Mary, mother of Jesus in the early church

Mary's person, virginity, and role, as the writers discuss them. Part of Christology.

Ascension of Isaiah 11.2Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
Ascension of Isaiah 11.5Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
Odes of Solomon 19Anonymous · ca. 100–200
Epistle of the Apostles 14Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ says that he himself, in Gabriel's form, announced his birth to Mary and then entered her and became flesh.
Protevangelium of James 7Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · At three years old Mary is brought to the temple with lamps and received by the priest.
Protevangelium of James 8Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · At twelve Mary is entrusted by lot to the widower Joseph, and later is chosen to spin purple and scarlet for the temple veil.
Protevangelium of James 11Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · The annunciation to Mary at the well and at her spinning, and her visit to Elizabeth.
Protevangelium of James 13Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Joseph finds Mary pregnant, is reassured by an angel, both are accused before the priest and cleared, and on the journey to Bethlehem Mary goes into labour, while Joseph sees all creation stand still.
Protevangelium of James 19Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Joseph brings a midwife to the cave, where a cloud and a great light attend the birth; Salome refuses to believe that a virgin has given birth.
Protevangelium of James 22Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Herod orders the infants killed; Mary hides Jesus in a manger, and a mountain opens to shelter Elizabeth and John.
Dialogue with Trypho 100.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Peter confessed Christ; Christ became man through the Virgin to undo the serpent's disobedience by the same way.
Dialogue with Trypho 100.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Eve the virgin conceived disobedience; Mary the virgin received faith and bore the Son of God.
Diatessaron, section 1Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 2Tatian · ca. 160-180
Against Heresies 3.10.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Gabriel's announcement, Mary's Magnificat, and Zechariah's Benedictus proclaim the God of the fathers, whose Son became man that man might become son of God.
Against Heresies 3.16.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Matthew's account of the virgin birth of “Christ,” Emmanuel, shows that Jesus and Christ are one and the same Son of God.
Against Heresies 3.16.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul, Mark, the prophets, and the angel all proclaim one Jesus Christ, Son of God and son of David.
Against Heresies 3.21.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Against Theodotion, Aquila and the Ebionites, who read “young woman” in Isaiah 7:14, Irenaeus defends “virgin,” noting that the Jews themselves translated it before Christ’s coming.
Against Heresies 3.21.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God promised David a king “from the fruit of his womb,” not “of his loins,” pointing to the birth from a virgin, as Elizabeth confirmed.
Against Heresies 3.21.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · A young woman bearing a child by a man would be no sign; the unexpected birth from a virgin, given by God, matches the unexpected salvation.
Against Heresies 3.21.10Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As Adam was formed from virgin earth by the Word, Christ the Word was born of the virgin Mary to recapitulate the same Adam.
Against Heresies 3.22.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Mary’s obedience undid Eve’s disobedience: as the virgin Eve bound the knot by unbelief, the virgin Mary loosed it by faith.
Against Heresies 4.23.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The patriarchs and prophets sowed what the apostles reaped; Joseph was persuaded by Isaiah’s prophecy, and Christ showed himself foretold by Isaiah.
Against Heresies 5.19.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As the virgin Eve disobeyed and brought death, the Virgin Mary obeyed and became Eve’s advocate, so that humanity, bound to death through a virgin, is saved through a virgin.
Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching 33Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–200
Against Noetus 17Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–230 · According to the apostles' tradition, God the Word came down into the Virgin Mary, took flesh and a rational soul, and truly became man.
On Elkanah and Hannah, fragment 2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · What Mary bore was the firstborn Word of God united to a firstborn man formed in her womb.
On Proverbs, fragment 23Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Prov 30:19: the ship is the church, and ‘the way of a man in youth’ is Christ, born of the Spirit and the Virgin, who began his works at thirty.
On the Holy Pascha, fragment 1 (Nicetas catena on Luke)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · Mary bore the firstborn Word of God joined to a firstborn man formed in her womb.
