Chap. XII.—Of the Birth of Jesus from the Virgin; Of His Life, Death, and Resurrection, and the Testimonies of the Prophets Respecting These Things.

Therefore the Holy Spirit of God, descending from heaven, chose the holy Virgin, that He might enter into her womb.579    Se insinuaret.   But she, being filled by the possession580    Divino spiritu hausto.   of the Divine Spirit, conceived; and without any intercourse with a man, her virgin womb was suddenly impregned. But if it is known to all that certain animals are accustomed to conceive581    So Virgil, Georgic iii. 274:—   “Et sæpe sine ullis Conjugiis vento gravidæ, mirabile dictu.”    This theory of the impregnation of mares by the wind was general among the ancients.   by the wind and the breeze, why should any one think it wonderful when we say that a virgin was made fruitful by the Spirit of God, to whom whatever He may wish is easy? And this might have appeared incredible, had not the prophets many ages previously foretold its occurrence. Thus Solomon speaks:582    This passage does not occur in the writings of Solomon, or in the Old Testament. [Possibly from some copy (North African) of the “Book of Wisdom,” interpolated from a marginal comment.]   “The womb of a virgin was strengthened, and conceived; and a virgin was made fruitful, and became a mother in great pity.” Likewise the prophet Isaiah,583    Isa. vii. 14.   whose words are these: “Therefore God Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son; and ye shall call His name Emmanuel.” What can be more manifest than this? This was read by the Jews, who denied Him. If any one thinks that these things are invented by us, let him inquire of them, let him take especially from them: the testimony is sufficiently strong to prove the truth, when it is alleged by enemies themselves. But He was never called Emmanuel, but Jesus, who in Latin is called Saving, or Saviour,584    Salutaris, sive Salvator.   because He comes bringing salvation to all nations. But by this name the prophet declared that God incarnate was about to come to men. For Emmanuel signifies God with us; because when He was born of a virgin, men ought to confess that God was with them, that is, on the earth and in mortal flesh. Whence David585    Ps. lxxxv. 12, quoted from the Septuagint.   says in the eighty-fourth Psalm, “Truth has sprung out of the earth;” because God, in whom is truth, hath taken a body of earth, that He might open a way of salvation to those of the earth. In like manner Isaiah also:586    Isa. lxiii. 10.   “But they disbelieved, and vexed His Holy Spirit; and He was turned to be their enemy. And He Himself fought against them, and He remembered the days of old,587    The days of the age. In the next clause the text differs both from the Hebrew and the Septuagint—which the English authorized version follows—“who raised up out of the sea.”   who raised up from the earth a shepherd of the sheep.” But who this shepherd was about to be, he declared in another place,588    Isa. xlv. 8, quoted from the Septuagint.   saying: “Let the heavens rejoice, and let the clouds put on righteousness; let the earth open, and put forth a Saviour. For I the Lord have begotten Him.” But the Saviour is, as we have said before, Jesus. But in another place the same prophet also thus proclaimed:589    Isa. ix. 6, from the Septuagint.   “Behold, unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, whose dominion is upon His shoulders, and His name is called Messenger of great counsel.” For on this account He was sent by God the Father, that He might reveal to all the nations which are under heaven the sacred mystery of the only true God, which was taken away from the perfidious people, who ofttimes sinned against God. Daniel also foretold similar things:590    Dan. vii. 13, 14.   “I saw,” he said, “in a vision of the night, and, behold, one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, and He came even to the Ancient of days. And they who stood by brought Him near591    Obtulerunt eum, “presented Him.”   before Him. And there was given unto Him a kingdom, and glory, and dominion; and all people, tribes, and languages shall serve Him: and His dominion is everlasting, which shall never pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed.” How then do the Jews both confess and expect the Christ of God? who rejected Him on this account, because He was born of man. For since it is so arranged by God that the same Christ should twice come to the earth, once to announce to the nations the one God, then again to reign, why do they who did not believe in His first advent believe in the second?  

