{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-5476","native_reference":{"book_number":550,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":4,"verse_to":4},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: He says \"his Son,\" not one of many, not \"a Son\" but his own. When he says \"his own\" he confirms that he has the property of eternal generation. This is the one whom he subsequently declares to have been born from a woman, so as to ascribe the fact of being born not to the Godhead but to the assumed body. He was made from a woman by assuming flesh and made under the law by observing the law. But that heavenly birth of his is prior to the law, while the incarnation happens later.<br/><i>— ON THE FAITH 1.14</i></p><p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: \"The fullness of time\" is the completed time which had been foreordained by God the Father for the sending of his Son, so that, made from a virgin, he might be born like a man, subjecting himself to the law up to the time of his baptism, so that he might provide a way by which sinners, washed and snatched away from the yoke of the law, might be adopted as God's sons by his condescension, as he had promised to those redeemed by the blood of his Son. It was necessary, indeed, that the Savior should be made subject to the law, as a son of Abraham according to the flesh, so that, having been circumcised, he could be seen as the one promised to Abraham, who had come to justify the Gentiles through faith, since he bore the sign of the one to whom the promise had been made.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 4.5.1</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: That although from the beginning He had been the Son of God, yet He had to be begotten again according to the flesh. In the second Psalm: \"The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and the bounds of the earth for Thy possession.\" Also in the Gospel according to Luke: \"And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and she was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she cried out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? \" Also Paul to the Galatians: \"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son, horn of a woman.\" Also in the Epistle of John: \"Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. But whosoever denies that He is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of Antichrist.\"<br/><i>— Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: As there is a fullness in things, so there is in times. For each thing has its fullness in a full and copious perfection that abounds in everything. Christ is the fullness of things. The fullness of times is the consummation of freedom. So that his fullness may be whole and perfect Christ collects his members who are scattered, and in this way his fullness is achieved. So in the same way the fullness of times was achieved when all had become ripe for faith and sins had increased to the utmost, so that a remedy was necessarily sought in the judgment of all things. Hence Christ came when the fullness of time was completed.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 2.4.3-4</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: Because he is brought forth from a woman he can be said to be made, but made for this temporary purpose: to be subject to the law.… The Galatians were to understand from this that they had fallen into error, for the Savior himself, in whom they believed, was made subject to the law though he remained the Lord of the law.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 2.4.3-4</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Paul, when writing to the Romans, has explained this very point: \"Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, predestinated unto the Gospel of God, which He had promised by His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was made to Him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated the Son of God with power through the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ.\" And again, writing to the Romans about Israel, he says: \"Whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed for ever.\" And again, in his Epistle to the Galatians, he says: \"But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption;\" plainly indicating one God, who did by the prophets make promise of the Son, and one Jesus Christ our Lord, who was of the seed of David according to His birth from Mary; and that Jesus Christ was appointed the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, as being the first begotten in all the creation; the Son of God being made the Son of man, that through Him we may receive the adoption,-humanity sustaining, and receiving, and embracing the Son of God.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: With Him is nothing incomplete or out of due season, just as with the Father there is nothing incongruous. For all these things were foreknown by the Father; but the Son works them out at the proper time in perfect order and sequence. This was the reason why, when Mary was urging [Him] on to [perform] the wonderful miracle of the wine, and was desirous before the time to partake of the cup of emblematic significance, the Lord, checking her untimely haste, said, \"Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come\"-waiting for that hour which was foreknown by the Father. This is also the reason why, when men were often desirous to take Him, it is said, \"No man laid hands upon Him, for the hour of His being taken was not yet come;\" nor the time of His passion, which had been foreknown by the Father; as also says the prophet Habakkuk, \"By this Thou shalt be known when the years have drawn nigh; Thou shalt be set forth when the time comes; because my soul is disturbed by anger, Thou shalt remember Thy mercy.\" Paul also says: \"But when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son.\" By which is made manifest, that all things which had been foreknown of the Father, our Lord did accomplish in their order, season, and hour, foreknown and fitting, being indeed one and the same, but rich and great. For He fulfils the bountiful and comprehensive will of His Father, inasmuch as He is Himself the Saviour of those who are saved, and the Lord of those who are under authority, and the God of all those things which have been formed, the only-begotten of the Father, Christ who was announced, and the Word of God, who became incarnate when the fulness of time had come, at which the Son of God had to become the Son of man.