ACC ~ Romans 1 v3

SON OF GOD AND OF DAVID. IGNATIUS: I glorify God … that you are fully persuaded that our Lord was truly of the seed of David according to the flesh and the Son of God according to the will and power of God. EPISTLE TO THE SMYRNEANS 1.

NEVER A TIME WHEN HE DID NOT EXIST. ORIGEN: Without any doubt, he was made that which he had not previously been according to the flesh. But according to the Spirit he existed beforehand, and there was never a time when he did not exist. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CONCERNING THE SON. AMBROSIASTER: “Concerning his Son.” It was fitting, since God promised his own Son to the world, that he should promise him through great men, so that from them it might be known how very powerful the one who was being preached was and so that he might include his future coming in the Holy Scriptures. And what is preached by the Holy Scriptures cannot be shown to be false.

“Who was descended from the seed of David according to the flesh.” He who was the Son of God according to the Holy Spirit (that is, according to God, because God is Spirit and without any doubt he is holy), is said to have been made the Son of God according to the flesh by Mary, as it is written: “The Word became flesh.” Christ Jesus is both Son of God and Son of Man. As he is truly God, so also he is truly man. For he would not be truly man if he were not of flesh and soul. Otherwise he would be incomplete. For although he was the Son of God in eternity, he was not known by the creation until, when God wanted him to be revealed for the salvation of mankind, he made him visible and corporeal, because God wanted him to be known through his power to cleanse humans from their sins by overcoming death in the flesh. Therefore he was made of the seed of David. As he was born a king from God before the beginning of time, so also he would acquire birth from a king according to the flesh, being made from a virgin by the work of the Holy Spirit, i.e., born. Thus by the reverence reserved for him because of this fact, he who by his birth was distinguished from the law of nature would be recognized as being more than a man. This had been predicted by Isaiah the prophet: “Behold a virgin will conceive in her womb.” Hence when the newborn child appeared to be worthy of honor, a certain providence of God was discerned concerning a future visitation of the human race. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

A GENERATION ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul is here hinting that there is also a generation of Christ according to the Spirit. Why then did he begin from the flesh, and not from the higher principle? First, it was because that was where Matthew, Luke and Mark started from too. Anyone who wants to lead men by hand to heaven must lead them upward from below. This was the way the actual dispensation [of grace] was ordered. First, they saw Christ as a man on earth, and then later they understood that he is God. His disciple therefore followed the same order in which Christ himself had framed his teaching. Thus the generation according to the flesh comes first, not because it was first in actual fact but because he was leading his hearers upward from one thing to the other. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 1.

ACCORDING TO THE FLESH. PELAGIUS: Many are sons by grace, but Christ is a son by nature. … By adding “according to the flesh” Paul has countered both Photinus and Arius. For if it is true that Christ was made according to the flesh, he most certainly was not made according to the substance of the Word. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

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