But the prophet comprises both His advents in few words. Behold, he says, one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He did not say, like the Son of God, but the Son of man, that he might show that He had592    Quod carne indui haberet in terrâ. Another reading is “deberet,” but the present is in accordance with the style of Lactantius.   to be clothed with flesh on the earth, that having assumed the form of a man and the condition of mortality, He might teach men righteousness; and when, having completed the commands of God, He had revealed the truth to the nations, He might also suffer death, that He might overcome and lay open593    Inferos resignaret.   the other world also, and thus at length rising again, He might proceed to His Father borne aloft on a cloud.594    Acts i. 9: “A cloud received Him out of their sight.”   For the prophet said in addition: And came even to the Ancient of days, and was presented to Him. He called the Most High God the Ancient of days, whose age and origin cannot be comprehended; for He alone was from generations, and He will be always to generations.595    Ps. xc. 2.   But that Christ, after His passion and resurrection, was about to ascend to God the Father, David bore witness in these words in the cixth Psalm:596    Ps. cx. 1.   “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” Whom could this prophet, being himself a king, call his Lord, who sat at the right hand of God, but Christ the Son of God, who is King of kings and Lord of lords? And this is more plainly shown by Isaiah,597    Isa. xlv. 1–3. The quotation is from the Septuagint. It expressly refers to Cyrus, whom God raised up to accomplish His will; but the prophecy may have a further reference to Christ, as is here supposed.   when he says: “Thus saith the Lord God to my Lord Christ, whose right hand I have holden; I will subdue nations before Him, and will break the strength of kings. I will open before Him gates, and the cities shall not be closed. I will go before Thee, and will make the mountains level; and I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and shatter the bars of iron; and I will give Thee the hidden and invisible treasures, that Thou mayest know that I am the Lord God, which call Thee by Thy name, the God of Israel.” Lastly, on account of the goodness and faithfulness which He displayed towards God on earth, there was given to Him a kingdom, and glory, and dominion; and all people, tribes, and languages shall serve Him; and His dominion is everlasting, and that which shall never pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed. And this is understood in two ways: that even now He has an everlasting dominion, when all nations and all languages adore His name, confess His majesty, follow His teaching, and imitate His goodness: He has power and glory, in that all tribes of the earth obey His precepts. And also, when He shall come again with majesty and glory to judge every soul, and to restore the righteous to life, then He shall truly have the government of the whole earth: then, every evil having been removed from the affairs of men, a golden age (as the poets call it), that is, a time of righteousness and peace, will arise. But we will speak of these things more fully in the last book, when we shall speak of His second advent; now let us treat of His first advent, as we began.  

CAPUT XII. De Jesu ortu ex Virgine, de ejus Vita, Morte, et Resurrectione; atque de iis rebus testimonia Prophetarum.

Descendens itaque de coelo sanctus ille Spiritus Dei sanctam Virginem, cujus utero se insinuaret, elegit. At illa divino Spiritu hausto repleta concepit, et sine ullo attactu viri repente virginalis uterus intumuit. Quod si animalia quaedam vento et aura concipere solere omnibus notum est, cur quisquam mirum 0479A putet, cum spiritu Dei, cui facile est quidquid velit, gravatam esse Virginem 0479A dicimus? Quod sane incredibile posset videri, nisi hoc futurum ante multa saecula Prophetae cecinissent. Salomon ita dicit: Infirmatus est uterus virginis, et accepit foetum, et gravata est, et facta est in multa miseratione mater Virgo. Item propheta Esaias, cujus verba sunt haec: Propter hoc dabit Deus ipse vobis signum; Ecce Virgo accipiet in utero, et pariet filium, et vocabitis nomen ejus Hemanuel. Quid hoc manifestius dici potest? Legebant ista Judaei, qui eum negaverunt. Si quis nos haec fingere arbitratur, ab his requirat, ab his potissimum sumat. Satis firmum testimonium est ad probandam veritatem, quod ab ipsis perhibetur inimicis. Hemanuel autem nunquam vocitatus est, sed Jesus, qui latine 0479B dicitur salutaris, sive salvator; quia cunctis gentibus salutifer venit. Sed propheta declaravit hoc nomine, quod Deus ad homines in carne venturus esset. Hemanuel enim significat, nobiscum Deus; scilicet quia illo per virginem nato, confiteri homines oportebat Deum secum esse, id est, in terra, et in carne mortali. Unde David in psalmo LXXXIV. Veritas, inquit, de terra orta est; quia Deus, in quo veritas est, terrenum corpus accepit, ut terrenis viam salutis aperiret. Item Esaias ipse: Ipsi autem non crediderunt, 0480Aet exacerbaverunt spiritum sanctum, et conversus est eis ad inimicitiam. Et ipse expugnavit, et recordatus est dierum saeculi, qui suscitavit de terra pastorem ovium.

