The Life of All, Whose Birth No One Can Tell

Or who among those recorded in Scripture was pierced in the hands and feet, or hung on a tree at all, and was sacrificed on a cross for the salvation of all? Abraham died ending his life on a bed. Isaac and Jacob also died with their feet raised on a bed. Moses and Aaron died on the mountain. David died in his house, without being the target of any plot by the people. True, he was hunted by Saul, but he was kept unharmed. Isaiah was sawn in two, but he was not hung on a tree. Jeremiah was shamefully treated, but he did not die under condemnation. Ezekiel suffered, but not for the people; he suffered to show what was about to come upon the people. Again, these men, even where they suffered, were men like everyone else in their common nature. But the one Scripture declares will suffer on behalf of all is called not merely a man but the Life of all, although he was in fact like human beings in nature. For “you will see,” it says, “your Life hanging before your eyes,” and, “Who will declare his birth?” One can trace the descent of all the saints and declare it from the beginning, and say of whom each was born. But the birth of the one who is the Life the Scriptures speak of as something that cannot be declared. [a]

Who, then, is the one of whom the divine Scriptures say this? Or who is so great that even the prophets foretell such great things of him? No one else is found in the Scriptures except the Savior of all alike, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the one who came forth from a virgin and appeared as a man on the earth, and whose birth according to the flesh cannot be declared. No one can name his father according to the flesh, since his body was not from a man but from a virgin alone. So no one can declare the bodily descent of the Savior from a man, in the way one can draw up a family tree of David and of Moses and of all the patriarchs. For he is the one who caused the star as well to mark the birth of his body. It was fitting that the Word, coming down from heaven, should have his own star from heaven too, and it was fitting that the King of creation, when he came forth, should be openly recognized by all creation. Indeed, he was born in Judea, and men from Persia came to worship him.

He is the one who, even before he appeared in the body, won the victory over the demons who opposed him and a triumph over idolatry. At any rate, all the pagans from every region are renouncing the tradition of their fathers and the impiety of idols. They are now placing their hope in Christ and enrolling themselves under him, and you can see this with your own eyes. For at no other time did the impiety of the Egyptians come to an end, except when the Lord of all, riding as it were on a cloud, came down there in the body. He brought the delusion of idols to nothing, and brought everyone over to himself, and through himself to the Father. He is the one who was crucified with the sun and all creation as witnesses, and before those who put him to death. By his death salvation has come to all, and all creation has been ransomed. He is the Life of all. He is the one who, like a sheep, gave up his body to death as a substitute, for the salvation of all, even though the Jews do not believe it.