her perpetual virginity was expressed by any who be- lieved that Christ was born of a virgin (Isa. vii, 14; Luke i, 27) until the 4th century. It was then, after ApoUinaris had denied the Blessed Virgin to be the real mother of the Word Incarnate, that some were led on to the denial of her perpetual virginity. These were called Antidicomarians, and their heresy gave rise to another, that of the CoUyridians, who made the Bless- ed Virgin the ol)ject of an idolatrous worship, consist- ing in the oftering of little cakes (collyrides), which were afterwards eaten as sacrificial food. Epiphanius. in his treatise against heresies, severely condemned these two extremes. He denounced those who denied Christ's mother to be ever virgin, as adversaries of Mary, who deprived her of "honor due;" while he insisted that, according to the essential principles of Christianity, worship was due to the Trinity alone. Jerome wrote a tract against Helvidius, who main- tained the view of the Antidicomarians ; and this tract contains the most of the arguments that have been brought by bishop Pearson and other divines in sup- port of the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin. Helvidius denied it on the ground of the words of the evangelist Matthew, that Joseph "knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son" (Matt, i, 25) ; as if it implied that he knew her afterwards, and that a first-born son inferred a second-born. Jerome an- swered the first objection by citing other instances in which no such inference can be drawn from similar language (Gen. xxvii, 15; Deut. xxv, G; 1 Sam. xv. 35; 2 Sam. vi, 23; Matt, xxviii, 20). But none of these passages are in point. Bengel, who treats the matter as an open question, says, " twQ ov, non sequi- tur ergo post." The word "first-born," on which the Antidicomarians laid so much stress, does not occur in the Vatican MS., but, if its genuineness be admitted, the difliculty has been met by the supposition that Christ is called the first-born, not with reference to any that succeeded, but for the following reasons : 1. Because there were special rites attending the birth of a first-born son. These were not delayed until a sec- ond was born, but performed at once. The law was, "Sanctify luito me all the first-born: whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine" (Exod. xiii, 2). Jo- seph and Mary, in obedience to this law, brought our Saviour to Jerusalem "to present him to the Lord; as it is written in the law of the Lord : Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord" (Luke ii, 22, 23). " First-born" is therefore equivalent to "one that openeth the womb." Bishop Pearson saj's, " the Scripture notion of priority exclndetli an antecedent, but inferreth not a consequent ; it suffer- eth none to have gone before, but concludeth not any to follow after" (Creed, i, 214. See also Hooker, Eccl. Pol. bk. V, ch. xlv, sec. 2 ; Jerome, contra Helvid. ii, 7 ; Augustine, Hcer. 84,viii, 24 ; "Whitby and Bishop Words- worth, ad loc). 2. The First-horn was one of the titles of Jesus. In its classical sense, izpMToruKoc (thus ac- centuated) never means the first-born, but has an ac- tive signification in relation to the mother who for the first time bears a child ( Iliad, xvii, 5) ; but in Holy Scripture it is used in the Sept., with a different accen- tuation, TrpioToroKoc, to signify (a) sometimes tiie first-born, (6) sometimes the privileges which belong to the elder son, and also (c) as a title of tlie IMessiah. (n) In the first sense it is used in Gen. xxvii, 19; xlviii, 18; Exod. xii, 29; Numb, xviii, 15, etc. (6) There are other passages in which it is used meta- phorically to express peculiar honor and dignity : " Is- rael is ni}' son, even my first-born" (Exod. iv, 22); " Ephraim is my first-born" (Jer. xxxi, 9). This is also a Hebrew use which has been rendered by the translator of the A. V. "first-born" in Isa. xiv, 30, wliere " the first-born of the poor" means very poor ; and Job xviii, 13, where "the first-born of death" means the most terrible form of deith. (c) It is used
PERPETUAL VIRGINITY
95V
PERRENOT
as a title of the Saviour, without reference to prioritj' of birth, in Psa. Ixxxix, 27. In the New Testament our Lord is called TrpwruroKoc tv iroWinc aCt\(p(i7r, "the first-born among many brethren" (Rom. viii, 29), TrpuJTuToicoi: 7r«(i?/c Kriaewtj, "the first-born of ev- ery creature," signifying the dominion which he has received who is made Head over all things. Ylpuiru- TOKo^ tK Twv vtKpCJv (Col. i, 18 ; Kev. i, 5) means not simply the first who was raised, for that Christ was not, but he who hath power over death, and whose resurrec- tion is an earnest of that of all his people. Hence it is argued that the word Trpairiiro/coc, in Matthew's Gos- pel, may be nothing more than a sjaionj'm of Christ. He was the "first-born" because he was the Second Adam, the Perfect Man, the Restorer and Redeemer of his brethren, the Lord of the Church, and the Heir of all things. The metaphor was borrowed from the dominion which the first-born exercised over his breth- ren, but when the word is compared with other pas- sages in which it occurs it avails nothing for Helvid- ius's argument against the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mar^-. But this philological argu- ment is evidenth' inconclusive as applied to the pas- sage in question, where the word "first-born" is not used thus generally, nor as a title, but is explicit- I3' limited to the fact of parturition. See First-