Fragment 47 on Genesis (Gen. 49, 25% 56, 268)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · The blessings of heaven, of breasts and womb, and of father and mother signify the Spirit's descent, the virgin's motherhood, and the Father's blessing on the church.
Commentary on the Song of Songs, fragment 15 (Song 4:16)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · The spices of the garden marked Joseph as the king's son and anointed Mary when she conceived the Word.
On the Flesh of Christ 7Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Christ's saying “Who is my mother?” does not deny his birth: his mother and brothers really came, and he rebuked their unbelief and preferred those who hear God's word.
On the Flesh of Christ 17Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Christ was born of a virgin to begin a new birth: as the first Adam came from virgin earth, the last Adam came from a virgin, and as Eve believed the serpent to our ruin, Mary believed Gabriel to our salvation.
On the Flesh of Christ 18Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · The Son of God needed no human father, having God as Father, but took real flesh from his human mother; as he said, what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
On the Flesh of Christ 20Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Scripture says Christ was born “of” Mary and “made of a woman”; the psalm's “you tore me from my mother's womb” and the breasts he sucked prove his flesh came from hers.
On the Flesh of Christ 21Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · If Christ took nothing from Mary, Isaiah's prophecy, the angel's announcement, Elizabeth's “fruit of your womb”, and the promise of a son of David are all emptied of meaning.
On the Flesh of Christ 22Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Matthew's genealogy and Paul's “seed of David according to the flesh” and “seed of Abraham” show that Christ's flesh was the same as that of Abraham, David, Mary, and Adam.
On the Flesh of Christ 23Tertullian · ca. 206–211 · Mary's virginal conception and real childbirth are the “sign spoken against”; she truly bore Christ from her own flesh, and her womb was truly opened in giving birth.
On the Veiling of Virgins 6Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Paul calls the Virgin Mary a “woman” and the angel blesses her “among women”, so the word includes virgins; she was so called not because she was betrothed but because she was female.
On Monogamy 8Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · The Gospel opens with examples of monogamy and continence (Zechariah, John the Baptist, Mary, Simeon, Anna, Peter), and Christ's own teaching and example point the same way.
Fragments on Luke, column 319Origen · ca. 220-254 · The angel came to Mary, not Joseph, and John leaped in the womb at her greeting, receiving the Spirit before his mother.
Fragments on Luke, column 321Origen · ca. 220-254 · Elizabeth confesses Mary as mother of the Lord, Mary's soul magnifies God by living according to his image, and Zacharias's tongue is loosed when he names John.
Fragments on Luke, column 329Origen · ca. 220-254 · Zacharias's silence is a type of those who cast out the Word, John's name means one who points to the present God, and Mary called Joseph Jesus' father because of others' suspicions.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.35.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Valentinians read the annunciation as Sophia (Spirit) and the Demiurge (Most High) acting together in Jesus' birth.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.35.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Jesus, the new man, received his body from the Demiurge and his substance from Sophia, a heavenly Word born through Mary.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.36.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Jesus was born through Mary to heal the passions of the soul, as the higher Christ healed Sophia's.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.51.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcus maps the annunciation onto the second tetrad: Gabriel, Holy Spirit, power of the Most High, and the Virgin.
Commentary on John 6.255Origen · ca. 230–248 · Mary's greeting filled John, and Elizabeth became his mouth and a prophetess.
Commentary on John 6.256Origen · ca. 230–248 · Mary visited Elizabeth so that the power of the child she carried might pass to John, and through him prophetic grace to his mother.
Homily on Luke 6Origen · ca. 233–250 · Elizabeth hid from modesty; Christ was born of a betrothed virgin so that his birth would be hidden from the devil; the angel’s “full of grace” is a greeting unique to Mary; and Christ’s greatness now fills the world.
Homily on Luke 7Origen · ca. 233–250 · At Mary’s visit the unborn Christ sanctifies John and fills Elizabeth with the Spirit; Origen rejects the claim that Mary married Joseph after Jesus’ birth and urges the catechumens to persevere.
