Haec porta Domini. Exegeses of some Greek Church Fathers on Ezekiel’s porta clausa (5th - 10th centuries)

Abstract

This article aims to highlight a large amount of exegeses proposed from 5th to 10th century by many Fathers of the Greek-Eastern Church on the shut gate (porta clausa) of the temple revealed to Ezekiel during the exile of the Jewish people in Babylon: a closed door facing East, through which God enters and leaves without opening it, and which, after entering and leaving through it, He left closed forever. Regardless of their respective formulations, all these Christian thinkers agreed on this unanimous interpretation: this Ezekiel’s porta clausa is a double and complementary metaphor of Christ and Mary, since it is an eloquent dogmatic symbol that means simultaneously the virginal divine maternity of Mary and her perpetual virginity, as well as the supernatural conception and birth of Jesus from the virginal womb of Mary.