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a virgin heifer, 1.375 that has not known the yoke of a man's marriage. But why should I discuss most things? as again Isaiah said from the person of the Lord that “Take for yourself a scroll of a large new sheet,” a scroll because the virgin was indeed from the seed of a man, but was cut off from intercourse with men and cut away from the natural custom of humans. For all men are born from the seed of a man; but the birth of Christ according to nature had its incarnation from a woman, the virgin Mary, but contrary to nature it was cut off from the sequence of humanity, as also Jacob says about him “From a shoot, my son, you went up,” and he did not say “from a seed you went up.” And for this reason the holy prophet Isaiah says, or rather the Lord says to him “Take for yourself a scroll of a sheet,” signifying the form of the custom, in which the sons of men write all things; as also in the one hundred thirty-eighth psalm it says “in your book all shall be written; their days shall be fashioned, and not one of them is in them”; for he compared the womb to a book. For this reason David says “Your eyes saw my unformed substance,” that is, you knew me, sown before I was formed, and even before, before I was sown. 31. But the Hebrew wonderfully clarifies the saying. For he called the unformed substance golmi, which is interpreted as a groat or a grain of fine flour, as it were that which has not yet come together and been kneaded into bread, but as a small groat cut from a grain of wheat, or a grit, or a fine particle, which is made from fine flour. Thus he precisely demonstrated and says that the equivalent of the form which is cut from a man for sowing, with the word being interpreted into the Greek dialect, “the unformed substance” that is, the still unshaped thing in the womb or before the womb, “your eyes saw” “for God knows all things before they come to be,” as it is written; nevertheless, the book and the scroll is the womb which is signified. And he did not say “Take for yourself a book” or “Take for yourself a sheet,” but “a scroll” on account of its being distinct from the custom of men, “of a sheet” because of the written character of the womb. 1.376 “new” because of the newness and immaculateness of the virgin, “large”; for truly great was Mary the holy virgin before God and men. For how could we not call her great, who contained the uncontainable, whom heaven and earth are not able to contain? But he, being uncontainable, was contained according to his own choice and good pleasure, willingly and not by necessity. Therefore the scroll is great and new; great because of the wonder, new because she is a virgin. “And write,” it says, “in it with the stylus of a man,” and it did not say: someone will write in it with the stylus of a man, nor did it say: a man will write in it, so that Ebion might not find a pretext. For if it had said: a man will write in it, he could have said that the man Joseph sowed and Christ was born from the seed of a man. But to Isaiah, more or less seven hundred and fifty-three years before, he said “write,” so that from the interval of time the truth might be shown to all, that no one was able, seven hundred and fifty-three years before, to sow him who was to be born. Does he then say “write” to the prophet in vain? No, but so that he might show the Holy Spirit in the prophet, himself becoming the effective agent of the conception of the incarnate presence of Christ in truth; “for the Holy Spirit will come upon you” says the angel Gabriel to Mary, and what follows. But “with the stylus of a man” means with the image of a man; “for Christ Jesus is a man, and a mediator between God and men,” since the Word God came from above, but from Mary he is a man, not born from the seed of a man. And for this reason the prophet says immediately “and he went in to the prophetess,” so that he might show that Mary is the prophetess, and not the wife of Ahaz, as some mistakenly say, asserting that it was spoken concerning Hezekiah. For Hezekiah was already eleven years old