Homily on Luke 17Origen · ca. 233–250 · Joseph is called Jesus’ father for the sake of the genealogy; the “fall and rising” happen in the same person; Christ is a sign spoken against by heretics; the sword in Mary’s soul is doubt at the passion; and Anna is held up as a model of widowhood, with remarriage said to exclude from the kingdom though not from salvation.
Homily on Isaiah 2Origen · ca. 235–250 · Origen interprets the sign of Isa 7 as Christ, who descended and ascended, discusses the reading “you shall call” against Matthew's “he shall be called,” and reads the butter and honey as the good words and works Christ eats with us.
Homilies on Leviticus 8.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The law speaks of a woman who 'has conceived seed' to exempt Mary, who conceived without seed; Paul's calling her 'woman' refers to sex and age, not to loss of virginity.
Homilies on Jeremiah 15.4Origen · ca. 240 · Christ laments over human sin as man, in his human soul, and the angels lament with him; the “mother” he addresses may be Mary, or, according to the Gospel of the Hebrews, the Holy Spirit.
Against Celsus 1.32Origen · ca. 248 · The Jewish story that Mary bore Jesus by a soldier named Panthera betrays that Jesus was not Joseph's son; even on Platonic assumptions, so great a soul would have a pure and exceptional birth.
Against Celsus 1.39Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus's jokes about Mary's beauty and poverty are mere street abuse, not argument.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 25Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The scribes and Pharisees are guilty not for building the prophets' tombs but for completing their fathers' crimes by killing Christ and his messengers; Origen reports a tradition that Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, was killed for defending Mary's virginity.
Commentary on Matthew 10.17Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains the astonishment at Nazareth, says the brothers of Jesus were by some held to be Joseph's sons by a former wife so as to keep Mary a virgin, and cites Josephus on James.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 54Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Manes, claiming the patience of an apostle, spars with Archelaus over who should debate, and denies that Christ was born of Mary, citing sayings that he "came" and was "sent."
Acta Archelai (Latin) 55Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Manes argues from "Who is my mother?" and Peter's confession that Jesus had no human mother or brothers, so that Mary cannot be his mother.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 57Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus contrasts Jesus' sharp rebuke of Peter and of the confessing demons with his gentle answer to the messenger, explaining the answer by a parable of a king interrupted in battle.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.1.98Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Gabriel explains that the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.1.149Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Gabriel's words to Mary confirm that Jesus receives David's throne.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.3.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Gabriel's words to Mary confirm the promise to David.
On the Incarnation 8.3Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · The Word took a real body from a pure virgin, making it his temple and instrument.
Book 1, lines 50–75Juvencus · ca. 330 · The annunciation to Mary.
Book 1, lines 76–100Juvencus · ca. 330 · Mary visits Elisabeth; the child leaps; Mary begins her song of praise.
Catechetical Lecture 7.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Scripture calls people “father” for teaching or care, as Paul, Job, and Joseph; God is father of men in this sense, but Father of Christ by nature.
Catechetical Lecture 12.28Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · To the Jews: if Sarah bore in old age, Moses' hand and rod were changed, and Aaron's dry rod blossomed, God can also give a virgin a child.
Catechetical Lecture 12.29Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · As Eve came from Adam without a mother, Christ came from Mary without a father, repaying the debt of womankind.
Catechetical Lecture 12.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Adam's creation from dust is a greater wonder than a virgin birth; Scripture calls Mary Joseph's wife only as his betrothed, against those who make Joseph Christ's father.
Commentary on Matthew 1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary reconciles the genealogies, explains the omitted kings, defends Mary’s perpetual virginity, and interprets the Magi, the flight to Egypt, and the slaughter of the innocents.
On the Trinity 10.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · 1 Cor 15:47 shows the second man born of the Virgin yet from heaven, conceived by the Spirit.