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Those, therefore, who allege that He took nothing from the Virgin do greatly err, [since,] in order that they may cast away the inheritance of the flesh, they also reject the analogy [between Him and Adam]. For if the one [who sprang] from the earth had indeed formation and substance from both the hand and workmanship of God, but the other not from the hand and workmanship of God, then He who was made after the image and likeness of the former did not, in that case, preserve the analogy of man, and He must seem an inconsistent piece of work, not having wherewith He may show His wisdom. But this is to say, that He also appeared putatively as man when He was not man, and that He was made man while taking nothing from man. For if He did not receive the substance of flesh from a human being, He neither was made man nor the Son of man; and if He was not made what we were, He did no great thing in what He suffered and endured. But every one will allow that we are [composed of] a body taken from the earth, and a soul receiving spirit from God. This, therefore, the Word of God was made, recapitulating in Himself His own handiwork; and on this account does He confess Himself the Son of man, and blesses \"the meek, because they shall inherit the earth.\" The Apostle Paul, moreover, in the Epistle to the Galatians, declares plainly, \"God sent His Son, made of a woman.\" And again, in that to the Romans, he says, \"Concerning His Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated as the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.\"<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head, as thou canst perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, \"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall be on the watch for (observabit) thy head, and thou on the watch for His heel.\" For from that time, He who should be born of a woman, [namely] from the Virgin, after the likeness of Adam, was preached as keeping watch for the head of the serpent. This is the seed of which the apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians, \"that the law of works was established until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.\" This fact is exhibited in a still clearer light in the same Epistle, where he thus speaks: \"But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.\" For indeed the enemy would not have been fairly vanquished, unless it had been a man [born] of a woman who conquered him. For it was by means of a woman that he got the advantage over man at first, setting himself up as man's opponent. And therefore does the Lord profess Himself to be the Son of man, comprising in Himself that original man out of whom the woman was fashioned (ex quo ea quae secundum mulierem est plasmatio facta est), in order that, as our species went down to death through a vanquished man, so we may ascend to life again through a victorious one; and as through a man death received the palm [of victory] against us, so again by a man we may receive the palm against death.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book V</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: (Verse 4.) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Pay close attention to the fact that it does not say 'made through a woman,' which the heresies of Marcion and others assert, pretending that Christ's flesh was imaginary. Rather, it says 'born of a woman,' so that he may be believed to have been born not just through her, but from her. And the fact that the holy and blessed Mother of the Lord is called a woman and not a Virgin is also written in the Gospel according to Matthew: when Joseph is called her husband (Luke 2), and when the Lord Himself rebukes her as a woman (John 2). For it was not necessary to always speak cautiously and timidly of the Virgin, when the word 'woman' signifies the sex more than the union with a man. And according to the understanding of Greek, both γυνὴ can be interpreted as both 'wife' and 'woman'. But to pass over all else: just as he was made under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so he wanted to be born of a woman for the sake of those who were born of a woman. For he also received baptism in the river Jordan, as though repenting, when he was free from sins, so that he could teach others that they should be cleansed through baptism and be born again as the new children of the Spirit. Not understanding at all, John the Baptist was prohibiting him from approaching the bath, saying: I owe to be baptized by you (Matt. III, 14). And immediately the sacrament is taught: Without hesitation: for thus it befits us to fulfill all righteousness, so that he who came for the salvation of men would not pass over anything concerning the conduct of men. Let someone ask and say: If he became under the Law for this reason, to redeem those who were under the Law, which indeed would have been impossible to redeem those who were under the Law unless he himself had become under the Law: or if he became without the Law, in order to redeem those who were not under the Law; or if he did not become without the Law, he does not redeem those who were not under the Law. But if it was possible to redeem those who were without the Law, so that he himself would not be without the Law, then he was made superfluous under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law. He will solve this question briefly, if anyone uses that example: and he was considered with those who were without the Law. For although it may have been poorly edited in the Latin codices due to the simplicity of the interpreters, 'And he was reckoned with the transgressors' (Luke 22:37) means something different among the Greeks, which is written here, and something different 'unjust', which is found in the Latin volumes. Anomos is called that person who is without law, and is bound by no right. Unjust is also referred to as iniquitous or unjust. Hence the Apostle himself says in another place: 'When I was not, he says, without the Law of God; but I was in the Law of Christ' (I Cor. IX): and certainly in this testimony, 'anomos' is written in Greek; and the one who interprets it here correctly could have interpreted the same word there in a similar way, if ambiguity had not deceived him. But someone will examine the word itself more sharply and will say that those who were first on God's side and then ceased to be are called redeemed; but those who were not under the Law are not so much redeemed as bought. Hence, in the letter to the Corinthians, where fornication was heard of, and such fornication that not even among the Gentiles (Ibid. V), it is written: You were bought at a price, not redeemed: for they had not been under the Law. Therefore, we receive the adoption of the children of God: and having been redeemed by Christ, we cease to be under the servitude of the elements of the world and the power of guardians. Just as we have shown the difference between redeeming and buying, let us also consider what the difference is between receiving and accepting the adoption of children.