Against Heresies: Book III

GOD BECAME HUMAN: and the Lord Himself saved us, giving us the sign of the Virgin. However, not as some claim among those now trying to interpret Scripture, saying, "Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bring forth a son," as translated by Theodotion the Ephesian and Aquila of Pontus, both Jewish converts. The Ebionites, following this view, claim that He was fathered by Joseph, thereby undermining as much as they can the remarkable plan of God and disregarding the testimony of the prophets that came from God. This prophecy was indeed made before the people were taken to Babylon, before the Medes and Persians came to power. It was translated into Greek by the Jews themselves long before our Lord's coming, so that no one could suspect the Jews of interpreting these words to please us. If they had known of our future existence and that we would rely on these scriptural proofs, they would never have hesitated to destroy their own Scriptures, which declare that all other nations share in eternal life and show that those who boast of being the house of Jacob and the people of Israel are excluded from the grace of God.

BEFORE THE ROMANS POSSESSED THEIR KINGDOM: while the Macedonians still controlled Asia, Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, wanted to adorn the library he had founded in Alexandria with a collection of all meritorious writings. He requested the people of Jerusalem to have their Scriptures translated into Greek. At that time, they were still under Macedonian rule and sent seventy of their elders, who were well-versed in the Scriptures and both languages, to fulfill Ptolemy's request. Ptolemy wanted to test them individually, fearing they might conceal the truth by consulting together, so he separated them and asked each one to write the same translation. He did this for all the books. When they gathered before Ptolemy and compared their interpretations, God was glorified, and the Scriptures were acknowledged as truly divine. All of them read out the common translation in the same words and names, so even the Gentiles present perceived that God inspired the translation. It was not surprising that God did this, as He had, during the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar, inspired Esdras the priest to recast the Scriptures corrupted during the captivity and re-establish Mosaic legislation with the people when the Jews returned to their land after seventy years in the time of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians.

SINCE THE SCRIPTURES HAVE BEEN INTERPRETED WITH SUCH FAITHFULNESS: by the grace of God, and because of this, God has prepared and renewed our faith in His Son and preserved for us the pure Scriptures in Egypt—where the house of Jacob thrived, escaping the famine in Canaan, and where our Lord was preserved when He fled from Herod's persecution—and because this interpretation of these Scriptures was made before our Lord's descent to earth, and before the Christians appeared (for our Lord was born around the forty-first year of Augustus's reign, but Ptolemy lived much earlier, during whose time the Scriptures were interpreted)—truly, these people are shown to be brazen and audacious, who now wish to create different translations, when we refute them using these Scriptures and lead them to believe in the coming of the Son of God. But our faith is steadfast, sincere, and the only true one, having clear proof from these Scriptures, which were interpreted as I have described, and the preaching of the Church is unaltered. For the apostles, being older than all these heretics, agree with this mentioned translation; and the translation aligns with the tradition of the apostles. For Peter, John, Matthew, Paul, and the rest, along with their followers, proclaimed all prophetic announcements just as the interpretation of the elders contains them.

THE SAME SPIRIT OF GOD: who spoke through the prophets about what the coming of the Lord would be like, provided a true interpretation of these prophecies through the elders. The Spirit Himself, through the apostles, announced that the time for adoption was complete, the kingdom of heaven was near, and He resided within those who believed in Him, born as Emmanuel of the Virgin. They confirm this, stating that before Joseph united with Mary, she remained a virgin and was "found with child by the Holy Spirit." The angel Gabriel told her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God." The angel told Joseph in a dream, "This happened to fulfill what Isaiah the prophet spoke: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." The elders interpreted Isaiah's words: "And the Lord said to Ahaz, Ask for yourself a sign from your Lord God from the depths below or the heights above.

Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not test the Lord. Then he said, It is not a small thing for you to tire men; how does the Lord tire them? Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son; and you will call His name Emmanuel. He will eat butter and honey. Before He knows to reject evil, He will choose good; before He knows good or evil, He will not choose evil, so He may select what is good." The Holy Spirit has carefully highlighted His birth from a virgin and His essence, indicating He is God, as the name Emmanuel shows.

Yet, He is also shown as a man, when it says, "He will eat butter and honey" and calls Him a child, "before He knows good and evil," for these describe a human infant.

However, refusing evil to choose good is characteristic of God, illustrating that by eating butter and honey, we should not see Him as just a man, nor should we see the name Emmanuel and suspect He is God without flesh.

AND WHEN HE SAYS: "Hear, O house of David," He acts as one indicating that He whom God promised David to raise up from the fruit of his belly as an eternal King is the same who was born of the Virgin, herself from David's lineage. For this reason, He promised that the King would be "of the fruit of his belly," which is the suitable term for a virgin conceiving, and not "of the fruit of his loins," nor "of the fruit of his reins," which is suitable for a man generating and a woman conceiving by a man.

