The fourth stanza.
Quando venit ergo sacri plenitudo temporis,
missus est ab arce patris natus orbis conditor
atque ventre virginali carne factus prodiit.
Dearmer:
Therefore when the appointed fullness
Of the holy time was come,
He was sent who maketh all things
Forth from God's eternal home;
Thus he came to earth, incarnate,
Offspring of a maiden's womb.
More literally:
'Therefore when the fullness of the holy time has come'
A reference to Galatians 4:4,
At ubi venit plenitudo temporis, misit Deus filium suum factum ex muliere,
factum sub lege,
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law . . .
'The maker of the world, the Son, was sent from the fortress of his Father'
The identification of Christ with the maker of the world (note 'conditor')
comes from John 1:3,
'Omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil, quod factum est.'
All things were made through him, and without him was nothing made, which
was made.
This is also asserted in the Nicene Creed: 'per quem omnia facta sunt',
'through whom all things were made.'
Ultimately this doctrine is arrived at by the identification of Christ with
Sapientia, Wisdom; cf. Proverbs 3:19,
'Dominus sapientia fundavit terram' - The Lord by Wisdom made the world.
'arx' is a stronghold, fortress, citadel, pinnacle.
'And having been made in flesh, came forth from a virginal womb.'
A hint of a reference to 'et verbum caro factum est' (John 1:14) 'And the
word was made flesh'.
More tomorrow, Oriens.
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