Andrew of Crete

“Foreseeing you, the prophet Isaiah exclaimed by divine inspiration, "See, the virgin will be with child." And, "The root of Jesse will be raised." And, "Blessed is the root of Jesse." And, "A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, a shoot will grow from his roots." Because of you the great Ezekiel proclaimed, "Here is the door toward the east. The door will be closed, and no one may enter by it. Only the Lord God will enter and leave by it, and the door will remain closed." Prophesying of you, the beloved man calls you a mountain, saying, "A stone taken from you, without human hands," hewn but not cut, removed but not split by the assumption of our humanity. You are the greatness of that awesome economy "into which angels desire to look." You are the beautiful dwelling of the descent of God, the land truly desired. In fact, "the king desired the glory of your beauty" and was enamored with the riches of your virginity: he made his dwelling in you, "and dwelled among us" and through you reconciled us with God the Father. You are the treasury of the "mystery hidden from ages past." You are truly the living book of the spiritual Word, silently written in you with the life-giving pen of the Spirit. You alone are truly the book, written by God, of the new covenant that God once established with humanity. You are that "chariot of God in its tens of thousands," you who have led thousands of those gladdened by the incarnate one. You are Mount Zion, the fertile mountain, the rugged mountain, "that God has chosen as his dwelling," from whom he who is above all being took shape and was formed in our flesh endowed with an intellectual soul.”

“This most celebrated Virgin was of David's seed, from which her husband also drew his descent. In fact, according to the great apostle, "Man is the head of the woman," and, according to Moses law, "The two shall become one flesh." And if the married woman who has offended her husband pays the punishment for adultery according to the Law—as by now she has become the body of the husband and has chosen the man as her head—how, then, does it not follow that, once the genealogy of the head is traced, the body is also counted together with the head? As a consequence it was also necessary in this case that the Virgin, being united with Joseph, was conveniently included in his genealogy, just as we have demonstrated that she was born of the same tribe as he—yes, from the very clan and family of David. And therefore also Gabriel foretold in the prophecy addressed to her, among other things: "And the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David." And what did he teach through this? That David was the forefather of him who was to be born from her. And how would it have been possible that the angel conveniently manifested these things to the Virgin, if not with the clear recognition that she descended from David? Indeed, if she had not been a descendent of David, he would not have said, "God shall give him the throne of his father David." And had it not been clear that what he said was addressed to a daughter of David's, the Virgin could have rightly asked, "Of which father?" since she knew that she had not known a man. She then learned that she would conceive through the Holy Spirit. Therefore Luke rightly says, "Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judaea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child." We, then, having this interpretation ever since it came to light, no longer read this discourse ambiguously, as if Mary had only come to be enrolled together with him. Rather, it was because she also was of the house and the family of David. I believe that it has been clearly demonstrated that the genealogy of Joseph has not been uselessly traced by the divine Evangelists, because as a consequence of this the Virgin has been recognized as a descendant of David's, and thus Christ Jesus, born of her through a supreme miracle, is the Son of God who precedes all ages. And whoever attempts to contradict these words attempts above all to point the sword of his tongue against himself. And he shall be thrown out of the sacred gates of our hall! And in our turn, to us, to whom the Word of God has been sent along with grace and truth, it shall not be justifiable to probe anything further than that which has been said, since the divine Scripture closes the search for more profound things! In fact, it says, "Take care of what has been commanded to you; do not probe the things that are too high for you!"”