Can a Mother Bear One Older Than Herself?

Before I begin to speak of things I have given no foretaste of in the earlier books, I think it right to try to carry out what I have already promised. Once I have fully redeemed my pledge and satisfied my promise, I may begin to speak more freely of what has not yet been touched on. So, then, that new serpent, in order to destroy the faith in the holy birth, hisses out against the Church of God and says, “No one ever gives birth to one older than herself.” [a]

To begin with, I think you know neither what you are saying nor where you get it from. If you knew or understood where you got it from, you would never look at the birth of the only Son of God in the light of human fancies. You would not try to settle by merely human propositions the case of him who was born without his conception coming from man. Nor would you bring human impossibilities as objections against the omnipotence of God, if you knew that with God nothing is impossible. No one, you say, gives birth to one older than herself. Tell me, then, I ask you, what cases are you speaking of? For what kind of creatures do you think you can lay down rules? Do you suppose you can fix laws for men, or beasts, or birds, or cattle? Those, and others like them, are the things of which such statements can be made. None of them can produce one older than itself, for what has already been produced cannot go back into it to be born again by a new creation. And so no one can bear one older than herself, just as no one can beget one older than himself, since bearing is possible only where begetting is possible. Do you imagine, then, that the birth of Almighty God must be weighed by the same considerations as the birth of earthly creatures? Do you bring the conditions of human nature as a difficulty against him who is himself the author of nature? You see, then, as I said above, that you do not know where your words come from or whom you are talking about. You are comparing creatures to the Creator, and to measure the power of God you are drawing an example from things that would never have existed at all, if the very fact of their existence did not come from God.

God, then, came as he willed, when he willed, and from the woman he willed. Neither time nor person, nor the ways of men, nor the habits of creatures stood in his way, for the law of the creatures could not hinder him who is himself the Creator of them all. Whatever he wished to be possible was ready to his hand, for the power to will it was his. Do you want to know how far the omnipotence of God reaches, and how great it is? I believe the Lord could do, even in the case of his creatures, what you do not believe he could do in his own case. All the living creatures that now bear offspring younger than themselves could, if only God gave the word, bear offspring much older than themselves. Even food and drink, if God willed it, could be turned into the unborn child and offspring. Even water, which has been flowing since the beginning of things and which every living creature uses, could, if God gave the word, be made a body in the womb and be given birth. For who can set a limit to divine works, or put bounds around divine providence? Or who, to use the words of Scripture, can say to him, “What are you doing?” If you deny that God can do all things, then deny that, when God was born, one older than Mary could be born of her. But if nothing is impossible with God, why do you bring an impossibility as an objection against his coming, when you know that for him nothing at all is impossible?