Πηγήν ἐσφραγισμένην, ὅτι ποταμὸς
ζωῆς ἐκ σοῦ προελθὼν τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐπλήρωσεν. Ἀλλὰ κλάδος γαμικὸς τὴν σὴν ἀγνὴν
οὐκ ἤντλησε. Περὶ σοῦ Δαβὶδ ἐκ σοῦ κιθαρῶν οὐ παύεται· Ἀνάστηθι, Κύριε, εἰς τὴν
ἀνάπαυσίν σου, σὺ καὶ ἡ κιβωτὸς τοῦ ἁγιάσματός σου. Ἀνάστηθι, πόθεν; Ἐκ τῶν
κόλπων τοῦ Πατρός, οὐ χωρισθῇς τοῦ Πατρός (τοῦτο γὰρ οὐ θέμις ἡμᾶς λέγεσθαι), ἵνα
δὲ τὴν οἰκονομίαν πράξῃς, ἣ ἄνωθέν σοι πρὸ αἰώνων καὶ πρὸ τῶν γενεῶν τὸ ὥριστο.
Ἀνάστηθι, ἵνα τοὺς πεσόντας ἐγείρῃς, τοὺς κεκλισθέντας ὀρθώσῃς, ἵνα τὸ σὸν ἀναλάβῃ
κτῆμα, παρὰ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ μέχρι τοῦ νῦν τυραννούμενον. Ἀνάστηθι, Κύριε, εἰς τὴν ἀνάπαυσίν
σου, τὴν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὥρισας, καὶ εἰς τὴν Βηθλεὲμ ἔσεας σπήλαιον καὶ τὴν φάτνην
καὶ τὰ σπάργανα· ἐν οὐρανοῖς γὰρ οὐ χρῄζεις ἀναπαύσεως. Αὐτὸς δὲ ἀνάπαυσις ὑπάρχεις
ὅλης τῆς κτίσεως. Ἐπὶ γῆς δὲ ἡμᾶς τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς πάσχεις. Ἡ γὰρ οὐχὶ καὶ πείνην
καὶ δίψην, ἣν ἔσχου. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ πεινῶν ἄρτος ὑπάρχεις ζωῆς, καὶ διψῶν αὐτὸς εἶ
τῶν διψώντων παράκλησις. Ποταμὸν γὰρ ἀφθαρσίας καθέστηκας, καὶ κοπιῶν τοῖς
περιπάτοις τῆς ξηρᾶς, πορεύεις χωρὶς τῆς θαλάσσης τὰ κύματα. Ἀνάστηθι, Κύριε, εἰς
τὴν ἀνάπαυσίν σου, σὺ καὶ ἡ κιβωτὸς τοῦ ἁγιάσματός σου, ἡ Παρθένος, ἡ Θεοτόκος,
εἴη. Εἰ γὰρ σὺ μαργαρίτης, εἰκότως ἐκείνη κιβωτός· ἐπειδὴ σὺ τυγχάνεις Ἥλιος, οὐρανὸς
ἀναγκαίως ἡ Παρθένος κληθήσεται· ἐπειδὴ σὺ ἄνθος ἀμάραντον, ἄρα ἡ Παρθένος ἀφθαρσίας
φυτόν, ἀθανασίας παράδεισος.
Εἰς ἣν Ἡσαΐας ταῦτα θεῶν ἀρτίως
προανεφώνησε λέγων· Ἰδοὺ, ἡ Παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ λήψεται, καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ
καλέσουσι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ. Ἰδοὺ ἡ Παρθένος· ποία; Ἡ τῶν γυναικῶν ἔγκριτος,
ἡ τῶν παρθένων ἐξαίρετος, τὸ σεμνὸν τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως ἐγκαλλώπισμα, τὸ τοῦ
πηλοῦ ἡμετέρου καύχημα, ἡ τῆς αἰσχύνης τὴν Εὕαν, καὶ τῆς ἀπειλῆς τὸν Ἀδὰμ ἀπαλλάξασα,
ἡ τὴν παῤῥησίαν ἀποτεμοῦσα τοῦ δράκοντος· ἧς καπνὸς ἐπιθυμίας οὐχ ἥψατο,
οὐδὲ σκώληξ αὐτὴν ἡδυπαθείας ἔθλαψεν. Ἰδοὺ ἡ Παρθένος ἐν γαστρὶ λήψεται· πόθεν,
ὦ προφῆτα; Οὐ λέγω, φησί. Τοῦτο γὰρ τῷ Γαβριὴλ πεφύλακται. Πολλοὶ τῆς Θεοτόκου
διαιροῦνται τὰ θαύματα, πολλὰ δὲ ὅμως καὶ ἐξ αὐτῶν παραλέλειπται· πλὴν ἐγὼ τὸν
τόπον τῆς Ἀειπαρθένου πεπίστευμαι· Μιχαίας, τὸν χώρον ἐν ᾧ τὸ θαῦμα πέπρακται·
Δαβίδ, τὸν καιρόν. Αὐτὸς γὰρ τὸ, Ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐγέννησά σε, τῇ τῶν
ψαλμῶν προφητείᾳ ἐνέθηκεν. Γαβριὴλ τοίνυν ἐρεῖ τὸ, πόθεν. Ἐκεῖνος γὰρ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ
κατέρχεται· ἐκεῖνος ἀπ᾽ αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τὴν Παρθένον πέμπεται· ἐκεῖνος ἐν καιρῷ
τοῦ τόκου παραγίνεται, καὶ τοῦ τόκου τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἀναγκαίως ἑρμηνεῦσαι
πιστεύεται. Εἰ δὲ καὶ παρ’ ἐμοῦ μανθάνειν θέλεις, τὰ ἑξῆς τῆς προφητείας ἔπελθε·
Καὶ τέξεται υἱόν, καὶ καλέσουσι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἐμμανουήλ. Τί δέ ἐστιν Ἐμμανουήλ;
Μεθ’ ἡμῶν ὁ Θεός. Μὴ τοίνυν Θεὸς ἀπὸ γάμου καὶ φθορᾶς συλλαμβάνεται, καὶ ἐξ ἀνδρὸς
καὶ κοίτης τεχθῆναι ἢ σαρκωθῆναι δύναται; Οὐδαμῶς, ἀλλ’ ἐξ ἐνεργείας Θεοῦ, ἐξ ἐπιφυτεύσεως
Ὑψίστου, … (Sermon 4; Migne [PG 93:1464-65])
A sealed fountain, for the river of life, having flowed
forth from you, filled the world. But no marital branch drew from your pure
womb. David does not cease singing of you: “Arise, O Lord, into your rest, you
and the ark of your holiness.” “Arise”—from where? From the bosom of the
