And again, in his Epistle to the Galatians, he says: "But when the fulness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption; ".
Paul also says: "But when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son.".
The Apostle Paul, moreover, in the Epistle to the Galatians, declares plainly, "God sent His Son, made of a woman.".
This fact is exhibited in a still clearer light in the same Epistle, where he thus speaks: "But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman."
A certain person thought that he had cleverly solved this question: that Mary was called a woman by the angel and the apostle because she was already betrothed. For a betrothed is in some sense a bride. Yet between “in some sense” and “truly” there is a great distance.… He spoke of one who was a virgin and was called woman according to a proper usage of this term with respect to the basic quality of a virgin, which is therefore vindicated by the generic term woman.
"But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son" -the God, of course, who is the Lord of that very succession of times which constitutes an age; who also ordained, as "signs" of time, suns and moons and constellations and stars; who furthermore both predetermined and predicted that the revelation of His Son should be postponed to the end of the times.
Since, then, the Creator promised the gift of His Spirit in the latter days; and since Christ has in these last days appeared as the dispenser of spiritual gifts (as the apostle says, "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son; " and again, "This I say, brethren, that the time is short" ), it evidently follows in connection with this prediction of the last days, that this gift of the Spirit belongs to Him who is the Christ of the predicters.
But Paul, too, silences these critics when he says, "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." Does he mean through a woman, or in a woman? Nay more, for the sake of greater emphasis, he uses the word "made" rather than born, although the use of the latter expression would have been simpler.
"Still," He said, "I have many things to say to you, but ye are not yet able to bear them: when that Spirit of truth shall have come, He will conduct you into all truth, and will report to you the supervening (things).
That although from the beginning He had been the Son of God, yet He had to be begotten again according to the flesh. In the second Psalm: "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inheritance, and the bounds of the earth for Thy possession." Also in the Gospel according to Luke: "And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and she was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she cried out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? " Also Paul to the Galatians: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son, horn of a woman." Also in the Epistle of John: "Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. But whosoever denies that He is come in the flesh is not of God, but is of the spirit of Antichrist."
But when He says, "As the years draw nigh, thou shalt be recognised "He means, as has been said before, that glorious recognition of our Saviour, God in the flesh, who is otherwise invisible to mortal eye; as somewhere Paul, that great interpreter of sacred mysteries, says: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
As there is a fullness in things, so there is in times. For each thing has its fullness in a full and copious perfection that abounds in everything. Christ is the fullness of things. The fullness of times is the consummation of freedom. So that his fullness may be whole and perfect Christ collects his members who are scattered, and in this way his fullness is achieved. So in the same way the fullness of times was achieved when all had become ripe for faith and sins had increased to the utmost, so that a remedy was necessarily sought in the judgment of all things. Hence Christ came when the fullness of time was completed.
Because he is brought forth from a woman he can be said to be made, but made for this temporary purpose: to be subject to the law.… The Galatians were to understand from this that they had fallen into error, for the Savior himself, in whom they believed, was made subject to the law though he remained the Lord of the law.
“The fullness of time” is the completed time which had been foreordained by God the Father for the sending of his Son, so that, made from a virgin, he might be born like a man, subjecting himself to the law up to the time of his baptism, so that he might provide a way by which sinners, washed and snatched away from the yoke of the law, might be adopted as God’s sons by his condescension, as he had promised to those redeemed by the blood of his Son. It was necessary, indeed, that the Savior should be made subject to the law, as a son of Abraham according to the flesh, so that, having been circumcised, he could be seen as the one promised to Abraham, who had come to justify the Gentiles through faith, since he bore the sign of the one to whom the promise had been made.
He says “his Son,” not one of many, not “a Son” but his own. When he says “his own” he confirms that he has the property of eternal generation. This is the one whom he subsequently declares to have been born from a woman, so as to ascribe the fact of being born not to the Godhead but to the assumed body. He was made from a woman by assuming flesh and made under the law by observing the law. But that heavenly birth of his is prior to the law, while the incarnation happens later.
Here he states two objects and effects of the Incarnation, deliverance from evil and supply of good, things which none could compass but Christ. They are these; deliverance from the curse of the Law, and promotion to sonship. Fitly does he say, that we might "receive," "[be paid,]" implying that it was due; for the promise was of old time made for these objects to Abraham, as the Apostle has himself shown at great length. And how does it appear that we have become sons? he has told us one mode, in that we have put on Christ who is the Son; and now he mentions another, in that we have received the Spirit of adoption.
