Jacob of Serug was a Syrian Christian. In his homilies on Mary, he evidences a high Mariology, including her being the New Eve and New Ark of the Covenant. In Holy III, for example, we read:
Peace <was> in her womb and with her lips
she gave peace,
and the babe who heard began cheekily making merry.
The Israelites were given to pleasure in dancing
for you
before God, when He is carried about in <special> places.
King David was dancing before the Ark,
and he did not observe the order of royalty because of the
great joy in his heart.
And John when he was a babe danced for hoy even
better than David;
being a babe he did not comply with an age which was not his.
The Mother, Virgin and blessed, was ever more
beautiful
than the ark full of mysteries of the house of God.
And he, David, exulted with reverence before the
ark,
for his had prefigured that John would dance before Mary. (Jacob of Serug, On
the Mother of God [trans. Mary Hansbury; Popular Patristic Series 19; Crestwood,
N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998], 73-74)
Notwithstanding,
as with Ephrem the Syrian, Jacob believed that Mary became “all holy”
and “immaculate” at around the time of the annunciation, not her conception. In
Homily I, we read:
Adam chastely generated the virgin, Eve;
he called her by name, mother of life, and so he was a prophet.
Because from her, by the second birth, life shines
forth to the world,
and in her virginity, she also brings forth the Son of God. (Ibid., 37)
In
the footnote to the above, Mary Hansbury, the translator, noted that:
Christ’s first birth is from the Father. His second
birth, from Mary’s womb, is her second birth and her Baptism. For Syriac
writers, such as Ephrem, Christ’s presence in her womb sanctifies as in the Jordan.
(Ibid., 37 n. 32)
Continuing,
in Homily II, we read that:
“Peace be with you, full of divine splendour!
Peace to you, Mary, Mother of the Sun of Justice!
. . .
The Watcher [Gabriel] said: “The Holy Spirit will
come to you;
descending He dwells and sanctifies you in your virginity.
“He loosens from you the curse of Eve and blesses
you;
the Power of the hidden Father comes and in you will be
clothed with a body. (Ibid., 45-46)
While
Jacob believed Mary was “full of divine splendour” she became sanctified at the
annunciation/conception of Jesus.
Jacob
of Serug is another witness against the Immaculate Conception of Mary
being apostolic in origin.
