Birth and Baptism

At ubi venit plenitudo temporis, misit Deus Filium suum factum ex muliere, factum sub Lege, ut eos qui sub Lege erant, redimeret, ut adoptionem filiorum reciperemus.   Diligenter attendite quod non dixerit, 'factum per mulierem', quod Marcion et caeterae haereses volunt, quae putativam Christi carnem simulant: sed ex muliere, ut non per illam, sed ex illa natus esse credatur. Quod autem sanctam et beatam Matrem Domini, mulierem, non Virginem nominavit, hoc idem et in Evangelio κατὰ Ματθαῖον scriptum est: quando uxor appelatur Joseph, et ab ipso Domino quasi mulier increpatur . Non enim necesse erat semper quasi caute et timide Virginem dicere, cum mulier sexum magis significet quam copulam viri: et secundum intelligentiam Graecitatis γυνὴ tam uxor, quam mulier valeat interpretari. Sed ut cuncta praeteream: quomodo sub lege factus est, ut eos qui sub lege erant, redimeret: sic propter illos qui nati erant ex muliere, ex muliere nasci voluit. Nam et baptismum in Jordanis fluento idcirco quasi poenitens, cum esset a peccatis liber, accepit: ut caeteros edoceret mundandos esse per baptismum, et in filios nova Spiritus adoptione generari. Quod nequaquam intelligens Joannes Baptista, eum ad lavacrum prohibebat accedere, dicens: Ego a te debeo baptizari  Et statim sacramentum docetur: 'Sine modo: sic enim decet nos adimplere omnem justitiam,' ne qui ob hominum salutem venerat, aliquid de conversatione hominum praeteriet. Sanctus Hieronymus, Comentariorum In Epistolam Beati Pauli Ad Galatas, Lib II, Cap IV

'And when came the fullness of time God sent his own Son, born from a women, born beneath the law, that those who were beneath the law he might redeem, that they receive the adoption of sons.1  Carefully attend that it is not said, 'through a woman,' which Marcion and other heretics would wish, that they might claim the flesh of Christ to be putative, but 'from a women', that not through her but from her He is born. That even the holy and blessed Mother of the Lord, is named women and not virgin, is the same as in the Gospel according to Matthew, where it is written, that she is called the wife of Joseph 2, and the Lord Himself refers to her as 'woman'3, so it was not always necessary to be so cautious and fearful as to use the word Virgin, for with the word 'woman' the sex is more signified than coupling with a man, and according to the understanding of the Greeks, 'gyne' may be understood as wife or woman. But I will pass over all this, for beneath the Law he was born, that he might redeem those who were beneath the Law, so for those who were born from woman, from a woman he wished to be born. For although free of sin he received baptism in the waters of the Jordan as one penitent, that he might teach others to be cleansed through baptism, that they be born sons by the new adoption of the Spirit. Which John the Baptist not at all understanding, tried to dissuade him from, saying, ' I by you should be baptised.' And instantly he is taught the mystery: 'Let it be so, even it befits us to fulfill all righteousness.' Lest he who had come on account of the salvation of man, pass over something concerning the conversion of men. Saint Jerome,Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, Book 2, Chap 4 1 Gal 4.4 2 Mt 1.18 3 Jo 2.4