Saturday, March 16, 2024

Jerome on Galatians 4:4-5

St. Jerome, Commentary on Galatians, Fathers of the Church Series, transl. Andrew Cain, (pp. 156-157), at Galatians 4:4-5

4-4-5. But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman and put under the Law to redeem those under the Law, so that we might receive the full rights of [adopted] sons.

Take note that he did not say “made through a woman”— phrasing opted for by Marcion and other heresies which pretend that the flesh of Christ was imaginary—but “made of a woman,” in order to support the belief that Christ was born of a woman and not through her. As for his calling the holy and blessed mother of the Lord a woman instead of a virgin, this same thing is written both in the Gospel according to Matthew, where she is referred to as the wife of Joseph, and [in the Gospel according to John, where] the Lord himself scolds her as a woman. It was not necessary always to use the term “virgin,” as if being circumspect and cautious, for the word “woman” denotes gender more than it does union with a man, and the Greek γυνή can be translated as either “wife” or “woman.”

Latin from Migne, Patrologia Latinae, Tomus XXVI (of Jerome, vol. 7), col. 572 A-B: 

(Vers. 4) At ubi venit plenitudo temporis, misit Deus Filium suum factum ex muliere, factum sub Lege: ut eos qui sub Lege erant, redimeret, ut adoptionem filiorum reciperemus. 

Diligenter attendite quod non dixerit, factum per mulierem, quod Marcion et cæteræ hæreses volunt, quæ putativam Christi carnem simulant: sed ex muliere, ut non per illam, sed ex illa natus esse credatur. Quod autem sanctam et beatam Matrem Domini, mulierem, non Virginem nominavit, hoc idem et in Evangelio κατά Ματθαίον scriptum est: quando uxor appellatur Joseph (Luc. II), et ab ipso Domino quasi mulier increpatur (Joan. II). Non enim necesse erat semper quasi caute et timide Virginem dicere, cum mulier sexum magis significet quam copulam viri: et secundum intelligentiam Græcitatis, γυνή tam uxor, quam mulier valeat interpretari.

Alternative translation:

Diligently pay attention to the fact that he did not say, 'made through a woman,' as Marcion and the other heresies want, which feign the assumed flesh of Christ: but 'from a woman,' so that it is believed not through her, but from her he was born. That he called the holy and blessed Mother of the Lord, a woman, not a Virgin, the same is also written in the Gospel according to Matthew: when she is called the wife of Joseph, and by the Lord himself is almost reproached as a woman. For it was not necessary always to say Virgin as if cautiously and timidly, since woman more signifies sex than the union with a man: and according to the understanding of Greek, γυνή can be interpreted both as wife and as woman.

I've highlighted the place where Jerome acknowledges that Jesus use of woman in John 2 was, to put it gently, not positive. Jerome's focus in his response was not to suggest that "woman" here points to Mary as some new Eve, but rather to focus on the true humanity of Christ and to reject a flawed argument against Mary's virginity on the ground that she is called here, "woman," which presumably was used by the Latins to refer to a female who was married (or at least had engaged in copulation).

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