Athanasius of Alexandria
c. 296–373
Defender of the full deity of Christ against Arianism through five exiles; wrote On the Incarnation.
In his own words
He is then by nature an Offspring, perfect from the Perfect, begotten before all the hills (Prov. viii. 25), that is before every rational and intelligent essence, as Paul also in another place calls Him first-born of all creation' (Col. i. 15). But by calling Him First-born, He shews that He is not a Creature, but Offspring of the Father. For it would be inconsistent with His deity for Him to be called a creature. For all things were created by the Father through the Son, but the Son alone was eternally begotten from the Father, whence God the Word is first-born of all creation,' unchangeable from unchangeable. However, the body which He wore for our sakes is a creature: concerning which Jeremiah says, according to the edition of the seventy translators [435] (Jer. xxxi. 22): The Lord created for us for a planting a new salvation, in which salvation men shall go about:' but according to Aquila the same text runs: The Lord created a new thing in woman. ' Now the salvation created for us for a planting, which is new, not old, and for us, not before us, is Jesus, Who in respect of the Saviour [436] was made man, and whose name is translated in one place Salvation, in another Saviour. But salvation proceeds from the Saviour, just as illumination does from the light. The salvation, then, which was from the Saviour, being created new, did, as Jeremiah says, create for us a new salvation,' and as Aquila renders: The Lord created a new thing in woman,' that is in Mary.
Quoted verbatim from the library, as an answer would quote it.
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