<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Here he states two objects and effects of the Incarnation, deliverance from evil and supply of good, things which none could compass but Christ. They are these; deliverance from the curse of the Law, and promotion to sonship. Fitly does he say, that we might \"receive,\" \"[be paid,]\" implying that it was due; for the promise was of old time made for these objects to Abraham, as the Apostle has himself shown at great length. And how does it appear that we have become sons? he has told us one mode, in that we have put on Christ who is the Son; and now he mentions another, in that we have received the Spirit of adoption.<br/><i>— Homily on Galatians 4</i></p><p><b>Leo the Great</b>: He is God in that \"all things were made through him and nothing was made without him.\" He is human in that he was \"made from a woman, made under the law.\" The nativity of his flesh shows his human nature. The virgin birth is an indicator of his divine nature.<br/><i>— LETTER 28, TO FLAVIAN 4</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: But when He says, \"As the years draw nigh, thou shalt be recognised \"He means, as has been said before, that glorious recognition of our Saviour, God in the flesh, who is otherwise invisible to mortal eye; as somewhere Paul, that great interpreter of sacred mysteries, says: \"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.\"<br/><i>— Methodius Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna</i></p><p><b>Oecumenius</b>: \"But when the fullness of time had come,\" namely the time which it was necessary, he says, for Christ to come. For Daniel the prophet assigned the time of Christ's coming, which reached its accomplishment in the reign of Caesar Augustus, when also the incarnate economy of Christ began. (Dan. 9:24-27)</p><p>\"born of a woman.\" Therefore he did not say \"by a woman,\" so that you would not suppose his coming to have been by way of the Mother of God [Θεοτόκου], but \"of a woman,\" showing that from her the Lord took his body.</p><p>— [PHOTIUS] \"born under the law.\" For he became under the law, having also been circumcised, in order, he says, to redeem those who were under the law and under the curse, by the cross, and to be altogether made under the law. [end of the excerpt by Photius] —<br/><i>— Commentary on Galatians</i></p><p><b>Pseudo-Augustine</b>: Although in this place the \"making\" might be understood of his nativity, for there is indeed a distinction between making and generation, … the apostle spoke in this way since the flesh of the Lord was not produced from a human seed in the virgin's womb and made into a body but by the efficacy and power of the Holy Spirit. For it is one thing for blood to come together with an admixture of seed and cause birth, another to procreate by divine power.<br/><i>— QUESTIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, APPENDIX 50</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: A certain person thought that he had cleverly solved this question: that Mary was called a woman by the angel and the apostle because she was already betrothed. For a betrothed is in some sense a bride. Yet between \"in some sense\" and \"truly\" there is a great distance.… He spoke of one who was a virgin and was called woman according to a proper usage of this term with respect to the basic quality of a virgin, which is therefore vindicated by the generic term woman.<br/><i>— ON THE VEILING OF VIRGINS 6</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: \"But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son\" -the God, of course, who is the Lord of that very succession of times which constitutes an age; who also ordained, as \"signs\" of time, suns and moons and constellations and stars; who furthermore both predetermined and predicted that the revelation of His Son should be postponed to the end of the times.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Since, then, the Creator promised the gift of His Spirit in the latter days; and since Christ has in these last days appeared as the dispenser of spiritual gifts (as the apostle says, \"When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son; \" and again, \"This I say, brethren, that the time is short\" ), it evidently follows in connection with this prediction of the last days, that this gift of the Spirit belongs to Him who is the Christ of the predicters.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: But Paul, too, silences these critics when he says, \"God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.\" Does he mean through a woman, or in a woman? Nay more, for the sake of greater emphasis, he uses the word \"made\" rather than born, although the use of the latter expression would have been simpler.<br/><i>— On the Flesh of Christ</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: \"Still,\" He said, \"I have many things to say to you, but ye are not yet able to bear them: when that Spirit of truth shall have come, He will conduct you into all truth, and will report to you the supervening (things).<br/><i>— On the Veiling of Virgins</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: It is right to point out that he has linked the sending of the eternal Son with the incarnation. For he does not say \"he sent him to come into being as Godhead from a woman,\" so that we would misunderstand the sending to be the sending of the Godhead. Instead only the Son, not the Godhead, is born of a woman. Now this is peculiar to the incarnation.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Galatians 4.4-5</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"205095f377b01877c8c82802b6a549bd7a745b70d6eaf65a5e27a7f05be4222b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":5476,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"22482c4790653263160b41ea4f107c3ef2f4682a2b1ecf0e17732302ba444297","translator":null,"work":null}