(As it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;
)
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to Me Lord ( Exodus 13:12)—that Isaiah , shall be offered and consecrated to God as a thing dedicated and holy. Christ was not bound by this law, both because He subsisted in the Person of the Word, which is bound by no laws, and also because He did not open His mother"s womb, but came forth while it remained closed. So Cyril (Hom. De Occurs. Dom.), Pope Hormisdas (Ep. i ch. iii.), Bede, and others.
Rupertus, John of Avila, Jansenius, and Maldonatus, therefore, who take the phrase "that openeth the womb" as merely equivalent to "first-born," and suppose, on this ground, that Christ was included by these words, but otherwise excepted from the law as being God and the Son of God, are incorrect in their view. Lastly, I quote the following from S. Bernard"s "Sermon on the Purification"—"Very slight, brethren, does this oblation seem, in which He is but presented to the Lord, redeemed with birds,...
Every male opening the womb. This translation is more conformable to the doctrine of the Fathers, that Christ was born without opening the womb; which Ven. Bede calls the doctrine of the Catholic Church. (Witham)
See Exodus xiii. 2. and Numbers viii. 16.