(Verse 4.) But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Pay close attention to the fact that it does not say 'made through a woman,' which the heresies of Marcion and others assert, pretending that Christ's flesh was imaginary. Rather, it says 'born of a woman,' so that he may be believed to have been born not just through her, but from her. And the fact that the holy and blessed Mother of the Lord is called a woman and not a Virgin is also written in the Gospel according to Matthew: when Joseph is called her husband (Luke 2), and when the Lord Himself rebukes her as a woman (John 2). For it was not necessary to always speak cautiously and timidly of the Virgin, when the word 'woman' signifies the sex more than the union with a man. And according to the understanding of Greek, both γυνὴ can be interpreted as both 'wife' and 'woman'. But to pass over all else: just as he was made under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so he wanted to be born of a woman for the sake of those who were born of a woman. For he also received baptism in the river Jordan, as though repenting, when he was free from sins, so that he could teach others that they should be cleansed through baptism and be born again as the new children of the Spirit. Not understanding at all, John the Baptist was prohibiting him from approaching the bath, saying: I owe to be baptized by you (Matt. III, 14). And immediately the sacrament is taught: Without hesitation: for thus it befits us to fulfill all righteousness, so that he who came for the salvation of men would not pass over anything concerning the conduct of men. Let someone ask and say: If he became under the Law for this reason, to redeem those who were under the Law, which indeed would have been impossible to redeem those who were under the Law unless he himself had become under the Law: or if he became without the Law, in order to redeem those who were not under the Law; or if he did not become without the Law, he does not redeem those who were not under the Law. But if it was possible to redeem those who were without the Law, so that he himself would not be without the Law, then he was made superfluous under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law. He will solve this question briefly, if anyone uses that example: and he was considered with those who were without the Law. For although it may have been poorly edited in the Latin codices due to the simplicity of the interpreters, 'And he was reckoned with the transgressors' (Luke 22:37) means something different among the Greeks, which is written here, and something different 'unjust', which is found in the Latin volumes. Anomos is called that person who is without law, and is bound by no right. Unjust is also referred to as iniquitous or unjust. Hence the Apostle himself says in another place: 'When I was not, he says, without the Law of God; but I was in the Law of Christ' (I Cor. IX): and certainly in this testimony, 'anomos' is written in Greek; and the one who interprets it here correctly could have interpreted the same word there in a similar way, if ambiguity had not deceived him. But someone will examine the word itself more sharply and will say that those who were first on God's side and then ceased to be are called redeemed; but those who were not under the Law are not so much redeemed as bought. Hence, in the letter to the Corinthians, where fornication was heard of, and such fornication that not even among the Gentiles (Ibid. V), it is written: You were bought at a price, not redeemed: for they had not been under the Law. Therefore, we receive the adoption of the children of God: and having been redeemed by Christ, we cease to be under the servitude of the elements of the world and the power of guardians. Just as we have shown the difference between redeeming and buying, let us also consider what the difference is between receiving and accepting the adoption of children.
It is right to point out that he has linked the sending of the eternal Son with the incarnation. For he does not say “he sent him to come into being as Godhead from a woman,” so that we would misunderstand the sending to be the sending of the Godhead. Instead only the Son, not the Godhead, is born of a woman. Now this is peculiar to the incarnation.
He is God in that “all things were made through him and nothing was made without him.” He is human in that he was “made from a woman, made under the law.” The nativity of his flesh shows his human nature. The virgin birth is an indicator of his divine nature.
While we were young, we were subject to new moons and sabbaths, but when the appointed time of Christ's incarnation came, when the human race, having passed through every form of evil, needed healing, then "God sent His Son" (that is, He was pleased to come), "Who was born" (γενόμενον), He did not say: "through a woman," so as not to give justification to those who say that the Lord passed through the Virgin as through a channel, in a completely phantasmal way, but: "of a woman," that is, He received a body from Her very substance and was the fruit of Her womb.
Although in this place the “making” might be understood of his nativity, for there is indeed a distinction between making and generation, … the apostle spoke in this way since the flesh of the Lord was not produced from a human seed in the virgin’s womb and made into a body but by the efficacy and power of the Holy Spirit. For it is one thing for blood to come together with an admixture of seed and cause birth, another to procreate by divine power.
[AD 202] Irenaeus on Galatians 4:4
Paul also says: "But when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son.".
The Apostle Paul, moreover, in the Epistle to the Galatians, declares plainly, "God sent His Son, made of a woman.".
This fact is exhibited in a still clearer light in the same Epistle, where he thus speaks: "But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman."