Eighty-three Different Questions : a new translation.

11. Why was Christ Born of a Woman?

42 ST. AUGUSTINE Accordingly it is in our own greatest interest that we are admonished to turn away from this world, which is clearly corporeal and sensible, and to turn with all haste to God, i.e., Truth,4 which is grasped by the intellect and the inner mind, which ever abides and exists always the same, which presents no false image from which it cannot be distinguised. 10. DOES BODY COME FROM GOD? Everything good comes from God. Everything that has form is good insofar as it has form, and everything which form embraces has form. Now all body in order to be body is embraced by some form. Therefore all body comes from God.! 11. WHY WAS CHRIST BORN OF A WOMAN?! When God sets free, he does not free a part, but he frees the whole of that which chances to be in danger. Therefore the Wisdom and Power of God, who is called the only begotten Son, has declared mankind's deliverance through the assumption of human nature. But mankind's deliverance had to be evidenced among both sexes. Therefore, since it was needful to become a man, which is the more honorable sex, it reasonably followed that the deliverance of the female sex be seen by that man's birth from a woman. 4 The word truth is often used by Augustine as a proper name for God. Hence, both here and elsewhere, the word is capitalized when it is employed (or seems to be employed) in this manner. It is not completely clear whether St. Augustine is here speaking of body in general, i.e., extension, or of the human body in particular in contrast to the soul. Ifthe latter, then the title of this Q. would be more suitably translated, "Does the Body Come from God?" Origen (ca. 185-253), one of the most important of the Alexandrian Christians, had already addressed himself to this question. See his Contra Celsum (Against Celsus) 6.73 (PG 11.1407 ff.). ...