawn near, and is abiding within such men as believe in Him Who was born of a Virgin, even Emmanuel; As they themselves bear witness, that before Joseph and Mary came together (of course while she was abiding in virginity) she was found with child of the Holy Ghost;³ and that the Angel Gabriel said unto her,⁴ The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God; and that the Angel in sleep said unto Joseph, But this was done,⁵ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Esaias, Behold a Virgin shall be with Child.

Now the Elders have translated Esaias as having said, And the Lord spake again unto Ahaz,⁶ Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, in the deep beneath or in the height above. And Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor tempt the Lord. And he said, It is no small thing for you to offer a contes unto men, and how doth the Lord insure your contest? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold a Virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a Son and ye shall call His name Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat: before He shall know or chuse the evil, He shall deal in the good: For before the infant may know good or evil, He shall not consent unto wickedness, that He may chuse the good.⁷ We see, the Holy Ghost hath diligently signified by these sayings, His Birth, that it is of the Virgin, and His Substance, that He is God (for this the Name Emmanuel implies): and He declares Him to be Man by saying, Butter and honey shall He eat: and by terming Him on infant, and before He know good and evil: for all these are signs of a human infant. But as to His not consenting to iniquity, that He may chuse the good, this properly belongs to God; that we might not understand Him to be only a mere man, by His having to eat butter and honey; nor again by the name Emmanuel, suspect Him to be God without Flesh.

§ 5.

And in saying, Ye shall hear now, O House of David: it was as one signifying, that He Whom God promised to David,⁸ to raise up from the fruit of his womb to be an everlasting King, He it is Who is born of the Virgin the daughter of David. For, for this cause too did He promise a King to be of the fruit of his womb⁹, an expression proper to a Virgin with child; and not, of the fruit of his loins, nor, of the fruit of his reins, which properly belongs to a man begetting, and to a woman conceiving by a man. Thus Scripture in its promise hath excluded the man’s generative powers: yea, he is not even mentioned, because the Child that was being born was not of the will of man. But it hath established and confirmed the fruit of the womb, so as to declare His generation, Who was to be of the Virgin; as Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost, testified, saying to Mary,¹⁰ Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb; the Holy Ghost signifying to such as will hear, that the Promise which God made, of the fruit of his womb to raise up a King, was fulfilled in the delivery of the Virgin, i.e., of Mary.

Wherefore such as change the passage in Esaias, Behold, a Damsel shall be with child, and will have Him to be the Son of Joseph; let them change the word of promise which is set down in David, where God promised him, of the fruit of his womb to raise up a horn, even Christ’s Kingdom. But they understood it not; otherwise they would have dared again to change this also.

§ 6.

And as to Esaias’ saying,¹¹ In the depth below, or in the height above, it was as much as to say, that He that descended, is the same also that ascended. And as to his saying, The Lord Himself shall give a sign; it meant the unlooked for nature of His Birth; which could not even have taken place, otherwise than by God, the Lord God of all, Himself giving the sign in the House of David. For what great thing or what sign would ensue by this, that a young woman should conceive by a man and bring forth; which happens to all who become mothers? But because an unlooked for salvation was beginning by God’s aid to be wrought for men, there was wrought also the unlooked for travail of the Virgin, God giving this sign, and not man working it.

§ 7.

And for this cause Daniel also,¹² in foresight of His coming, signified that as a stone cut out without hands He came into this world: I mean, that the saying, Without hands,¹³ meant that without work of human hands, i.e., of those who are used to cut stones, was His coming into this world: Joseph, namely, not contributing at all to it, but only Mary coöperating with the Economy. For this stone of the Earth is formed by God’s power and skill.¹⁴ And therefore Esaias saith, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I cast into the foundations of Sion a precious stone, elect, chief, a corner-stone, an honourable stone; that we may understand His coming as Man to be not of the will of man but of the will of God.

§ 8.

For this cause again Moses also,¹⁵ exhibiting a Type, cast the rod on the ground, that it, becoming incarnate, might put to shame and swallow up all the rebellion of the Egyptians which was rising up against God’s Economy: and that the Egyptians themselves might bear witness that it is the the finger of God which is working salvation for the people,¹⁶ and not the Son of Joseph. For were He the Son of Joseph, how could he have more than Solomon,¹⁷ or more than Jonas, or be something more than David, born as He must have been of the same seed, and their actual offspring? And why again did He call Peter blessed,¹⁸ for knowing Him to be the Son of the Living God?

§ 9.

And besides this, neither could He be King, if at least, He were Son of Joseph;¹⁹ nor heir, as Jeremiah saith For Joseph is set forth as the son of Joacim and Jechonias, as Matthew also expounds his origin. But Jechonias and his issue were all degraded from the Kingdom,²⁰ Jeremiah thus speaking; As I live, saith the Lord, though Jeconias the son of Joacim King of Juda were the signet on my right hand, I will take him off thence, and deliver him into the hand of them that seek thy life. And again,²¹ Jeconias is dishonoured, as a vessel whereof is no use, in that he is cast out into a land which he knew not. O Earth, hear the word of the Lord: write thou this man a degraded person, for there shall not grow up of his seed one sitting upon the throne of David, a Prince in Juda. And again, God saith of Joacim his father,²² Wherefore thus saith the Lord of Joacim [his father] King of Judæa; that there shall not be of him one sitting on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out in the heat of the day and in the frost of the night; and I will look upon him and upon his sons, and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, upon the land of Juda, all the evils which I have spoken of them.

Such therefore as say that He was born of Joseph, and hath His hope therein, make themselves out to be degraded from the Kingdom, falling under the curse and reproach which was directed against Jechonias and his seed. Yea, to this end were these words spoken of Jechonias, the Spirit foreknowing the sayings of these evil teachers: to teach them that He shall not be born of his seed, i.e., of Joseph, but according to God’s Promise from the womb of David is raised up an Eternal King,²³ Who sums up all in Himself; yea! the old work of Creation He hath summed up in Himself.²⁴

§ 10.

Because as by the disobedience of one man sin had entrance, and by sin death prevailed;²⁵ so also by the obedience of one man should righteousness be brought in, and bear the fruit of life to those men who were long ago dead. And as that first-formed Adam had his substance of the rude and yet virgin Earth (for God had not yet rained and man had not tilled the earth)²⁶ and was moulded by the Hand of God, i.e., by His Word (for all things were made by Him);²⁷ and the Lord took clay from the earth, and moulded man:—so when the Word Himself, being of Mary who was yet a Virgin, was gathering into Himself what relates to Adam, it was meet that He should receive a birth suitable to this gathering up of Adam.

And so, if the first Adam had a man for his father, and was born of a man’s seed, it were meet to say that the second Adam was also born of Joseph. But if the former was taken out of earth and God was his Framer, it was meet that He also, being summed up as part of Adam, I mean that the Man framed by the Almighty, should have the same resemblance of birth with him. Why then did not God a second time take dust, but wrought so that the formation should be of Mary? That it might not be another formation, nor another being to be saved, but He the very same, might be gathered in, the similitude being kept up.