Letter 260Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers Optimus's questions on Gen 4:15 (the seven vengeances on Cain, interpreted both as seven sins and seven punishments), on Lamech's seventy-sevenfold vengeance, and on Simeon's words to Mary in Luke 2:34–35, including the sword that will pierce her soul.
Tractates on the Psalms 126.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Lord's inheritance is not carnal Israel but the sons of God; Christ, the virgin's fruit of the womb, receives the believing nations as his reward.
Tractates 2.7.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno contrasts the conceptions of Elisabeth and Mary and teaches that Christ became what he was not without ceasing to be God.
Tractates 2.8.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes Christ's birth from the virgin Mary without pain or impurity, her virginity before, in and after birth, and the story of the doubting midwife.
Tractates 2.9.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes the incarnation: the Son enters the virgin's womb, prepares his own body, and is born without a father, Mary remaining a virgin.
Commentary on Galatians 1:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · James, bishop of Jerusalem, was the Lord's 'brother' as a son of Joseph by a former marriage, not a son of Mary.
Question 51, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The Spirit sanctified Mary and formed a holy body in her, while the “power of the Most High,” Christ, overshadowed her, dwelling in her womb as much as human nature could hold.
Letter to Epictetus 4Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius refutes the claim that Christ's body is of the same essence as the Word's Godhead, showing that it would make the Father earthly and Mary unnecessary.
Letter to Epictetus 5Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius shows from the Gospel narratives that Christ's body was truly born of Mary, while the Word himself remained unchangeable and impassible.
Letter to Epictetus 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius rejects the view that the Word merely came upon a man from Mary as he came to the prophets, pointing to the virgin birth, the saving death, the resurrection, and the name Emmanuel.
Letter to Epictetus 12Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 370 · Athanasius concludes that the Word himself became man from Mary, rejoices that the dispute at Corinth ended in agreement, and asks for correction of anything lacking.
On Virginity 19Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Miriam, Aaron’s sister, leading the women with her dry drum, may have been the first virgin and a figure of Mary; true fruitfulness is spiritual, as Isaiah, Paul, and the Virgin’s birth show, and bodily virginity serves the inner spiritual marriage.
Letter 22.21Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome contrasts the Old Testament blessing of children with the gospel's call to virginity, which began with Mary and is commended by Paul.
Letter 22.38Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Eustochium against worldly "virgins", holds up Mary as her model, and insists that virginity avails only within the church, not among heretics like the Manichaeans.
Ancoratus 32.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · He was truly born of the virgin Mary.
Ancoratus 49.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The “choosing” refers to the flesh taken from Mary.
Ancoratus 60.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Joseph received Mary by lot from the temple.
Ancoratus 66.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Mary received the Word at the annunciation.
Ancoratus 66.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Mary received the Word as earth draws up rain.
Ancoratus 66.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ is the fruit of Mary's womb.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.10.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They deny that Christ took flesh from Mary.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.30.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isaiah says “the virgin,” not “the woman.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.30.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The red heifer is a figure of the Virgin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.30.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The unyoked heifer signifies Mary's virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.30.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isaiah's “volume” is a figure of the Virgin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.30.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's birth was from a woman but not from seed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.31.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Mary is “great” because she contained the uncontainable.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.31.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Mary is the prophetess who bore Christ by the Spirit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.10.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The man of the dispensation was born through Mary and chosen by the Father.
On Virgins 2.2Ambrose · ca. 377 · Mary’s life is the pattern of virginity: humble, modest, sparing, studious, seldom abroad, devoted to her kin; she will lead virgins to Christ, who will commend them to the Father, and their minds are altars on which Christ is offered.
On the Christian Faith 1.12Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose answers the objection that the Son lacks what sons have by arguing that nothing creaturely applies to God, that both Christ’s eternal generation and his birth from the Virgin are unique, and that they are to be believed, not examined.
Against Helvidius 4Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome argues that "before" does not imply that the intended event happened, that Scripture calls betrothed women wives, and that Joseph was called Jesus' father only by common opinion.
