ACC ~ Galatians 4 v4b

THE INCARNATE SENDING. THEODORET: 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. EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 4.4-5.

WHY MARY IS NOT HERE CALLED A VIRGIN. TERTULLIAN: 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. N THE VEILING OF VIRGINS 6.

NOT FROM HUMAN SEED. PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE: 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. QUESTIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, APPENDIX 50.

WHETHER BIRTH IS COMPATIBLE WITH HIS GODHEAD. LEO THE GREAT: 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. LETTER 28, TO FLAVIAN 4.

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