Chap. VIII.—Of the Birth of Jesus in the Spirit and in the Flesh: of Spirits and the Testimonies of Prophets.

For we especially testify that He was twice born, first in the spirit, and afterwards in the flesh. Whence it is thus spoken by Jeremiah:513    Jer. i. 5. It can only be in a secondary sense that this prophecy refers to Christ; in its primary sense it refers to the prophet himself, as the context plainly shows.   “Before I formed Thee in the womb I knew Thee.” And likewise by the same: “Who was blessed before He was born;”514    This passage is not found in Jeremiah, or in the Bible.   which was the case with no one else but Christ. For though He was the Son of God from the beginning,515    [See vol. iii. p. 612.]   He was born again516    Regeneratus est.   a second time517    Denuo, i.e., de nova, “afresh.”   according to the flesh: and this twofold birth of His has introduced great terror into the minds of men, and overspread with darkness even those who retained the mysteries of true religion. But we will show this plainly and clearly, that they who love wisdom may be more easily and diligently instructed. He who hears the Son of God mentioned ought not to conceive in his mind so great impiety as to think that God begat Him by marriage and union with a woman, which none does but an animal possessed of a body, and subject to death. But with whom could God unite Himself, since He is alone? or since His power was so great, that He accomplished whatever He wished, assuredly He did not require the co-operation518    Societate alterius. [Profanely arguing to God from man. Humanity has a procreant power of a lower sort; but the ideal is divine, and needs no process like that of man’s nature.]   of another for procreation. Unless by chance we shall [profanely] imagine, as Orpheus supposed, that God is both male and female, because otherwise He would have been unable to beget, unless He had the power of each sex, as though He could have intercourse with Himself, or without such intercourse be unable to produce.  

But Hermes also was of the same opinion, when he says that He was “His own father,” and “His own mother.”519    αύτοπάτορα καὶ αυἠτομήτορα.   But if this were so, as He is called by the prophets father, so also He would be called mother. In what manner, then, did He beget Him? First of all, divine operations cannot be known or declared520    Thus Isa. liii. 8: “Who shall declare His generation?”   by any one; but nevertheless the sacred writings teach us, in which it is laid down521    Cautum est.   that this Son of God is the speech, or even the reason522    Thus λόγος includes the two senses of word and reason.   of God, and also that the other angels are spirits523    There is great difficulty in translating this passage, on account of the double sense of spiritus (as in Greek, πνευ̑μα), including “spirit” and “breath.” It is impossible to express the sense of the whole passage by either word singly. There is the same difficulty with regard to πνευ̑μα, as in Heb. i. 7: “He maketh His angels spirits,” more correctly “winds.” See Delitzsch on Hebrews, and comp. Ps. civ. 4.   of God. For speech is breath sent forth with a voice signifying something. But, however, since breath and speech are sent forth from different parts, inasmuch as breath proceeds from the nostrils, speech from the mouth, the difference between the Son of God and the other angels is great. For they proceeded from God as silent spirits, because they were not created to teach524    Ad tradendam.   the knowledge of God, but for His service. But though He is Himself also a spirit, yet He proceeded from the mouth of God with voice and sound, as the Word, on this account indeed, because He was about to make use of His voice to the people; that is, because He was about to be a teacher of the knowledge of God, and of the heavenly mystery525    Cœlestis arcani. See Rom. xvi. 25.   to be revealed to man: which word also God Himself first spoke, that through Him He might speak to us, and that He might reveal to us the voice and will of God.  

With good reason, therefore, is He called the Speech and the Word of God, because God, by a certain incomprehensible energy and power of His majesty, enclosed the vocal spirit proceeding from His mouth, which he had not conceived in the womb, but in His mind, within a form which has life through its own perception and wisdom, and He also fashioned other spirits of His into angels. Our spirits526    Lactantius is speaking of the breath: he cannot refer to the soul, which he everywhere speaks of as immortal.   are liable to dissolution, because we are mortal: but the spirits of God both live, and are lasting, and have perception; because He Himself is immortal, and the Giver both of perception527    Sensus.   and life. Our expressions, although they are mingled with the air, and fade away, yet generally remain comprised in letters; how much more must we believe that the voice of God both remains for ever, and is accompanied with perception and power, which it has derived from God the Father, as a stream from its fountain! But if any one wonders that God could be produced from God by a putting forth of the voice and breath, if he is acquainted with the sacred utterances of the prophets he will cease to wonder. That Solomon and his father David were most powerful kings, and also prophets, may perhaps be known even to those who have not applied themselves to the sacred writings; the one of whom, who reigned subsequently to the other, preceded the destruction of the city of Troy by one hundred and forty years. His father, the writer of sacred hymns, thus speaks in the thirty-second Psalm:528    In our version, Ps. xxxiii. 6.   “By the word of God were the heavens made firm; and all their power529    Quoted from the Septuagint version.   by the breath of His mouth.” And also again in the forty-fourth Psalm:530    Ps. xlv. 1. [See vol. i. p. 213.]   “My heart hath given utterance to a good word; I speak of my doings towards the king;” testifying, in truth, that the works of God are known to no other than to the Son alone, who is the Word of God, and who must reign for ever. Solomon also shows that it is the Word of God, and no other,531    Ipsum.   by whose hands these works of the world were made. “I,” He says, “came forth out of the mouth of the Most High before all creatures: I caused the light that faileth not to arise in the heavens, and covered the whole earth with a cloud. I have dwelt in the height, and my throne is in the pillar of the cloud.”532    Ecclus. xxiv. 5–7. This book is attributed to Solomon by many of the Fathers, though it bears the title of the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach.  John also thus taught: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made.”533    John i. 1–3.    

