Sunday, April 28, 2024

Nicholas Constas on the Birth of Jesus Among the Patristics

The following comes from:

 

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), 296:

 

 

. . . the emphasis on Mary’s full pregnancy is clearly a counterweight to the docetic assertion that the Word took nothing from the humanity of Mary but instead passed through her like ‘water through a tube’ (δια σωληνος). This latter formula was traditionally associated with the christologies of Valentinus and Apollinarius, and was uniformly condemned by such notables as Irenaeus, Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzus, Ephrem, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Theodoret, [69] and John of Damascus, who provides an interesting variant: “Christ was conceived through the Virgin’s sense of hearing (διακοης), but made his exit in the more usual manner, even though some myth-makers claim that he was delivered through her side (πλευρα).” [70]

 

Notes for the Above:

 

[69] Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, 1.7.2: “They say that Christ passed through (διοδευσαντα) Mary like water flows through a tube (καθαπερ υδωρ δια σμληνος οδευει)” (ed. Rousseau, SC 264 [1979], 103, line 698); Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat. illum., 4.9: ‘The incarnation did not occur in semblance or fantasy, but in truth; neither did the Lord pass through the Virgin as if through a tube (ουδε δια σωληνος διελθων)’ (PG 33.465B); Gregory Nazianzus, ep. 101.16: “If anyone says that Christ passed through (διαδραμειν) the Virgin like water through a tube (δια σωληνος) he is likewise separated from God (ομοιως αθεος)” (ed. Gallay, SC 208 [1974], 42); Ephrem, Homily on the Nativity: “Not as he entered did he leave her, for from her he put on a body and came forth” (Brock, Harp of the Spirit [1985], 66, lines 137–38); Epiphanius, Panarion, 31.7.4: “They (i.e., the Valentinians) say that his body came down from heaven and passed through (διεληλθιεναι) Mary like water through a tube (δια σωληνος)” (ed. Holl, GCS 25 [1915], 1:396, lines 9–11; cf. ibid., 31.4.3, p. 388, lines 8–11); Chrysostom, in Mt. 4.3: “The Gospel says just enough to refute those who say that Christ passed through (παρηλθον) the Virgin as if through a tube (δια τινος σωληνος)” (PG 57.43B); and Theodoret, ep. 145: “Valentinus and Basilides, Bardesanes and Harmonius, and those of their company, allow indeed the Virgin’s conception and the birth, but affirm that God the Word took nothing from the Virgin, but devised an alternative way (παροδον τινα ποιησασθαι) and passed through her like a tube (δια σωληνος)” (PG 83.1380B); cf. id., Haer. fab. comp., 5.11 (ibid., 488D); and Hippolytus, Elenchus, 6.35 (ed. Wendland, GCS 26 [1916], 3:164–65). See also the study of Tardieu, “Comme a travers un tuyau” (1981), 151–77.

 

[70] De fide orthodoxa, 87.4.14 (as above, n. 30). That Christ emerged from Mary’s ‘side’ is a reference to the formation of Eve from the side of Adam, cf. Gen. 2.2122: “And God formed the rib (πλευρα) which he took from Adam into a woman.” By extension, this is also a reference to the passion, foreshadowed in the striking and piercing of Mary’s ear.