In Against Heresies 3.16.7, we read the following from Irenaeus of Lyons:
With Him is nothing incomplete or out of due season,
just as with the Father there is nothing incongruous. For all these things were
foreknown by the Father; but the Son works them out at the proper time in
perfect order and sequence. This was the reason why, when Mary was urging [Him]
on to [perform] the wonderful miracle of the wine, and was desirous before the
time to partake of the cup of emblematic significance, the Lord, checking
her untimely haste (Dominus repellens ejus intempestivam
festianatione), said, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is
not yet come”—waiting for that hour which was foreknown by the Father.
Here,
Irenaeus understands John 2:4 to be Jesus rebuking Mary, and Mary being guilty
of attempting to stall God’s divine timetable and Jesus’ working out thereof—a
serious accusation.
While
Irenaeus wrote this passage originally in Greek, we only have the Latin text
extant. Here is the Latin taken from:
Sancti
Irenaei Episcopi Lugdunensis: Libros Quinque Adversus Haereses, ed. William Wigan Harvey, 2 vols. (Cambridge: 1857),
2:88
The Latin
verb is repellō. It is not neutral or positive; it is negative. Consider the
following:
re-pellō,
reppulī
(repulī),
repulsus, ere, to drive back, thrust back, drive away, reject, repulse, repel:
Charlton T. Lewis, An Elementary Latin Dictionary (Medford, MA: American Book Company, 1890).
rĕ-pello, reppuli (less correctly repuli), rĕpulsum, 3, v. a., to drive, crowd, or thrust back; to reject, repulse, repel, etc
Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, Harpers’ Latin Dictionary (New York; Oxford: Harper & Brothers; Clarendon Press, 1891), 1567.
drive/push/thrust
back/away; repel/rebuff/spurn; fend off; exclude/bar; refute
William Whitaker, Dictionary of Latin Forms (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012).
repello,
ere, reppuli, repulsum, 3, v. a., to drive, crowd, or thrust back; to reject,
repulse, repel.
Roy J. Deferrari, Inviolata M. Barry, and Ignatius McGuiness, A Lexicon of Saint Thomas Aquinas Based on the Summa Theologica and Selected Passages of His Other Works (Baltimore, MD: Catholic University of America Press, 1948), 964.
repello, reppuli, 3, thrust away, reject
J. M. Harden, Dictionary of the Vulgate New Testament (London; New York: Society of Promoting Christian Knowledge; The Macmillan Co., 1921), 102.
I am continuing to do further research on the Immaculate Conception for the forthcoming debate with Peter Doumit on whether it is apostolic in origin; it has been postponed for a while but we are hoping to schedule it in the near future.
