Chapter XXXIII.—Manner of Christ’s birth predicted.
And hear again how Isaiah in express words foretold that He should be born of a virgin;
for he spoke thus: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son, and they shall say
for His name, ‘God with us.’ ”66 For things which were incredible and seemed impossible
with men, these God predicted by the Spirit of prophecy as about to come to pass, in order
that, when they came to pass, there might be no unbelief, but faith, because of their prediction.
But lest some, not understanding the prophecy now cited, should charge us with the very
things we have been laying to the charge of the poets who say that Jupiter went in to women
through lust, let us try to explain the words. This, then, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive,”
signifies that a virgin should conceive without intercourse. For if she had had intercourse
with any one whatever, she was no longer a virgin; but the power of God having come upon
the virgin, overshadowed her, and caused her while yet a virgin to conceive. And the angel
of God who was sent to the same virgin at that time brought her good news, saying, “Behold,
thou shalt conceive of the Holy Ghost, and shalt bear a Son, and He shall be called the Son
of the Highest, and thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their
sins,”67—as they who have recorded all that concerns our Saviour Jesus Christ have taught,
whom we believed, since by Isaiah also, whom we have now adduced, the Spirit of prophecy
declared that He should be born as we intimated before. It is wrong, therefore, to understand
the Spirit and the power of God as anything else than the Word, who is also the first-born
of God, as the foresaid prophet Moses declared; and it was this which, when it came upon
the virgin and overshadowed her, caused her to conceive, not by intercourse, but by power.
And the name Jesus in the Hebrew language means Σωτήρ (Saviour) in the Greek tongue.
Wherefore, too, the angel said to the virgin, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins.” And that the prophets are inspired68 by no other than the
Divine Word, even you, as I fancy, will grant.
66 Isa. vii. 14.
67 Luke i. 32; Matt. i. 21.
68 θεοφοροῦνται, lit. are borne by a god—a word used of those who were supposed to be wholly under the
influence of a deity.
Chapter XXXIII.—Manner of Christ’s birth predicted.
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Chapter XXXIII.—Manner of Christ’s birth predicted.