Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Origen and/or Rufinus - Unique Conception of Jesus

Therefore, let these words be for us a confirmation of what we observed that the Lawgiver did not add to Scripture superfluously, "If a woman receives seed and bears a son," but that there is a mystical exception, which separated Mary alone[fn1] from the rest of women whose birth was not by the conception of seed but by the presence "of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High."

Haec ergo dicta sint nobis de eo quod observavimus scriptum, quia non superfluo addidit legislator, "mulier si conceperit semen, et pepererit filium;" sed esse exceptionem mysticam, quae solam Mariam a reliquis mulieribus segregaret, cujus partus non ex conceptione seminis, sed ex praesentia sancti Spiritus et virtute Altissimi fuerit.

Origen (as translated/edited to Latin by Rufinus, English translation by Gary Wayne Barkley), Homily 8 on Leviticus (written c. A.D. 238-44, trans. c. A.D. 403-05), at section 2, paragraph (6) (p. 155)(Migne PG, vol. 12, col. 494, C). [fn1: English text has "along" for "alone" but this is clearly a typo in view of the Latin]