In this promise, therefore, the Scripture excluded any male influence; yet it does not mention that He who was born was not from the will of man.

But it has established "the fruit of the belly," to declare the birth of Him who would be born from the Virgin, as Elisabeth testified when filled with the Holy Ghost, saying to Mary, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your belly;" the Holy Ghost pointing out to those willing to listen that the promise which God made, of raising up a King from the fruit of David's belly, was fulfilled in the birth from the Virgin, that is, from Mary.

Let those, therefore, who alter the passage of Isaiah to "Behold, a young woman shall conceive," and who claim Him to be Joseph's son, also alter the form of the promise given to David, when God promised to raise up from the fruit of his belly, the horn of Christ the King.

But they did not understand, otherwise, they would have presumed to alter even this passage too.

WHAT ISAIAH SAID: “From the height above, or from the depth beneath,” was meant to show that “He who descended is the same one who ascended.” By saying, “The Lord Himself will give you a sign,” he revealed an unexpected event regarding His birth, which could only have been accomplished by God, the Lord of all, giving a sign in the house of David. For what significant thing or sign would there be if a young woman became pregnant by a man and brought forth a child—a common occurrence for all women who have children? But since an unexpected salvation was to be provided for humanity through the help of God, the unexpected birth from a virgin was also accomplished; God provided this sign, not human work.

FOR THIS REASON: Daniel, anticipating His coming, stated that a stone, cut out without hands, entered this world. "Without hands" means that His entry into this world was not through human effort, like those accustomed to stone-cutting; specifically, Joseph had no part in it, but Mary alone worked with the pre-arranged plan. This stone from the earth comes into being through both the power and wisdom of God. Therefore, Isaiah also says: "Thus says the Lord, Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a stone, precious, chosen, the chief, the cornerstone, to be held in honor." Thus, we understand that His coming in human form was not by the will of a man, but by the will of God.

MOSES ALSO PROVIDED A SYMBOL WHEN HE CAST HIS ROD UPON THE EARTH SO THAT IT: by becoming flesh, might reveal and consume all the opposition of the Egyptians, which was rising against the pre-arranged plan of God. This was so that the Egyptians might testify that it is the finger of God which brings salvation for the people, and not the son of Joseph. For if He were the son of Joseph, how could He be greater than Solomon, or greater than Jonah, or greater than David, when He was born from the same lineage and was a descendant of these men? And how was it that He also called Peter blessed, because Peter acknowledged Him to be the Son of the living God?

9. Furthermore, if He had truly been the son of Joseph, He could not, according to Jeremiah, be either king or heir. This is because Joseph is shown to be the son of Joachim and Jechoniah, as Matthew also details in his genealogy. But Jechoniah, along with all his descendants, was disinherited from the kingdom; as Jeremiah declares, "As I live, says the Lord, if Jechoniah the son of Joachim king of Judah were a signet on my right hand, I would tear him off and hand him over to those seeking your life." Moreover, Jechoniah is described as a dishonored, useless vessel, cast into a land he did not know. Earth, listen to the word of the Lord: Write this man as disinherited; none of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or be a ruler in Judah." And again, God speaks of Joachim, his father: "Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning Joachim his father, king of Judah: None of his descendants will sit on the throne of David; his dead body will be exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of night. I will watch over him, his sons, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, bringing upon them and the land of Judah all the disasters I have decreed against them." Therefore, those who claim He was born of Joseph and place their hope in Him cause themselves to be disinherited from the kingdom, falling under the curse and condemnation directed against Jechoniah and his descendants. For these things were spoken concerning Jechoniah because the Holy Spirit foresaw the teachings of false teachers; so they may understand that He was not to be born from Joseph's lineage but that, according to God's promise, from David's lineage the eternal King is raised, who unites all things in Himself and gathers into Himself the original creation of humanity.

For just as sin entered through one man's disobedience, and death came through sin, so also through the obedience of one man, righteousness was introduced, bringing life to those who were once dead. Just as the original man, Adam, had his existence from untilled and virgin soil ("for God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground"), and was formed by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, since "all things were made by Him," and the Lord took dust from the earth to form man; similarly, He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, fittingly received birth, allowing Him to gather up Adam into Himself, from Mary, who was still a virgin.

IF: then, the first Adam had a human father and was born of human seed, it would be reasonable to say that the second Adam was begotten of Joseph.

But since the former was taken from the dust and God was his Maker, it was necessary that the latter also, embodying a recapitulation in Himself, should be formed as a man by God, maintaining an analogy with the former concerning His origin. Why, then, did God not take dust again, but instead chose Mary for the formation? It was so that no new formation would be brought into being, nor any other that would need to be saved, but that the very same formation would be summed up in Christ as had existed in Adam, preserving the analogy.