Letters

⁵ But this is not so, far be the thought. For he 'takes hold of the seed of Abraham,' as the apostle said; whence it behooved Him to be made like His brethren in all things, and to take a Body like us. This is why Mary is truly presupposed, in order that He may take it from her, and offer it for us as His own. And this Isaiah pointed to in his prophecy, in the words: 'Behold the Virgin,' while Gabriel is sent to her— not simply to a virgin, but 'to a virgin betrothed to a man,' in order that by means of the betrothed man he might show that Mary was really a human being.

And for this reason Scripture also mentions her bringing forth, and tells of her wrapping Him in swaddling clothes; and therefore, too, the paps which He sucked were called blessed. And He was offered as a sacrifice, in that He Who was born had opened the womb. Now all these things are proofs that the Virgin brought forth. And Gabriel preached the Gospel to her without uncertainty, saying not merely 'what is born in you,' lest the body should be thought to be extraneously induced upon her, but 'of you,' that what was born might be believed to be naturally from her, inasmuch as Nature clearly shows that it is impossible for a virgin to produce milk unless she has brought forth, and impossible for a body to be nourished with milk and wrapped in swaddling clothes unless it has previously been naturally brought forth.

This is the meaning of His being circumcised on the eighth day: of Symeon taking Him in his arms, of His becoming a young child, and growing when He was twelve years old, and of His coming to His thirtieth year. For it was not, as some suppose, the very Essence of the Word that was changed, and was circumcised, because it is incapable of alteration or change. For the Saviour Himself says, 'Behold, behold, it is I, and I change not,' while Paul writes: 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.'

But in the Body which was circumcised, and carried, and ate and drank, and was weary, and was nailed on the tree and suffered, there was the impassible and incorporeal Word of God. This Body it was that was laid in a grave, when the Word had left it, yet was not parted from it, to preach, as Peter says, also to the spirits in prison.