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παρθένον δάμαλιν, 1.375 μὴ γνοῦσαν ζυγὸν γάμου ἀνδρός. ἀλλὰ τί μοι τὰ πλεῖστα διαλέγεσθαι; ὡς πάλιν Ἠσαΐας ἔφη ἐκ προσώπου κυρίου ὅτι «λάβε σοι τόμον χάρτου καινοῦ μεγάλου», τόμον διὰ τὸ εἶναι μὲν τὴν παρθένον ἐκ σπέρματος ἀνδρός, τετμῆσθαι δὲ ἀπὸ μίξεως ἀνδρῶν καὶ τμηθῆναι ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων κατὰ φύσιν συνηθείας. πάντες γὰρ ἄνθρωποι ἐκ σπέρματος ἀνδρὸς γεννῶνται· ἡ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ γέννησις κατὰ φύσιν μὲν ἐκ γυναικὸς παρθένου Μαρίας τὴν ἐνανθρώπησιν ἔσχηκεν, παρὰ φύσιν δὲ ἐτμήθη ἀπὸ τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα ἀκολουθίας, ὡς καὶ Ἰακὼβ περὶ αὐτοῦ λέγει «ἐκ βλαστοῦ υἱέ μου ἀνέβης», καὶ οὐκ εἶπεν «ἐκ σπέρματος ἀνέβης». καὶ τούτου χάριν φησὶν ὁ ἅγιος Ἠσαΐας ὁ προφήτης, μᾶλλον δὲ ὁ κύριος αὐτῷ λέγει «λάβε σεαυτῷ τόμον χάρτου», τὸ εἶδος τῆς συνηθείας σημαίνων, ἐν ᾧ τὰ πάντα γράφουσιν οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων· ὡς καὶ ἐν τῷ ἑκατοστῷ τριακοστῷ ὀγδόῳ ψαλμῷ λέγει «ἐπὶ τὸ βιβλίον σου πάντες γραφήσονται· ἡμέρας πλασθήσονται, καὶ οὐθεὶς ἐν αὐτοῖς»· βιβλίῳ γὰρ ἀπείκασε τὴν μήτραν. διὰ τοῦτο ὁ ∆αυὶδ λέγει «τὸ ἀκατέργαστόν μου εἴδοσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου», τουτέστιν σπαρέντα πρὶν ἀπεικονισθῆναί με ἔγνως με καὶ ἔτι πρότερον, πρὶν τοῦ σπαρῆναί με. 31. ὁ δὲ Ἑβραῖος θαυμαστῶς τὸ ῥῆμα σαφηνίζει. τὸ ἀκατέργαστον γὰρ γολμὶ ἐκάλεσεν, ὅπερ ἑρμηνεύεται χόνδρος ἢ σεμιδάλεως κόκκος, δῆθεν τὸ μηδέπω εἰς ἄρτον συνελθὸν καὶ φυραθέν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἀπὸ κόκκου σίτου τμηθὲν χονδρίον ἢ χονδρίτης ἢ λεπτὴ ψηφίς, ἥτις ἐκ σεμιδάλεως γίνεται. οὕτως τὸ ἰσότυπον τοῦ εἴδους τὸ τεμνόμενον ἐξ ἀνθρώπου εἰς τὴν σπορὰν ἀκριβολογῶν ἀπέδειξε καί φησιν, εἰς Ἑλλάδα διάλεκτον ἑρμηνευομένου τοῦ λόγου, «τὸ ἀκατέργαστον» τουτέστιν τὸ ἄπλαστον ἔτι ἐν κοιλίᾳ ἢ πρὸ κοιλίας «εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου» «οἶδεν γὰρ πάντα ὁ θεὸς πρὶν γενέσθαι», ὡς γέγραπται· πλὴν βιβλίον καὶ τόμος μήτρα ἐστὶν ἡ σημαινομένη. καὶ οὐκ εἶπεν «λάβε σεαυτῷ βιβλίον» ἢ «λάβε σεαυτῷ χάρτην», ἀλλὰ «τόμον» παρὰ τὸ ἰδιάζον τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων συνηθείας, «χάρτου» διὰ τὸ γραφικὸν τῆς μήτρας. 1.376 «καινοῦ» διὰ τὸ καινὸν τῆς παρθένου καὶ ἄχραντον, «μεγάλου»· μεγάλη γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς Μαριὰμ ἡ ἁγία παρθένος ἐνώπιον θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων. πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν εἴποιμεν ταύτην μεγάλην, χωρήσασαν τὸν ἀχώρητον, ὃν οὐρανὸς καὶ γῆ χωρεῖν οὐ δύνανται; αὐτὸς δὲ ἀχώρητος ὢν κατὰ ἰδίαν προαίρεσιν καὶ εὐδοκίαν ἐχωρήθη, βουλόμενος καὶ οὐ κατὰ ἀνάγκην. διὸ μέγας ὁ τόμος καὶ καινός· μέγας διὰ τὸ θαῦμα, καινὸς ὅτι παρθένος. «καὶ γράψον», φησίν, «ἐν αὐτῷ γραφίδι ἀνθρώπου», καὶ οὐκ εἶπεν· γράψει ἐν αὐτῷ τις γραφίδι ἀνθρώπου, οὐδὲ εἶπεν· γράψει ἐν αὐτῷ ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα μὴ εὕρῃ πρόφασιν ὁ Ἐβίων. εἰ γὰρ εἶπε· γράψει ἐν αὐτῷ ἄνθρωπος, εἶχεν εἰπεῖν ὅτι ἄνθρωπος Ἰωσὴφ ἔσπειρεν καὶ ἐκ σπέρματος ἀνδρὸς ἐγεννήθη Χριστός. τῷ δὲ Ἠσαΐᾳ πρὸ ἑπτακοσίων πεντήκοντα τριῶν ἐτῶν πλείω ἐλάσσω ἔλεγε «γράψον», ἵνα ἀπὸ τοῦ καιροῦ τοῦ διαστήματος ὀφθῇ πᾶσιν ἡ ἀλήθεια, ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἠδύνατο πρὸ ἑπτακοσίων πεντήκοντα τριῶν ἐτῶν σπεῖραι τὸν μέλλοντα γεννᾶσθαι. ἆρα οὖν μάτην λέγει τῷ προφήτῃ «γράψον»; οὐχί, ἀλλὰ ἵνα δείξῃ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τὸ ἐν τῷ προφήτῃ, αὐτὸ ἐνεργητικὸν γινόμενον τῆς συλλήψεως τῆς ἐνσάρκου Χριστοῦ παρουσίας ἐν ἀληθείᾳ· «πνεῦμα γὰρ ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ» φησὶν ὁ ἄγγελος Γαβριὴλ τῇ Μαρίᾳ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. τὸ δέ «γραφίδι ἀνθρώπου» τουτέστιν εἰκόνι ἀνθρώπου· «ἄνθρωπος γὰρ Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς, μεσίτης δὲ θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων», ἐπειδὴ ἄνωθεν ἦλθεν θεὸς Λόγος, ἐκ Μαρίας δὲ ἄνθρωπος, οὐκ ἀπὸ σπέρματος ἀνδρὸς γεγεννημένος. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εὐθύς φησιν ὁ προφήτης «καὶ εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς τὴν προφῆτιν», ἵνα δείξῃ προφῆτιν τὴν Μαρίαν, καὶ οὐχὶ τὴν γυναῖκα Ἄχαζ, ὥς τινες πλανῶνται φάσκοντες διὰ τὸν Ἐζεκίαν εἰρῆσθαι. ἤδη γὰρ ὁ Ἐζεκίας ἕνδεκα ἔτη εἶχεν