Saying 15

English

Jesus said, ‘When you see the one who was not born of a woman, fall on your face and worship him. That one is your Father.’

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Interpretation

The phrase ‘born of a woman’ is an idiom meaning ‘human’ or ‘mortal’. Other than identifying God as not human and therefore worthy of worship, the practical meaning of this saying is obscure. It may convey the proper response humans must have when the time of the final judgment arrives: when they see God sitting on his throne, they must respect his authority.

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Parallels

Job

14.1 Man, born of a woman, few of days and full of trouble

15.14 What is man, that he can be clean? Or the one born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

25.4 How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of a woman be pure?

Galatians

4.4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law.

3 Enoch

2.2 Then the eagles of the chariot, the flaming ophanim and the cherubim of the devouring fire, asked Metatron, ‘Youth, why have you allowed one born of a woman to come in and behold the chariot?’ From what nation is he? From what tribe? What is his character?’