I. Heretical Doctrines on this Subject

vs. the Teaching of the Church. — a) Cer- tain Gnostics of the second century, notably Val- entinus ^ and Apelles, a disciple of Alarcion,^ who held an attenuated Docetism, admitted
1 Valentinus flourished about 2 Cfr. Bardenhewer-Shahan, Pa-
A. D. 150. His false teaching (see trology, p. 80; Tixeront, History of
Burt, Dictionary of Sects, pp. 612 Dogmas, Vol. I, pp. 183 sqq. sqq.) was refuted by St. Irenseus.
61
'62 DUALITY IN UNITY
the reality and integrity of Christ's human na- ture only after a fashion. Their theory was that He possessed a "celestial body." This teaching involved a denial (i) of the earthly origin of Christ's manhood, and (2) of His conception and birth by the Virgin Mary. In describing the latter Valentinus employed the simile of "water flowing through a channel." ^ Similar errors were harbored by the Paulicians of Syria/ and, in modern times, by the Anabaptists, the Quakers, and certain pseudo-mystics of the six- teenth century.'*
b) The Church never for a moment left her faithful children in doubt as to the true origin and descent of Jesus. The Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451) defined: "Doc emus, eundemque [Christum] perfectum in deitate et eundem perfectum in humanitate, Deum verum et hominem verum, eundem ex anima rationali et corpore, consubstantialem Patri secundum deita- tem, consubstantialem nobis eundem secundum
humanitatem ( ofioovaiov tw irarpl Kara t^v deorrjTa^ Kal 6/io_ ovcnov rjiilv tov ovtov Kara Tqv avOpwiroTrjTa^ pcf omnia
nobis similem absque peccato; ante saecula qui-
8 (bs 8t4 ffwX^roj C5wp. Cfr. Epi- pp. 761 sqq.; cfr. also Funk-Cappa-
phanius, Haer., XXXI, 7. delta, A Manual of Church History.
4 The Paulicians were "but the Vol. I, pp. 265 sq., London igio;
Priscillianists of the East." For an Conybeare, The Key of Truth, Lon-
account of their curious beliefs see don 1898.
Alzog-Pabisch-Byrno, Manual of 0 Weigel, Petersen, Dippel, and
Universal Church History, Vol. I, others.
CHRIST'S ADAMIC ORIGIN 63
dem de Patre genitimt {yewrfiivra'^ seciindtim dei- tatem, in novissimis autem diebiis enndem prop- ter nos et propter nostrani salutem, ex Maria Vir-
gine Dei genitrice (^ Mapia^ t^ -napOivov t^s dtoroKov^
secundum humanitatem — We teach that He [Christ] is perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, being truly God and truly man; that He is of a rational soul and body, consubstan- tial with the Father as touching the Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching His man- hood, being like us in all things, sin excepted; that, as touching His Godhead, He was begotten of the Father before the worlds ; and, as touching His manhood, He was for us and for our salva- tion born of Mary, the Virgin, Mother of God." ^
This is a most important dogmatic definition, and in order to grasp its full import the student should ponder the following points :
(i) Christ's homooiisia with the Father and His con- substantiality with the human race are not co-ordinate relations. The divine homooiisia is based on " numerical identity " or " tantousia," ^ whereas Christ's consubstan- tiality with man rests on a purely " specific identity," which, however, in consequence of our common descent from Adam, is a true blood-relationship.
(2) This blood-relationship arises formally and im- mediately from the fact of Christ's being engendered in the Virgin Mary. Had He merely passed through her virginal womb, as Valentinus and his fellow sectaries
e Denzinger-Bannwart, Enchiri- 7 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, The Divine
dion, n. 148. Trinity, pp. 255 sqq.
64 DUALITY IN UNITY
held, no blood-relationship would have been established between Him and us. Hence the need of accentuating
the phrase : yevvqOivra Ik Maptas.
(3) In order to show that Christ's temporal genera- tion from His mother is equally true and real with His divine generation from the Eternal Father, the Council applies to both the one word yevvrjOivTa, without, of course, thereby denying the fundamental distinction between di- vine and creatural generation.