Against Helvidius 15Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome argues from John 19:25 that the Mary at the cross who was mother of James the less was the sister of the Lord's mother, the wife of Alphaeus.
Second Apology of David 28Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Continuing on another day, Ambrose concludes that only the Son of God, who took flesh from Mary as David’s seed, sits on the heavenly throne promised to David.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 28Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus reads the rod of Jesse as Mary, of David’s line, and the flower as Christ.
On the Life of Moses 331Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · Moses’ fights figure the inner struggle of virtue against vice and of truth against heresy; his retreat to Midian signifies withdrawal into a peaceful life, after which the truth, which is God, shines as from the bush — a figure of the Incarnation and of the Virgin’s birth.
Exposition of Psalm 118 2.28.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Like David and Mary, we should keep God’s word hidden in our hearts.
Exposition of Psalm 118 4.17.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The talkative man leaks away what he received; Mary kept every word in her heart.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.3.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The pillar of cloud figured Christ coming on a light cloud, that is, born of the Virgin Mary.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.38.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ, asked, may come before the time, as at Cana at his mother’s request.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.30.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ is asked to take up humanity in flesh born of the sinless Virgin Mary and carry it on the cross.
Letter 121.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus asks whether Simeon's prophecy of a sword piercing Mary's soul refers to her grief at the cross, where Christ entrusted her to John.
Letter 121.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paulinus suggests that the sword of Simeon's prophecy is the word of God, and asks how it relates to the revealing of the thoughts of many hearts.
Letter 140.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine weighs how the psalm's words about the womb and the breasts could refer to Christ himself, as man, and to the virgin birth.
Letter 161.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Evodius questions Augustine's saying that the virgin birth would not be wonderful if a reason could be given nor unique if an example could be found, since no conception can be explained.
Letter 187.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Every child of a lawful marriage is born through concupiscence and must be reborn; Christ alone, conceived of the Virgin without concupiscence, needed no rebirth.
Homilies on Matthew 2.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Joshua is a type of Jesus; Matthew calls his book 'the book of the generation' because the incarnation is the sum of the dispensation; he names David before Abraham because David was better known; Mary's Davidic descent is shown from Luke 1:27.
Homilies on Matthew 2.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Joseph's Davidic genealogy proves Mary's, because the law forbade marrying outside one's tribe and family and Joseph was righteous; women's genealogies were not customary; Chrysostom summarizes and urges hearers to meditate on what they hear.
Homilies on Matthew 3.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · A second, more mystical reason for Joseph's genealogy: the virgin birth was veiled at first to protect Mary from being stoned as an adulteress and to avoid offending the Jews; then the question why Judah's brothers are named.
Homilies on Matthew 4.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Matthew counts generations from Abraham and David to the exile to Christ to fit prophecy; he introduces the virgin birth carefully; the manner of the Spirit's work is not to be pried into, though Christ truly took flesh from Mary; Joseph's righteousness and the angel's timing are explained.
Homilies on Matthew 4.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The angel told Mary before the conception, lest she despair, and Joseph after his suspicion, so that the angel's knowledge of his secret thoughts would prove the message divine; Matthew and Luke do not conflict.
Homilies on Matthew 4.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The angel reassures Joseph gently, calls Mary his wife, entrusts her to his keeping, reveals that the child is of the Spirit, and gives Joseph a father's office of naming the child without making him the father.
Homilies on Matthew 44.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ’s answer to those who told him his mother and brothers were outside does not deny his mother but corrects the vainglory with which they called him away from his teaching, and teaches that kinship with him profits nothing without doing God’s will.