CAPUT VIII. De ortu Jesu in spiritu et in carne; de spiritibus et testimoniis Prophetarum.

In primis enim testificamur, illum bis esse natum; primum in spiritu, postea in carne. Unde apud Hieremiam ita dicitur: Priusquam te formarem in utero, 0466A novi te. Et item apud ipsum: Beatus qui erat, antequam nasceretur; quod nulli alii contigit, praeter Christum. Qui cum esset a principio Filius Dei, regeneratus est denuo secundum carnem: quae duplex nativitas ejus magnum intulit humanis pectoribus errorem, circumfuditque tenebras etiam iis, qui verae Religionis sacramenta retinebant. Sed nos id plane dilucideque monstrabimus, ut amatores sapientiae facilius ac diligentius instruantur. Qui audit Dei Filium dici, non debet tantum nefas mente concipere, ut existimet, ex connubio ac permistione foeminae alicujus Deum procreasse, quod non facit nisi animal corporale, mortique subjectum. Deus autem, cum solus sit, cui permiscere se potuit? aut cum esset tantae potestatis, ut quidquid vellet, efficeret, 0466B utique ad creandum societate alterius non indigebat: nisi forte existimabimus, Deum, sicut Orpheus putavit, et marem esse et foeminam, quod aliter generare nequiverit, nisi haberet vim sexus utriusque; quasi aut ipse secum coierit, aut sine coitu non potuerit procreare.

Sed et Hermes in eadem fuit opinione, cum dicit αὐτοπάτορα, καὶ αὐτομήτορα. Quod si ita esset, ut a Prophetis pater dicitur, sic etiam mater diceretur. 0467A Quomodo igitur procreavit? Primum nec sciri a quoquam possunt, nec enarrari 0467A opera divina: sed tamen sanctae Litterae (Sap. XVIII), docent, in quibus cautum est, illum Dei Filium, Dei esse sermonem, sive etiam rationem; itemque caeteros angelos Dei spiritus esse. Nam sermo est spiritus cum voce aliquid significante prolatus. Sed tamen quoniam spiritus et sermo diversis partibus proferuntur, siquidem spiritus naribus, ore sermo procedit, magna inter hunc Dei Filium, et caeteros angelos differentia est. Illi enim ex Deo taciti spiritus exierunt; quia non ad doctrinam Dei tradendam, sed ad ministerium creabantur. Ille vero cum sit et ipse spiritus, tamen cum voce ac sono ex Dei ore processit, sicut verbum, ea scilicet ratione, quia voce ejus ad populum 0467B fuerat usurus; id est, quod ille magister futurus esset doctrinae Dei et coelestis arcani ad hominem proferendi: quod ipsum primo locutus est, ut per eum ad nos loqueretur, et ille vocem Dei ac voluntatem nobis revelaret.

Merito igitur sermo et verbum Dei dicitur; quia Deus procedentem de ore suo vocalem spiritum, quem non utero, sed mente conceperat, inexcogitabili quadam majestatis suae virtute ac potentia in effigiem, quae proprio sensu ac sapientia vigeat, comprehendit, et alios item spiritus suos in angelos 0468A figuravit. Nostri spiritus dissolubiles sunt, quia mortales sumus. Dei autem spiritus et vivunt, et manent, et sentiunt; quia ipse immortalis est et sensus, et vitae dator. Nostrae voces, licet aurae misceantur, atque evanescant, tamen plerumque permanent litteris comprehensae: quanto magis Dei vocem credendum est, et manere in aeternum, et sensu ac virtute comitari, quam de Deo patre, tamquam rivus de fonte traduxerit. Quod si quis miratur, ex Deo Deum prolatione vocis ac spiritus potuisse generari, si sacras voces Prophetarum cognoverit, desinet profecto mirari. Salomonem patremque ejus David potentissimos reges fuisse, et eosdem prophetas, etiam iis fortasse sit notum, qui divinas litteras non attigerunt; quorum alterum, qui posterius regnavit, trojanae 0468B urbis excidium centum et quadraginta annis antecessit. Hujus pater divinorum scriptor hymnorum, in Psalmo XXXII, sic ait: Verbo Dei coeli solidati sunt, et spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum. Item rursus in Psalmo quadragesimo quarto: Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum, dico ego opera mea regi. Contestans videlicet, nulli alii opera Dei esse nota, nisi Filio soli, qui est Verbum Dei, et quem regnare in perpetuum necesse est. Item Salomon ipsum verbum Dei esse demonstrat, cujus manibus opera ista mundi fabricata sint. Ego, inquit, ex ore Altissimi prodivi ante 0469A omnem creaturam; ego in coelis feci ut oriretur lumen indeficiens, et nebula texi omnem terram. Ego in altis habitavi, et thronus meus in columna nubis. Joannes quoque ita tradidit 0469A (cap. I): In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Hoc fuit in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil.