{"id":980,"date":"2021-01-11T11:19:33","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T19:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readingthechurchfathers.wordpress.com\/?p=980"},"modified":"2021-01-11T11:19:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T19:19:33","slug":"tertullian-on-the-flesh-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-on-the-flesh-of-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Tertullian: On the Flesh of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Virgin Birth<\/h4>\n

He who was going to consecrate a new order of birth, must Himself be born after a novel fashion, concerning which Isaiah foretold how that the Lord Himself would give the sign. What, then, is the sign? \u201cBehold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.\u201d Accordingly, a virgin did conceive and bear \u201cEmmanuel, God with us.\u201d This is the new nativity; a man is born in God. And in this man God was born, taking the flesh of an ancient race, without the help, however, of the ancient seed, in order that He might reform it with a new seed, that is, in a spiritual manner, and cleanse it by the removal of all its ancient stains.<\/p>\n

But the whole of this new birth was prefigured, as was the case in all other instances, in ancient type, the Lord being born as man by a dispensation in which a virgin was the medium. The earth was still in a virgin state, reduced as yet by no human labour, with no seed as yet cast into its furrows, when, as we are told, God made man out of it into a living soul. As, then, the first Adam is thus introduced to us, it is a just inference that the second Adam likewise, as the apostle has told us, was formed by God into a quickening spirit out of the ground,\u2014in other words, out of a flesh which was unstained as yet by any human generation.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Why is Christ called Adam by the apostle, unless it be that, as man, He was of that earthly origin? It was by just the contrary operation that God recovered His own image and likeness, of which He had been robbed by the devil. For it was while Eve was yet a virgin, that the ensnaring word had crept into her ear which was to build the edifice of death. Into a virgin\u2019s soul, in like manner, must be introduced that Word of God which was to raise the fabric of life; so that what had been reduced to ruin by this sex, might by the selfsame sex be recovered to salvation. As Eve had believed the serpent, so Mary believed the angel. The delinquency which the one occasioned by believing, the other by believing effaced. But (it will be said) Eve did not at the devil\u2019s word conceive in her womb. Well, she at all events conceived; for the devil\u2019s word afterwards became as seed to her that she should conceive as an outcast, and bring forth in sorrow. Indeed she gave birth to a fratricidal devil; whilst Mary, on the contrary, bare one who was one day to secure salvation to Israel, His own brother after the flesh, and the murderer of Himself. God therefore sent down into the virgin\u2019s womb His Word, as the good Brother, who should blot out the memory of the evil brother.<\/p>\n

Notes:
\n^1.<\/a> We thus understand that what is denied is the Lord\u2019s birth after sexual intercourse (as is suggested by the phrase, \u201cthe will of man and of the flesh\u201d), not His nativity from a woman\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Virgin Birth He who was going to consecrate a new order of birth, must Himself be born after a novel fashion, concerning which Isaiah foretold how that the Lord Himself would give the sign. What, then, is the sign? \u201cBehold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.\u201d Accordingly, a virgin did conceive and bear \u201cEmmanuel, God with us.\u201d This is the new nativity; a man is born in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[138],"class_list":["post-980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tertullian","tag-virgin-birth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":784,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-on-the-divinity-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":980,"position":0},"title":"Tertullian: On the Divinity of Christ","author":"Nemo","date":"January 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"God made the world, and all which it contains, by His Word, and Reason, and Power. ... The Word, and Reason, and Power, by which God made all, have spirit as their proper and essential substratum, in which the Word has in being to give forth utterances, and reason abides\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":315,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/irenaeus-christ-recapitulating-adam-and-mankind-in-himself\/","url_meta":{"origin":980,"position":1},"title":"Irenaeus: Christ Recapitulating Adam and Mankind in Himself","author":"Nemo","date":"February 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"And as the protoplast himself Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (\u201cfor God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground\u201d), and was formed by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, for \u201call things were made\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":944,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-against-marcion\/","url_meta":{"origin":980,"position":2},"title":"Tertullian: Against Marcion","author":"Nemo","date":"January 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"You may, I assure you, more easily find a man born without a heart or without brains, like Marcion himself, than without a body, like Marcion\u2019s Christ. -- Against Marcion IV.X It would have been but right that a new god should first be expounded, and his discipline be introduced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":913,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-the-prescription-against-heretics\/","url_meta":{"origin":980,"position":3},"title":"Tertullian: The Prescription Against Heretics","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Rule of Faith Now, with regard to this rule of faith\u2014that we may from this point acknowledge what it is which we defend\u2014it is, you must know, that which prescribes the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1275,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/on-the-rule-of-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":980,"position":4},"title":"On the Rule of Faith","author":"Nemo","date":"October 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Aristides"","block_context":{"text":"Aristides","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/aristides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":994,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/tertullian-the-glory-of-the-resurrected-body\/","url_meta":{"origin":980,"position":5},"title":"Tertullian on the Glory of the Resurrected Body","author":"Nemo","date":"January 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The truth is, it is sown the barest grain, without a husk to cover it, without a spike even in germ, without the protection of a bearded top, without the glory of a stalk. It rises, however, out of the furrow enriched with a copious crop, built up in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Tertullian"","block_context":{"text":"Tertullian","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/tertullian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-fO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}