Homilies on Matthew 44.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · True kinship with Christ, open to men and women alike, is to do the Father’s will, which is more than to have borne him; Christ then goes out and sits by the sea to teach the crowds in parables.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 19Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · 'From a shoot you went up' signifies the incarnation: Christ the flower from Mary, the rod from Jesse's root.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 51Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · The blessings of breasts and womb signify the two Testaments or Mary, and the two births of Christ, from the Father before the ages and from the Virgin, in two natures.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 1.33.7Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The child is born of the virgin, the Son given from God: the Word made flesh.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 39.18.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ took on our own flesh, born of a human virgin, and so is truly man, the mediator.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.35.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Born of the Spirit and the Virgin without the stain of ordinary generation, Christ returned spotless to the Father.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.19.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The blessing of the womb belongs not to Joseph but to Christ, born of a virgin and blessed above all powers.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.13.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The city and tabernacle of the Most High are the soul in which Christ dwells and the body born of the Virgin.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.18.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Since Emmanuel was born of the virgin, we can say, “The God of powers is with us.”
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 47.11.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The magi adored Christ as God; Mary bore him without labour pains, rejoicing in God her Saviour.
Sermon 51.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary, though mother of the Son of the Most High, humbly named Joseph first, respecting the order of marriage; she is called “woman” by Hebrew usage, while remaining a virgin before, in, and after giving birth.
Sermon 51.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The generations run through Joseph, chastely husband and father, whom the Spirit gave a son; Matthew descends from Abraham to show Christ coming down to bear our sins, Luke ascends from his baptism to God to show sins cleansed.
Sermon 69.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one can flee from God, so we must flee to him; Christ, born of a virgin without lust, saw us under the fig tree of Adam’s sin and calls us to humility.
Sermon 121.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Word became flesh so that those born of men might be born of God, a great exchange in which the Son of God became son of man; born of a virgin, not of lust, he is the Mediator, neither above us as flesh nor below us as sinner, yet always above as God.
Sermon 126.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Christ there is what can be seen, a man born of a virgin, and what must be believed, the eternal Word; his temporal miracle is medicine for the sick so that they may come to the vision the angels enjoy.
Sermon 184.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christmas celebrates the humility of God, which the proud wise of this world despise, and the virgin birth, which they refuse to believe.
Sermon 186.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, made visible by a perpetual virgin, became man without ceasing to be God: one person, God and man, so that the Trinity remains a Trinity.
Sermon 188.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary, married and yet a virgin, bore Christ; the Church likewise is a virgin in the integrity of faith, hope, and love.
Sermon 189.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary, descended from Adam, is the earth from which Truth sprang; righteousness comes from heaven by faith, not from ourselves.
Sermon 191.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As the risen Christ entered through closed doors, so he could be born without harming his mother's virginity.
Sermon 191.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Virgins imitate Mary in virginity, not in childbearing; they have Christ as bridegroom, and the whole Church conceives and bears him by faith and confession.
Sermon 196.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Both of Christ's births are beyond words: the eternal begetting without beginning and the birth from a virgin who remained a virgin.
Sermon 214.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ's two births are both wonderful; “born of the Holy Spirit” refers to the Spirit's sanctifying work, not to fatherhood, and the one Christ is Son of God by the Word and son of man by the man he assumed.
Sermon 215.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Son is true God from true God, one with the Father; both his eternal birth and his virginal birth are beyond words, and can only be believed and praised.
Sermon 215.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary conceived Christ by faith before she conceived him in the womb; his virginal birth was a free gift of God to sinners, not a reward for merit.
Sermon 218.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ commended his mother to the disciple at the hour of his human death; at Cana he had acted by his divinity, which was not from her.
Sermon 225.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit and the Son himself wrought Christ's flesh in Mary, who, having resolved on virginity, asked how she would conceive.
Sermon 233.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · True salvation is not on earth; Christ, the heavenly merchant, took our birth and death, born of a virgin without lust in the likeness of sinful flesh, and killed death.
Sermon 289.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Elizabeth bore only a man, Mary God and man; as the fall came through a woman’s heart receiving the serpent’s poison, salvation came through a woman’s womb receiving the Almighty’s flesh.