Quis autem futurus esset ille pastor, declaravit alio loco, dicens: Exultent coeli desuper, et nubes induant justitiam: aperiatur terra, et pullulet Salvatorem. Ego enim Dominus Deus creavi eum. Salvator vero est, ut supra diximus, Jesus. Sed et alio loco idem propheta sic praedicavit: Ecce natus est nobis puer, et datus est nobis filius: cujus imperium super humeros ejus; et vocatum est nomen ejus, magni consilii nuntius. Idcirco enim missus est a Deo Patre, ut universis gentibus, quae sub coelo sunt, singularis et veri Dei sanctum mysterium revelaret, ablatum perfido populo, qui adversus Deum saepe deliquit. Daniel quoque similia 0480B praelocutus est. Videbam, inquit, in visu noctis; et ecce in nubibus coeli ut filius hominis veniens, et usque ad vetustum dierum pervenit. Et qui assistebant, obtulerunt eum, et datum est ei regnum, et honor, et imperium, et omnes populi, tribus, linguae servient ei; et potestas ejus aeterna, quae nunquam transibit, et regnum ejus, quod non corrumpetur. Quomodo igitur Judaei et confitentur, et sperant Christum Dei? qui hunc idcirco reprobaverunt, quia ex homine natus est. Nam cum ita sit a Deo constitutum, ut idem 0481A Christus bis adveniat in terram, 0481A semel, ut unum Deum gentibus nuntiet, deinde rursus, ut regnet: quomodo in secundum ejus adventum credunt, qui in primum non crediderunt?

Atqui propheta utrosque adventus ejus paucis verbis comprehendit. Ecce, inquit, in nubibus coeli ut filius hominis veniens. Non dixit, ut filius Dei, sed filius hominis, ut ostenderet, quod carne indui haberet in terra, ut suscepta hominis figura, et conditione mortali, doceret homines justitiam; et cum mandatis Dei functus, veritatem gentibus revelasset, multaretur etiam morte, ut inferos quoque vinceret ac resignaret, atque ita demum resurgens, ad Patrem proficisceretur in nube sublatus. Adjecit enim propheta, et ait: Et usque ad antiquum dierum pervenit, et oblatus 0481B est ei. Antiquum dierum appellavit Deum summum, cujus aetas, et origo non potest comprehendi; quia solus a saeculis fuit, et erit semper in saecula. Christum autem post passionem ac resurrectionem ascensurum esse ad Deum patrem, David in psalmo centesimo nono contestatus est his verbis: Dixit Dominus Domino meo, sede a dextris meis; quoadusque ponam inimicos tuos suppedaneum pedum tuorum. Qui propheta, cum rex esset, quem appellare dominum suum posset, qui sederet ad dexteram Dei, nisi Christum Filium Dei, qui est rex regum, et dominus dominorum? Quod Esaias apertius ostendit dicens: Sic dicit Dominus Deus Christo domino meo, cujus tenui dexteram; obaudire ante eum gentes faciam, et fortitudinem regum disrumpam. Aperiam ante illum portas, 0481Cet civitates non claudentur. Ego ante te ibo, et montes deplanabo, et fores aereas conteram, et seras ferreas confringam; et dabo tibi thesauros absconditos et invisibiles, 0482Aut scias quia ego sum Dominus Deus, qui voco nomen tuum, Deus Israel. Denique ob virtutem ac fidem, quam Deo exhibuit in terra, datum est ei regnum, et honor, et imperium; et omnes populi, tribus, linguae, servient ei; et potestas ejus aeterna, quae nunquam transibit, et regnum ejus non corrumpetur. Quod quidem duobus modis intelligitur: quia et nunc habet perpetuam potestatem, cum omnes gentes, et omnes linguae nomen ejus venerantur, majestatem confitentur, doctrinam sequuntur, virtutem imitantur; habet imperium atque honorem, cum omnes tribus terrae praeceptis ejus obtemperant: et idem postea cum rursus advenerit in potestate ac claritate, ut omnem animam judicet, et justos restituat ad vitam, tunc vere totius terrae regimen obtinebit; 0482B tunc sublato de rebus humanis omni malo, aureum saeculum (ut poetae vocant), id est justum ac pacificum tempus orietur. Sed haec uberius in ultimo libro disseremus, cum de secundo adventu loquemur: nunc de primo, ut coepimus, explicemus.