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Sermon on Mary and Joseph

46.1112 The Lord was called firstborn from the Virgin, not because she called forth a second of the same kind, but because He is incomparably firstborn among the sons of men. For neither, when the Apostle said concerning the Lord's birth from the Father without beginning, "Who is the firstborn of all creation," did he thereby write of a brother of the Lord. Nor again, when the same Apostle called him firstborn from the dead, did he thereby introduce a blood-relative of the Lord who likewise trampled down hades. But the Lord is firstborn from the Father and from the Virgin and from the dead, so that through all these the unique dignity of His sonship might be known. For the Master's birth is incomparable; for where the mother is a virgin, how is the birth to be explained?

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Sermo in Mariam et Joseph

46.1112 Πρωτότοκος ὁ Κύριος ἤκουσεν ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου, οὐχ ὅτι δεύτερόν τινα

ὁμοιογενῆ προσεκαλέσατο, ἀλλ' ὅτι πρωτότοκος ἀσυγκρίτως ἐστὶ πρὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Οὐδὲ γὰρ διὰ τὸ εἰπεῖν ὁ Ἀπόστολος περὶ τῆς τοῦ Κυρίου ἐκ Πατρὸς ἀνάρχου γεννήσεως, Ὅς ἐστι πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, ἤδη καὶ ἀδελφὸν τοῦ Κυρίου συνεγράψατο. Οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς, πρωτότοκον ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν καλέσας, ἤδη καὶ ὅμαιμον τοῦ Κυρίου παρεισήγαγε παραπλησίως τὸν ᾅδην πατήσαντα. Ἀλλὰ πρωτότοκος ὁ Κύριος ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου καὶ ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἵνα διὰ πάντων γνωθῇ τὸ μοναδικὸν τῆς υἱότητος ἀξίωμα. Ἀσύγκριτος γὰρ ὁ δεσποτικὸς τόκος· ὅπου γὰρ ἡ μήτηρ παρθένος, πῶς τόκος ἑρμηνευόμενος;