(4) The dogma would not be complete without a dis- tinct reference to the purpose of the Redemption, inas- much as the Adamic origin of Christ is intimately bound up with His mediatorial office and the redemption of the human race. The creeds, including that of Chal- cedon, bring out this soteriological relation by the typical additament: "Propter nos et propter nostram salutem
( 8t* rj/xd^ Koi 8ia T7]v yfJiCTepav awTTjpiav) . '
2. The Teaching of Revelation. — Holy Scripture teaches that Christ became consubstan- tial with man by descent from Adam, for the purpose of redeeming the human race, of which He is a member and a scion.
a) In the Old Testament the Redeemer was promised, first as "the seed of the woman," * later as "the seed of Abraham," and in fine as "the seed of David." The New Testament frequently refers to Him as "the Son of David." ®
8 Gen. Ill, 15 (the " Protevan- IX, 27; XII, 23; Luke I, 32; Rom.
gelium"). Cfr. H. P. Liddon, Tin I, 3; Apoc. V, 5. Cfr. H. J, Cole-
Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour ridge, S. J., The Preparation of the
Jesus Christ, pp. 109 sqq. Incarnation, pp. 209 sqq., London
»"Filius David." Matth. I, 1; 1894.
CHRIST'S ADAMIC ORIGIN 65
Whenever the inspired writers of the New Testament wish to point to the fulfihnent of the Old Testament prophecies in the life of Jesus Christ, they strongly em- phasize His conception and birth from the Virgin Mary. Cfr. Luke I, 31 sq. : " Ecce concipies in utero et paries aiium. . . . Filius Altissimi vocahitur, et dabit illi Do- minus Dens sedem David patris eitis — Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son. . . . He . . . shall be called the Son of the Most High ; and the Lord shall give unto Him the throne of David his father." Luke I, 35: "Quod nascetur ex te sanc- tum, vocahitur Filius Dei — The Holy which shall be bom of thee shall be called the Son of God." I^Iatth. I, 16: " lacoh aiitem genuit Joseph, virum Mariae, de qua natus est lesus, qui vacatur Christ us (e| t^s cyew^^ 'It/o-ous 6 Acyo/icvos XpioTos) — And Jacob begot Joseph, the hus- band of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." Rom. I, 3 : " Factus ex semine David secun- dum caniem — Who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh." Gal. IV, 4: " Misit Deus Filium suum factum ex muliere ^^ — God sent his Son, made of a woman." These and many similar texts prove, ( I ) that Christ is a genuine descendant of Adam, and (2) that He traces his lineage by maternal gen- eration through Mary, who was a daughter of Adam.
The soteriological aspect is sharply accentuated by St. Paul when he says that the human race was redeemed by One who was not only God made man, but also of the blood of Adam. Heb. II, 11 and 14: "Qui enim sanctificat et qui sancti^cantur, ex una [scil. Adamo] omnes; propter quant causam non confunditur {iirai- (rxvv€Tai)fratres eos vocare . . . ut per mortem destrue-
e^ DUALITY IN UNITY
ret eum, qui habebat mortis imperium, id est, diabolum — For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanc- tified, are all of one. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren . . . that, through death, he might destroy him who had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil." ^^
b) In considering the Patristic tradition we note the remarkable fact that the early Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, down to the time of Fulgentius, attribute very great importance to the preposition ex in the Scriptural formula ''f actus ex muliere." ^^
Thus Tertullian observes in his work De Came Christi: " Per virginem dicitis natum, non ex virgine, et in vulva, non ex vulva. Quia et angelus in somnis ad Joseph: ' nam quod in ea natum est' inquit, ' de Spiritu S. est,' non dixit ex ea. Nempe tamen, etsi ex ea dixisseft, in ea dixerat; in ea enim erat, quod ex ea erat. . . . Sed bene, quod idem dicit Matthaeus originem Domini de- currens ab Abraham usque ad Mariam: ' lacob,' in- quit, ' generavit Joseph, virum Mariae, ex qua nascitur Christus.' Sed et Paulus granimaticis istis silentium imponit: ' misit/ inquit, ' Deus Filiiim suum factum ex muliere.' Numquid per mulierem, out in mulieref " ^^ And St. Basil in his treatise on the Holy Ghost says: " To show that the God-bearing flesh was formed of human material,^* the Apostle chose a striking phrase;
11 On Satan's " reign of death " 12 yevd/iepov e/c yvpaiKds. Gal.
cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Author IV, 4.
ef Nature and the Supernatural, pp. is Tertullian, De Came Christi, c.
