hem who were under the Law"
(Gal. 4:4, 5), and that the "justification of the Law might be"
spiritually "fulfilled" in His members. Now, the Law contained a
twofold precept touching the children born. One was a general precept
which affected all--namely, that "when the days of the mother's
purification were expired," a sacrifice was to be offered either "for
a son or for a daughter," as laid down Lev. 12:6. And this sacrifice
was for the expiation of the sin in which the child was conceived and
born; and also for a certain consecration of the child, because it
was then presented in the Temple for the first time. Wherefore one
offering was made as a holocaust and another for sin.

The other was a special precept in the law concerning the first-born
of "both man and beast": for the Lord claimed for Himself all the
first-born in Israel, because, in order to deliver the Israelites, He
"slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, both men and cattle"
(Ex. 12:12, 13, 29), the first-born of Israel being saved; which law
is set down Ex. 13. Here also was Christ foreshadowed, who is "the
First-born amongst many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).

Therefore, since Christ was born of a woman and was her first-born,
and since He wished to be "made under the Law," the Evangelist Luke
shows that both these precepts were fulfilled in His regard. First,
as to that which concerns the first-born, when he says (Luke 2:22,
23): "They carried Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord: as it
is written in the law of the Lord, 'Every male opening the womb shall
be called holy to the Lord.'" Secondly, as to the general precept
which concerned all, when he says (Luke 2:24): "And to offer a
sacrifice according as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair
of turtle doves or two young pigeons."

Reply Obj. 1: As Gregory of Nyssa says (De Occursu Dom.): "It seems
that this precept of the Law was fulfilled in God incarnate alone in
a special manner exclusively proper to Him. For He alone, whose
conception was ineffable, and whose birth was incomprehensible,
opened the virginal womb which had been closed to sexual union, in
such a way that after birth the seal of chastity remained inviolate."
Consequently the words "opening the womb" imply that nothing hitherto
had entered or gone forth therefrom. Again, for a special reason is
it written "'a male,' because He contracted nothing of the woman's
sin": and in a singular way "is He called 'holy,' because He