Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Tertullian: Part Fourth/On the Veiling of Virgins/Chapter 6

Chapter VI.&#8212;The Parallel Case of Mary Considered.

Let us now see whether the apostle withal observes the norm of this name in accordance with Genesis, attributing it to the sex; calling the virgin Mary a woman, just as Genesis (does) Eve.&#160; For, writing to the Galatians, &#8220;God,&#8221; he says, &#8220;sent His own Son, made of a woman,&#8221; who, of course, is admitted to have been a virgin, albeit Hebion resist (that doctrine).&#160; I recognise, too, the angel Gabriel as having been sent to &#8220;a virgin.&#8221; &#160; But when he is blessing her, it is &#8220;among women,&#8221; not among virgins, that he ranks her:&#160; &#8220;Blessed (be) thou among women.&#8221;&#160; The angel withal knew that even a virgin is called a woman.

But to these two (arguments), again, there is one who appears to himself to have made an ingenious answer; (to the effect that) inasmuch as Mary was &#8220;betrothed,&#8221; therefore it is that both by angel and apostle she is pronounced a woman; for a &#8220;betrothed&#8221; is in some sense a &#8220;bride.&#8221;&#160; Still, between &#8220;in some sense&#8221; and &#8220;truth&#8221; there is difference enough, at all events in the present place:&#160; for elsewhere, we grant, we must thus hold.&#160; Now, however, it is not as being already wedded that they have pronounced Mary a woman, but as being none the less a female even if she had not been espoused; as having been called by this (name) from the beginning:&#160; for that must necessarily have a prejudicating force from which the normal type has descended.&#160; Else, as far as relates to the present passage, if Mary is here put on a level with a &#8220;betrothed,&#8221; so that she is called a woman not on the ground of being a female, but on the ground of being assigned to a husband, it immediately follows that Christ was not born of a virgin, because (born) of one &#8220;betrothed,&#8221; who by this fact will have ceased to be a virgin.&#160; Whereas, if He was born of a virgin&#8212;albeit withal &#8220;betrothed,&#8221; yet intact&#8212;acknowledge that even a virgin, even an intact one, is called a woman.&#160; Here, at all events, there can be no semblance of speaking prophetically, as if the apostle should have named a future woman, that is, bride, in saying &#8220;made of a woman.&#8221;&#160; For he could not be naming a posterior woman, from whom Christ had not to be born&#8212;that is, one who had known a man; but she who was then present, who was a virgin, was withal called a woman in consequence of the propriety of this name,&#8212;vindicated, in accordance with the primordial norm, (as belonging) to a virgin, and thus to the universal class of women.