291, 344 sqq. 20.
l^^K Tov ipOpuvelov
CHRIST'S ADAMIC ORIGIN 67
for the expression ' through the woman ' might suggest the notion of a mere transit; but this other [phrase] : * out of the woman,' sufficiently explains the com- munication of nature existing between Him who was born and His mother." ^^
We note in passing that Christ's descent from Adam, and His blood-relationship with us, is not impaired by the circumstance that His conception was effected with- out male cooperation. For, as St. Ignatius observes, " Our God Jesus Christ was conceived ^" by Mary as the fruit of her womb, according to the decree of God, — from the seed of David, 'tis true, but of the Holy Ghost." ^^ Whoever is born of a daughter of Adam, though without male cooperation, is a genuine descendant of Adam in all respects except original sin.^^
Why did Christ choose to enter into blood-relationship with the children of Adam? Following St. Paul the Fathers hold that the reason is to be found in the ulterior purpose of the Redemption. According to the classic dictum of St. Irenaeus, Christ, as man, was not, like Adam, formed of "the slime of the earth," but bom of a daughter of Adam, " ut non alia plasmatio Heret neque alia esset plasmatio, quae salvaretur, sed eadem ipsa recapitularetur" " or, in the words of St. Athana- sius, " in order that the nations be of the same body and have a share with Christ." ^'^ Some of the Fathers
15 St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, c thor of Nature and the Supernat-
5, n. 12. Other Patristic comments ural, pp. 279 sqq. The perpetual
on Gal. IV, 4 in Petavius, De In- virginity of Mary will be treated in
earn. Verbi, V, 16. Cfr. Durand- Mariology. Cfr. Durand-Bruneau,
Bruneau, The Childhood of Jesus The Childhood of Jesus Christ, pp.
Christ, pp. 149 sqq., Philadelphia 153 sqq.
*9'°- 18 Con
i
17 5". Ign. M., Ep. ad Ephes., n. Kal (rvfifUTOxa tov XpiffTOV ^8- Contr. Apollin., II, 5.
18 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Am-
68 DUALITY IN UNITY
say that Christ assumed the flesh of the entire human race for the purpose of redemption. Thus, e. g., St. Hilary : " The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, i. e., by assuming the nature of the entire human race." ^^ And, still more graphically St. Leo the Great : " He dwelled among us, whom the Godhead of the Word had fitted to itself, whose flesh, taken from the womb of the Virgin, we are. . . . He made His own the substance of our body, not of any material whatever, but of our proper substance." ^^ Of course, these are hyperboles.
3. Incidental Theological Questions. — a) Although Sacred Scripture frequently refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary as "the mother of Jesus/' -^ it cannot but surprise the careful student that Christ Himself never calls her by the tender name of "mother."
In Matth. XII, 46 sqq. He even expressly rejects this name and with a semblance of harshness points to the higher duty incumbent on Him of performing the will of His Heavenly Father. At the marriage of Cana Mary is worried because " they have no wine ; and Jesus saith to her: Woman,^* what is that to me and to thee ? My hour is not yet come." ^^ From the cross He charged her : " Woman, behold thy son," and com- mitted her to the care of his favorite Apostle with the
21 " Verbum caro factum est et suam fecit, non de quacunque ma-
habitavit in nobis, naturam scilicet teria, sed de substantia proprie no-
universi humani generis assumens." stra." Cfr. Franzelin, De Verbo
In Ps,, SI, 7. Incarnato, thes. 14; Stentrup,
22 Sertn. de Nativ., X, c. 3: Christologia, thes. 9.
"Habitavit in nobis, quos sibi Verbi 23 Cfr. Matth. I, 18; II, 21; Luke
divinitas coaptavit, cuius caro de I, 43; John II, i, et passim,
utero Virginis sumpta nos sumus. 24 Mulier, yvvat,
. . . Substantiam nostri corporis 25 John II, 4.