Father, so that you may not be separated from the Father (for it is not lawful
for us to say that), but so that you may accomplish the economy ordained for
you from before the ages and generations. “Arise,” so that you may raise the
fallen, straighten the bent, and recover your own possession, which has until
now been tyrannized by the enemy. “Arise, O Lord, into your rest” upon the
earth which you appointed, and in Bethlehem a cave, a manger, and swaddling
clothes; for in heaven you have no need of rest. Yet you yourself are the rest
of all creation. On earth you undergo the things of the flesh for our sake. You
did indeed experience hunger and thirst. But though hungry, you are the bread
of life; and though thirsty, you yourself are the refreshment of those who
thirst. For you have become a river of incorruption, and though weary upon the
paths of the dry land, you traverse the waves without the sea. “Arise, O Lord,
into your rest, you and the ark of your holiness,” namely the Virgin, the
Theotokos. For if you are a pearl, then rightly she is the casket; since you
are the sun, the Virgin must be called heaven; since you are an unfading
flower, then the Virgin is a plant of incorruption, a paradise of immortality.
Isaiah, divinely inspired, foretold these things when
he said: “Behold, the Virgin shall conceive in the womb, and bear a son, and
they shall call his name Emmanuel.” “Behold the Virgin”—which Virgin? The most
distinguished among women, the noblest among virgins, the adornment of our
nature, the boast of our clay, she who freed Eve from shame and Adam from the
sentence, she who cut off the dragon’s boldness; the smoke of desire
never touched her, nor did the worm of pleasure wound her. “Behold, the Virgin
shall conceive in the womb.” From where, O prophet? “I do not say,” he says.
That is reserved for Gabriel. Many divide the miracles of the Theotokos, and
many things are omitted from them; but I have been entrusted with the place of
the Ever-Virgin: Micah, the place where the miracle took place; David, the
time. For he placed in the prophecy of the Psalms the words, “From the womb
before the morning star I begot you.” Gabriel, then, will say the “from where.”
For he comes down from heaven; he is sent for this very purpose to the Virgin;
he arrives at the time of the birth, and is believed to explain the nature of
the birth. And if you also want to learn from me, go on to the rest of the
prophecy: “And she shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.”
What, then, is Emmanuel? “God with us.” Therefore God is not conceived from
marriage and corruption, and can he be born or embodied from a man and a bed?
By no means; but from the power of God, from the planting of the Most High, …
The Latin reads:
Mulierum egregia, e virginibus
electa, præclarum naturæ notræ ornamentum, gloria luti nostri, quæ Evam pudore,
et Adamum comminatione liberavit, audaciam draconis abscidit: quam
concupiscentiæ fumus non attigit, neque vermis voluptatis eam læsit. (PG
93:1466)
“The most distinguished among women, chosen from among
virgins, the splendid adornment of our nature, the glory of our clay, who freed
Eve from shame and Adam from the threat, cut off the dragon’s boldness:
whom the smoke of desire did not touch, nor did the worm of pleasure wound her.
Instead of being a quotation of Gen 3:15 (neither the Greek or
Latin reads such), instead, it shows that, as with Irenaeus et al., in his Mariology,
Mary was the New/Second Eve whose “fiat” was used to bring Jesus into the world
and, in that sense, crushed the serpent’s head.
