On the words Incarnate, and Made Man.
19But we seek still more clearly the proof of the time of His coming. For man being hard to persuade, unless he gets the very years for a clear calculation, does not believe what is stated. What then is the season, and what the manner of the time? It is when, on the failure of the kings descended from Judah, Herod a foreigner succeeds to the kingdom? The Angel, therefore, who converses with Daniel says, and do thou now mark the words, And thou shalt know and understand: From the going forth of the word for making answer, and for the building of Jerusalem, until Messiah the Prince are seven weeks and three score and two weeks. Now three score and nine weeks of years contain four hundred and eighty-three years. He said, therefore, that after the building of Jerusalem, four hundred and eighty-three years having passed, and the rulers having failed, then cometh a certain king of another race, in whose time the Christ is to be born. Now Darius the Mede built the city in the sixth year of his own reign, and first year of the 66th Olympiad according to the Greeks. Olympiad is the name among the Greeks of the games celebrated after four years, because of the day which in every four years of the sun’s courses is made up of the three (supernumerary) hours in each year. And Herod is king in the 186th Olympiad, in the 4th year thereof. Now from the 66th to the 186th Olympiad there are 120 Olympiads intervening, and a little over. So then the 120 Olympiads make up 480 years: for the other three years remaining are perhaps taken up in the interval between the first and fourth years. And there thou hast the proof according to the Scripture which saith, From the going forth of the word that Jerusalem be restored and built until Messiah the Prince are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Of the times, therefore, thou hast for the present this proof, although there are also other different interpretations concerning the aforesaid weeks of years in Daniel.
20But now hear the place of the promise, as Micah says, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, art thou little to be among the thousands of Judah? For out of thee shall come forth unto Me a ruler, to be governor in Israel: and His goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity. But assuredly as to the places, thou being an inhabitant of Jerusalem, knowest also beforehand what is written in the hundred and thirty-first psalm. Lo! we heard of it at Ephrathah, we found it in the plains of the wood. For a few years ago the place was woody. Again thou hast heard Habakkuk say to the Lord, When the years draw nigh, thou shalt be made known, when the time is come, thou shalt be shewn. And what is the sign, O Prophet, of the Lord’s coming? And presently he saith, In the midst of two lives shalt thou be known, plainly saying this to the Lord, “Having come in the flesh thou livest and diest, and after rising from the dead thou livest again.” Further, from what part of the region round Jerusalem cometh He? From east, or west, or north, or south? Tell us exactly. And he makes answer most plainly and says, God shall come from Teman (now Teman is by interpretation ‘south’) and the Holy One from Mount Paran, shady, woody: what the Psalmist spake in like words, We found it in the plains of the wood.
21We ask further, of whom cometh He and how? And this Esaias tells us: Behold! the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel. This the Jews contradict, for of old it is their wont wickedly to oppose the truth: and they say that it is not written “the virgin,” but “the damsel.” But though I assent to what they say, even so I find the truth. For we must ask them, If a virgin be forced, when does she cry out and call for helpers, after or before the outrage? If, therefore, the Scripture elsewhere says, The betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her, doth it not speak of a virgin?
But that you may learn more plainly that even a virgin is called in Holy Scripture a “damsel,” hear the Book of the Kings, speaking of Abishag the Shunamite, And the damsel was very fair: for that as a virgin she was chosen and brought to David is admitted.
22But the Jews say again, This was said to Ahaz in reference to Hezekiah. Well, then, let us read the Scripture: Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, in the depth or in the height. And the sign certainly must be something astonishing. For the water from the rock was a sign, the sea divided, the sun turning back, and the like. But in what I am going to mention there is still more manifest refutation of the Jews. (I know that I am speaking at much length, and that my hearers are wearied: but bear with the fulness of my statements, because it is for Christ’s sake these questions are moved, and they concern no ordinary matters.) Now as Isaiah spoke this in the reign of Ahaz, and Ahaz reigned only sixteen years, and the prophecy was spoken to him within these years, the objection of the Jews is refuted by the fact that the succeeding king, Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, was twenty-five years old when he began to reign: for as the prophecy is confined within sixteen years, he must have been begotten of Ahaz full nine years before the prophecy. What need then was there to utter the prophecy concerning one who had been already begotten even before the reign of father Ahaz? For he said not, hath conceived, but “ the virgin shall conceive,” speaking as with foreknowledge.
23We know then for certain that the Lord was to be born of a Virgin, but we have to shew of what family the Virgin was. The Lord sware in truth unto David, and will not set it aside. Of the fruit of body will I set upon thy throne: and again, seed will I establish for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. And afterwards, Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me, and as the moon established for ever. Thou seest that the discourse is of Christ, not of Solomon. For Solomon’s throne endured not as the sun. But if any deny this, because Christ sat not on David’s throne of wood, we will bring forward that saying, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: for it signifies not his wooden seat, but the authority of his teaching. In like manner then I would have you seek for David’s throne not the throne of wood, but the kingdom itself. Take, too, as my witnesses the children who cried aloud, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is the King of Israel. And the blind men also say, Son of David, have mercy on us. Gabriel too testifies plainly to Mary, saying, And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David. Paul also saith, Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my Gospel: and in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans he saith, Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Receive thou therefore Him that was born of David, believing the prophecy which saith, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to rule over the Gentiles: in Him shall the Gentiles trust.
24But the Jews are much troubled at these things. This also Isaiah foreknew, saying, And they shall wish that they had been burnt with fire: for unto us a child is born (not unto them), unto us a Son is given. Mark thou that at first He was the Son of God, then was given to us. And a little after he says, And of His peace there is no bound. The Romans have bounds: of the kingdom of the Son of God there is no bound. The Persians and the Medes have bounds, but the Son has no bound. Then next, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it. The Holy Virgin, therefore, is from David.
25For it became Him who is most pure, and a teacher of purity, to have come forth from a pure bride-chamber. For if he who well fulfils the office of a priest of Jesus abstains from a wife, how should Jesus Himself be born of man and woman? For thou, saith He in the Psalms, art He that took Me out of the womb. Mark that carefully, He that took Me out of the womb, signifying that He was begotten without man, being taken from a virgin’s womb and flesh. For the manner is different with those who are begotten according to the course of marriage.
26And from such members He is not ashamed to assume flesh, who is the framer of those very members. But then who telleth us this? The Lord saith unto Jeremiah: Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. If, then, in fashioning man He was not ashamed of the contact, was He ashamed in fashioning for His own sake the holy Flesh, the veil of His Godhead? It is God who even now creates the children in the womb, as it is written in Job, Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast knit me together with bones and sinews. There is nothing polluted in the human frame except a man defile this with fornication and adultery. He who formed Adam formed Eve also, and male and female were formed by God’s hands. None of the members of the body as formed from the beginning is polluted. Let the mouths of all heretics be stopped who slander their bodies, or rather Him who formed them. But let us remember Paul’s saying, Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you? And again the Prophet hath spoken before in the person of Jesus, My flesh is from them: and in another place it is written, Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she bringeth forth. And what is the sign? He tells us in what follows, She shall bring forth, and the remnant of their brethren shall return. And what are the nuptial pledges of the Virgin, the holy bride? And I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness. And Elizabeth, talking with Mary, speaks in like manner: And blessed is she that believed; for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.