The following comes from “Homily 1: On the Holy Virgin Theotokos Delivered while Nestorius was seated in the Great Church of Constantinople”:
II. Who ever saw, who ever heard, of God
dwelling without restriction in a woman’s womb> Heaven itself was born from
a woman, God but not solely God, and man but not merely man, and by his birth
what was once the door of sin was made the gate of salvation. Through ears that
disobeyed, the serpent poured in his poison; through ears that obeyed, the Word
entered in order to build a living temple. From the place where Cain, the first
disciple of sin, emerged, from there also did Christ, the redeemer of the race,
sprout unsown into life. The loving God was not ashamed of the birth pangs of a
woman, for the business at hand was life. He was not defiled by dwelling in
places which he himself had created without dishonor. If the mother had not
remained a virgin, then the child born would have been a mere man and the birth,
no miracle. But if she remained a virgin after birth, then indeed he was
wondrously born who also entered unhindered “when the doors were sealed,” whose
union of natures was proclaimed by Thomas who said, “My Lord and my God!” (Nicholas
Constas, Proclus of Constantinople and the Cult of the Virgin in Late
Antiquity: Homilies 1-5, Texts and Translations [Supplements to Vigilae
Christianae 86; Leiden: Brill, 2003], 139)
VII. A mere man could not save; for he would have
needed a savior himself, since as Paul said, “all have sinned.” (‘Ανθρωπου τοινυν ψιλου το
σωσαι ουκ ην και γαρ αυτος εδειτο του σωζοντος κατα Παυλον τον λεγοντα “παντες γαρ
ημαρτον.”) By sin we were delivered to the devil,
and by the devil handed over to death. Our affairs were in utmost peril; and
there was no means of rescue. This was the verdict of the physicians who were
sent to us. (Ibid., 143)