Sermon 290.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Zechariah and Mary asked almost the same question of the angel, yet he was struck dumb for unbelief while she was given an explanation; God judged their hearts, not their words.
Sermon 291.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘Blessed among women’ does not imply Mary was married: by a Hebrew idiom Scripture calls all females ‘women’, as with the virgins of Numbers 31 and Eve before her union with Adam.
Sermon 291.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Zechariah and Mary used similar words with dissimilar hearts, as David and Saul both said ‘I have sinned’; Mary’s question shows that she had vowed virginity, and she asked the manner without doubting God’s power.
Sermon 291.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary received, not merited, the incarnation of the Word in her womb, the bridal chamber of the Word and flesh; asked how, she points to the angel’s greeting, ‘full of grace’.
Sermon 293.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Only the births of John and Christ are celebrated; their births are contrasted (barrenness and virginity, unbelief and faith, waning and waxing light), and the similar questions of Zechariah and Mary were judged by their hearts.
On Faith and the Creed 9Augustine of Hippo · 393 · Against those who deny that Christ had a human mother, Augustine explains Jesus' words at Cana and his question “Who is my mother?”
Against Jovinianus 1.32Jerome · 393 · Jerome defends the reading "virgin" in Isa 7:14 from the Hebrew almah and argues that God chose a virgin, not a married woman or widow, to bear his Son.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 22Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Christ was truly born of the virgin Mary, as the Gospel says; rejecting parts of Scripture at will leaves no rule for correcting error.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 23Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · As death came through a woman, life came through a woman; God's power is no more defiled in Mary's womb than in the saints in whom it dwells.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 24Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Mani himself had flesh; God's purity is not defiled by contact, so Christ's birth from a virgin shows rather than threatens his purity.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 25Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · Christ's words to his mother teach detachment from earthly kin, not that he had no mother; his showing of his wounds proves a real body.
Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · If the Holy Spirit was not defiled by taking up Mani, born of human intercourse, the Wisdom of God could not be defiled by birth from a virgin.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 23.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine replies that the apostolic faith confesses Christ as Son of God by divinity and son of David by the flesh, and points out that Matthew calls the virgin-born child “God with us” before the baptism.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 23.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that Matthew traces Christ's genealogy to Joseph because Joseph was truly Mary's husband by the union of souls though not of bodies, and that Mary too must have been of David's line.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 23.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine holds that Mary was of David's line because canonical Scripture says Christ was of David's seed through a virgin, and that the apocryphal story of her father Joachim, even if true, could be reconciled with this.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 29.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends the dignity of the bodily members, the holiness of marital procreation and of Mary’s virginal childbirth, and says Christ chose to be born though he could have appeared otherwise.
On the Trinity 13.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God took the Mediator's humanity from Adam's race, yet from a virgin conceiving by faith without concupiscence, so that the devil was conquered by the race he had conquered.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew and Luke agree that Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit; Luke tells the annunciation Matthew omits, and Matthew tells Joseph's dream Luke omits.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Augustine weaves Luke 1–2 and Matthew 1–2 into one continuous narrative of Christ's birth, infancy, and boyhood.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 136–138Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: Christ did not slight his mother, whom he honored and obeyed, but blessed her for hearing and keeping God's word; the baptismal anointings follow the right order, since Mary's anointing of Jesus anticipated his burial; and God justly struck the people for Saul's and David's faults, since a kingdom is one body and the people's suffering punishes the king.
On Holy Virginity 2Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The church, like Mary, is both virgin and mother, and is holiest in members who are virgins in body as well as spirit.
On Holy Virginity 3Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Mary was more blessed in believing in Christ than in bearing him, since spiritual kinship counts above physical kinship.
On Holy Virginity 4Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Mary had vowed virginity before the annunciation, as her question to the angel shows, so that virginity would be a free choice rather than a command.
On Holy Virginity 5Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins who do the Father's will are spiritually mothers of Christ with Mary, as the church and every devout soul are.