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 69
words : " Behold thy mother." -^ Though this manner of speaking, under the circumstances, is pathetic rather than surprising, the two passages Matth. XII, 46 sqq. and John II, 4 cannot be satisfactorily ex- plained by the observation that the word " woman " among the Jews and Greeks denoted respect and es- teem for the one thus addressed. We must seek for a deeper theological explanation. This may be found (i) in the fact that it was eminently proper for our Divine Redeemer to put His relations to His Heav- enly Father above the ties of flesh and blood, and (2) in the consideration that, beginning with the Prot- evangelium, all through Isaias and the Gospels down to the Apocalypse, there runs the name of a " woman," which organically connects the " first Gospel " with the " second," and both in turn with the " last," i. e., St, John's Revelation.-" Professor (now Bishop) Schafer de- serves credit for having brought out this important point of view, which enables us to solve certain knotty exeget- ical problems in a perfectly satisfactory way. " Thus," he says, " the last book of Divine Revelation points back to the first. The * woman ' of the first promise of salvation in Paradise, the mother of Him who was to crush the head of the Serpent, and through Him the mother of all those who possess spiritual life, and conjointly with her, in this sense, the Church itself, is the ' sign ' heralded by Isaias and visioned by St. John on the isle of Patmos." '^
26 John XIX, 26 sq. satisfactory explanation see the re-
27 Cfr. Apoc. XII, I : " Mulier cently published work of B. Bart- amicta sole." mann, Christus ein Gegner des
28 Alois Schafer, Die Gottesniutter Marienkultus? Jesus und seine in der HI. Schrift, 2nd ed., p. 251, Mutter in den heiligen Evangelien, Munster 1900. For another equally Freiburg 1909.
70 DUALITY IN UNITY
b) Regarding the outward aspect of Christ's human nature we have no rehable information.^^
Tertullian asserts that our Lord closely resembled Adam, and he attributes this resemblance to the alleged fact that, in fashioning the body of our proto-parent, the Creator had before Him as in a vision the portrait of " the Second Adam." ^*^ But this is an entirely gratui- tous assumption. The conjecture of several Fathers ^^ that the bodily presence of our Divine Lord was contemp- tible, arose from a misinterpretation of Is. LIII, 2 sqq., where the Messias is pictured in His cruel suffering. It has been asserted that the impression of our Lord's face (Volto Santo) on the so-called Veil of St. Veronica, which is preserved in St. Peter's Basilica at Rome,^- bears a certain family resemblance to a portrait found on an ancient monument at Karnak and believed to repre- sent the Jewish King Roboam, a bodily ancestor of our Lord. But, as has been pointed out, the name appended to this portrait, which was at first deciphered as " Reha- heam," is really the name of a city, and the picture itself was most probably intended to be a composite portrait representing the population.^'
The description of our Divine Lord contained in the report of the alleged ambassadors of King Abgar, is,
29 On this subject cfr. Vavasseur, 31 E. g., Clement of Alexandria,
De Forma Christi, Paris 1649; Cyprian, and also Tertullian.
G. A. Miiller, Die leihliche Gestalt 32 Cfr. P. J. Chandlery, S. J.,
Jesu Christi nach der Urtradition, Pilgrim-Walks in Rome, p. 27, 2nd
Graz 1908; S. J. Hunter, Outlines ed., London 1905. On this and
of Dogmatic Theology, Vol. II, pp. other apocryphal portraits of Christ
463 sqq., London 1895; F. Johnson, cfr. C. M. Kaufmann, Christliche
Have We the Likeness of Christf Archaologie, pp. 406 sqq., Pader-
Chicago 1902. born 1905.
80 Cfr. Pohle-Preuss, God the Au- 33 F. Kaulen in the Kirchenlexi-
thor of Nature and the Supernat- kon, 2nd ed.. Vol. X, 1225, Frei-
ural, pp. 130 sq. burg 1897.
CHRIST'S OUTWARD APPEARANCE 71
of course, quite as spurious as the apocryphal correspond- ence of Christ with the toparch of Edessa, which has come down to us in the so-called Legend of Thaddeus.'*
It is safe to assume that the Son of God, who was con- ceived by the Holy Ghost, was beautiful in form and fig- ure, of majestic mien and sympathetic presence. The fact that no trustworthy portrait of Him exists may be due to a purposive design on the part of Divine Providence, lest the beauty of His manhood outshine His spiritual form and dignity. ^^
Re.\dings: — J. Morris, Jesus the Son of Mary, 2 vols., Lon- don 1851. — P. Vogt, S. J., Der Stammbaum Christi bei . . . Matth'dus und Lukas, Freiburg 1907. — J. M. Heer, Die Stamtn- bdume Jesu nach Matthdus und Lukas, Freiburg 1910.
34 Cfr. Bardenhewer-Shahan, Pa- Les Origines de I'Eglise d'Edesse et trology, pp. 109 sq.; H. Leclercq, la Legende d'Abgar, Paris 1888. art. " Abgar " in the Catholic En- 35 Cfr. Suarez, De Incarn., disp.
cyclopedia. Vol. I; J. Tixeront, 32, sect. 2; L. Janssens, De Deo-
Homine, Vol. I, pp. 505 sqq.