Monday, April 27, 2009

Theodoret of Cyrus: Jesus, as God, Is Without Mother

The divine Scripture give the family tree of Abraham ... [of] Melchizedek, by contrast, the divine Scriptures did not inform us of father or mother or race, or how long he lived or when he reached the end of his life. So according to this he is without father, without mother, without family tree, with no beginning to his days or end to his life; of these details the divine Scripture gives us nothing. Christ the Lord, of course, has each of these by nature and in reality: while as God he is without mother, being begotten only of the Father, as man he is without father, being born only of a mother - the virgin, I mean. As God he is without family tree: the one begotten of the begotten Father does not require a family tree.

- Theodoret of Cyrus (around A.D. 393 to around A.D. 457), Commentary on Hebrews, Chapter 7, in Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Letters of St. Paul, Volume 2, p. 163 (2001), Robert C. Hill translator.