On Holy Virginity 6Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Mary alone is mother and virgin in both body and spirit; the church is wholly mother and virgin in spirit.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, who came into the world to wed his bride the Church, bought with his blood, came fittingly to the wedding at Cana; the Virgin's womb was the bridal chamber where the Word was joined to human flesh.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's apparently cold words to his mother at Cana hide a mystery; heretics who deny that he had real flesh use them to claim Mary was not his mother, but Christ is wholly true, with true flesh, birth, death, and resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The same evangelist who reports 'What have I to do with you, woman?' also says that 'the mother of Jesus was there' and spoke to him; whoever believes the one must believe the other.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The faithful should believe that Christ spoke these words to his true mother and seek their meaning by prayer; to deny that Mary was his mother makes the Gospel a liar and Christ's flesh, death, and resurrection false.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 8.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Mary was mother of Christ's humanity, not his divinity, by which he was to work the miracle; so he 'did not acknowledge' her at Cana, but acknowledged her at 'his hour' on the cross, when the weakness she bore was dying and he commended her to the disciple.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine explains that the Lord's “brothers” were Mary's kinsmen, since Scripture calls relatives brothers, and affirms Mary's perpetual virginity.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The disciples were Christ's brothers more truly than his kinsmen, and Mary is blessed chiefly because she did the Father's will and kept God's word.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 28.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Lord's “brothers” are Mary's kin, by Scripture's custom of calling relatives brothers; Mary bore no other child.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 119.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · From the cross Jesus entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple; this is the 'hour' he spoke of at Cana.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 119.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John, who owned nothing, received Mary 'into his own' care, providing for her from what the community shared.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.38Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The Word became flesh so that those born of flesh might be born of God; Christ, born in the likeness of sinful flesh of a virgin without concupiscence, never had sin, yet was baptized as an example, so sinful flesh needs baptism all the more.
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.22Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Ephraim is called to set up watchmen and return; the 'new thing' that 'a woman will encompass a man' is the virginal conception of Christ, perfect man in Mary's womb; Jerome corrects the Septuagint's 'Zion' for 'watchmen' (Jer 31:21–22).
On Nature and Grace 42Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers Pelagius' list of sinless saints: setting aside the Virgin Mary out of honor for the Lord, all the others would have confessed with 1 John 1:8 that they had sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Joseph and Mary were truly husband and wife without intercourse, so both are rightly called Christ's parents, and married couples who abstain by consent remain married.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · All three goods of marriage were present in the marriage of Joseph and Mary, and Christ was conceived without the concupiscence that marks all flesh born of intercourse.
Against Julian 5.12.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421-422 · Augustine defends his view that Joseph and Mary had a true marriage without intercourse, since marriage has three goods, faith, offspring, and sacrament (no divorce), and says the end of intercourse is not a divorce.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The Word became flesh by taking up a whole human nature free of sin, conceived by a virgin through faith, whose virginity remained intact in his birth.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ's human birth from the Holy Spirit, the gift equal to the giver, shows grace, as the annunciations to Mary and Joseph declare.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 72.2Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The burning bush that was not consumed prefigured the virgin who gave birth without losing her virginity; God is not outraged by the lowly things he took on to save us.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 73.1Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The Nativity overcomes nature: Mary gave birth and remained a virgin, surpassing the virgin earth of paradise, because the one born is the Word of God.
Homily 1, on the Nativity (Alexandria, 432)Paul of Emesa · Dec 432-433 · On Christmas at Alexandria, Paul proclaims Mary Theotokos and one Christ in two perfect natures, rejects “two sons”, and is acclaimed by the people as orthodox; he ends by inviting Cyril to preach.
Chapter 9Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · The Son, equal to the Father in divinity, was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, a unique miracle in which God and flesh were joined in one Christ.
Against Five Heresies 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 437-450 · Against the Manichaeans, who deny that the Son of God was born of a woman, the preacher cites the prophets and Paul and argues that the Creator of his mother could not be defiled by being born of her as a virgin.