The Virgin-Birth of Our Lord | Page 3

any man Speaketh to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David, who was the Son of Mary, who was truly born."*
-- * Trall., 9. "kophothete oun, hotan humin choris Jesou Christou lale tis, tou ek genous Daveid, tou ek Marias, hos alethos egennethe." --
2. Aristides of Athens.
In his Apology, written about the year 130, mentioning the Virgin-Birth as an Integral portion of the Catholic Faith, he writes: "The Christians trace their descent from the Lord Jesus Christ; now He is confessed by the Holy Ghost to be the Son of the Most High God, having come down from heaven for the salvation of men, and having been born of a holy Virgin+ . . . He took flesh, and appeared to men."#
-- + Another reading here is "a Hebrew Virgin," and the Armenian recension has the name "Mary." See Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, p. 4; and Harnack's Appendix to the same work, p. 376. # Apol., ch. xv. The quotation is from the Greek text preserved in the History of Barlaam and Josaphat. See The Remains of the Original Greek of the Apology of Aristides, by J. Armitage Robinson. Texts and Studies (Cambridge, 1891), vol. i. pp. 78, 79, 110. "hoi de Christianoi genealogountai apo tou Kuriou Jesou Christou, houtos de ho huios tou theou tou hupsistou homologeitai en Pneumati Hagio ap' ouranou katabas dia ten soterian ton anthropon; kai ek parthenou hagias gennetheis ... sapka anelabe, kai anephane anthpopois." --
3. Justin Martyr.
In his Apologies and in his Dialogue with Trypho he has three summaries of the Christian Faith, in all of which the Virgin-Birth, the Crucifixion, the Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension are the chief points of belief about Christ.
In his First Apology (written between 140 and 150) he says: "We find it foretold in the Books of the Prophets that Jesus our Christ should come born of a Virgin . . . be crucified and should die and rise again, and go up to Heaven, and should both be and be called the 'Son of God.'" * And a little later in the same work he says: "He was born as man of a Virgin, and was called Jesus, and was crucified, and died, and rose again, and has gone up into heaven."+
-- * Apol., i. 31. "En de tais ton propheton biblois heuromen prokerussomenon paraginomenon gennomenon dia parthenou . . . stauroumenon Iesoun ton hemeteron Christon, kai apothneskonta, kai anegeiromenon, kai eis ouranous anerchomenon, ai huion theou onta kai keklemenon." + Apol., i. 46. "Dia parthenou anthropos apekuethe, kai Iesous eponomasthe, kai staurotheis kai apothanon aneste, kai aneleluthen eis ouranon." --
In his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew (written after the First Apology) he says: "For through the name of this very Son of God, who is also the First-born of every creature, and who was born of a Virgin, and made a man subject to suffering, and was crucified by your nation in the time of Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, every evil spirit is exorcised and overcome and subdued."#
-- # Dial., 85. "kata gar tou omonatos autou toutou tou huiou tou theou, kai prototokou pases ktiseos, kai dia parthenou gennethentos kai pathetou genomenou anthropou, kai staurothentos epi Pontiou Pilatou hupo tou laou humon kai apothanontos kai anastantos ek nekron, kai anabantos eis ton ouranon, pan daimonion exorkizomenon nikatai kai hupotassetai." --
4. St. Irenaeus.
Writing not later than 190, he makes constant reference to the Virgin-Birth as an integral portion of the Faith of Christendom. He says: "The Church, though scattered over the whole world to the ends of the earth, yet having received from the Apostles and their disciples the Faith--
In one God the Father Almighty... and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was incarnate for our salvation: and in the Holy Ghost, who by the Prophets announced His dispensations and His comings; and the birth of the Virgin (kai ten ek Parthenou gennesin), and the Passion, and Resurrection from the dead, and the bodily assumption into heaven of the beloved Jesus Christ our Lord, and His appearance from heaven in the glory of the Father . . .
having received, as we said, this preaching and this Faith, the Church, though scattered over the whole world, guards it diligently, as inhabiting one house, and believes in accordance with these words as having one soul and the same heart; and with one voice preaches and teaches and hands on these things, as if possessing one mouth. For the languages of the world are unlike, but the force of the tradition is one and the same."*
-- * Contra Haeres., I. x. 1, 2. "He men gar Ekklesia, kaiper kath' holes tes oikoumenes heos peraton tes ges diesparmene, para de ton Apostolon